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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed by听
CSV Action Desk/大象传媒 Radio Lincolnshire
People in story:听
Fred Baldwin
Location of story:听
Bingley, Bradford
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A4499634
Contributed on:听
20 July 2005

It was early 1944 and having just started school after bomb damage we were told we had to evacuate again because of the V Bombs. Then the people in my school were asked whether they would become evacuees, now up until this point I wasn鈥檛 scared of what had happened previously but because I was 11 years old I thought this would be a great adventure so I asked my parents if I was allowed to go, of course they said yes.

Some weeks later I was told to bring some possessions to school that I would need. We boarded a Double Decker bus and were taken to Kings Cross station to be put onto a train. The first thing I noticed was there wasn鈥檛 many adults on the train with us. When we got to Bingley we had to wait in a very long line. We then walked to the nearest school where the people who we would be lodging with were waiting.I was the last to be picked, the person who I eventually went with didn鈥檛 even want me, she came into the school wanting a girl but because I was the last one there she was forced to take me.

She then proceeded to take me to my new home which I remembered was at the top of a hill, when we eventually got 鈥渉ome鈥 I was introduced to her 9 year old son who wasn鈥檛 very welcoming. I soon had to go to school but because I had missed lots of schooling when living in London I was put into a senior school where everyone was a lot older than me, I was way behind in my schooling this made it a little bit harder for me to get to know everyone in my school.

When it came to the school holidays I was put in charge of my guardians son and all of his friends, one day his friends wanted to go to Guildsted Moores to do some climbing, I told them that I didn鈥檛 want to go because I had a headache(that headache was the start of a tumour that was removed 30 years later) but the next thing I remember was one of the lads running into the house to tell me that one of them had fallen off the craggs and had badly hurt himself. He got taken to the local hospital where unfortunately he later died but because I was supposed to be the guardian everyone around me put me to blame so when the inquest was held into the boys death I was told to stay away, the decision had been made for me to return back to London to live with my parents. The next thing I knew I was on a train back to London where my parents picked me up from Kings Cross station.

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