大象传媒

Catherine Summers
A lot of people call me Cath, but I prefer my full name.
My family were Boyne-Summers but we don't bother about that.

I was born in Canada.That was a time when people went abroad to work but now they go to Spain or somewhere. My father went out as a young man and met my mother who was ther with her family from Yorkshire.

As far as the war is concerned, I was with my sister, we were in Carmarthenshire. My sister had two little girls. Her husband was abroad in the Army and so was mine. We had evacuees from London or wherever they came from and we looked after them until the war was over. They were different ages and I used to take them into Carmarthen to the cinema, for something cheerful to do.

I was also an ARP warden. I used to get alarms in the middle of the night and I'd rush down the drive on my bicycle, whatever time it was. They we went on a training course where they taught us how to rescue people if there was a fire. Very often, I'd hear the alarms and I'd get on my bike and go down to the village. I wouldn't have the guts to do it now, to be quite honest!

My husband was abroad for two years. I often think of it now, how where young people go abroad, all they have to do is pull a telephone out of their pocket and they can talk, but I didn't see him or hear from my husband in two years.

I felt lonely without my husband. I missed him, but at least I was with my sister and her two children.

We could only have three evacuees at a time, four at a pinch as it wasn't that big a house. They were nice children. When my husband and I married they saved up from their pocket-money, which was only 5 shillings a week, and they bought us a wedding present!

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Genevieve Tudor of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire and CSV Media Action Desk on behalf of Catherine Boyne-Summers and has been added to the site with Catherine's permission. Catherine fully understands the site's terms and conditions

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