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WW2 My initial memories as an evacuee. By Danny White.

On September 1St 1939, I was almost 7 years old, and was evacuated to Whitehaven from my home town of Newcastle upon Tyne. As I had a younger brother, who was nearly two, my mother also came to look after him. When we arrived in Whitehaven, I was billeted separately from my mother and my brother.
At home, we had been fortunate as we had just moved into a new house, with all mod cons, at the beginning of 1939, and my mother found it very difficult looking after a young child in her new surroundings which had no electricity and the heating and hot water came from a stove in the middle of the living room.
As a consequence, when my father came to visit the following weekend, my mother said she had had enough and wanted to return home, which she did and of course I came home as well.
This was followed by a period which became known as the 鈥減honey war鈥�, when nothing was apparently happening and this lasted until about May 1940 when the Germans attacked the Benelux countries.
Later in 1940, I was evacuated again, but this time without my mother and brother.
The destination was also changed - it was now Maryport.
It was quite an adventure for seven year olds, travelling with our bag of belongings and with an identity label through our lapel buttonhole. We assembled in a school in Maryport and, on reflection, it was quite chaotic. I was with a school friend called Billy Roberts, when a woman came up to me and said, 鈥淚鈥檒l have you,鈥� and to Billy she said, 鈥淎nd I鈥檒l have you for the woman next door.鈥� She then took us both out without telling anyone and we finished up in a walled yard alongside the docks.
Inside this yard, there were about six houses and I remember, I was in the one on the right and Billy was next door.
In my house, there was a mother and father and one son about my age, whereas in Billy鈥檚 there was only a couple.
The interesting part came at bedtime. There was only one bed in each house and both Billy and I slept at the foot of the bed, with the adults at the top. This only lasted for about a couple of nights, because when we returned to school the teachers were trying to sort out where we were all staying.
Mr McBirney, who was the senior teacher at Maryport, took Billy and I down to our lodgings and spoke to the women involved, and decided to remove us.
We were then allocated different accommodation and from memory I believe my family were called 鈥淛efferson鈥�. I do remember that they lived in Curzon Street, which is quite close to the Station. Mr Jefferson worked for the Refuge Insurance Company and he had an office in the house. The front window of the house was painted green with the Company name in gold lettering. They had two children, a girl who was older than me, probably about ten or twelve, and a son who was about two.
Life at the Jefferson鈥檚 was very comfortable as I had my own bedroom and was looked after well.
Whilst I was in Maryport, we had an air raid. It was later said that the bombers had raided Glasgow, but some had not released all of their bombs. They crossed the Solway Firth going south and as they crossed the coast, they let the bombs go, and that happened to be over Maryport.
There was a fair amount of damage. I believe a school was damaged, but not ours, and a class mate, John Cresham, was bombed out of his lodging. Fortunately, he was OK.
I can鈥檛 remember how long I was in Maryport, but I do remember why I left. One Monday morning, I called for Billy Roberts on the way to school, only to be told that he had gone home with his parents when they came to visit. That finished it for me, and when my parents came to visit I left with them.
That, then, was my experience as an evacuee.

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