大象传媒

I shall always remember the day that the war started. I was 14 and a half and my mum and I went to church. When we came out we were told that war was proclaimed and already there were barricades and soldiers out at the crossroads, in the village of Bampton, Devon, where we had just moved to six weeks before.

In 1940 I did part time work looking after a three-year-old girl called Margaret Emery who had evacuated from London with her mother. Her father was a reporter for a paper. Sadly he was killed when travelling in General Wingate鈥檚 plane.

Afterwards I did another job looking after a three-year-old boy called Dennis Roberts whose family came from Portsmouth, which had been badly bombed. His father was Major Roberts in the Royal Engineers. When he was on leave he used to visit his wife and family. After one year I was accepted to work at a residential nursery which was at Bampton where the children had come from Exeter, Devon, where it was badly bombed. After a few months we were moved to Barnstaple, Devon, where they brought more children from London. Altogether we had fifty children from two and a half to five. It was under Save the Children. Often when the sirens went we had to get the children out of bed and take them into the Anderson Shelter which was very frightening for them.

It was a lovely old mansion and garden with a view that looked over the River Yaw. At the start there was eight staff including matron and supervisor. They were happy times.

On VE Day we took all the blackouts down and had a big bonfire. Our evenings were spent singing around the piano as there was no TV in those days. Mrs Wingate, the American Ambassador鈥檚 wife opened the nursery. Sadly some of the children had to go into homes as it was closed when the war ended. We were exempt from the forces so wore a badge to prove it.

My mum had two little girls evacuated from London for a while and we went picking blackberries and asked my mum if they could have them made into jam. We did not have much sugar as it was rationed, my mum said if we gave up sugar in our tea etc she would make a small amount. I have never had sugar in my tea since. Mum also had several lots of land army girls, billeted with her. They came from Yorkshire--very friendly girls.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.