大象传媒

In 1939 my Mother and I were sent together with many other mothers and children to Egypt to join fathers who were stationed out there. We sailed from Southampton on the 8th March on the troopship Dilwara. I remember being scared of walking up the gangplank as the gaps between the boards seemed so big. As we left all the relatives who were standing on the dockside waved and sang "Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye" a very popular song at the time. Of course most of the mothers were crying which set the children off. Many of the mothers had probably never been much further than a day trip to Southend and now they were off to what may have seemed to them the ends of the earth.

We called in at Malta on the 15th where my Father joined us and we arrived at Alexandria on the 18th

We had a few days in Cairo to see the sights before going to Ismalia where we were to live in some Service flats beside the Sweet Water Canal. Every family had a house-boy ours was called Hassen and he taught me to pick up coins with my toes and bury them in the sand.
Food that was suitable, especially vegetables, were washed in permanganate of potash to kill any germs. At Christmas we won the Mess raffle which arrived at our flat under the arm of an Egyptian, it was a live turkey which he volunteered to kill there and then. This Mother could not bear and sent our Christmas dinner back.

We started to get bombing raids and as there were air raid shelters dug in the sand outside the flats we spent many nights in these.
Probably because of the entry of Italy into the war in June 1940 the military decided to evacuate the women and children to Palestine in early July.
We went by train and the journey took a long time as at night we were stationary for many hours. It was said that the track had been blown up by Arab terrorists.

We eventually arrived in Jerusalem where we were billeted in the Notre Dame Hostel, a large Monastry just outside the New Gate of the Old City. This had been used as a hospital in WW1

We were there until just after Christmas 1940 when we were sent on to South Africa on the Empress of Canada which had been a luxury liner before the war. We had a Crossing the Line ceromony and all 150 children were given a lovely party.

We arrived in Durban and were sent to a hotel in Margate, Natal. It was here that I started school which was run by a German, Prof. Langenhorst.
In the Autumn of 1941 it was decided by the powers to be that we should all return to Britain. My father joined us and we sailed on the Mooltan.
We called in at Cape Town where we picked up some sailors who had been torpedoed. Also on board were Italian POW's much of the time they were on deck behind a cagelike structure.
We had a lot of lifeboat drills and were given emergency rations because this was a very dangerous time with all the German U-boats in the Atlantic. The ships cooks put on a very good Christmas Day dinner and there was a dance for the adults.
We arrived back home on January 10th 1942 at Liverpool. I remeber that the buildings alongside the dock area were smoking, there had been a raid the previous night.

After the war Mother said that the journey back seemed to take a long time. Father said he could now tell her that to avoid the Germans the ship went across the Atlantic, sailed up the coast of South America and then round the top of Iceland. He had found it very cold doing deck duty around Iceland after spending most of service life in the Middle East.

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