´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the people’s War site by Holly Fuller of Leicestershire Library Services on behalf of Winifred Ballie and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.I lived in Liverpool and was evacuated to Bersham, Wrexham in North Wales. It was funny really because I was evacuated with my sister on the 1 September 1939, two days before war was officially declared on 3 September 1939. We stood on the station platform looking at all the Mum’s crying. At the time I didn’t understand why they would be so upset, to start with I just thought we were going on an adventure or a holiday, we didn’t understand that war had been declared.

My mother couldn’t afford a suitcase for all our belongings, so they were put in a carrier bag. My mother had spent her last few pennies on buying us some plums for our journey, and we put these in our bags too. Unfortunately, I noticed a big red patch in the corner of the bag; my plums were all squashed before I even boarded the train.

When we arrived in Wrexham, we were taken to a cinema, this made us think we were being treated to a film infact the building was just being used to divide us all into smaller groups. We were then taken to local villages on coaches. In Bersham we were herded into the primary school. It did literally feel like we were being herded and chosen like cattle at the local market. My sister and I were not chosen until last, I don’t know if it was because there were two of us. Eventually a couple came along and took us to their home. Every child was given a carrier bag with rations in. I can remember there was a tin of corn beef and the biggest bar of chocolate I had ever seen. Because we were the last two and there were plenty of bags left we were given two bags each. Unfortunately we never got to eat the chocolate the family we stayed with had two little boys who got to eat it all.

We stayed for two months in Bersham, we never felt particularly comfortable and were not treated as family. The farm hands and maid were very nice to us but looking back on it the family were probably forced into taking evacuees because they had the space not because they wanted to. Whilst I was evacuated I said lots of extra prayers and can remember hearing the planes over head and praying extra hard that they would not drop any bombs on us.

We went back to Liverpool just before the 8 day bombing of Liverpool, for those 8 days we spent from 6.00pm in the evening until 6.00akm in the morning in the air raid shelter, that ere in front of the houses. During the bombing the houses on either side of our street were flattened but our street miraculously remained intact. When we knew we were going to be bombed we made sure our three cats were inside. We had a tabby, a black and white and a ginger cat. On one occasion after heavy bombing, the soot was dislodged from the chimney and we ended up with 3 black cats!

The devastation and death toll was so great that the local primary school had to be made a mortuary. You could see the bodies lined up with labels pinned to them waiting to be identified. There was an awful smell from the bodies decaying and it was made worse because it was so hot. We had to go to school in people’s houses because we couldn’t use the school. Lots of shops were bombed and people started looting. After the worst bombing had ended we went into Liverpool and all the big department stores had been flattened, it was devastating to see. You had to step over the hosepipes that had been brought up from the River Mersey to extinguish the fires.

One of my funniest memories of the war I have is when myself and a group of friends stopped everyday on the way to school at the communal air raid shelter on the corner of our street to read a notice on how to deliver a baby in an emergency. We soon knew the instruction off by heart but always struggled to understand why it said ‘do not cut the cord’; we were not even sure what the cord was. We knew we could never ask at home, as we would get in trouble. It was pure childhood innocence.

One of my most haunting memories of the war was when I was watching a film at the cinema with my boyfriend (who later became my husband). Suddenly the film stopped and the screen went blank and an awful pictures of holocaust victims appeared, they were painfully thin and dressed in black and white striped outfits. That image has always stayed with me.

I was married in 1947 and came to Leicester for work, my husband was a painter and decorator, after he finished his apprenticeship he was sacked and struggled to find work, so we moved to Ratby and we had our own home for the first time.

One thing that I believe should have happened after the war finished was for all mothers to be given medals as well as the soldiers, they had to cope with

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