大象传媒

This story was submiited to the People's War site by Simon Harris and has been added to the website on behalf of Eileen Batley with her permission and they fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

The journey from Rainham, Kent to South Wales was an exciting one because most of us children had never been on a train before. But we did not know what our experiences would be after we had been assigned to our various foster families.

I was 13 and my brother was seven and we were not only separated to endure bad times in different households. I was placed with a mining widow and was put to work. I was expected to clean and scrub the kitchen and the outside toilet as well as clean all the windows that I could reach. I was then kept up late to wash dishes because my host鈥檚 son worked in a cinema and had his food late. Because I was always tired I was often late for school when I struggled to get up in the mornings.

My brother had already been returned to Rainham before I too came home to start work in Chatham Dockyard in 1942. Life was not easy here either but at least I was home.

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