大象传媒

This story appears courtesy of and with thanks to The Liverpool Diocesan Care and Repair Association and James Taylor.

With me were my two daughters and my mother and father. We stayed in an attic over a shop with a little window. In the attic other than me and my two daughters was a little boy and girl from Liverpool. Their parents never used to visit them. They were on one side and we were on the other side of the room. The woman who had the shop was a widow. She used to pluck the poultry for the village which she was paid for. With her doing so she must have made pillows and the bed of feathers on which we laid. They mustn鈥檛 have been purified because the dust off the feathers got on my chest and I took the asthma. Kington was only a small place and to go to the doctor you had to go up a slight hill. When I used to go to the doctor he used to ask me all sorts of questions about my grandparents and my great grandparents as far back as possible trying to find out about my asthma. I was like a drunken person and I鈥檇 have to stand now and again fighting for my breath. One time when I was at my worst I went to the doctors. There was three of them there, and I had to stand in front of the three of them. They asked me if we had any animals or was there any flowers in the place where we were staying. They said that these may have set off my asthma. As soon as I told my parents, my father said 鈥淐ome on Mam we鈥檒l go back to Liverpool, there鈥檚 plenty of fresh air in Princes Park and Sefton Park.鈥� My mother鈥檚 name was Mary but he always called her Mam. I think there was heavy snow when we went back home.

How long were you in Kington for?

I鈥檝e no idea it was all like a dream to me.

Were you and your family evacuated anywhere else?

My mother took my two children to Cambridge to my brother William, he lived there. They said it was worse there. They were told if they heard or saw a plane to lie flat in the street. My two daughters were out in a field one day and they saw the Germans鈥� planes firing overhead. With my brother living in the country my mother thought it would be safer there.

鈥楾his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of the author and has been added to the site with his/ her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

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