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Oral history recording with Yvonne Cairns collected as part of The Hineni Project, an insight into the life and stories of a Jewish community in all its diversity. Hineni was a collaborative project between Cardiff Reform Synagogue and Butetown History & Arts Centre.

I was born in Battersea, London, in 1926. My father and mother met when they were both involved in the rag trade. My mother’s tailoring of dresses was very precise and her styling always had a distinct fit. She was able to go to Paris twice a year to check on style, which was quite an asset for her. I went to a wonderful church school, and though I was only about the third Jewish girl there, the school had absolutely no prejudices at all. During the war we decided to go to Devon where my family had connections, and I finished my schooling in Dawlish. My mum ran a little dress factory with her sister-in-law. I watched every move and worked on various conservation jobs for ladies who weren’t at all critical of some of the funny things I did. If I gave them odd sleeves to a dress, they were only delighted to have their favourite dress back again. My father worked at a factory which made ministers’ robes and choir boys’ cassocks. At the end of the war we moved back to London, and my father started a business making clothes, mainly for theatrical shows. My father found me a job with one of his old gang. We did a lot of work for actresses, who had to appear glamorous and suitably dressed for whatever function they were attending, which also helped with their acting. One of them was a very young Joan Collins, the first customer I ever lost my temper with because she disobeyed one of our rules. I met my husband, Harold, through a friend, and we married when he was still a medical student at Barts. While he was away doing his National Service our daughter Diana and I went to Devon. When Harold returned, we moved to Cardiff where he joined his father in his medical practice. Harold and I had no affiliation with any synagogue before we came to Cardiff but we liked Rabbi Graf immediately. We joined the Reform shul in 1956 and Harold became a warden. I was involved in the Ladies Guild, making cakes for the children’s services and kiddushim. I also produced the Chanukah plays. We had one play called The Tailor of Chelm, based on a Beatrix Potter story, and by the end, we graduated to the plays of Bernard Shaw. We also began to have weekly kiddushim instead of monthly. People talked and mingled, and on many occasions single people or widowers were asked to join some of the families for Shabbat lunch. It was a “united we stand” occasion. I was also involved in the garden parties, which were very busy and very much a fundraising event. There was an entrance fee, for which people had a very nice afternoon tea with sandwiches. The cake stall took pride of place, but my favourite stall was Kiddie’s Corner, run by a woman everyone called “Auntie Elsie”. Elsie worked for a whole year collecting toys and putting them in working order. As I was good at sewing, I wound up making interminable dolls’ dresses, and they ended up looking like new, better than they had when they started. As the little girls grew up a bit, mothers were persuaded to part with their unfashionable handbags and purses or unwanted makeup. Altogether that was a lot of people’s favourite stall.