大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anna Wilson of Leicestershire Library Services on behalf of Iris Harris and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was aged 13 when the war started and lived in Grimsby. I had just gained a scholarship to the Grammar School but all of this had to stop when the war started.

In June 1940, the Children's Overseas Reception Board was set up and we were all given a note to see if we wanted overseas evacuation. I was excited at the thought of this as I always wanted to travel and so we signed up. My cousin and I were accepted to go to Tasmania.

On 1st August 1940, I left Grimsby and travelled to Liverpool to begin my journey to Tasmania. We just had to cope with leaving our parents. I was excited and felt that I was going on an adventure. It must have been harder for the people we left behind, my mother and auntie.

We travelled on the Batory, a Polish liner. There were 477 children, 600 troops and also some first class passengers. We were divided into groups of about 15 on board and an escort looked after us. These were people such as nurses, teachers and volunteers from the YMCA.

The cabins were small and not air conditioned so it was very cramped. At first we had total blackout due to the threat of German U-boat's. We didn't pick up on any of these dangers though. The crew was lovely to us. They must have missed their families and so made a real fuss of us.

There was plenty of entertainment on board. There were education classes and a lot of singing. We also produced our own magazine. My husband, I have since found out, was a co-editor.

Our first post of call was Cape Town. We were allowed off the boat for a couple of days. A lady there sent a letter to my mum with a photo to show how happy we were. We also stopped along the journey at Bombay, Singapore and Colombo. We were always taken to a sports place and given food and games to play. The people in the places were very generous. We were definitely not refugees but evacuees.

We eventually arrived in Tasmania in mid October. All this time my mother had no idea where I was. She got a cable when I arrived. Communications weren't so good in those days. It took a long time for letters to reach anywhere and you couldn't just pick up the telephone and talk to people. I did speak to my mother once on the radio but other than that you didn鈥檛 hear your relative's voice for years.

I stayed with complete strangers in Tasmania. I was lucky as they were lovely people and I settled in well. Some people stayed with relatives so knew they would be all right. Other strangers weren't so welcoming.

It wasn't until 1946 that I came back to England. I had to register in Melbourne and travelled there on my own as I was older then. When I was in the office, I was told that I would be on the same boat as a tall lad there and did we know each other. I said no but the lad said yes. It was Geoff Harris who I had travelled with on the Batory. We travelled back to England together and eventually married a year later. I think that we were probably trying to hold on to the memories of that time but we were fortunate as it worked out - many hasty war marriages didn't. We are celebrating our 57th wedding anniversary next week.

When I arrived back in Grimsby it was a big culture shock. The family I had stayed with were wealthy and lived in a large house. My family lived in a small terraced house in Grimsby. It was difficult to adjust and I must have seemed a terrible snob. It was hard for my mother who had said goodbye to her young girl and had to cope with an awkward teenager.

I have been back to Tasmania 3 times with my husband. I have stayed in the house I was evacuated to. I decided that I wanted to get in touch with some of the people I met and so wrote to a local paper. When I arrived in Tasmania for a visit, I was greeted with loads of letters from people, including one of my best friends. I am still in touch with some.

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