Vignette. ‘Are you not dressing in London nowadays?’—‘No need to dress for fire-fighting’ [0011]
‘Eton and Trinity must have been the institutions least affected by the war. They went on dressing for dinner right through the blitz. I remember being asked down to Eton to dine once in 1940 and the invitation card said black tie; I rang and said: “Look, I’ve hardly changed out of my clothes for a week or so”. We were sleeping in what is now the music practice rooms. I was filthy dirty. The idea of putting on black tie! They were quite surprised: “Are you not dressing in London nowadays?”—“No need to dress for fire-fighting”.’