The Pilot's Daughter

Karen Lox Jorgensen, Phillipa Annesley Scrivens

Description

A real-life story of the London-born daughter of an Australian RAF pilot who rebelliously takes on life's challenges in Africa and other continents!

Imagine being the 5-year old informal air stewardess as Phillipa’s dad, Captain John Hankins, flies four world leaders to the Paris Peace Talks. After WW II, people in London were suffering. Captain Hankins flew his family to Nairobi,Africa where they built a farm near the Serengetti. Even though he was then flying for British Overseas Airways, he established a working farm. Young Phillipa and her family survived attacks from the Mau Mau, as well as columns of merciless fireants, man-eating tigers, poisonous pythons, debilitating diseases, and a culture totally foreign to a proper little English girl. After escaping from the Mau Mau in a tribal war known around the world, Phillipa and her family returned to London, and begins ballet school against the backdrop of a father who left the family to be the chief pilot for the President of Mexico and her severely depressed mother who hated her for not being a boy so she could have inherited English lands. Phillipa had some wonderful encounters with Queen Elizabeth II and finally was able to go to America as an au pair. The final chapters of the book highlight her having a family in California, owning her own ballet school, escaping from a dodgy first husband, and traveling to Spain and New Zealand to tend to each dying parent. Finally Phillipa ended up in Orlando, Florida armed with a new hope for a successful life.

Sujets

• Biography
• Mau Mau Uprising
• Autobiography
• Mau Mau
• Australia
• Nairobi
• London

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 20 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665727143
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

THE PILOT’S DAUGHTER
 
 
 
 
 
