Frozen beach and sea at Mersea January 1940.
Patricia Grace (Fairy) Winch wearing her ATS uniform. Probably near the bottom of Empress Avenue - with our spaniel Puck.
The beach huts - about 700 of them - were all removed about June 1940 to enable the placing of machine gun posts and barbed wire, later mines.
Patricia Grace was our half-sister - her real name was Patricia Grace, but she was always known as Fairy. The story is that when she was born she had a mark on her head. Her two little sisters were told that the fairy had bumped her head when they brought her in thro' the window. A fairy baby!" [Pauline Winch].
Date: January 1940