大象传媒

This story was submitted to the peoples war site by Peter Nicholas of Link into Learning, Cornwall County Council, it was recorded by Age Concern and Link into Learning, Bodmin, Cornwall, on behalf of Mrs. Marjorie Smith and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs. Marjorie Smith fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

This story has been submitted by Mrs. Marjorie Smith
I was thirteen years old when war broke out and was living in London, so I was evacuated with the school before the air raids got too bad. I remember that day very well. We all met up at the school with our luggage and gas mask on my shoulder. My parents were at the railway station to see me off. Then we got on the train and I remember looking out of the window at my parents and waving to them when the train set off. I was crying quite a lot, as I did not really want to go and leave them, neither did my best friend. We were both very upset.
We were on our way to Oiney in Buckinghamshire. When we arrived at our destination, we had to go to the local Church Hall and line up for people to choose whom they wanted to take in. My friend and myself said we wanted to stay together if possible. The local J.P. picked us out. We were treated well but fell a bit left out when it came to mealtimes, as we had to sit in the kitchen while they sat in the dining room. Sometimes we would have to do hoovering and dusting before we went to school. We went to church every Sunday morning with Mr. and Mrs. Lobb and their son. After the service we would go for a country walk with their son before lunchtime.
Sometimes my friend Olga and myself would sit in the porch out in the garden and sing the latest songs. We were quite happy at the school we attended but there were a few subjects that we didn't do that we did in London, such as French. I stayed there for two years, in which my parents came to visit me some weekends.
When returning to London, I went back to school for a while, where I had typewriting lessons and I also did some shorthand. I also went to evening classes to do the same thing. Then when I turned 16 the school got me a job a Portugal House, which was the Head Office of W.H. Smith, until it was time for me to be called up for National Service.
You had to go into one of the services or else work in a Government Office, so I went to work at Mount Pleasant Post Office doing office work and typing. There was an underground underneath the Post Office where the train used to take the post to different main line stations, so when there was an Air Raid we all used to run down to the underground. I stayed and worked there until I was twenty-two, when I got married, so that's my story of the war years.

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