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We lived in air-raid shelters in Millbank. In the summer of 1941 I was evacuated to Yorkshire with half of my class; the other half went to Wolverhampton. We all left families at the age of eight or nine years old. I was an only child at home. I went to a Yorkshire school — the locals came to the school and chose a child they liked to live with them — they were paid.

We stayed with a nice family. Then they sent my parents up to stay in a rented house occupied by the army. We stayed ‘til the end of the war. It was very peaceful — almost forgot the war was happening. We only knew of the war from newspapers. We had German prisoners of war, who were nice, they walked around the town. We played footie with them and they helped in the community at Christmas. They didn’t want to leave! They might have been shot down pilots.

Before Yorkshire, in Millbank, we had to learn about gas masks and ARP and Home Guard. I experienced bombing, half the buildings in Millbank were bombed. We lived at the Turner Buildings, a high-rise, on the top floor with no lift! It was near an army medical barracks, and near the Tate Gallery, which was used as a shelter, painted black, and the paintings removed to the basement, and Westminster underground.

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