大象传媒

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My maiden name was Dorothy Middleton and I lived in Houghton Regis in Bedfordshire. It was a warm summer鈥檚 day when the evacuees arrived in the village. They arrived by bus and were taken to one of the nearby schools. I was 11 at the time and we were told, 鈥淣ot to go in and stare at them.鈥� People of the village were asked to take in one, or perhaps two children and to go to the school to collect them. I was the eldest of 4 children living in a modest terraced house so we hadn鈥檛 put our names down for any. Anyway, my father went for a stroll after tea and came back with 3 evacuees. There were only a few left to be placed in homes and these 3 were proving difficult because they were related and had been told before leaving London to stay together.

There was Charlie aged 6, Roy 5 and Peggy 12. They were sad, bewildered and a little frightened. They each had a bag with their belongings and gas masks. Beds had to be made up on the floor of the front room, which was only used on 鈥榟igh days and holidays鈥�. When we all got to know each other we got on quite well. We used to sing 鈥楥harlie My Darling鈥� which made him go all shy and hide behind the chair, but it was all in good fun. Our neighbours had an evacuee girl called Joan and we became very good friends.

My father worked as a gas and water maintenance engineer for Dunstable Gas and Water Company. He repaired mains pipes, etc. When enemy planes were spotted over the coast a bell in our house used to sound, so that he could prepare to report to the works and repair any damaged pipes.

The bombing of London didn鈥檛 happen for a while and as many parents missed their children and vice versa, the majority of them drifted back including Roy, Charlie and Peggy. When the bombing really started my mother was asked if they could come back but by then, my aunt and her daughter had come to stay from Tottenham. Some of the children鈥檚 mothers managed to get a house in the village to be with their children.

Many lasting friendships were made with the evacuees. I was glad to be a child of the village and not an evacuee; it must have been a very frightening experience for them and heartbreaking for their parents.

We never forgot our evacuees and didn鈥檛 hear any more about them. I hope they all made it through the war.

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