Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2008/January 2009 | Page 49

THE ISLAND AT WAR 1939 - 1945
church hall afterwards.
The celebrations for another
wartime wedding were very
different. Tony Key told me
that his aunt, Patricia Olive
Key met Petty Officer Ronald
Calverley through her brother,
Ivor Weston Key, when he
brought his best friend home
to Ryde at Christmas. Ronald
became a friend of the family
and before long he and Patricia
were engaged to get married in
July 1941.
But a few days before
the wedding, among the
congratulatory telegrams
delivered to the bride’s home
was a buff coloured telegram
stamped O.H.M.S. – known
during the war as “the dreaded
telegram” – and when Patricia’s
mother opened the envelope she
learned that Ivor was missing,
presumed drowned after his

life

ship was torpedoed by the
Italians in the Mediterranean.
The family decided the wedding
should go ahead but it was to
be a quiet affair.
Among the popular songs
was Dame Vera Lynn’s “We’ll
meet again” with the refrain,
“Keep smiling through”,
though perhaps it seemed
the war would never end.
But Nig V