大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Louise Angell of the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Radio Derby, on behalf of Daphne Smith. The author understands the sites terms and conditions.

I had my 14th birthday two days before war was declared. I was evacuated wihin a few days with my Croydon school to Eastbourne, but my mind has completely blanked out every memory of that evacuation until we were met by the WVS at our destination. As we stood on the station platform we were gradually siphoned off into the care of waiting adults - except for me and about 8 others! No-one seemed to want us and we spent our first week in a large, empty, house sleeping on the floor on straw palliases in the huge main bedroom. No lights of course, as there were no curtains and we had to be careful of the blackout. We had a write up in the local paper which made us all roll about laughing - it tried to prick the consciences of the local residents by describing the plight of the poor, little evacuees! We had quite enjoyed ourselves actually, but the article seemed to do the trick and there were enough offers forthcoming to billet us all.

I ended up in a very "upper crust" household, with copper warming pans on the walls and beautiful china in everyday use - a far cry from our little terraced house. I was terribly upset at one of our first meals together when I accidently cut right through a china cheese dish when trying to cut myself a slice of cheese! My hostess was very sweet about it but it was all part of a very traumatic experience, with my younger brother evacuated with his school to Brighton, my older brother staying at home with his school and my parents only able to visit me once in 3 months. Never mind, my school decided it was safe to return to croydon before Christmas, just in time for the start of the air raids!
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