大象传媒

My Evacuation to Newmarket and leaving London for Good

This Story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Carol Stewart from Dorking Library and has been added to the website on behalf of Mr Clifford Worth with his permission and the fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was born in 1926 in Hackney and went to Central Foundation School for Boys in EC1. During the 鈥減honey war鈥� we were prepared for evacuation and had to go to school with our gasmasks and haversacks packed with toiletries and spare underwear.

On 1st September 1939 we were marched directly from school to Liverpool Street Station 鈥� no-one knew where we were going. We were given cards to fill in to send to our parents and tell them where we were. I was evacuated to Newmarket and my sister, Kathleen, went to Northampton. It was a all a real adventure.

The whole school was evacuated to Newmarket, including our teachers, and we shared with the local school. We had half day lessons and so did they 鈥� marvellous!

Five minutes from where we stayed was Newmarket Race Course which had been taken over by the RAF as a bomber station. I found this really exciting.

The people we stayed with were nice. They told us that during a gas attack the doors and windows would rattle. Sure enough they did and we all sat there on the floor with our gas masks on 鈥� in the middle on the night. During my time at Newmarket my parents sent my bike to me as I was missing it.

Our school was due to be re-evacuated to Fakenham which, ironically, was bombed at a time when there were no bombs in London. Due to this, in December 1939 my parents decided I should go home. My sister followed a fortnight later. We then went to the same school in Hackney where there was just one class of boys and girls of all ages. I remember the lads coming home from Dunkirk and the raids on the docks.

We had an Anderson shelter in our garden 鈥� built before the war. Our neighbours had chosen not to have a shelter but as soon as the raids started they came to share ours. It was all a bit cramped 鈥� the shelter was built for four and there were eight of us. In a lull in the bombings my father always went up to make a pot of tea.

Eventually we went to stay with friends in Dorking for a few days to get away from the bombing. We never went back.

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