大象传媒

Betty Grant (n茅e Foad) says that now she realises what a strain this must have put on the mothers, especially those who were sending more than on child, to get everything together. She remembers that they could take just one toy each. Betty was not yet eight, when she set out with her three brothers.
鈥淚 remember that we all felt very excited at first, because a lot of us had never been on a long train journey before. - I don鈥檛 remember any tears. But the journey was very long and I became very tired.鈥�

鈥淚 was very tired (she was only seven) and I fell asleep in the corner of the schoolroom where we had been taken. My oldest brother, Ted had gone off on his own. There was no one who wanted two boys and a little girl, so I went to one billet and my brothers were put with the billeting officer at a farm almost opposite.鈥�

鈥淢y older brother, Ted had gone off separately, (he was at another school). I was billeted with two ladies and Archie and Ray were billeted with the billeting officer opposite, so we were not far away from each other. They were on a farm and we absolutely loved it! There were lots of animals including cows - we鈥檇 never seen cows milked before - then the milk was taken to the cooling room and we had fresh milk to drink - and cream - and there were pigs and a big dog and we played in the shed where the cattle feed was kept - I realise now that there were probably rats and mice - but I was so happy there. Later I was moved to another billet (the first one proved to be totally unsuitable) and went to a really big house with bathrooms and carpets and there was a wonderful orchard with Victoria plums. I was very happy at school - the little ones stayed on at Ridware School and we got on very well. I think I was well educated - although we had to share schools I don鈥檛 think we got behind - in fact, I was top of the class there. The teachers were very kind to us. My memories are very happy ones.
We used to write to our parents every week and they wrote to us and sometimes sent us little gifts. Occasionally they would come to visit us.
I came back to Westgate in 1943. I was very frightened of the air raids at first and we had to spend a lot of time in the shelter which my father had dug in the garden - that was one reason why we were allowed to come back - he had this (Anderson) shelter. They were not all under ground - part of it was above and was covered with earth. Sometimes we had to sleep in the shelter. I remember how dark it was everywhere. One of my older brothers had been taken as prisoner of war and I remember going to Cliftonville with my mother to choose things to send in a Red Cross parcel to him.
I didn鈥檛 go back to St Saviour鈥檚 as I was older then and went to King Ethelbert鈥檚.鈥�

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