大象传媒

Eileen鈥檚 Story
Eleen Ikoku (n茅e Sandwell) was born and brought up in Margate. She was living in Trinity Square with her parents and brother at the beginning of the war. Her father was a life boatman.
She remembers well the day war broke out. She was playing in her home with her friend, Connie, when the news broke. They had started to run to Connie鈥檚 house on the seafront when the air raid siren went. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 know what to do,鈥� she said, 鈥渟o we each ran to our home. I was very frightened and I remember putting on my gasmask in readiness - for what, I didn鈥檛 know鈥�.
I should have started in the first form at Clarendon House School in September 1939, but we were told that I must stay at home and work would be sent to me. I was very disappointed, because I was looking forward to starting at a new school, but I did my work very conscientiously, even starting the day with a prayer. Eventually I started at Clarendon after Christmas (it is likely that the air raid shelters were not ready for all the school - we know that St Saviour鈥檚 delayed starting until theirs were complete in October)
I shall never forget June 1940. We saw the troops returning from Dunkirk and then we were told that we were to be evacuated from Thanet because there was threat of invasion. My brother Gordon was only six and he was at Holy Trinity School Margate. My mother had to get things together for both of us, but we didn鈥檛 travel together. He went off on the bus from Holy Trinity to Margate Station, whilst I had to go to Ramsgate. Clarendon and Chatham House Schools were travelling on the same train. I remember seeing the troop trains as we passed through stations and women were preparing tea and food for soldiers.
The journey was very long - we didn鈥檛 go through London, where we would have had to change trains, but all around it via various junctions. It was quite late in the afternoon when we reached Stafford, which was our destination. I was billeted with another girl from my year, but we didn鈥檛 know each other very well. We were surprised to find that we had got to share a double bed, so we made a sort of line down the middle so that we each had our own part.
We shared Stafford Girls鈥� High School and Chatham House shared the King Edward VI Grammar School. Each school went to school 3 days a week so we didn鈥檛 see much of the Stafford girls or get to know them. On other days we went to a large house, which had been a boys鈥� boarding school, which had lovely grounds. We went on our bikes and looked to hang on to the back of a lorry to help us up the hill!
The Chatham House boys and Clarendon girls used to meet each other in the Town library, which was right in the centre of Stafford - we were chaperoned of course, by members of staff! We formed a social club called 鈥淭he Greens and Browns鈥� (Clarendon wore brown uniform the and Chatham House, green)
My brother was billeted in a small village called Hints. My mother didn鈥檛 realise at first that we were not close to each other and send me a parcel to give to him. To visit him, I had to travel by train from Stafford to Lichfield, change trains for Tamworth and then catch a bus to Hints. I had to get out at a bus stop by a strile and then cross a field to the farm where Gordon was staying with two others from his school. (she was only twelve at the time!) When my mother found out what the situation was, she came up to Stafford and removed him. They got digs in Stafford for a while, but then they went back to Margate.
Trinity Square was bombed in the major raid on Margate on 1st June 1943. Trinity Church was destroyed and our house was badly damaged. We used to come home for the school holidays and I remember complaining about it - the ceilings were damaged and windows and the workmen were in!
I couldn鈥檛 understand why my mother made such a fuss about going to the shelters when the air raid siren went - we weren鈥檛 used to it in Stafford! Because we had been bombed my mother got 鈥榙ockets鈥� to replace some of the basic furniture and to buy curtains. I remember she had some lovely material - flowery cotton, I think - and I was able to make a skirt from it.
Clarendon and Chatham House Schools stayed in Stafford until the end of the war- I remember coming back to go into the Lower Sixth and helping unpack some of the science equipment - I cut my finger badly on some glass and the teacher fainted!

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