大象传媒

In 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War I lived in London in Romford, I was seven years old, it was late September when the school I went to in Rush Green was evacuated, we all had to be evacuated to Aldeburgh. We had to walk to Dagenham Docks where a Paddle steamer awaited to take us to Felixstowe, when we arrived we had to spend the night in a big empty house on Felixstowe seafront. One room on every floor was full of straw, and we were told to each take an armful of straw to use as our bed. We slept on the straw with our haversacks which were full of our belongings as our pillows; we used our coats as blankets. The next day a bus came to take us to Aldeburgh where we had to meet at the Jubilee Hall to be vetted before we were given a new home with a family. I waited in the queue and watched as the children came out the other side with white hair full of powder, some even had their heads shaved, of course this frightened me so I kept moving to the back of the queue so I didn鈥檛 have to go in, eventually I went through and was passed as clean so no powder and no shaved head, but by the time I had gone through there were no families left, they had all gone, so 11 of us were left with no where to go. One of the organizers took us all home she had a big house with servants, there was 6 boys and 5 girls, the boys were set to work in the garden, or to do heavy work, the girls housework and cleaning, I was sent to the kitchen to clean the silver, the cook and the kitchen maid used to tell me all kinds of stories as I cleaned the silver, I was very happy here. I stayed for several weeks before a family was found for me. A widow on Aldeburgh seafront had two boys and a girl, the girl was very unhappy so went home leaving a space for me, I lived with this family for eighteen months and my time here was very happy. The local community was not built to cope with the influx of people, at the local school, they spilt the children so that the local children were taught for half a day, and then the evacuees were taught for half a day, the evacuees included teachers and a head teacher, whom helped out with the teaching.
The eldest boy in our house was a member of the Aldeburgh Life Boat crew, who were called out to torpedoed boats more and more frequently, a man ran up and down the seafront with a bell to call the crew out. Often the people bought back on the lifeboat were without clothes and covered in oil on one occasion the headmistress who was a stern, tweed clad woman was seen running up and down the beach shouting 鈥� Has anyone got any trousers, any trousers anyone鈥� which the children and the local people found very amusing. The torpedoed boats were increasing so much that we were sent away from Aldeburgh as it was too risky for us to be there so I returned home to Rush Green to my family where my father was a home guard in London.
I remember doing a news round and one day a doodlebug passed overhead and stopped, I had to dive into a ditch to avoid harm, another time my brother was coming home from the pictures and a V2 landed near, he had to dive for cover, one of his friends was injured but he was ok.
My brother broke his arm, and the hospital could not do anything to help him and his arm became gangrenous, penicillin was still in an experimental phase although it was used for the military, it was not used fort he general public, my parents had to consent to this experimental drug to save his arm.

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