大象传媒

I was a domestic science teacher in a senior school in inner Birmingham. The expected evacuation day came and each pupil whose parents agreed for them to go to safety arrived at school with a small case or bag containing a change of clothes and their address.

They had been allowed to come in families so the elder girls brought their younger brothers and sisters with them. They lined up in the playground and one adult was given ten children to look after. Some parents came with us for the day as some of the staff had home duties and couldn鈥檛 come.

We walked in a long crocodile in the sunshine down to the nearest station and out onto the platform where we were in the open. To my horror, a plane appeared. We thought we would be machine gunned but this biplane slowly turned away, no doubt on observation duties. Each group got into the carriage, there was no corridor and we were off. The children were not upset and we spent our time looking out of the window.

The train drew into Newent railway station. We all got out and lined up in the car park. There were a few cars parked at one end, probably belonging to farmer鈥檚 wives from outside Newent. They chose the children they fancied, gave addresses to the billeting officer. He then divided the children into groups. A teacher and an officer went off with each group to different roads in the town. The children were told to come to the park for games next morning and to the school in the afternoon.

I went with 59 children who were to be billeted in the high street. The housewives chose the children. Boys were not wanted but as the officer had previously discovered, the number of beds available and the sexes in each, there was a bit of wrangling went on. We went on a bit unhappily until at the end of the high street there were two brothers left who looked a bit clumsy and untidy. They were about 11 and 12. The officer then said to me 鈥淭here is one more house along the road but I did not want to use it鈥�. However, we went along the road to what proved to be a lodge to the big house. A rather bent woman in dark clothes opened the door and said with enthusiasm 鈥渁re these the boys for me to look after? I didn鈥檛 think I would be allowed to have anybody. Come in boys, this is my dad, he can鈥檛 see you but he will love to talk to you. We are pleased you鈥檝e come鈥�.

I walked back to the station but no-one was there except the porter who told me that they had all gone to the hotel. This worried me considerably as I had very little cash. It was the end of the school holidays and I had spent up. Obviously, no plans had been made for the staff but after one night I was billeted with two other young teachers about a mile out of the town. As we had been sent to share a junior school, there was no job for which I was qualified. So I was given a class of fifteen 5 to 6 year old boys and girls to teach in the cloakroom!! However, that鈥檚 another story.

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