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I was not yet 9 years old when the war started so had little idea of what was happening, but I was evacuated almost immediately with my school, (in Newcastle-upon-Tyne) to Alnwick, further north in Northumberland, where lessons were held in Alnwick Castle. I remember we were taken from the railway station to a hall of some sort, where local families able to offer accommodation turned up to choose their guests, and my best friend Helen was selected long before I was. A kindly family took me in but could do nothing about my homesickness, and as there had been little happening on the war front I was brought home at the end of the term and sent to another local school which had also been evacuated for a short time and returned.

Although Newcastle was bombed along the docks and river I remember little war damage where we lived. We had a tall Victorian terraced house with a tiny front garden and only a concrete yard at the back so no room for a shelter and we used a cupboard under the stairs as such, although we also had a sturdy kitchen table which might have done in an emergency. The cupboard was stocked with a few emergency provisions but only chairs for there was no room to lie down, and so it was only used if an-air raid seemed to be getting too close for comfort. These tended to be at night rather than during the day but one day when I was walking down our back lane towards some nearby shops I saw a German plane flying towards me quite low, and the fishmonger ran out and rushed me down to his cellar just as there was a burst of machine gun fire — it was thought the pilot was using up ammunition before flying home. Collecting shrapnel was a prime occupation amongst the young, as we showed off our trophies after a raid.

My new school only had about 150 girls between the ages of 5 and 17, many having been evacuated more permanently, so classes were small and despite the war it was a happy time. We were all urged to make an effort to help, though, which included buying National Saving stamps, and the classes competed weekly to see which could raise the most. The money went to the Government to help with the cost of the war, and was repaid long before the war ended, but with interest. We made ‘comforts’ for the troops, largely knitted socks and balaclava helmets, some of which left much to be desired, and towards the end of the war, my school adopted a battleship and we used to send them knitted goods and pen letters, and many of the soldiers became individual pen-friends, though I do not think the correspondence lasted when the war ended.

We were taken to pick nettles on occasion as these were used to extract chlorophyll, and any unwanted scrap metal was collected much as bottles and newspaper are now, the metal being melted down to make planes and such.

Food was strictly rationed and remained so for several years after the war ended. My mother made the most of what was available and we were never hungry — in fact we probably lived more healthily than today’s children. We had a Scottie dog, called Sooty, and there was no manufactured dog food in those days, so he was fed ‘lights’ (the insides of animals not fit for human consumption) and horse meat. I remember queuing for this at the local horsemeat shop, but fortunately we were never reduced to eating this ourselves. The sweet ration was 2oz a week, (50g — the equivalent of a chocolate bar now) and I discovered that one could get 8 fruit jellies for this weight, so I could eat 1 a day and have two for Sunday. When there was anything special available the sweetshop proprietors usually saved these for their families and good customers, so choice was limited and I remember on one occasion I could not decide what to choose and after some considerable time asked the shop keeper if he had anything else, at which point he lost patience and marched me out of his shop!

The day the war finally ended, (VJ Day) we were on holiday in Bournemouth and everyone was waiting for news. My mother insisted I go to bed eventually but promised to come and wake me if the news came through early enough. However I was sleeping so soundly she couldn’t arouse me and you can imagine my feelings the next morning when I heard that everyone had been out in the streets dancing and I had slept through it all!

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