大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by a volunteer on behalf of Amy and Miriam and has been added to the site with their permission. Both fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

Amy and Miriam are two sisters who were both evacuated from Hull to an East Riding village when they were nine and four respectively. They both asked for their last name to be omitted and for the names of the people and places involved to remain anonymous as they believe that some of the people they stayed with might still be alive and they have no wish to cause upset. They gave me permission to interview them for this story being fully aware that it was going to be used for the 大象传媒 WWII People鈥檚 War Internet archive.

Kingston upon Hull, an important seaport in the northeast of England, due to it strategic position and importance, suffered severe bomb damage during World War II. Amy and Miriam were two of the many children who had to leave the city and move to the countryside for safety.

Neither of the sisters remember war being declared, nothing was ever explained, but both do remember the air raids and having to go into the shelters ever night. Miriam remembers her mother carrying her into the shelter with her other sisters. They came from a large family, their father had died recently and their mother was finding it very difficult to cope. There was even a suggestion from somebody that the children ought to be taken to the orphanage.

When they finally got 鈥渂ombed out鈥� and had to go to their aunt鈥檚 house to live a decision had to be made. Amy and three brothers were sent to Doncaster, the young girls were sent to the orphanage. Miriam remained at home. Only one of the brothers was lucky with his lodgings while the rest were unhappy and longed to go home again. One of the brothers was bitten by a monkey and wrote home to tell his mother, circling the tears that had fallen on to the letter as he wrote.

A short while later they all came back home only to be sent again, this time with Miriam, to a small East Riding village.

鈥淲e were just slaves I think鈥�, states Miriam.

The evacuees had to be registered and collected at the local schools in order to be allocated a place with a family in the countryside.

Miriam remembered, 鈥淲e had to go up to, you took us up to the school didn鈥檛 you?鈥�

鈥淵eah, that was it but I mean your hair was beautiful. They cut it all off鈥� Amy told her.

鈥淲ell it was full of lice.鈥�

Amy explained, 鈥淢e mother sent us to register sort of thing to go but you see well we did have head lice. I went back to me mother and I said they won鈥檛 take us because we鈥檙e got head lice. So she said, 鈥淗ere go and take that (some money) and go and get your hairs cut鈥�, and I mean cut, she cut yours鈥�, looking at her sister, 鈥渟calped you鈥nd me. They took us then you see. We had a very close shave鈥�, both laughing.

鈥淚 were four year old when I went and it was work from morning till night, want it? Miriam asks her sister.

鈥淵eah she did even at that age鈥�, confirmed Amy.

Although the two sisters and their brothers were sent to the same village they were all separated, each went to a different family. Amy went to the village blacksmith and Miriam to the billeting officer鈥檚 farmhouse. She remembers her as being very nice although she didn鈥檛 see that much of her as she worked in an office in a nearby town. She spent most of the time with the billeting officer鈥檚 sister and elderly mother who was in her nineties.

Miriam remembered that at the farm she was made to gather apples and scrub floors as well as having to pick up leaves off the massive lawn by hand. If there was a rake she was never given it to use, just a bag. The family she stayed with also had a cottage in the village where she was told to go to see if anybody was 鈥減inching the apples鈥�.

鈥淎nd you had to go and do that and I always remember that you鈥檇 to pick all the apples up that had fallen off the tree and I remember picking one up that had been eaten. I didn鈥檛 know this it looked like a full apple but inside the wasps were inside eating it and I got stung but they never gave you anything (for the sting) you just got on with it. There was no point telling them anything because they never did anything. Went to bed most of the time in floods of tears.鈥�

鈥淭hat鈥檚 all they wanted you for just as lackeys weren鈥檛 ya. Can鈥檛 say I enjoyed it.鈥�

Religious people they would insist on her going to church on Sunday morning, Sunday school in the afternoon and chapel in the evening. The WAAF used to sing there in the evening, which Miriam recalls as being quite a treat. Every Sunday without fail she would be made to walk a mile to a pillar-box with a letter and she would be told that when she got back her dinner would be ready.

鈥淲hen I got back she鈥檇 (the sister) always burnt two Yorkshire puddings, always burnt black, that鈥檚 the gospel truth. That was every Sunday and I got that for my Sunday dinner with gravy on it. Why she did that I don鈥檛 know. That鈥檚 where I鈥檝e got my curly hair from鈥� she laughed. 鈥淪he wasn鈥檛 very nice, the other sister was the billeting officer but she didn鈥檛 see a lot of what was going on. The old lady was nice she was housebound but you could go into her room and she taught me to tell the time and to fasten my laces.鈥�

They used to make her wear boots for school, 鈥渓ad鈥檚 boots鈥� but she couldn鈥檛 keep the tongue in and it used to flap down onto the front on the boot.

During the school holidays she was sent to the fields to pick potatoes seven days a week but never received any thanks for it. She recalls that during the potato picking season the farmer鈥檚 wife used to bring a huge tray with lots of glasses and a great big jug of lemon barley water. She made it mostly for the Land Army girls and the Italians 鈥淓l Prisoner鈥� who had big yellow circles on their backs. Even so Miriam said that she used to love it and in fact that it was the only thing she ever used to look forward to.

