大象传媒

In 1939 we lived on a small holding in Derbyshire - my parents and three of us, my sisters 7, 5 and me 13. Dad was a miner and mother hard working. Two goats, two pigs, 2000 hens and a large vegetable garden, oil lamps, water from the well, coal range for cooking and we walked three miles each way to and from school. Then every delivery of chicken food was different and unreliable and eggs became fewer and the round of customers in a nearby town could no longer be supplied. Dad joined the Navy and Mother took us to North Devon - she had worked there in the first war and thought it would be safe for us.
We rented a small flat with large windows and a wonderful view. Notice was given around the town - Ilfracombe - that evacuated children from London would be coming and homes were needed, and mother decided to do her bit for the war.
A large house on four floors was rented for 23/6p per week, the hotels in town were closing and we bought at auction and for about 拢25 enough to furnish. She and I struggled up flights of stairs with beds and chests of drawers - got it all straight and went to collect our children.
It was about 7 hours on the train from Waterloo to Ilfracombe - the children were tired, sad and scared, small bags of clothes, gas masks and luggage labels on their coats arriving at an unknown place to stay with unknown people and wanting Mum. They came from Camberwell, Brixton, Deptford, South London brothers and sisters holding hands.
Into our houses come 23 children, 3 mothers with 2 children each and one Jewish lady from Austria with 2 children. Her husband was a doctor with the Army in our area. The smells from her cooking were new and exciting - and 4 of us.
Two little brothers from Camberwell were stitched into their clothers - homemade jacket and trousers in red velvet, and 2 little sisters from Deptford were hard to understand. What must they have thought of us and Ilfracombe?
School eventually was half a day, local children going half a day too. I would meet them at the school gate with a basket of sandwiches, bread and jam usually and we would go to the beach - climb the hills, paddle and play and then go home to my nightly task with the nit comb, the children shouting who had the most head lice. There was 8/6p allowance for each child each week, food, clothes and treats to come out of that. We put 2 ration books in each food shop in town in case anything extra like dried fruit was on offer - 2oz didn't go far.
My mother had standards she upheld, grace before meals, prayers. Sunday school, and if you didn't eat what was on your plate you got it for the next meal. One small boy asked her "Why do you say for Christs sake amen, my Mum says for Christs sake shut up". The first time after their arrival when the air-raid warning sounded - they all - in silence trooped down the stairs together.
As time went on families drifted home. New evacuees came from Bristol, in 1944 I went to work in London and visited some of the parents - amazing how the children adapted to the beauty and freedom of North Devon. Some brought their wives back to visit and one came back to live in Ilfracombe.
Only me left of this family now, but it was a wonderful challenging teenage time that influenced the way I spent me life.

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