´óÏó´«Ã½

At the outbreak of war I was four days short of my sixth birthday attending Fircroft Rd. infants school, upper Footing and living with my parents in Brockerton Rd., Footing. Being so young it is difficult to remember every single detail, but I do remember we were put on a train complete with gas masks to Littlehampton and delegated to various families in the area. I was with a very nice family who had an Alsatian and little Scottie dog. I used to enjoy going for walks with them. On reflection it seems strange that we were sent to Littlehampton as it was on the coast. I remember quite clearly the rolls of barbed wire all along the beach, being small I found this quite scary. I think the authorities must have had second thoughts about the coast as later we were moved to Slindon near Arundel. I stayed with a very nice family who had a little girl about my age, called Christine (I have a photo of us together), I can’t remember exactly how long I stayed with them before returning to my parents in London. I assume it was when the Blitz had finished. In 1942 my father was sent to Grimsby, he works for the War Damage Commission, assessing the value of damage to peoples house contents who had was damage to them, we stayed there about 18 months before returning to London, my mother did not want to stay in London so my aunt and uncle found us a flat in Chessington near to where they lived, my father stayed in London and used to come down and see us at week ends. I would like to say at this point my father was too old to serve in the war. He had served in the First World War and during the Second World War was an air raid warden in Fulham. While we were in Chessington the doodlebugs started and my mother and I at night gathered our blankets and went to sleep in a community shelter. At this time I attended Moor Lane Junior School, Chessington and from there we were evacuated to Bideford, North Devon. In Bideford we were taken to the Church Hall and had to sit in the middle of the floor whilst being chosen by the families who we were to be billeted with, it seemed that all the girls were chosen first and the boys were left, but eventually they also were found billets. (Years later I went to a school reunion at Chessington and the men remembered being the last ones chosen — we had a laugh about that) From Bideford we were taken to the small village of Woolsery. I was billeted with a school friend Vera Baker at the home of Mr and Mrs Beer who had an 18 month old baby son. Their cottage was very pretty but had no electricity, no running water, the pump was outside and the toilet was at the bottom of the garden. I went back years later with my husband and children, the cottage was still there looking very pretty and the pump was an ornament.
Woolsery was a very nice village and we were very happy there, we went to the village school, only two classrooms and used to walk to Glovelly for a swim. We helped the farmer stack up the hay, in those days it was out into sheaves. I remember drinking warm milk straight from the cow — imagine doing that to-day? We were never short of food. We evacuees used to go to the village post-office to collect letters from our parents once a week. I remember my parents coming down to see me once and we hired a pony and trap to take us to the beach at Hortland, we had a lovely day and I was sad when they returned home. I spent my eleventh birthday in Woolsery, but happily I spent my twelfth back home with my parents — it was the end of the war in Europe and I remember being taken up to Trafalgar square and joining in the celebrations.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.