- Contributed by听
- Genevieve
- People in story:听
- Margaret Watson (Nee Irwin)
- Location of story:听
- Colwyn Bay -North wales, Geneva- Switzerland, and Mont Blanc - the French Alps.
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A8481927
- Contributed on:听
- 12 January 2006
I鈥檓 Margaret Watson, of course back then I was Margaret Irwin.
I was at school in Colwyn Bay when war broke out.
Just prior to that, in August 1939 I was on a school trip to the League of Nations summer school in Geneva 鈥 we were unaware that war was imminent, but there was a tremendous fuss. First of all we were on a collective passport and someone decided we ought to have individual passports which would have taken forever. Eventually they gave up and just wanted rid of us. Then, we were going up to a glacier on Mont Blanc, and the French didn鈥檛 want us to go up there- so official came up and hollered at these frontier guards for 鈥渓eaving the children of our allies sitting in the hot midday sun鈥 鈥 there was such a drama. Anyway, in the end we managed to get back fine.
We were told not to go back to school because the Ministry of Food had commandeered our buildings in Colwyn Bay. Fortunately one of the governors knew that Chatsworth was up for grabs, so we got Chatsworth, which was a wonderful experience.
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