大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a London CSV volunteer on behalf of Audrey Demer and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

We evacuees arrived at Euston Station with bundles of clothes, gas masks and cardboard nametags tied around our necks. It was all very bewildering and I held tightly on to Edna. The train journey seemed long making me feel sick and I wet myself because I was scared.

After what seemed a very long time we arrived at the village hall in Bletchington (about six miles from Oxford). What I remember vividly were the villagers coming to pick out which children they wanted whilst we all stood in a line. My parents had asked for us to be lodged together but this wasn鈥檛 possible. James (12) and Bernard (10) were picked at once as they were older boys who could work on the farm. It was getting late and all the children had gone to their respective lodgings, leaving just Edna and myself. Several people had chosen Edna who was a pretty, blonde, blue-eyed girl, but whoever chose her was told they had to take both of us, and no-one was falling over themselves to take yours truly. Looking back I can鈥檛 say I blame them as I was sitting under the table wetting myself, snot all over my face and crying for Mummy. I had bright red cheeks and red hair, which was definitely not a fashion asset in those days, and standing over me was this very prim little girl, Edna, saying: 鈥淢ummy and Daddy said we have to stay together鈥�. After much talk and deliberation as to where we could go, a Mrs Denton said she would take us both, as it was her 鈥淐hristian duty鈥� to do so.

Our parents were informed of our whereabouts and after a few days Mummy and Mildred managed to come to see us. They had caught a coach to Bichester (approximately 10 miles from Bletchington) but there was no transport from there. However, after seeing two young boys on motor bikes they asked them for a lift. I smile to imagine my petite, ladylike mother riding on the back of a motorcycle. When they knocked on the door, Mrs Denton did not invite them in but called us out to the street door to speak. The mind boggles at such ignorance, to think a mother had travelled about 80 miles to see her children only to be left of the doorstep and not even offered a 鈥榗uppa鈥�. Mummy was shocked when she saw me, as when I left a few days earlier my hair was in long ringlets but Mrs Denton felt long hair was sinful and had each ringlet cut off, leaving my hair looking like the hem of 鈥淐inderella鈥檚 dress鈥�, as quoted by Mildred. Mrs Denton would not allow us to go out with Mummy so after speaking to us for a while she and Mildred went to visit James and Bernard where they were made very welcome.

It must have been heart rending for my parents to decide whether to leave us in the physical safety of the village or take us back to London. They made the right decision to evacuate us, as all the children who stayed in London were killed when a bomb was dropped on the school in Silvertown E16.

We stayed only for a month with Mrs Denton during which time we were not allowed to play, but had to sit and read the Bible. When going to school she would watch us to make sure we walked as we were not allowed to run, and our key word was cleanliness. Her reason for saying we must leave was that her daughter was coming to stay and there was not enough room, but I think the real reason was she was unable to cope with the bed wetting and crying every night. It must have been very difficult for her as in those days there were no washing machines or dryers. So off we went, two little girls aged 5陆 years and seven years with our parcel of clothes, gas masks and cardboard name tags around our necks, across the village green to our worst nightmare鈥� Mrs Taylor.

Chapter 1: www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/a5705796
Chapter 3: www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ww2/a5706001

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