大象传媒

How we became Evacuees

I know I never wanted to get on the bus, but we were pushed and told to hurry along. My brother went to the back of the bus, Georgina my youngest sister sat near Margaret and I. We all had our gas mask with us and a bag of clothes. We were told it was for only a short time, mother said we would not have gone if we had not been bombed out. I did not know there was a terrible air raid the night before. We did not have time to go out to the garden shelter, so mother put us under the stairs. It seemed a very long time before we had the all clear, there were lots of shouting and the windows of the house had been blown in.

The air raid warden came checking for gas leaks we were brought out into the garden, looking across the road the house had been struck by a bomb. There was very little left of it, we also spotted a cot under the debris, mother would say Dear God what is happening to us. The warden said we could not stay in the house; we were to go to Shields Road School. We were fed and we tried to sleep. Georgina was only five, Margaret was six, my brother Patrick was nine and I was seven and a half. Our father was a soldier in the Army. We also had an older sister called Mary she was nineteen she used to stay with friends as her husband was a prisoner of war.

So this was how we came to be sitting on a bus to the Forest of Dean.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.