����ý

In September 1939 I went home to lunch at midday. It was a very warm day and I was sitting outside in the garden listening to the wireless (or as it is now called the radio) when a voice said: “Attention Attention – war has been declared by Britain on Germany. All children who are going to be evacuated please report to their respective schools when they will be instructed where to meet tomorrow”.

My brother and I were being evacuated together. We had to have a label tied round our neck with our name and our address and our destination, which in our case was Abergavenny in Wales. We had to take our gas masks with us, with which every man, woman and child had been supplied, in case gas was dropped by the enemy planes, but I am glad to say these never had to be used.

Our mother came to the railway station to wave us off. We were all very excited it was like going off on holiday, which in those days we very rarely did.

We arrived at Abergavenny and were taken to the Cattle Market where we were divided into a number of groups going to different villages. My brother and I went to a village called Llanfoist, which was situated at the foot of a mountain called the Blorenge, which we climbed many times whilst we were there.

We were then taken by bus to the village assigned to us. We went first to the village school where we were met by the local minister who had a list of all the houses who were going to take in ‘evacuees’ and had the information as to whether they wished to take boys or girls. The people who took me and my friend in had two little girls of their own just a couple of years younger.

My brother went to a house just three doors away where they had a boy and girl.

As soon as we arrived at our foster home we had a card with us on which we had to write to let our parents know our address and that we had arrived safely.

After a few weeks I was moved to stay at the house with my brother as a small sister of the girl I was with came to stay at the first house.

Every one or two months a trip was arranged for parents to come and visit us. One visit my mother arranged by herself and came by train. My brother and I walked into Abergavenny from our village to meet the train she was arriving on. I was 12 years old and my brother was 14. To get to Abergavenny we either took a short-cut through the village or the long way round by the main road. My brother sent me the short way through the village and he met me at the other end while he walked the long way round by the main road because he said the other children would call him a cissie if he was seen walking with his little sister.

There were about 22 evacuees and four teachers. We all started at the local village school. The village children squashed into two classrooms and we had the third classroom. Our ages ranged from 5 years to 14 years of age so I am sure the teachers must have found it difficult to teach us in one room.

During the first few weeks of our stay the farmers were cutting the hay which would be winter feed for the animals. We had great fun riding on the farm cart.

Around Christmas some people were putting on a play at the Town Hall in Abergavenny and they came to choose one of the evacuees to be in the production. I was over the moon as I was chosen. I was dressed as an old fashioned boy.

My mother came and fetched us home after about one year as it seemed that nothing was going to happen in the cities, but not long after we returned home to Birmingham the air raids started.

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