大象传媒

I was 12 years old in 1939 when the War started. My father was unemployed then and signed up to be a Air Raid Warden. We had to keep going to school and you had to listen out for church bells which we heard one Sunday afternoon.

Myself, my sister and 3 brothers were evacuated to St Albans. All the family came to see us off on train which had a buffet carriage - something we had never seen before! Our school had made us sandwiches to eat on the train which were rotten because they had been made so long before! We threw them out the window.

At St Albans we were given a carrier bag with food including chocolate - a real treat for us! We were taken to St Albans where we waited all afternoon because no one wanted me and my brother. Eventually we were taken in temporarily by a couple who only had 1 spare bed. On the Saturday we had fish and chips for the first time. My brother very stubborn and wouldn't give me his chocolate so I hit him! I got up early the next day to help and we came down the stairs walking on the very edges as we had never had carpet and we didn't want to walk on it!

We were there a week and then I went to another home where they already had 4 evacuees, and they had a car, a pony and trap. I stayed with them until I was 17 in 1945 when I joined the Land Army where I stayed for 5 years (in St Albans)

I got married and moved to Stebbing in Essex.

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