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This story was submitted to the People’s War Site by Three Counties Action, on behalf of Edwin Mason, and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

When it was thought that war would be declared, one of our neighbours who had a car got permission from somewhere to evacuate people who wanted to be evacuated. So my Father asked him if he would take my Mother, my Sister and me if war was declared. I was six years old at the time.

So on the morning of the 3rd of September 1939 we were all sitting round the radio listening to the Prime Ministers speech. As soon as he said that war had been declared we were pushed into the car and on our way to Acton Turville. The pressure was so much for my Mother that she fainted on the journey. We eventually arrived at Bromsgrove Farm Acton Turville late afternoon.

The next day I was out looking round the garden when I noticed a plant with lots of caterpillars on it, so I decided to collect them, and filled a bucket with them and left them near the house. The next day the farmer’s wife asked my Mother to go with her to the parlour and there over all the walls were hundreds of caterpillars. Needless to say she was not amused.

While we were there we went to the local school which was a hall and each age group were in a single line. The teacher had to teach all the ages from five to eleven year olds. When we were not at school we helped bring the cattle in for milking.

We only stayed two weeks because my Mother decided she wanted to go home to my Father and I did not want to be left without my Mum. My sister however stayed on for about a year.

When bombing started seriously the schools arranged for evacuation. The day this happened, when we arrived at school there were buses in the playground waiting to take us to various destinations. My sister and I were put on a bus to Sonning Common where my sister and I were put with different families. I was put with a family that lived in a bungalow, and a beautiful bedroom for my Mother and Father to see when they came a few days later. After that I was transferred to the junk room. This was a big room where all the odds and ends were stored, with one small bed in the corner of the room. The village was virtually just four roads but it did have a proper school. Mr and Mrs Buckner was the name of the people I stayed with and they had a son named Roy. I got the impression they did not want an evacuee. After I had been there for a while I came home from school one afternoon to find my tea packed into a biscuit tin on the doorstep and I waited and waited but nobody came. Eventually about nine o’clock at night the next door neighbour saw me on the doorstep and took me into her house. About ten o’clock Mr and Mrs Buckner came home and they were told that I was with the neighbour. When I told my sister who was billeted opposite she was annoyed and said if it happened again I was to tell her. Needless to say it did happen again and the people my sister was billeted with took me in. When Mr and Mrs Buckner came to pick me up they were told that if it happened again they would write to my Father and tell him. Well it did happen again and once again I went over to my sisters where they looked after me until the Buckner’s arrived home. A few days later the lady my sister was billeted with came over to tell Mrs Buckner that my Father would be arriving in an hour’s time to take me home. There was panic and I was in the dog house. When my Father arrived he told Mrs Buckner to give me a dinner and then took me home.

I spent the rest of the war back in Edmonton North London.

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