大象传媒

we were some of the lucky ones! I together with my sister Eileen were evacuated to Reading from London on the first of September 1939. We were fortunate enough to be rehoused with the most wonderful caring family who lived in a large victorian house with an acre of garden. I was six years old and my sister was 9. My parents together with my younger sister stayed in London. They had no idea where we had gone. Six weeks later we met mother and sister Mary in Palmer's park. What a co-incidence! We took them to the house and introduced them to the owners - Alfred and Rosa Saxon-Snell and their two middled aged spinster daughters Nina and Beatrice. They had just lost the maid and gardener who were called up. They asked my mother if she would like to come and live with us and help in the house. We had a portion of the house to ourselves. Nina read us the Swallows and Amazon books at bedtime until i was old enough to read them myself. We slept in the cellar for the first few months of the war, which was re-enforced with timber props. I shared my bed, which was a wide shelf, with my sister and a lot of cooking apples which were stored there! There were only three bombs on Reading during the war. I was still at primary school which was a mile away from home. When the sirens went I was about half a mile from home. Two minutes later the bombs were dropped on the centre of Reading and I was terrified. My legs didn't seem to be working properly. They were dropped a mile away from me. St Lawrene's church, a restaurant and a department store were hit. Fortunately it was half day closing so not many people died. I feel for the people who stayed in the cities with the blitz night after night. Three bombs were too many for me. If we had stayed in London we would all have perished as the tenement flat we lived in (in Wandsworth) was destroyed. My father spent the war in London, we only saw him 3 or 4 times. He worked as a civilian for the police, was in the Home guard and helped in rescue and demolition of bombed sites. We lived in the house until 1948 a whole year after the Saxon-Snells had moved to the country. The house was sold to the Royal Berkshire Hospital for offices. Mother was never asked to pay rent. A pity they all died so long ago; it would have been nice to say 'thank you'. I don't know where the last 66 years have gone it seems like only yesterday.

This story was entered on the People's War website by liz Goddard of the WM actiondesk team on behalf of JV Woods who fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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