大象传媒

My first memory of being an evacuee was travelling on a train with lots of other children, carrying our gas mask across our shoulder from Lime Street Station.

I was with my sister who was 9. I came next aged 8 and then my brother who was 6.

We had had a lot of bombing to Liverpool and our parents had been advised to send the children to a safe place. We didn鈥檛 have to go; it was for your parents to say so. It was January 1941 and we walked to the top of Penrhyn Street (This was the name of our School). We were put on buses and taken to Lime Street Station. Your parents were not allowed to travel with you to the station so we had to say our goodbyes there. My mum said 鈥淜eep together and don鈥檛 let them split you up鈥�. Some mums were crying.

We enjoyed being on the train and after what seemed a long journey we arrived at Pwllheli Station. There were buses waiting for us. They called your name and you got on the bus which took you to the village you would be living in. While we were on the train a lady came and put an orange armband on my brother鈥檚 arm. We didn鈥檛 think to ask why, but we were to find out later.

Our bus arrived at a village called Sarn. This was 12 miles outside of Pwllheli and 5 miles from Aberdaron. We went into the Village Hall and were given drinks and cakes and a brown paper bag. Inside was a tin of spam, an orange, a bar of chocolate and a tin of Zubes. These were for coughs and colds.

The Billeting Officer started calling names and the names of the people who you would be living with and off you went with these people to live with them. My sister went with a Mr and Mrs Roberts. I also went with a Mr and Mrs Roberts (who was the Billeting Officer). But what about my brother? He was put back on the bus with a few others and taken back to Pwllheli. He was only 6. They said there was no one to take him. Well, we cried and cried and said that our Mum said we were not to be separated. We must have cried for a week. Then Mr Roberts, the Billeting Officer, found him a farm 录 mile from us to live at.

You were taken every morning to School on a bus to the next village called Bottwnog. There we had two classrooms with two teachers who had come with us. The first winter we had snow and we were bought boots. The Red Cross supplied us with jumpers, pixie hoods and gloves. Every morning we had to take two cod liver oil tablets. Sometimes we would put these in our gymslip pockets, but forget they were there and they would fall out when getting undressed. When the lady found them she would tell us off.

I forgot to mention that my sister came to live with me after a few weeks because the lady who took her in had a stroke. They treated us well and fed us well. They did get paid for having us there and they had our ration books. Once a month we would get a parcel from Mum and Dad with sweets and comics and sometimes socks and underclothes.

We only saw our brother in School. The School Bus dropped us off in the village and we had to walk 陆 mile to our house and my brother had another 录 mile after leaving us. Sometimes he would get a lift, but most times he would walk and he was only 6, and sometimes it was getting dark.

We were allowed to play in the village, but had to be home by 8pm. When we were late we used to take a short cut across the fields, which meant going through a small stream. Mrs Roberts told us off when we got our boots wet and muddy.

The first year came the May Blitz when Liverpool was heavily bombed. My Mum and Grandma phoned Mr. Roberts to ask if he could find them somewhere to live. He found them some rooms in a house with an old lady named Mrs. Jones of Brynffinon. With them was Albert, who was 4 years old and Joyce, who was 3 months. They stayed about six months, then the bombing eased off, and they went home taking John with them.

Brynffinon was about 1陆 miles from the village of Sarn and every Wednesday, when Mr. and Mrs. Roberts had a day out, we went to our Mum鈥檚 for tea. We had to walk from the village 1陆 miles to Mum鈥檚 house. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts used to pick us up afterwards. We played outside quite happily.

Sometimes we went to the farm behind our house and helped collect the eggs. Our Johnnie wasn鈥檛 too happy. He had to help around the farm he lived on even at 6. He often stayed off school. He missed the bus on purpose.

We had our jobs to do. Betty always seemed to break the dishes, so she had to sit in the wash house on a Saturday morning and the peel the potatoes. She used to sing, because there were mice in there. I had to wash the dishes and tidy our bedroom. Some week nights we went to play with two other evacuees named Cilla and Ada Owens. They lived with a family who had two boys who were always fighting with them. During school holidays Mr. Roberts took us to Abersoch and the surrounding area while he paid out benefits and unemployment pay.

Every Sunday morning and sometimes evening we were taken to the Methodist Church and every week we had to learn a verse from the Bible in Welsh and go to the front of the Church to say it. Before my Mum went home Dad came to see us all. I remember being taken to a pub in the village. We all played in the back while they had a drink and we took the apples off the trees and were told off.

Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, who Betty first went to, had two daughters, Connie who was 1 and Jean who was 12. We used to play with Jean. She wasn鈥檛 too keen to let us play with her toys. We didn鈥檛 have any toys, because we couldn鈥檛 bring any with us.

I went back to visit before I left School. I won a prize for collecting the most wild flowers and pressing them into a book. Jean Roberts helped me to collect them. I kept in touch with Jean and went to stay for a holiday with Ron, Paul and Gill. We visited Mrs. Roberts. She looked so old and small. This was 30 years after I had left.
Gill took Ron and me to see Jean Roberts in October 2001. She was 73. She died in May 2002. Our Betty died in 1998 aged 67.

Jean Beesley
Liverpool

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