大象传媒

I was born in 1933 and therefore 6 when the war started and was living in Gosport. My father was in the RN and we hardly saw him for most of the war.

In 1940 my brother and I were evacuated to West Meon, Hampshire. He was 4 and our little sister, then 2, stayed with our mother. I remember nothing of the journey, but I believe our mother herself took us to the farmhouse where we were to stay.

It was very strange at first. We didn't even know what to call the farmer's wife, so when we needed her for some reason after being put to bed the first night, we didn't know what to shout, so we ended up calling out 'Lady!'

I remember very little else about our stay, except that the farmer thought it a joke to remove a dinner plate from the table at meal-times and put it somewhere high and inaccessible. It was meant to be a joke, but it misfired. Otherwise I remember enjoying playing in the fields in the summer of 1940.

There was also an incident when we had a visit. The doorbell rang and my brother and I stood in the corridor when it was opened. As we looked towards the door, my brother asked 'Who is that man?' My answer was 'I think it's our father.' So it was. My brother hadn't recognised him, and we didn't see him again till the end of the war.

We probably only spent a few months there, since our mother took us to London to live with our grandfather in Woolwich. There, I have a memory of escaping into the road during an air raid on one occasion and seeing the enemy planes over London and the fires burning. I was soon apprehended and returned to the shelter!

We moved to Southampton in 1943 and there I completed my last year of primary school and took the 11+. Yes, that even survived the war! I passed for grammar school, but the school had been evacuated to Poole in Dorset, where it shared premises with Poole Grammar School - mornings or afternoons in alternate weeks.

But before that I witnessed the preparations for the Normandy landings in 1944. Southampton was a base area and tonnes of military vehicles and supplies gathered there. American soldiers were everywhere and the streets lined with trucks.

I nearly didn't go away to school after all, since no digs had been found for me. Luckily, a naval officer whose son was at Poole GS agreed to take me and I was very happy living with them. We went by train and came home every weekend, the whole school setting out for the station together. That lasted a year. In September 1945 we were able to reoccupy our school building in Southampton, which had been used by the army during the war.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.