大象传媒

I had never considered that evacuation would be a trauma for some children from my era until I read the stories of children from Filton and Bristol.

After a serious German bombing raid on Edinburgh,
when I believe they were after the Forth Bridge and some shipping in the Firth of Forth, a plan was put in place to evacuate children from the city to the surrounding countryside.

My family had retired to the Andersen shelter in our backyard at the start of the raid and being the youngest I was lowered first into the shelter. The floor was awash up to my knees with water from previous rain and so that was not considered a very good idea. Clutching our gas masks, which were mandatory during air-raids, we made our way to a community shelter somewhere handy to our street.The next day came the news that a stray bomb had landed at Corstorphone Zoo and had killed a giraffe. This would have been around 1940/41 when I was 5/6 and my sister 7/8 years old. I don't know the details of the method used to place children for evacuation but I do recall my parents, who had a motor car, driving my sister and I to a humble cottage on the ourskirts of Edinburgh. My parents were not too happy with the arrangements but had to leave us for that first night. Our 'adopting' family also had children of their own and my recollection was that they were not very well off. The first thing they did, once my parents had left, was to go through our suitcases and help themselves to some small treats that Mum and Dad had left to soften the blow of separation.

The sleeping arrangements were that my sister and I were to share a bed which was built into an alcove in the wall of the living area.
The next day my parents returned to collect us and we were then taken to another location just outside Linlithgow. This was a huge manor house on a private estate.
The place was called " The Craigs" and thus began a
few years of most memorable times for young children. I can only describe it as similar to a boarding school. Boys and girls each had their own dormitory and schooling was conducted in situ. We had plenty of free time to explore the grounds of the estate and my recollection of huge banks of rhodendrons will be in my mind forever. I still
love those plants today and although I live in the tropics of Queensland, Australia I have got some tropical varieties in my garden.
One of our teachers, a young lady, had a visit from her fiance who was an Officer in the Army.
I still recall his coming home on leave in uniform for a visit. They were constantly blowing kisses to each other!!

Food was reasonably plentiful and I saw my first brace of pheasants hanging in the foyer, which must have been from the estate.

Parents were able to visit as often as they were able and my folks came frequently and would take my sister and I out to Linlithgow for the afternoon.

As this was wartime, one was constantly reminded of the need for care with the usage of material.
The one that sticks in my mind even today was the the little 'ditty' we were taught as to the use of toilet paper. " One's too little, two's not enough, three's just right, four's too much".

In retrospect I have to admit to enjoying my time at "The Craigs" but was very happy when the danger had passed and we were able to return home.

My father was an officer with the ARP ( Air Raid Precautions)being medically unfit for active duty. My mother was employed in an aircraft factory making tailplanes for Lancaster bombers.

I would be delighted to hear from anyone who was at "The Craigs" during those years and I also must
thank the owners of this estate for making it available for us kids during those harrowing times.

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