Priscilla Hilditch and James Taylor were married on 20th July 1939 at St Mary’s Church, West Derby, Liverpool. They had planned an adventurous honeymoon exploring the mountains of Switzerland. As seasoned Lake District walkers this would have been an appealing prospect and they set off on the 22nd travelling overland, no doubt by train. Previously, Pip had been to Paris on a school trip but there is no evidence that Jim had journeyed further than Ireland to visit relations in Downpatrick.

One wonders if they had any misgivings about their choice of holiday or whether they suspected it might be their last chance to travel abroad, at least for a long time, for Britain was already preparing for war. On July 8 much of southern England was darkened for an air raid test and on July 19 RAF bombers flew from London to Marseilles and back to demonstrate British air power.

In the event, their journey to and from Switzerland passed without incident, but just after their return, on August 8, Britain commenced several days of air defence tests with 1300 warplanes in the air. Then on the 11th half of England carried out a four-hour blackout trial.

Five years later, on Sept 10, 1944, Jim was to write in a letter to Pip “… by the way, I’m well past our honeymoon route – I thought of it as I crossed the railway lines – it was night then too. I remember stopping at the station there.” Not enough information for the army censor to object, but Pip would know where he was on his post-D Day “invasion” of mainland Europe.

Happily, they took a camera with them to Switzerland and, on their return, Pip filled an album with photographs which have survived the years quite well, unlike the captions written in white or silver ink on the black card pages of the album.

The unclear caption beneath "Switzerland" reads "July 22 - August 5 1939"

Pip and Jim and the Hotel Alpenblick, Wilderswill.

The hotel is still recognisable today.

To the Jungfraujoch 11523 ft by Mountain Railway

"Jungfrau from Shiedegg" "Eiger form Shiedegg Station 6880 ft"

"Railway just before tunnelling under 3 mountains" "Eiger glacier"

The next page includes a "View over Germany" taken from the Jungfrau Hotel built into the mountain with only windows, balconies and a portion of roof showing. Pip is pictured with the hotel just visible to the right of her and Jim stands "on the edge of a 400 ft precipice".

They travelled to the Rhone Glacier via the Grimsel Pass. The top photograph shows a general view of the glacier and below it a view of the jumble of glacier ice. Then Jim standing on the ice and Pip sunbathing.

A 21st century image of the Rhone glacier shows just how much it has receded since 1939. Although it is taken from the valley, below the glacier, the same mountain peaks are just recognisable as in the view from above. Now, a saddle of rock streches across between the two mountainsides: then the ice flowed over the saddle and into the valley below.

Image taken by Hugues Thiebault, member of Mountain Wilderness France, 2023.

Pip and Jim returned home via Ostend thus unknowingly preparing the way for a future coincidence. Six years later, almost to the day, Jim sent Pip a letter from Ostend on Canadian YMCA notepaper and dated 3 August. In it he apologises that he is “more or less marooned in a transit camp” awaiting a ship to return him to England for 39 days leave. He describes the rush and chaos of his journey so far and warns Pip it will be days before he reaches Liverpool. He also writes: “Ostend looks the same as it did in ’39, very little damage. Had a coffee at the café where the Fleet St. man took our snap – remember? The place still smells of fish and they hang up in strings as of yore.”

"The Harbour " "Cathedral"

"Breakfast on the way home." Is this the photograph Jim described?

Jim’s description of the war years is recorded in the many letters he wrote home to Pip while serving with the 44th Royal Tank Regiment: the countries visited, the conditions endured, the funny stories and the near misses. Extracts may be read by following this link: James Taylor's wartime letters

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