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Schooling ended by the German Occupation of Guernsey

Martha Martel interviewed by Lynne Ashton of the Guernsey Museum.
Recording transcribed and edited by J David

I….….….. So you’re Martha Martel now, but you were Martha Hubert in 1940, and how old were you?
Mrs Martel. I was thirteen
I….….….. And I gather you hadn’t spent a lot of time at school?
Mrs Martel. No, I’d had TB so for two years I spent in bed and the third I used to be wheeled to Bordeaux in a push chair for breathing exercises, and so when I got to school they put me in the scholarship class and I knew nothing at all, I just sat there all day with these girls that knew so much more than me. So I remember Miss Roughton phoning my mother in the evening and saying that I couldn’t stay in that class, and so they put me down in the kindergarten, anyway luckily I had two teachers that did give me extra tuition after the school hours, and fortunately I only had one more class to catch up with when the Occupation arrived.
I….….….. So it really disrupted your schooling?
Mrs Martel. It did, because they said I should stay to school till I was sixteen, because in those days you left at fourteen, but it didn’t happen because the schools couldn’t find enough teachers to start with, and I never went back to school, no.
I….….….. But you were nearly evacuated, I gather?
Mrs Martel. Yes, my father and mother took us up to school all day, around seven in the morning, I think, and we just sat around all day in the hall at the Intermediate, because my brother was allowed to come with me, he was at the Vale School, and then about, - Mum and Dad went around Bordeaux, and Dad, having a fishing boat, had his spy-glass with him, - he took that spy-glass everywhere with him — and he’d been watching all these boats going up and down, and about four o’clock one boat passed with white panama hats on, and he just broke down, and I remember my mother saying that straight away they went back home and she said she phoned the school to see if they have really left, but it turned out to be the Ladies’ College, so she said keep the two, my brother and I, and they were coming up straight away for us. She also phoned my friend’s parents, and they said to bring them back, but when Beryl got home she burst into tears and said she wanted to go, she didn’t want to come back, so they took her back to school, and she did go with the boat, but we learnt a long time after that it was about midnight when that boat left.
I….….….. She went on her own, and she was only eleven years old?
Mrs Martel. Yes, she’d have been all on her own, yes.
I….….….. Did she ever talk about her experiences, when she came back?
Mrs Martel. Yes, she did, and I think she felt very sorry that she had done it, but I think she had no idea she was going, as children, you didn’t. I was very frightened, because I didn’t really want the responsibility of my brother, who was three years younger than what I was.
I….….….. So you were quite relieved to be able to stay at home?
Mrs Martel. Oh, yes, very!

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