大象传媒

This story is contributed by Sylvia Speed and is added to the site with her permission.

We were in London at the start of the war and my mother and I were shipped off to Devon as evacuees鈥 don鈥檛 remember it happening. We were taken to a reception centre and had to wait to be chosen. And my mother is quite convinced that we were chosen because I was an only child and quite polite and we went to a very wealthy family in Seaton鈥hey owned a bakery and were quite religious 鈥� I think they were Baptists 鈥� and we were with them for over a year. On the fiftieth anniversary of the war we went back and had a chat with one of the ladies who was still alive. I remember very little about it but I think my mother was evacuated there a second time. We went from there to Somerset when my father got a job driving and we lived in Bridgwater for a year. I remember a row there鈥�.my mother had a big row with the grocer she was registered with over some butter. Because somebody got some butter and when she went to get some there wasn鈥檛 any. And she said 鈥淗ow come Mrs鈥�.. got some鈥� and threatened to report him, and got some extra butter!

I think the evacuation was just something you accepted. It wasn鈥檛 traumatic for me the first time, but after going back to London I was sent away again to relatives in Northampton. That was more traumatic because by then I was at least five, I was at school and you knew that your parents were in danger. And that was very frightening to know that they could be killed. What killed was I鈥檓 not sure that we actually understood鈥�.but we knew it was something pretty horrible. But children accept things as they are don鈥檛 they?

Bombing I remember very well. We lived about a mile and a half or two miles from Clapham Junction in Battersea and we had a lot of bombing and we had shelters. And our ritual was when the siren sounded you went into a shelter and when the all-clear went you came out and hoped that your house was still standing. At night times you would go in there 鈥s usual you would pack up your pillow and blanket and go into the shelter for the night and that happened week after week it seems to me.

One day 鈥� it was a Saturday 鈥� and my mother was trying to cook dinner. So we obviously had gas 鈥� you know you lost gas when gas mains and electricity supplies would be hit - and she was trying to cook the dinner and we had to keep putting it back in the oven and go to the shelter because the sirens kept going and nothing would happen鈥� the all-clear would go and we鈥檇 go back, just start dinner, and in the end some people who lived opposite, who I looked on as quite posh, actually took their dinner in with them! We thought that was quite advanced something like that鈥�.eating your dinner in the shelter!

Two incidents I remember quite clearly 鈥 house next door but one鈥�.. I don鈥檛 know whether it was bombed or whether it was bomb-damaged ..and it was two floors and you could actually see through 鈥� all that were left were the joists. And we were forbidden to go in there鈥�.but of course there was a little gang of us and we were playing in this house and hadn鈥檛 realised that the siren had gone and somebody鈥檚 irate parent came flying in and grabbed us all out and I can remember one of the boys wobbling across the joist to get to the stairs and there was a bomb 鈥� or several bombs - fell fairly near that time. The other time was the V2s, the silent bombs as we called them 鈥� I was in bed, it was summer and luckily the windows were open and the girl downstairs and the boy over the road were playing in the garden and there was 鈥� I can remember 鈥� a huge flash and then nothing and then this tremendous explosion and the boy and the girl came in and the soot had come out of the chimneys with the force of the explosion and they came in with black faces鈥nd it had dropped, I think it was on Wandsworth prison, but it had dropped on the other side of Wandsworth Common to where we lived. And if I think about the war that鈥檚 what I remember.

At the end of the war we had a fantastic party. We hung Hitler from the lamppost and we had a bonfire and food and all sorts of wonderful things that came out from people鈥檚 storecupboards鈥�.and it was absolutely superb, we were allowed to stay up late and we were entertained with everybody on stage and it was absolutely wonderful. And I remember saying to my mother: 鈥淲on鈥檛 we be bombed any more?鈥� because I had grown up knowing you had bombs when you had a war and the thought that we weren鈥檛 going to have that any more I found quite amazing.

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