大象传媒

EVACUATION 1939 -1945

Well do I remember - but only with the prompting of the editor虛s request and the article from Arthur Royall relating
to the evacuation of children from the Dagenham area. Even then there are some parts mainly the early events
which are not too clear. I remember the build up to the actual decision to evacuate.

Dad was a London bricklayer and although a very good craftsman his wages were not in the upper income
bracket, but somehow he had managed to buy a camping plot at Hullbridge near Raleigh. I think it was 拢10 and he
paid a bit each week. As an aside Dad虛s nickname at work was Captain after the Merchant Navy Captain FRYATT
of the SS Brussels who was captured during the First World War and shot as a spy at Bruges in August 1916.
There are some relations who say he was my Dad虛s Uncle - one day I will investigate and nail it down - true or
false.

Anyhow back to the main story. Dad had erected a shed on this plot where we kept all our camping gear and
every summer we would all descend on the plot erect our tents and spend the whole of the school holidays there.
Our camp site was about a mile from the River Crouch and my memories are all of idyllic times - every day
sunshine, no traumas, a real Mark Twain existence. I mention this holiday event because it was at the end of the
1939 holiday that the news was announced of the outbreak of the Second World War. This is where the memory
gets a little bit hazy and l can recall only glimpses. At this particular time we had with us an uncle who had the
luxury of a car. I remember the time as 鈥榙ark and all the children and Mum being bundled into the car to be taken
home as quickly as possible. I remember panic, darkness, headlights, traffic jams and not moving very swiftly.

My next memory is of the first time the sirens sounded and Mum getting us all into the Anderson shelter, hanging
wet blankets over the entrance and screaming that the Germans were going to bomb and gas us as they did in
Spain. As we now know that first alarm was a false one.

Next came the evacuation for one of my sisters Doris, aged 14, and me aged 9.Of this journey, down to Ford虛s
Wharf to embark on the Royal Eagle and of the sailing to Lowestoft there is very little recollection. I do have a
picture of the big paddle wheel but not much more.

My memories of that first panic evacuation start from the arrival at a large school building in Lowestoft. The
authorities had delayed the return to school and we were deposited around the classrooms which were to be our
home for what I believe was about 3 weeks. As we were allocated a classroom we were each given a mattress
stuffed with straw and a blanket.! There were some quite young children among the group. Of the food all I can
remember is 鈥渂read and jam鈥� and I believe at some time 鈥渃heese鈥�. I certainly do not have any memory of cooked
meals. The inevitable happened given the conditions of a group of kids sleeping on straw - within a very short time
we were all running alive with fleas. I can imagine we were not a pretty sight. I don虛t remember being supervised
and made to wash - heaven for us I suppose. The only memory I have of water was a tap in the playground and
the usual school toilets - can虛t remember hot water.

Escape from these primitive surroundings came as the result of an accident my sister had with a school toilet
window. She was trying to open it by banging it with her hand, slipped and put her hand right through the window.
She needed medical attention and the doctor who came to attend her took pity and was allowed to take her home
to his family. I wasn虛t around and didn虛t find out what was happening until it was all over. Luckily for me my sister
insisted that she wanted me with her and the Doctor collected me and took me back into civilisation. It was only
for one or two days but it was bliss - cooked meals and clean beds. Considering we were alive with fleas I think
that was a real Christian thing to have done.

Two days in heaven and news came that we were to be transported to our final evacuation place. I remember
being dished out with a kind of food parcel of tins of corned beef, chocolate and some other items to eat on the
way. We were loaded on to a coach and off we went south quite a way to the coastal town of Leiston where we
were allocated to the eagerly waiting local families. What a shock it must have been for them - these foreign
London kids, dirty, alive with fleas and not a very happy or co-operative bunch. A group of us, Doris and Jack
FRYATT, two, three or maybe four from the YOUNG family, Irene COHEN, all from Arnold Road ,and another boy
whose name I can虛t remember were dispatched to two families about 2 to 3 miles from the town and right on the
sea beach. - about 500 yards from a very well known place now called Sizewell. Can you imagine a group of
London kids being told we were going to live on the beach - heaven!!

Unfortunately heaven very quickly became tainted and we came down to earth swiftly. The family, a couple with a
boy about my age, made it very obvious that we weren虛t exactly welcome and the least contact we had with them
the better. Our access to the house was by a back door and up the stairs into our bedroom. Carbolic baths to get
rid of the fleas and any other nasty London bugs. We didn虛t live with them in any way and, other than the carbolic
baths, I have absolutely no memories of life inside that house. My memories are of our life outside the house like
when the boy tried to pinch my comics that Mum and Dad had sent me and I chased him across the sand and
gave him a right thumping - that really is my only memory of him - sad really isn虛t it?

The decision on schooling was for the local kids to have a half day and the evacuees to have the other half of the
day - a bit like East is East and West is West and ne虛er the twain shall meet. I can虛t remember whether we were
morning or afternoon. I recall that there wasn虛t any transport and being 2 to 3 miles away it was a long trek -
especially for us Dagenham kids used to having schools just around the corner. I don虛t think we went very often.

We had been there about four or so weeks when the Mums and Dads came down by coach for a visit. When they
saw how we were being treated and listened to our tales of woe there was quite a ding dong. The family we lived
with locked their doors and when Dad said he was taking us home they said he couldn虛t and refused to put our
belongings out. Dad told them that we were going off for a walk and when we came back if the children虛s
belongings were not outside he would burn the place down - all very exciting to us kids. When we came back our
gear was outside - I often wonder if he would have carried out his threat.

So there you are - my account of my first evacuation. Unlike some of the beautiful stories some people can recall
of their evacuation. An experience I could have well done without. However there were some good memories of
times and things we did on our own - blackberrying and selling the results so we could buy some chocolate -
games and explorations in the surrounding countryside which was very wild and all ferns, trees and bushes where
we made our hideaways. Yes there were some good times but we made them ourselves - of the locals I just
cannot remember them - with one exception they didn虛t exist. The exception was a young man who did talk to us
and treat us normally. Typically of kids we repaid him by setting his rowing boat adrift in a really rough sea that
had been caused by a number of British Navy ships steaming past at very high speed. The waves came crashing
way up the beach. I remember him being quite upset about it and of feeling very ashamed of what we had done to
him. Funny how some things stick.

All told I was evacuated three times. The second time with my sister again to relatives in Hertford and the third
time on my own to Harleston just outside Diss in Norfolk. I was placed with a lovely young couple with a small boy
and I was there for about nine months. I would spend the weekends helping out on the farm which was just up the
road. The way to school was across open fields. I was introduced to bird nesting there and how to blow eggs. Yes
I enjoyed that period. My stay ended when the couple indicated they would like to adopt me and I was removed
very quickly by my Mum and Dad.

Rambled on a bit but it is the first time I have really thought about that period enough to write about it. When I
read about the idyllic times some kids had I have to believe I was at the back of the queue. The young girl Irene
COHEN who was with us on the first evacuation did I believe end up in America on her second go.

Jack FRYATT
Member No 5890

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