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This story was submitted to the People's War site by Morwenna Nadar of CSV/´óÏó´«Ã½ LONDON on behalf of Mrs. Barbara Diprose (nee Bettles) and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

It was 1940 or ’41 and I would have been 9 or 10 years old. I was in Stanmore Hospital because I had spina bifida and needed lots of special exercises. In those days visiting wasn’t like it is now and even children could only have visits very occasionally. When my father was home from the Army on ordinary or compassionate leave (my mother was very unwell after having my baby sister), I used to persuade the nurses to take me outside so that I could meet my dad. We used to meet behind the bushes in the grounds so that Matron couldn’t see us as anything like that was forbidden.

One day a bomb dropped in the grounds and made a huge crater. Although it didn’t go off, the force of it landing shattered all the windows in the ward where I was. There were four of us in beds by the window and the nurses rushed to move us to the other end of the ward but we were already covered in shards of glass. We were bleeding from the cuts and our plasters had lots of pieces of glass stuck all over them. It took ages to get the bits of glass out. The Army Bomb Disposal Unit was called in and I remember we all watched the soldiers dismantling our bomb.

Two days after that, we were evacuated. There were twenty children and we went in two trains with our doctors and nurses straight through to Galashiels in South Scotland. We travelled through the night and because we were in plaster and irons and things like that, we couldn’t use the seats. Our beds were left behind and we were all on trolleys which were wheeled into the train. We all had to take our gas-masks with us and they were round our necks. The Galashiels hospital was on a hill, and I remember there was lots of heather all around which was absolutely beautiful. I stayed in that hospital for about four years and spent my 11th, 12th and 13th birthdays there. I didn’t see my parents or my little sister (who was about seven years younger than I was) for four years.

The first week we were there, two coaches arrived with blindfolded German prisoners of war. They were housed in the next wards to us and we used to visit them regularly. They were very kind to us and I remember they made me a doll out of old black stockings for my 13th birthday. Their wards were covered with swastikas which they had drawn but when they put up Hitler posters and pictures, the nurses pulled them down. We used to read with them but only very easy books as most of them hadn’t got much English, so we tried to be teachers! It was fun!

Our education was very hit and miss, but I remember we had Brownies and Guides. Because we were in wheelchairs or in bed, our uniforms were split up the back so that we could wear them over plasters and braces.

My father was in the Army throughout the war. He was in the unit responsible for the defence of the Isle of Wight and spent a lot of time in the water. This left him with severe chest problems which troubled him for the rest of his life.

Later on, I married a man who was disabled from the chest down and we had a very active life. We played the tenor horn and the euphonium in the Salvation Army band, and also did a lot of dancing. We became wheelchair dance champions and represented England. It was all very different to our time during the war.

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