大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Elizabeth Perez of Stockport Libraries on behalf of Jean Siney and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

---

My Mother, Sister and I had gone to spend three weeks of the summer holidays in Scotland with my Grandfather and Aunt. They lived in a small village called Rogart in Sutherland. Although lacking in electricity or shops, it was on a crossroads with the Rovey Burn running through it. The highlights of the day were the up train from Inverness to John O'Groats and the reverse train. All major communications came on that line and the post and the papers.

We spent a blissful two weeks in August running wild, fetching milk from the farm and learning how to milk a cow. We envied the farmer's son, William, who rode his pony across the hills to school. It was a time of drought, and all water, except for drinking, had to be obtained from the burn. So our baths in front of the grange were in peaty brown water.

All this was to end on Sunday September 3rd. We listened to Mr Chamberlain's speech telling us that we were now at war. My Grandfather had a battery operated wireless, which my Father had given him. My Mother's first thought was that we were going to find it difficult to return to Kent, where we lived. While this discussion was going on, we heard horses' hooves - we rushed into the road and there coming down the hill was a highlander in a kilt on a grey pony. My Aunt explained that he was going to enlist in Golspie. All through that day, more and more men clattered through the village. As each one went through he was cheered. I later realised that some were Argyll and Sutherlanders and others were Lovat Scouts. Puzzling to me even then, aged 10 years, was how were they able to leave their crofts at such short notice and what happened to the ponies?

Eventually a plan was formulated for our return. We had watched a very sad looking Sir Archibald Sinclair, M.P. for Thurso, pass through the station, and realised we must get a train as soon as possible. The journey to Inverness was no problem. But our booked sleeping berths were cancelled, the train was full of troops. We sat up all night, but the soldiers took pity on us and my Sister and I fell asleep across the chests of two soldiers. We arrived in London to be met by my Father with the news that our private girls' school was to amalgamate with the local boys' prep school. But that's another story!

It was lucky that we left Scotland when we did, as Sutherland was declared a prohibited area and civilians were not allowed to come and go as they pleased. However my Mother was issued with a permit to enable her to visit my Grandfather should he fall ill. Sadly he died before she was able to use the permit.

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