大象传媒

This story was added to the People's War website by Barry Dunn, with help from Caspar Mason. The author is fully aware of the site's Terms and Conditions.

In September 1939 I was 13, and had just started attending a large grammer school of 1,000 boys - St Edward's, Sandfield park - It's still there.
When war was declared on the 3rd of September, about half the school were evacuated, as well as girls from the local convent school. We were all on the same train, but well segregated by means of the Irish Christian Brothers. No food or drink was allowed until we stopped in mid-wales somewhere to be given water - but no food.

We arrived at the one of the local halls in Llanelli (The hottest town in wales - It's got four L's) and were assembled to be picked by our prospective host families. I was chosen (believe it or not), and was later told that it was because I called Mrs Jones, my new landlady, 'Mum' - they weren't expecting that from a liverpudlian.

My mother came to visit to ensure that I had been billeted with a family of good moral fibre. I told her that we were never served pork, and she clipped me round the ear.

After a while, I offered to go to the local shops and buy some bacon and eggs. "But who will cook it" I was asked. "I will on the valor cooker", I said. "But boys can't cook". I could and soon was regularly cooking eggs and bacon for the family.

After three months we returned to Liverpool in the midst of the phoney war. In August 1940, our house at 66 Durning Rd (it's no longer there) was badly damaged, and so my family evacuated itself to Rhyl. We left in September 1940 and from then until May 1941 Merseyside was subject to extremely heavy bombing, especially the Edge Hill Railway Goods Yard. 66 Durning Road was four houses away from Edge Hill teacher training college (colloquially called the Dole School).

In May 1941 during a bombing raid, two tram cars were evacuated by their guards and the passengers sent into the bomb shelter in the basement of the college. A landmine bomb was dropped, which killed between 300 and 600 people (opinion is divided) and was I believe the worst civilian disaster of the war.

Our house was damaged beyond repair (we were compensated by the War Damage Commission), so we stayed in Rhyl and settled there.

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