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"This story was submitted to the People's War site by the Barnsley Archives and Local Studies Department on behalf of Gloria Dawson and has been added to the site with his/her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

In 1941 I left Wilsden in London as an evacuee to go into Wales. I stayed there for the next two years, during that time I never settled. I remember getting on the train with lots of other children, none of which I knew. I had my gas mask box and a label fastened to my coat. Leaving my Mam and sister on the platform, I can remember, I had never felt so lost in all life. Two years later my Mum arrived in Wales to take me away — two weeks later I arrived in Barnsley. — And here I am 61 years later. I stayed with the people who looked after me during the war. Who when the war was over adopted me, I lost my parents and family due to the war, I have never seen them since, and while I have had the best parents I could ever have had I still feel a void in my life.

In London I went to school in a shelter and have slept on the underground at night. I never saw sheep, cows, pigs or any farm animals until I came to Barnsley.

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