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During the war I was evacuated from Abbey Wood to Newnham along with my older sister and two of our friends. When the Battle of Britain began in 1940 it was going on right above our heads and we were all in danger again. We were moved once more, this time all the way to Devon. We’d been happy in Newnham, I remember my mother visiting us in January for my birthday and getting to go sledging in the snow. In comparison though Devon was awful! I’ll never forget it because I was billeted with an elderly couple, and after eatubg the man used to take out his false teeth in front of everyone and lick off any crumbs that had stuck to them! I used to scream every time it was so horrible. It was almost like slave labour there, the woman who took us actually wanted two 11 year old girls who’d be able to do various jobs around the house for her. My sister insisted we stay together though rather than her being taken with another girl and I just had to do the best I could with the housework. Nobody wanted to take in the boys because they were useless when it came to domestic chores!

Later my father moved from Woolwich arsenal to work in Liverpool and my sister asked my mother if we could go with them. She agreed so off we went to Aintree and we were so happy to be back with our family. Looking back I guess we had a mixed evacuation experience, but at least we had a nice time in our first billet and all ended up together again in our new home.

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by James Barton and has been added to the website on behalf of Dorothy Beken with his/her permission and they fully understand the site’s terms and conditions.

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