There was a wood near the house and Miriam was given a sack to go to collect firewood. She had to climb over a farm gate to get to the wood and remembers that one day the gate fell on her and pinned her under it. She remembers yelling and yelling but nobody came. She was finally able to wriggle herself free. She also recalls once when the sister, who was a seamstress, gave her an errand to take a large coat to a farm. While she was walking with the coat hung over her arm it must have been flapping in the wind and caught the attention of a greyhound that came running towards her at great speed. The dog took the coat and in Miriam鈥檚 words 鈥渞ove it to bits!鈥�. She got into bother for it.

鈥淭he sister always had it in for me. I was always in trouble.鈥� she laughed.

When asked about the food Miriam says that she used to fill up on fallen apples and as for the rest you had it eat it and that鈥檚 it. She also had a lot of stewed apples!

She remembers having to go to a small cottage once to look after an elderly couple for a few days and remembers the wonderful porridge she was given in the morning. But it came to an end when the old lady got better. So she had to go back to the farm.

Amy remembers being in a lovely house for two years with an elderly couple but that she was never allowed in the living room, she always had to sit in the back kitchen even when it got dark. They had servants quarters and that鈥檚 were Amy had to sleep. She doesn鈥檛 remember why she had to leave that house, although it could have been because of the old lady鈥檚 ill health. From there she was taken to a 鈥渇ilthy鈥� house where there where 鈥渓oads of kids鈥�. It was a large farmhouse with a bad reputation for making the evacuees work too hard and therefore had a high turn over rate. She remembers being given enormous white sandshoes about a size ten and she remembers 鈥渟lobbing about鈥� in them in that filthy house. When she found out that she was going to the farm she thought 鈥淥h no!鈥� as she already knew of their reputation and the reason for the turn over of evacuees. Not many could stand the hard work for long.

Although she generously recalls them as being 鈥渘ice people鈥� she says that they only wanted the evacuees to 鈥減ut them to work鈥�. She had to pick mushrooms in the fields and wild strawberries in the woods for the market, all before going to school in the morning. They did buy her a bike, the 鈥渙ld sit up and beg鈥� to get to school on so that she didn鈥檛 have to walk. As the farmer鈥檚 wife was not a well woman, Amy had to look after the big five bedroom farmhouse on her own as well as working on the land and looking after the dogs that the farmer used to breed. She had to scrub potatoes in a big sink before taking them to the outhouse to the big iron boiler to prepare the dogs鈥� meal. She also had to wash the clothes using a 鈥減addle washtub鈥�, standing for hours out in the yard. That released the daughter of the house so that she could work in the fields. When Amy left school they kept her on, they didn鈥檛 want her to go home. They used to tell her that she was a 鈥済ood little worker.鈥� Although said as a compliment Amy felt that she was being exploited. There are still lots of things that she tries to push out of her mind.
Amy recalls that the food she was given was lovely because they used to get the Land Army girls to help on the farm so the farmer鈥檚 wife would make big apple pies. Amy used to take the food to the fields for the girls and sit with them while they ate and recalls how she used to enjoy their company.

The old lady from her first logging used to ask her to go back to visit at lunchtime during school hours. So she would go with her 鈥減ack up鈥� and eat that as well as the meal that the old lady had prepared for her!

Their mother used to visit about once or twice a year. Miriam remembers once that her mother brought her a dressed doll but they took it off her. They took it to a 鈥渂ring and buy鈥� sale and they sold it. 鈥淢e mother played up and said 鈥渨here鈥檚 the doll I bought her鈥� but they said that I鈥檇 out grew it and that I didn鈥檛 want it.鈥� 鈥淚 never even saw it. I saw it but I never played with it.鈥�

Although they were in the same village they never actually got to see each other.

鈥淏ut for all that time, you know we were there, I only saw you once鈥�, says Miriam to her sister.

鈥淵ou will of done Mir, I don鈥檛 know why, I was older and I should have made contact, it wasn鈥檛 you鈥�.

鈥淵ou would have thought that they would have brought you to visit鈥� I knew you were there but you were never allowed to visit鈥�, said Miriam shaking her head in disbelief.

鈥淵ou didn鈥檛 get time to miss each other because it was just work, work, work we didn鈥檛 know anything else.鈥� Both recall.

They both remember how you could see the bombs dropping onto Hull from the village and how the fires used to light the sky. 鈥淵ou often wondered if you would have been better being at home with your mother if you were going to be killed you鈥檇 be killed.鈥� Miriam. 鈥淒on鈥檛 know which was the worst.鈥�

Amy was 16 when she went back home, Miriam nine and a half. Although the war was over they had no option but to stay as their mother couldn鈥檛 bring them home straight away. When they did eventually come back to Hull they found a house quite easily with their mother. It was a little terrace house with two bedrooms an outside tap and toilet. Both found that coming home was unexpectedly trouble-free, as there was hardly anything to do in comparison, 鈥渓ife was easy鈥�.

Both still feel very strongly about their experience as evacuees and remember it as being a particularly unhappy time in their lives. 鈥淭hey weren鈥檛 very nice times I can鈥檛 say that I enjoyed any of it鈥�, Miriam summed up.

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