大象传媒

My Grandma was ten years old when the first news of World War Two broke out. At the time, she was living in a back-to-back terraced house in Leeds, between Burley and Hyde Park, with her father, pregnant mother and six-year-old sister, Muriel. "The Government decided that it might be too dangerous for us to stay in Leeds," my Gran recalled. So, with her sister, she was sent to St Anne's-on-Sea, a type of children's home on the west coast by Blackpool.

"It was absolutely terrible!" my Gran told me, "just like an orphanage". It was run by a group of nuns who were awful "not Godly at all!" My Grandma's sister had a tendency to wet the bed which caused havoc and the porridge they were made to eat for breakfast made her feel sick. The nuns were so relentless, that once, during a lesson, my Grandmother got a question wrong and was dragged to the front of the classroom where one of the nuns hit her across the back with a hardbacked atlas which has had a permanent effect on her spine. "But there was one nun, a novice, who was nice and took us out on the beach now and then" she told me.

She should have been there for two months but was only there for about two and a half weeks as the coast they were on was the most vulnerable. "When I met my parents at the train station, I couldn't stop crying", she said.

Living in Leeds meant that they were prone to bombing, especially on nights when the moon shone. It would reflect on what is known as the Yeadon Dam and light up the city. As they didn't have a bomb shelter, they had to take rugs, cushions and hot drinks into the coal cellar until the all clear. Despite living near the city centre none of my Grandmother's family was injured but one of her best friends had quite a different story:
When we were about twelve, my best friend, Ellen, got caught in the air raid one night and lost half her leg when a piece of shrapnel fell from above.

She also talked about not being able to buy clothes without ration coupons as well has the money that you would normally have to pay. She had a small coupon book for food and a ration book for clothes. "The second hand shops must have had a holiday!" she laughed.

Several children from her street were evacuated, some came back, but some she never saw again. The families on the street shed lots of tears, even my Grandma had tears to cry when she was told that her friend Judith had been caught in the Blitz in London whilst visiting family and had gone missing, suspected dead.

So many tears were cried by my Grandmother as a child of the war.

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