大象传媒

I think it was in 1940 that my parents decided that we should be evacuated from London. We lived in Green Ford in Middlesex. I was aged 8 and my brother Philip was 5.

We collected at the local school with our suitcase; some carried their belongings in a pillowcase. We all had to wear a label pinned to us giving our name and address, we each had to carry our gas mask.

We were taken to a big railway station, which I think must have been Paddington. It must have been hard for our parents to let us go.

We travelled by steam train, the journey took a long time and we arrived at Cardiff and were taken to a collection point to have our billets sorted out.

Philip and I were given to Mr and Mrs Williams who lived at Miskin near Cardiff. They owned a poultry farm with lots of brown chickens in fields; each field had its own hen house. They were very religious and we had to go to chapel and say our prayers. I remember a bomb dropped on one of the top fields.

We stayed there for 3 months. They were having difficulties in getting feed for the chickens and they got rid of the farm. We were then taken to new foster parents and we were split up. I went to Mr and Mrs Cowell and Philip to Mr and Mrs Cole. We were lucky because we lived next door to each other.

My new family was a large one with ages varying from 7-20yrs. One was in the Navy, another in the Army and another in the Land Army, all doing their bit. I shared a bed with them, 3 to a bed!

All our foster parents were kind and looked after us well. We attended the local school, which was over crowded with the extra numbers. The main thing I can remember is that I had been taught to do a kind of joined up script for writing. They taught me to do loops using special lined paper.

Tuberculosis was at the time a great problem. A lady came to the school and told us how to deal with disposed of sputum to cut the risk of infection others. Why I should have remembered this, I do not know!

While in Wales we were visited by the head mistress of my school at home. Her name was Miss Howells. She was a lovely lady and always beautifully dressed. Our parents also visited us while we were at Miskin.

During my time there I managed to get chicken pox. Unfortunately Philip, who was not so robust as me, acquired Scarletina and was admitted to hospital. As the situation in London had quietened down, our parents decided to take us home. So 10 months later we returned home. I went home covered in spots, which turned out to be scabious, this was treated with a white paint and I soon recovered.

Mr and Mrs Cowell came to see us when they visited London but unfortunately that was the last we saw or heard from them.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jacci Phillips of the CSV Action Desk at 大象传媒 Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Olive Newbury and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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