大象传媒

My most significant memory of the Second World War is of a day in the winter of 1939, when I was seven. I lived in the very small and remote village of Rosslare on the extreme South East edge of Ireland, fifty yards from the sea. My father was a publican and, being in such a self-sufficient area that was largely rural and dependent on fishing, the war hardly affected us at all.

One Tuesday morning I was woken up by my mother. She told me that, while I had been asleep, a police sergeant had visited us to demand that my brothers and sisters and I be evacuated from our house. German mines had come in from the sea and on to the nearby beach and so all the children (not the adults though!) from Rosslare were being temporarily evacuated to areas out of the mines'immediate vicinity. I was moved to a doctor's house some distance away and my strongest memory of this is of having tea on my own in his parlour - having brothers and sisters meant it felt a bit strange to eat alone!

Throughout the whole twelve or so hours I had been evacuated I was terribly excited - I wanted to get back to the drama in Rosslare! As small children, in a community that was so distant from the war anyway, from then on we longed for more German mines to be washed up on our beach and actually went down to look for them rather than run away in terror!

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Toby Farmiloe from Heathfield Community College on behalf of Imelda Tilbrook and has been added to this site with her permission. Mrs. Tilbrook fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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