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This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from the GMR Action desk on behalf of Margaret Pollock and has been added to the site with her permissions. Margaret fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Towards the end of August 1939 declaration of war was imminent and I was evacuated to Walkerburn, a small town in the Scottish Borders, to stay with relatives. I was 6 years old and I went to the local primary school. On the first Sunday I was about to set out for Church with my relative when the bell of the local woollen mill sounded — loud and clear. This was to tell us that War had been declared — 3rd September 1939. The Church service was cancelled and everyone rushed back to their homes or to the Mill which had been designated as the control centre. Everyone was very frightened — it was if the Germans were expected to walk down the street at any moment! In fact I only stayed in the Borders for 3 weeks. The initial panic had settled.

I do not remember if it was a general instruction to all schools but the school I attended decided to arrange classes in houses and parents were invited to volunteer their homes. My parents volunteered and for quite some time about 10 children met in our home with Miss Donaldson, one of the primary school teachers. Eventually the decision was taken that it was safe for the children to return to the school building.

I recall going with my Mother to collect our Ration books. The distribution point was the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh.

My Father volunteered to serve in the LDV (Local Defence Volunteers). I recall him going off for duty in his normal everyday clothing and that seemed funny. One morning he returned about 6am after an overnight duty, and told us that on his way home he had heard the early warning siren from the AA Battery which was approximately ¾ mile away. Then we heard the drone of a German plane — their sound was easily identifiable. There was not time to go to the shelter so my Father told my Mother and myself to crawl under the bed for cover. However the space between floor and the bed was not high enough for my Mother! I lay under the bed and laughed! Not really a laughing matter. We then decided to try to get to the shelter. However when we opened the door we saw a great blaze of fire. The plane had dropped a bomb and hit a Brewery. The target had been the Forth Rail Bridge about 5 miles away. My Father’s Aunt was asked to accommodate some people whose homes had been flattened by that bomb. She lived very close and had been very lucky to escape. The LDV was later called the Home Guard and became a much more structured organization. My Father later became a Sergeant in the Home Guard.

As our next door neighbour was in the ARP (Air Raid Protection) and out on duty every time the siren went off it was decided to share a garden shelter. Usually the occupants were his wife, my Mother and me. The shelter was well equipped with bunk beds and emergency food supplies. I recall one night the neighbour’s sister called Lily was visiting — a small very round lady! The siren went off and we made for the shelter. I was in first with my Mother. Lily got stuck in the doorway! We pulled from the inside and someone else pushed her from the outside! Eventually poor Lily managed to get into the shelter.

Another day I was walking down our street with my Mother when a plane passed very low. An RAF plane we thought. However it was so low we could see the swastika sign on the wings. We certainly got a fright. We discovered later that it had been a lone plane trying again to drop a bomb on the Forth Bridge.

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