Phillipa Annesley Scrivens and Karen Lox Jorgensen
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2022 Phillipa Annesley Scrivens and Karen Lox Jorgensen.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Interior Graphics/Art Credit: Captain John Hankins (deceased)
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-2715-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-2714-3 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022913089
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 01/04/2023
FOREWORD
Dear Reader,
I was born in London, England in 1940 and this is a brief account of my most extraordinary life. Please remember these words are my memories and not yours, not historical records, but my thoughts, feelings, and understandings of my life from birth to near the present day.
History may prove wrong with some dates that I recorded, but this was written originally for my children and grandchildren. Now, I want to share it with you, interested reader. This is the life I led. It was a very different world I lived in. I have been involved in wars that have never touched the American continent and have scars from the fighting that went on. I have seen a great generation of people leave this earth after doing all they could do to try and improve our lives here.
I am concerned and deeply saddened by the affairs of the world this day. My grandchildren will suffer and I will pray that they will have the knowledge, strength, and hope to overcome all the trials that lie ahead of them. I love the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my Savior and his Atonement for our sins is a gift beyond our understanding.
I have been blessed by the knowledge I have gained in this life and I pray that my progenitors will feel the same way I do. Great strengths can be gained from the Bible and other religious books. Everything that has happened to people has been recorded in these books and great insights can be received just by reading the words and pondering on them. This is the final dispensation of this earth and the battle we fight is real. But we have been told the outcome and know who wins this war. Thanks be to God!
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to my three wonderful children (now adults with families of their own):
Lorelei, Douglas, and Annica
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
My grateful thanks to my dear friend, Professor Karen L. Jorgensen of Orlando, Florida for her patience, professionalism, and writing skills to bring my story to life.
Many decades ago, a wise man told me that I would write my story and that I would find the perfect person to understand and bring to life the exciting experiences I have had on four continents of this world. That prediction has come to pass and I can now share with you my incredible adventures.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part I – Life in England
My mum and I surviving the 1940 bombing of Victoria Station; my phone conversation at age 5 with Winston Churchill; my dad, a decorated RAF pilot in WWII, who flew four world leaders to the Paris Peace Talks with me as the air stewardess; Mum’s refusal to love me; the birth of my brother Brit and my sister, Liz.; and why my mum was an heiress.
Part II – Life in Africa
Living on a remote 10-acre farm near Nairobi, and dealing with yellow fever, wild, hungry lions and tigers, millions of destructive fire ants, dangerous baboons, poisonous pythons, friendly Masai, the murderous Mau Mau, and a harrowing escape from Africa.
Part III – Return to England
Living in Arundel, England; meeting the Queen; my year in Paris; graduating from ballet school; my dad’s secret decision to leave us; getting my master’s degree; Brit’s decision to join dad and go to college in Mexico; and the last Christmas with Brit.
Part IV – Living in America
Becoming an au pair in Chicago and dancing with a Finnish folk group; moving to Los Angeles to teach ballet; being drafted to go to Korea; visiting Dad and Brit in Mexico and touring the country with them; a Mexican medicine man who healed me; and the death of Brit at 19 years old.
Part V – New Zealand and Taking Care of Dad
Dad officially divorced my mum which made national news in England; a move to California to get my nursing degree; marrying Bill, a dodgy fellow, then divorcing him; a move to Arizona and working at a ballet school; marrying Ray; a move to Florida; my dad’s surprise decision to leave Mexico and go home to New Zealand; our many adventures in New Zealand as a member of a Māori tribe; and his death.
PART I
LIFE IN ENGLAND
W HEN I WAS FIVE YEARS old, Dad would sometimes take me along on flights because he was a decorated war hero in Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Air Force. He was a brilliant flight commander and a squadron leader. He was one of the best RAF pilots, so he was also secretly chosen for special missions. Before one of those flights, Sir Winston Churchill asked my father if I could be their air stewardess on a flight to Paris and Le Bourget Airport. I did not know it was for the peace talks for the end of World War II and didn’t care because I was young and more interested in being with my dad.
Sir Winston Churchill thought I was quite a character because of a funny incident that had happened some days earlier, so that is why he asked my dad to bring me along as a little stewardess. One day the telephone rang and I picked up the phone. A man’s voice asked,” Little girl, may I speak with Captain John Hankins?”
“No, you can’t. He’ s in the bathroom,” I replied.
“Well, this is very important. Can you knock on the door and ask him to come out?”
“No,” I replied matter-of-factly.
“Why not?” the man inquired.
“He will be in there all day!” I retorted.
“Oh? What does he do in there all day?”
“Oh, “I replied. “Everything!”
“This is a very important call, “said the man. “Can you write down my name?”
I was most indignant. “Of course, I can. I go to school.” (In England, during the war, the criteria for going to school was if you could read, you could go to school. I learned to read by age 3 ½ because I was frightened to stay home being alone with the bombs dropping and ack-ack guns going off. So, my father taught me to read the newspaper and by the time I was 3 ½, I was good enough to go to school!)
“Can you write down my name?” questioned the man again. He spelled out each letter separately. W-I-N-S-T-O-N, then C-H-U-R-C-H-I-L-L. “Can you read that back to me?”
I read his name back to him and he also gave me his telephone number, which I repeated back to him. I promised the man that I would give my dad the note whenever he got out of the bathroom.
Dad came out of the bathroom about thirty minutes later. He read the note, called the special man, then rushed into his bedroom and got his uniform on. Later, my dad arrived at the underground railway station (or tube) near Paddington Railway Station. He entered a special secret door for only generals, admirals, and other important people. They called it the war room. Immediately, Sir Winston Churchill stood up and said loudly, “Captain! You made it! I heard that you spent all day in the bathroom doing everything. How could you get out so early?” My dad was so embarrassed as everyone laughed like crazy. Needless to say, I was never allowed to speak on the telephone again after that!
So, yes, now you know why Sir Winston Churchill thought I was so engaging. When he asked my dad if I could accompany them to the peace talks, my dad agreed, although somewhat reluctantly. After all, I was only five years old!
Dad said we could get on the plane when it was time. I was supposed to hand them their little lunch boxes. The plane was very small. Only eight seats! Dad said I had to sit in one of the back seats because it was the safest. We were flying out of an airfield near Croydon, (Biggin Hill) England where Her Majesty’s Air Force kept their small planes to fight the Germans. Before we boarded the plane, Sir Winston Churchill asked me to do cartwheels, which I happily did and then I sang French songs for Charles de Gaulle as we got on the plane. There were two other men who also boarded. The first one was a man in a wheelchair who had to be lifted onto the plane. His name was Franklin D. Roosevelt. I asked him innocently, “Can’t you walk?” He replied with a smile, “Not in a long time.” Then a row of black cars approached the plane and a very grumpy man in a brownish uniform boarded the plane. He was not nice. They said his name was Stalin. While Stalin ignored me, I showed the other men how to fasten their seat belts.
During the flight, I handed out sandwiches in white lunch boxes to each of them. I did my job very nicely. This was a big lunch to them – a sandwich and an apple. I realized that it was bologna and cheese or Spam and cheese. My mo