No. 4. Crawley Hospital Sports & Carnival 1947, with Jane.

Number 4: Jane at the Sports and Carnival.

My parents were not Daily Mirror readers.
So, I was a not a regular reader of the Jane strip cartoons that appeared daily in that paper.
Did I ever see them? I can't actually recall that I did.
But I did see Jane - and I knew of her famous or infamous work.
She lived in Rusper Road, Ifield at that time and was quite a local celebrity.

I am sure I was not at this event.
But there are people in the town who maybe can remember the occasion.




























So, who was Jane?
She was Mrs Christabel Leighton Porter, married to an RAF pilot.
She was born in 1913 over the border in Hampshire.
On leaving school she went to London to live with her sister and became a life model.
Daily Mirror cartoonist, Norman Pett had been drawing a risque strip cartoon since 1931, using his wife as a model at first. In 1940 he began to use Jane instead.

Here she is with Fritzi, her companion as Jane.















She was drawn in all sorts of poses in various stated of undress.
There was an episode in 1944 when she appeared nude and she was credited with inspiring the 36th Division to advance 6 miles into Burma that day.

This is an example of Norman Pett's work.

In the 1950s Cristabel and her husband went to live in Bermuda.
In later life she returned to Sussex to live in Horsham. She died, aged 87 in 2000.

But let's return to the Grand Sports and Carnival of 1947.
I copied the pages of the programme. Some people may well remember names mentioned on those pages.

Anybody remember Doreen's Cafe?

It says there would be excellent prizes for the sports.
I should think so!
I feel that, for 1947, the entry fees were quite high.
I wonder if a reader of this might live at 255, Ifield Road - where D J Freeman lived in 1947 and collected the entries.
My husband's uncle and aunt (name of Brand) would have lived almost opposite.
And I am sure Uncle would have entered the sports. His athletic prowess is another story and will surely appear at some point.

Many people will recall these local shops.
None exist now, sadly.
But in 1947 and through to the 1950s and some into the 1960s were a part of Crawley residents' lives.