“MUM MK. 2”

Wanganui Chronicle, 27 December 1947, Page 9

“MUM MK. 2”

MEETS N.Z. MOTHERS “This is Mrs. Blank, Bill’s mother ... he was in the Navy, you know . .. and this is Mrs. Dash, Don’s mother.. Don was in the Air Force, you remember.” An Englishwoman, Mrs. Doris M. Toulmin, who was a second "mother” to many New Zealand servicemen in England during the war and who has come to New Zealand for health reasons, has been introduced to many mothers of the boys she knew. Their nickname for her indicated the affection they had for her. Using a well-known service term, the Navy boys caled her “Mum Mark 2.” “But,” said Mrs. Toulmin, with a laugh, when she was iterviewed, “I thought it was going a bit too far when a R.A.A.F. type called me ‘Mum Mark

“Incidentally, this Australian and his English bride spent their honeymoon with me,” Mrs. Toulmin went on. "Although he had lost a leg when he was a child he succeeded in getting into the Air Force as an air gunner.” Mrs. Toulmin’s home is in Hove, Brighton, and she had her name down as a hostess at the Southern Cross Club, which is half-controlled by Lady Frances Ryder, well known for her hospitality to people from the Dominions. Many New Zealand naval cadets from H.M.S. King Alfred stayed with Mrs. Toulmin, including about two dozen Aucklanders. Sh e also had “open house” for members of the Australian Air Force, the R.A.A.F. having a posting station at Brighton and thousands of men being there, "doing nothing,’ as sue pin it. “I put my name down for the sick ones, but the sick ones got better,' Mrs. Toulmin smiled, painting a vivid picture of vigorous uniformed lads surging through her home —which is not large—dashing in with 48-hour ration cards, bringing their girlfriends in for tea on Sundays.

Mrs. Toulmin’s motherly interest in her guests extended to keeping "an eye on the kinds of girls they took out” and giving advice on occasions. “I used to tell them that if they couldn’t bring home to tea on Sunday the girls they picked up on Saturday night, then it wasn’t much use their coming,” she said. “I also didn’t encourage them to marry English girls as a rule, unless it seemed that it would work.” Canadians were also Mrs. Toulmin’s guests at the beginning and again at the end of the war. “I cooked special Canadian dishes sometimes, but when I served this food to New Zealanders they laid bark theri ears and sniffed.”