大象传媒

I was 7 years of age and my school was Brae Street off During Road. My sister was also at the same school, she was 12 years old. We were all gathered at the school with our mothers and marched to Edge Hill station; I really thought I was just having a day out in the country. I remember my mother walking along side us singing patriotic songs. We gathered at the train station, me and our Nell, with our little suitcases and on to the train. The train was packed with children and some of the teachers from the school were with us. We ended up in Wrexham where we were taken to a picture house. I thought how wonderful and settled down to watch Mickey Mouse or perhaps it would be Shirley Temple. However I was so wrong. We were all divided up and sent off in different directions.
We were all handed a carrier bag with fruit, biscuits and a bar of chocolate. Our Nell and I arrived with others to a small village, Brn Teg. We were taken to the centre where all the villages gathered to choose. However our Nell and I were the last. This was not a happy time for us. The lady lived in a tiny cottage; she must have been quite young as she had a small baby.
We were shown our room and we had a single bed in which we had to share. We both used to fall out of bed, in fact one of my teeth broke and we were scolded for that because there was blood on the pillowcases. Another time our Nell accidentally broke the best chamber pot which was placed on the stairs. She really was in trouble then.
It was not a happy time for us and we had to fend for ourselves. We were never given breakfast, our Nell would try and sneak a couple of pieces of bread and we would eat it on our way to school. All the evacuees were allocated a bag each week with goodies such as fruit and biscuits and chocolate, but that was locked away and we never saw it. The only time we had a decent meal was when my mother and father could manage to visit us, then we had a dinner. However the school noticed that we were looking neglected and that we were always late for school, so we were taken away and went to another family.
They lived in a council house, Mr. Wynne was a miner and they had two children, a boy and a girl. They were kindness itself, what a difference, we were very happy there. We came home as our Nell was getting to the age of 14 so she had to go to work. I was then evacuated on my own, this time to Ruthin. I stayed with a Mr and Mrs Thomas, they had two sons, Leonard and Philip. They were very kind but very strict. Mr Wyne was in the church choir so it was Sunday school in the afternoon and church at night. My friend Dorothy was staying in the Squires house in the centre of Ruthin. They had maids and Dorothy was kept in the maids quarter. When she arrived there they insisted that she had a bath every night, she protested by saying I have a bath every Friday night. Eventually as she was nit happy there Mrs Thomas brought her back to her home and she had two evacuees to look after but they were good people and I shall not forget there kindness.
We were there for 7 months (that seemed forever.) We came back home to Liverpool and then is when war really started.

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