大象传媒

Away from Home 鈥� an evacuee鈥檚 story: part one

By Rosemary Stevens

THE BEGINNING

It started on a Tuesday. A Tuesday in the first half of March in 1941. I can鈥檛 remember the exact date. The first two lessons were quite ordinary except that at the end of the second we were told that there was to be a staff meeting and that the prefects would be on duty in the cloakrooms and on the playing field and that the meeting might be a rather long one. This was odd, because staff meetings were normally after school.

Well, break time went on and on. We got chilly and went and sat in the cloakrooms which smelt of gym shoes and raincoats. Eventually the bell went and the prefects told us to go to our last lesson of the morning and miss the third. We said 鈥榡olly good鈥�, as the third lesson was RE and the last was PE, which of course we preferred. We changed into our PE kits and went into the gym. No Miss Pepper. Only a couple of prefects who tried to give us PE but it was rather boring as they weren鈥檛 allowed to use the apparatus. Very late in the lesson Miss Pepper arrived looking somewhat hot and bothered. She said it was too late to get out the apparatus so we did some more running about and jumping up and down. It was all very unsatisfactory as she didn鈥檛 say a word about what was going on and we didn鈥檛 like to ask.

I went home to lunch ( I lived quite near the school) and my brother ( who went to the boys鈥� high school a bit further away) burst into the kitchen and said 鈥榳e鈥檙e going to be evacuated鈥�. So that was what it was all about. I was a bit niggled that the boys had been told and we hadn鈥檛. I said 鈥榳hen?鈥�, he said 鈥� the day after tomorrow鈥� and my mother said 鈥榦h my God鈥� in a very upset and worried tone. So that was how it all started.

Our town was Worthing in Sussex. It is a pleasant ordinary sort of town on the South Coast, in the centre of a long shallow bay with Beachy Head at one end and Selsey Bill at the other. It was therefore considered to be one of the most likely places to be used as a landing from the Continent 鈥� easier than cliffy places like Brighton. My school was Worthing High School for Girls. I expect it鈥檚 still there, in South Farm Road. I was in my third year, which was called (for some forgotten, complicated reason) the fourth year (it would now be called Year 9). I was in Lower IV A.

After register had been taken on that Tuesday afternoon we were all told to go into the hall. There were about six hundred of us. Miss Reid, the head, told us that the bottom years were going to a place called Ollerton in Nottinghamshire and all the rest of us were going to Newark-on-Trent, also in Nottinghamshire. It meant nothing to us. Miss Reid said that if our parents didn鈥檛 want us to go, we needn鈥檛, but for our own safety it was strongly recommended that we did. She also said that we would be given a paper with instructions to take home.

We went back to our classrooms, chattering madly and feeling very excited and a bit worried 鈥� especially about our mums. My father was in the Air Force and a long way away, and many of my friends鈥� fathers were also in the Forces, so we knew our mothers would be left alone. 鈥淎t least鈥�, I thought 鈥淢um will have Bessie to keep her company鈥�. Bessie was our large, dear, black dog.

We were allowed to go home early that day and told to come back as usual to school the next day.

That evening, my mother looked up Newark-on-Trent in a book called 鈥楤eautiful Britain鈥� and found out that it was a market town with a big market place, a very fine church and a large ruined castle. That sounded quite nice.

My mother spent that evening sewing name tags on to our pyjamas and vests. We were not allowed to take many clothes 鈥� only as much as we could carry. Also, Mum managed finally to telephone Dad who agreed with her that David and I must go. Both schools were going to the same place, so I would be not too far from David (who was 16) if I had any problems. I was nearly 13.

The next day at school (Wednesday) was pretty chaotic. We were all given cards with the headmistress鈥檚 name, address, and phone number on it. She was going to stay in the main hotel (the Clinton Arms) in the market place in Newark; we were told we could go there or telephone 鈥榓t any time day or night鈥� if we were in any kind of trouble.

We also had to help pack up. We had to empty the cloakrooms and check that our shoebags and gym shoes were marked with our names. All the shoebags were then put into sacks to be brought with us. My shoe bag was blue, with my initials embroidered in rather wobbly dirty white chain stitch which I had done when I was ten. I felt vaguely ashamed of it. We also had to pack up things like tennis balls and other games equipment. In the afternoon we were all given large sheets of brown paper and balls of string and had to make our exercise books and our text books into large firm packets. This was quite difficult as the books were lots of different sizes, so we all helped each other. Sellotape, which would have helped, did not exist. Miss Hodgson, our form mistress, helped a lot, looking a bit fraught!

