Page 36 - BPW-UK ANNUAL REVIEW 2023-2024

Throughout 2023, BPW SYNE has continued to meet monthly via Zoom;
the weather, the size of the area, rail strikes, whether in England or Scotland
and sometimes both at the same time have all played a part. A good example
of this being, the 2022 Christmas get together. Planning started in October
2022, after several can-
cellations, it was not until May 2023
that we finally managed to meet to-
gether in Edinburgh at the Scotsman
Building, originally the newspaper of-
fice but now a hotel. Even so it was un-
certain if we would be able to get
there, four members deciding on an
overnight stay just in-case, and unfor-
tunately some members still didn’t
manage to get there.

Our “chats” have again been many and numerous, topics being fuelled by the;

News:
• the wars that are now raging around the world
• asylum seekers and refugees
• bombed out cities
• occupation by foreign powers, violence against women, rape as a strategy of war

We had talked about the help that was being given to BPW Ukraine today and members of
BPW Ukraine who have managed to reach the UK.

Sue Ashmore reminded everyone about a similar situation that had arisen in Berwick upon
Tweed during WWII.

As war began, Beatrice Gordon Holmes asked Mary Gray, Editor of the Berwick Advertiser and
President of a newly formed SYNE club, to distribute clothing to bombed out UK homes.

“I well remember the arrival of that first case. One evening when I arrived home there it
was in the hall! I recall the excitement of that first unpacking-the first of so many. Hardly
had the job been finished when the siren sounded and I had to report for air raid duty. It was
the one and only incendiary raid on Berwick. Thousands of incendiaries were dropped but
most of them fell in the River Tweed. And the clothing had been sent to Berwick because it
was a safe place!

In December 1941 a 19-year-old Norwegian member arrived having escaped with fourteen
others in a stolen fishing boat with little else but her card as a fully paid-up member of BPW
Oslo. Beret Bjerke was in Oslo when the Germans invaded. Wanted for anti-Nazi activities,
Beret escaped to Scotland and was kitted out in clothing from BPW Berwick.”

Though far apart in history, the spirit of BPW is still the same, women helping other women in
their hour of need.

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