Burgess Hill women who met at school in World War Two celebrate 80 years of friendship

Two women from Burgess Hill are raising a toast to 80 years of friendship this year, having first met as schoolchildren in the Second World War.
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Julie Hicks and Rose Griffin, who are both 85, were both born in 1936 to established families in the town.

The pair, formerly Julie Plummer and Rosemary Cox, became friends when they began education at age five in 1941 at London Road School.

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Since then, they have never fallen out and have stayed in regular contact, even in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic and Julie’s move to Weymouth last year.

Rose Griffin (left) and Julie Hicks from Burgess Hill are celebrating 80 years of friendship.Rose Griffin (left) and Julie Hicks from Burgess Hill are celebrating 80 years of friendship.
Rose Griffin (left) and Julie Hicks from Burgess Hill are celebrating 80 years of friendship.

“We just helped each other,” said Julie, adding that she and Rose used to sit next to each other in London Road School’s one and only class for five-year-olds.

“It wasn’t a big school, because Burgess Hill wasn’t large in those days,” Julie said, adding that the headteacher back then was Mr Barnden.

“When I had to get up and ask a question – I had to speak for two minutes on cheese on one occasion – Rose just lifted the lid of the desk up and was giggling away,” she said.

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“We had that sort of friendship, but we didn’t upset each other.”

Rose Griffin (left) and Julie Hicks from Burgess Hill are celebrating 80 years of friendship.Rose Griffin (left) and Julie Hicks from Burgess Hill are celebrating 80 years of friendship.
Rose Griffin (left) and Julie Hicks from Burgess Hill are celebrating 80 years of friendship.

Rose told this newspaper that she and Julie might have got on so well because they were so different from each other.

“I’ve always been the noisy one and she’s always been more the quiet one,” Rose said.

The pair continued their schooling throughout the war years and Julie remembers being sent to the dark air raid shelters wearing a gas mask.

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She also remembers getting a clothes parcel from Canada with a striped jumper inside.

“I hated it but my mum made me wear it,” she said.

Rose remembers walking across the playground to get to the air raid shelters and getting told off for stopping to look up at the planes going by.

“We weren’t really aware of what was going on,” said Julie, adding that there never seemed to be any danger in the war because they were simply too young to understand.

But Julie added that she remembers V.E. Day because she danced at the Regent Ballroom in Brighton, having taken lessons at a dance school in Preston Park.

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Julie and Rose continued to attend London Road School until age 15 and Julie said they went on a holiday together to the Isle of Wight when they were about 16.

They both found husbands in the 1950s with Julie marrying Mr Richard Richards, with whom she had a son, Christopher.

Rose married Mr Terry Griffin and had three daughters.

Sadly, Julie’s husband Richard died in the 1960s, but she got married again later to Mr Terry Hicks.

“We both ended up with a Terry,” said Julie.

Over the next couple of decades, both Julie and Rose lived in Burgess Hill and saw each other frequently.

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“We’d always meet for cups of tea and things like that, always in our own homes,” said Julie.

“We never went out for meals or anything like that because you didn’t in those days, couldn’t afford it.”

At one point Julie, who worked as a secretary at various firms in Burgess Hill, helped Rose get a job working with her at Thaw’s furniture shop in Church Road.

Julie said she then moved to Hassocks in the mid 1980s but she and Rose still continued to visit each other for tea, coffee and various other social events.

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Even when Julie moved to Weymouth last year to be near her family it was not the end of their friendship because Rose’s daughters now drive Rose to Dorset for a few days when they can.

“She’s been to visit me twice since I’ve been here,” said Julie, adding that it would have been more if there was no Covid-19 pandemic.

Julie has been back to Burgess Hill and seen Rose a couple of times as well, but returned to the area under sad circumstances recently when she lost her brother Raymond Plummer.

But, as the UK comes out of the pandemic, Julie and Rose hope to see each other more often and they enjoyed a celebratory drink on Rose’s most recent visit to Weymouth.

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Julie said: “I feel very proud that we’ve kept in touch all these years and we can always tell each other of any problems we’ve got.”

“She’s more like a sister,” she said, adding that she and Rose both had brothers growing up but not sisters.

Rose said: “I’m always there when Julie needs me and vice versa – if I need any help I call on Julie.”

But both Rose and Julie told this newspaper that one of the secrets to a long friendship is ‘never being in each other’s pockets’

Julie said: “Never be on terms where you can ask favours or anything like that, but just be there when you’re needed.”

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