大象传媒

I was evacuated to Shoreham-by Sea, Sussex with my brother and his school, Peckham Central Boys School. My mother wanted us to stay together but it was difficult for the host families a we had to have two bedrooms.

We loved Shoreham-by Sea, it had everything as far as children from inner London were concerned. There were the Sussex Downs, which we were exploring when the first siren started, announcing the start of war. There was the River Adur, the Norfolk Bridge and the aerodrome, which was a fairly novel thing for us.

Mostly there was the beach. We really thought we were on holiday, without our parents.

It was beautiful weather, that first week. We decided to have a swim. When we got to the beach there were soldiers stringing out great rolls of barbed wire to close the beach off to invaders, fro the duration.

One of the soldiers called out 鈥淐ome on kids, come and have your last swim鈥�. It was lovely! The wire was rolled along, presumably until the end of the war.

After a while Home Sickness set in and reality. But it was lovely while it lasted.

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