大象传媒

In June of 1939, I was a schoolboy of 10 living in Saltash, Cornwall. I attended saltash Grammar school and was coming towards the end of my first year. My father was a chief petty officer, gunners mate in the Royal Navy, a full time serving sailor, my mother was a petty officer in the WRNS. This was the Women鈥檚 Royal Naval Service and had been recruited in preparation for the coming war, which was obvious to a number of the military head people but was a state of affairs that Mr. Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of the time was trying to appease.

In September of 1939, my father who in addition to his service job of maintaining the heavy guns in the Breakwater Fort in Plymouth Sound, was also the Chief instructor to a naval youth organisation called the Royal Naval Barracks Boys Brigade. The members were al the sons of naval personnel and paraded and trained at HMS Drake in Devonport, Plymouth. As the son of the Chief instructor, I was not allowed to miss out on this pursuit, so I was enrolled and continued with my schooling and as a naval cadet until the Easter of 1941.

In the period of September 1939 and March 1941, war had been declared, my father went away to sea (on HMS Neptune to the Mediterranean), Mother was heavily engaged in setting up supply and clerical support units for the naval establishments and the Air Raids on the Docks, the Barracks and the residential neighbourhoods in Plymouth, Devonport and Saltash had started.

As a result I a twelve-year-old boy was staying at the cottage, at saltash, all night on my own and having to get my own breakfast and get myself to school on several occasions. My mother was not happy with this so on the Thursday, before Good Friday 1941; I was evacuated from a quiet sleepy Cornish town to a large wartime city-Bristol, to stay with my maternal grandmother. On Good Friday 1941, Bristol had one of its worst Blitz鈥檚. So here I was an evacuee in reverse, where a lot of Bristol鈥檚 youngsters were being evacuated to Somerset and even to Cornwall, I came from Cornwall to Bristol.

These events had long term results, my father was killed in 1942 when HMS Neptune was blown up and sunk by enemy action, my mother continued to serve in the WRNS and was on the staff of Lord Mountbatton at Salcombe in Devon prior to the invasion of Europe. She also served at HMS Britannia at Dartmouth. As the son of both a sailor father, and a mother I also had the opportunity to visit both Salcombe and Dartmouth when due to wartime security restrictions, other civilians could not travel into that area.

Following my evacuation to Bristol, I transferred into the Sea cadets Corp in Great George street but due to the heavy air raids I transferred into the army cadet force in Worrall road, Clifton (in a pre-war tennis club) around the corner from my Grandmother鈥檚 house and became an ARP Messenger boy based in the Anglesey road school ARP post.

My schooling continued from Anglesey Place School to Fairfield Grammar and in 1944, I finished school and started working to support the family. My cadetsevice continued until I joined the Gloucester鈥檚 for National Service in 1947 to 1949. Following National Service, I joined the Army Cadet Force and in 2005 I still work with the sporting side of this force. I also had almost 45 years working expaerience and now live a comfortable retired life.

Quite a story for an EVACUEE IN REVERSE.

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