IN Memories 162, we were on the trail of the Naafi in Darlington. The Naafi – or Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes – was formed in 1921 to provide recreational activities for servicemen and to sell them goods.

Of course, when the Second World War broke out in 1939, the Naafi really came into its own. In pre-war days, it employed 8,000 people; suddenly, it employed 110,000. In pre-war days, it had 1,350 trading outlets; as the conflict wore on, it had nearly 10,000, including 800 canteens on sea-going ships and 900 mobile canteens.

Sales of tea rocketed to 3.5 million cups per day and it sold 24 million cigarettes a day. In the week after D-Day, the Naafi fed half-a-million troops as they landed in France. Every soldier received Naafi packs that included cigarettes, tobacco, matches, toothpaste, shaving soap, soap, razor blades, cubes of meat extract, cocoa, milk tablets, chewing gum, letter cards and pencils.

As well as providing food, the Naafi provided entertainment. It employed more than 4,000 artists who entertained the troops.

In Darlington, the Naafi had two bases. In Whessoe Road, there was a large warehouse built in early 1940 which is now the King’s Church.

“It was huge,” says Elizabeth Cox (nee Gittins) who was a secretary and shorthand typist in the transport section.

“Lorries were coming and going all the time, up to Scotland, down to Hull, delivering everything that was needed on Army and Air Force camps; food, drink, wines, spirits, even cosmetics.”

This function carried on after the war. Derek Boyle, then a student, worked there in summers during the mid- 1960s.

“Goods ranged from food, (tins, cereals, biscuits, etc) to toilet rolls, toothpaste, washing powder,” he says. “It was basically a mini supermarket.

“Most of camps supplied were RAF, from Lossiemouth in Scotland to Bawtry in South Yorkshire.”

The warehouse closed in 1993 with the loss of 50 jobs.

The second Naafi base in Darlington was the Naafi Club in Park Street – it was behind what is now the police station in St Cuthbert’s Way. It was built in late 1943 on land where terraced streets had recently been cleared.

Elizabeth says: “On the right, as you walked in to the Naafi Club, there was the billiards room and the tavern, and on the left was a really nice lounge with settees, and then there was the canteen. At the end, there was the dance hall – Harry Parker led the band and I think his wife played the piano.”

During the Second World War, there were eight large Army camps in Teesdale, plus Catterick Garrison nearby, so there were thousands of men continually on the move.

The Naafi Club was located conveniently near Bank Top station, and civilians used it too.

Thankfully, the need for the club was shortlived.

Peace came in 1945 and the Naafi rapidly wound down – 200 canteens closed each week.

The Northern Echo:
A comptometer – a fantastic device that was the forerunner of the electric computerised calculator, although it was neither electric nor a computer

 

Darlington’s survived until the mid-1950s. A temporary building, it was then cleared, and the land remained empty until the late 1960s when the ringroad was constructed. A doctors’ surgery now occupies the Naafi’s site.

However, the Naafi does still have a presence in Darlington. Although its warehouse was centralised elsewhere in 1993, its administrative headquarters stayed in the town. At first, it was in Mowden Hall and since 2003 it has been at Lingfield Point.

PETER BAKER of Gainford joined the Cadet Force at Darlington’s Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in 1949.

“In the evening, when we had done our homework, we would go out to the Green Tree Café at the end of Skinnergate to meet friends, including girls from the High School,” he says. “A cup of coffee was 3d.

“We found out that on Cadet night, we could walk down to the other side of the Skerne and, because of our Durham Light Infantry uniforms, we could go in and get a coffee for 2d – although we couldn’t take the girls in with us.” This must have been a very difficult dilemma for the young man.

The Naafi seems to have closed shortly after Peter left Darlington for London in 1953.

DAVE DOWNING is another who has Naafi connections.

His late sister, Edna, worked at the Whessoe Road warehouse as a clerk where she worked out the wages using a comptometer – a fantastic device that was the forerunner of the electric computerised calculator, although it was neither electric nor a computer.

And his father, Wilf, was involved with the YMCA which put on shows in the dancehall, which doubled as a theatre, at the Naafi Club.