大象传媒

The bombing was heavy in Plymouth. Everyone had blackout curtains. The warden would be knocking at the door if anyone showed a light. During the air raids, we would go to the shelter at the bottom of the garden. We had blankets and coats and there were candles. My eldest sister aged eighteen wouldn鈥檛 come into the shelter but stayed in bed .My two brothers age eight and ten used to hunt for shrapnel after the raids. This was part of shells which were ripped up and jagged. These were lined up on the mantle piece.

A house only four doors away from us was bombed so it was decided that my two older sisters would go and live with my grandparents near Exeter. My brothers were sent to the Duke of York army school in Braunton in Devon. I was the youngest, aged six. My mother took me to the Royal United Services Orphanage in Devonport Plymouth. Besides orphans it took in girls who had lost a parent in the forces.

We were over hundred girls at that time and were known by our number. When the air raid sounded in the night we would be guided to the basement where there were rows of baths. We younger girls climbed in, one each end, the older girls lying on mattresses between the baths until the all clear sounded.

In late March we all moved to Exmouth to be safer. It was a large Victorian building called Knapp Cross. I didn鈥檛 see my family until the war was over although we did write every two weeks.

We attended Withycomb Raleigh junior school. Crossing the road on our way to the senior school for our dinner, A German plane went overhead and machine gunned us. I can still see the pilot with his leather cap going over the parish church. Fortunately only one girl was slightly hurt. We were ordered to lie on the pavement against a cottage. I don鈥檛 remember any screaming or crying.

Our Easter eggs were eggs which had been boiled in brown dye. Our sweet ration per month was a quarter of a pound of sweets and one bar of chocolate.

When the war ended in 1945 a lot of the girls left the Orphanage. The rest of us moved to a smaller building, Army and Navy Villas Newquay Cornwall, where I stayed until I was sixteen, returning to my mother and two brothers in Plymouth. My three sisters were all married by then.

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