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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from Swindon College on behalf of Teresa Bailey and has been added to the site with her permission. Teresa fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I lived in Eltham in London and was evacuated at the age of 7 to Deal in Kent. I don’t recollect much about this house as I was only there about 6 weeks before my brother and I were moved, as there were bombing raids on Deal. We were moved to a farm outside Deal and stayed there for 4 months approximately.

Life on the farm was terrific. My brother and I never went to school, we seemed to play all day, climbing trees and the haystacks, and playing hide and seek in the barns. There was so much space for us to explore, fields to play in and animals to see. We never seemed to wash and am not sure if we ever changed clothes. I certainly have no recollection of having clean clothes or of seeing clothes being hung out to dry. My mother had sent us with 2 changes of clothes. We used to wash our hands and faces in the horse troughs as a game.

Eventually my mother came to Deal to look for us, and only then realised that we had been moved. She was appalled at the state of our hygiene and immediately took us to a place in Deal — I believe it was referred to as the Fumigation Dept. I remember being put in a bath with some strong-smelling stuff in it and having my hair cut very short because of the nits etc. I didn’t like this very much especiall having my hair short. My brother and I had to have this treatment and we were there for a week.

The next time we were evacuated was to Devon — in Plymouth Road, Totnes. The householder was a district nurse and also a spinster. She definitely seemed to prefer boys to girls. We went to school every day, but were under strict instructions to be home by 4pm.

One day my brother and I were 4 minutes late arriving home from school. My brother wasn’t punished but I was. I had to stand in a tin bath of tepid water in a cold cellar, while she scrubbed me down with a scrubbing brush. Then she got a large enamel jug of ice-cold water to rinse me. If I squealed or shouted there would be another jug full. I was then sent to bed without any food. Somehow I got used to this treatment.

We were in Totnes for about 3 years. Our school for a while was held in the cellar of the pub. We went to the park for lunch sometimes with a picnic lunch.

I left Totnes after becoming unwell. Swabs were taken from me at school (the district nurse I lived with refused to let swabs be taken at home, claiming there was nothing wrong with me) and it was thought that I had Diphtheria. I spent about 4 weeks in hospital and was then evacuated to Symondsbury near Bridport. My mother and sister came as well and my brother. The only problem was the fleas in the bed and the owner would not get the Fumigation Dept to come and deal with the problem. He didn’t want evacuees in the house anyway. I remember one evening in order to try and get him to change his mind we put fleas in his socks!! He spent the evening rubbing his feet on the floor! But it didn’t change his view. We had a lovely school although it was quite strict and it’s where I first learnt to tap dance. It was the end of the war before I returned to London.

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