Walter’s final diary entry was Boxing Day 1943. He never wrote again. What followed is known in outline.
The war in North Africa had ended in May 1943 — the campaign Walter had followed from Iraq through Libya and Tunisia concluded just as he was preparing to leave for Sicily. By the time he met Margaret in October 1943, the desert war was already history. What remained was Italy, and then the long wait for Europe.
Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. On 9 July 1945 — sixty-two days later — Walter Kenneth Stevens and Margaret Elizabeth Notley were married at the British Consulate General in Algiers. They were not alone in moving quickly. Across the world that summer, people who had waited long enough were not waiting any longer.
Walter and Margaret on their wedding day, 9 July 1945, British Consulate General, Algiers.
With friends and colleagues on the steps. Algiers, July 1945.
Returning to England
Margaret was demobilised, and recorded on 12 May 1946 as residing at 401 Allenby Road, Southall, Middlesex. We assume that Walter returned to England around the same time. They were coming back to a country that had changed, carrying their own losses alongside everything else.
Their first son, John Arthur Stevens, was born in 1946. Ann Elizabeth followed in 1948, and Susan Joan in 1950.
Walter returned to his work as a laboratory technician — the same profession he had practised across three continents. The world they built in Southall was quieter than the one they had left, and entirely their own.
Forty years
On 9 July 1985, Walter and Margaret celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary.
Walter and Margaret cutting the cake, 21 July 1985 — their children and grandchildren around them.
Walter Kenneth Stevens died on 27 December 1988. Margaret Elizabeth Stevens died in September 1993 at St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, Surrey.
The story of their life together after the diaries belongs to those who were there for it. This archive ends where the diaries end. A fuller account of their family life together is planned for a future section of this archive.