大象传媒

My father, a soldier in the 2nd battalion the Gordon Highlanders, was posted to Singapore in 1937. Early in 1940 he was told he was being sent back home for a staff job and on March 17th, I think, we sailed. We were six: my parents, three children, of whom I was the eldest at ten, and the seventeen year old daughter of another family, who was to help with us youngsters.
We travelled in luxury on the P&O vessel Viceroy of India. When we arrived in the Red Sea our elevenses biscuits and juice changed to cocoa and Marmite just to let us know we were going north.
At Suez a group got off the ship to visit the pyramids and other sites; they were to rejoin the Viceroy at Port Said. I so wanted to go but Mother wouldn`t hear of it - she was bothered that we might miss the boat!
We put in at Malta which was then in one piece and, because it was not thought safe to sail round via Gibraltar, were tipped out in Marseille with our few belongings and bundled onto a train.
We were in the train for four days and three nights. I remember us stopping and starting a lot round Paris. The accommodation was not very fair: each family got a compartment, so a couple got the same amount of space as our family of six. We had little to eat except bully beef and chocolate and drank water which we purchased at stations. There were no washing facilities, just loos.
Out we got at Le Havre, I clutching my two precious dolls, the smaller one of which had her own little suitcase of clothes. It burst open and Mother was livid!
I can`t really remember the name of the ship across the Channel but it was packed with people; we sat all night stuffed on bunks with our knees up to our chins and with lifejackets on.
After that we went up to Aberdeenshire where we spent the rest of the war while my father was away: we were lucky.

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