Then, all back to the hall. We were told to come to school at 8.30 next morning when buses would take us to the station. We would not be allowed back into school so we had to be sure to remove all our property that day. We were given a nice pep talk about behaving well because the whole school would be judged by our behaviour. Only about fifty girls were staying behind with the senior English teacher and one other. They looked pretty miserable as if they were missing a treat.

So we went home. Hot baths. Mum telling us to behave and to write a lot. Next day would be exciting and a bit scary.

THE JOURNEY

We said goodbye to the cat (Kittypuss), the rabbits (Pauline, Paulette and Percy) and our dear dog. Mum promised to look after them for us. Then we hugged Mum and promised to write and to behave ourselves. 鈥楤e sensible鈥�, Mum said. 鈥楿se your brains鈥�.

We went off down the road and at the corner turned back and waved to Mum. I鈥檓 sure she felt awful and probably cried once we鈥檇 gone, but we didn鈥檛 think about that as we were buzzing inside with excitement and anticipation.

David and I split up. He turned left for his school, I turned right for mine. We said 鈥榮ee you later鈥�. As I approached the school I saw what looked like dozens of green double decker Southdown buses lined up. We were milling about until some teachers organised us class by class on board. It wasn鈥檛 very far to the station. I thought we could have walked, but it was probably easier to keep us all together in buses.

When we got to the station we were lined up at the back half of a long train in classes and our form teachers took the register. Parents had been specially asked not to come to the station. Only one did. She was the mother of Janet, who was in our class. I think she was a widow and Janet was an only child, but she shouldn鈥檛 have come. She kept hugging Janet and blowing her nose and her bright red lipstick was coming off on her handkerchief. Janet was embarrassed and a bit cross. Poor woman 鈥� but she should have known better.

The train was all separate compartments with a corridor at the side. We were in the back half of the train and the boys were in the front. I looked to see if I could see David among all the boys but I couldn鈥檛.

So we set off. It was a long and rather slow journey. We kept stopping or slowing down as, I suppose, we were a special train and had to make way for the normal scheduled trains. We stopped for about two hours near London. We had to go round London because there was a lot of bombing there and also lots of suburban trains. It was rather boring. We played pencil and paper games. I had a book with me as did some of my friends. We talked and giggled a lot. When the train went round a curve we could see the boys ahead of us, so we leaned out of the windows and waved at them. They waved back. Teachers came
round from time to time and asked us if we were all right. We said 鈥榶es鈥� and 鈥榟ow much longer?鈥� She said she didn鈥檛 know.

We had been told we would be given lunch, but Mum had given David and me some cheese sandwiches just in case. Lunch came along at about one o鈥檆lock. We were given a warm meat pie each 鈥� which was a bit difficult to eat on our laps on paper plates. It wasn鈥檛 too bad. We threw our spare bits of pastry out of the window for the birds. Then there was a long gap and at last pudding came. It was rice pudding with no jam or syrup and no sugar in it at all. It was uneatable. So that, great splodges of it, went out of the window too. We all shared the one small cheese sandwich that Mum had given me.

We all had large luggage labels with our names safety-pinned on to our coats. I hated this. We weren鈥檛 babies! So I managed, accidentally on purpose, to get mine torn off. This was stupid of me. If there had been an accident or an air raid we had to have some form of identification on us. I realised that afterwards. But would you have wanted a large brown luggage label safety-pinned to your lapel?

We arrived, a bit tired and scruffy, at Newark station at about 5.30 pm. No nice smart green buses to meet us. We had to walk, carrying our bags. I had felt a bit self-conscious as Mum had given David and me a couple of knapsacks that had been used on walking holidays and everyone else had suitcases. However I was glad I had it now as it was less tiring to carry than my friends鈥� cases.

We walked down the middle of the streets across the town towards the girls鈥� grammar school. People lined the pavements watching us. We felt most peculiar as if we were another type of being. I suddenly saw great high ruined walls. I said to my friend Beryl Smith who I was walking with 鈥榣ook, there鈥檚 the castle. That looks interesting.鈥� We walked on towards the school and I thought 鈥榞ood old Mum. She was right about the castle鈥� and felt suddenly happier.

We turned in at the school gates. Our journey had ended.

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