大象传媒

Written on behalf of Doris May by Bognor Library.

1st Sept 1939

Myself with my mother and younger brother and sister were evacuated from Balham SW London to Bognor. When we left we didn't know our destination. Left from Balham station just put onto a train complete with a gas mask and as much clothing as we carry, 12 months before we had been due to go but it all blew over but we had been scheduled. Came with the school that my siblings attended and my mother as a helper, St Mary's CofE School High Street Balham. I had already passed a scholarship and passed to Clapham County Secondary School. Quite excited when we headed to the south coast and as we passed Arundal we became excited at the thought that we might be on the coast.

We were marched through Bognor up the local William Fletcher School and the people en-route were all watching over their garden gates, and peering at us, quite embarrassing. At the school we given our carrier bag of rations, the best thing was a large bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk and we started eating that. The Billiting Officers then started to allocate us to suitable accommodation and as a family group, four of us, it took longer, eventually were sent to an address in Kennilworth Road, quite near to the school and an elderly couple he was the Head Gardiner at the Royal Norfolk Hotel in Bognor and she had been in service, I believe. There may well have been a glut of herrings so we were fed on herrings in various forms but the bonus was that the host brought home some lovely fruit and vegetables form the Royal Norfolk Hotel gardens and I got a transfer to Chichester High School to continue my education.
You chose the subjects that you wanted to take for School Certificate but one had to pass English, Maths, History and Geography and a language. Not a large science presence in Chichester. In London I had studied Physics and Chemistry but here I had to study Biology.

I was not very happy as I had left my friends including boy friends behind in London or dispersed all around the country and my own school was evacuated elsewhere. I was very homesick and wanted to go home and very nearly did go home to my paternal Grandmother's and I visited them on a few occasions but them the bombing precluded these visits and I settled down made new friends and settled into my new life. As it was so quiet in London many people went home

I saw and heard the Battle of Britain and my uncle was based in Tangmere and came to see us occasionally. He was in the 'millionaire' Squadron with people like Beaverboork because they could fly, They were in 617 (or perhaps 601) City of London Squadron RAF and many of them could already fly before the war started. My Uncle was on maintenance and he helped with the entertainments as he had been on the stage and he was there when Tangmere was bombed, and survived the war, never went overseas and lived to the grand old age of ninety.

I was studious and we had quite a lot of homework so I didn't have any night life really to miss. Couldn't go to the beach but could go to the esplanade but the beach was closed. My siblings had their education much more disrupted than mine at first, there were no eleven plus scholarships as far as I know. Chichester High School for Girls we were not meant to travel with the boys together, boys wore green uniforms but evacuees couldn't get this because of the clothing ration and despite some disruptions and lessons in the playing fields and in the Bishop's Palace grounds or sometimes in a school as we had to make room for Streatham School. It was easier than today to 'bunk off' for music or art at which I wasn't specially good but it was good to sit our in the Bishop's Palace Garden to Learn Latin or Shakespeare in the gardens because the setting was so perfect. The Mistresses were all elderly spinsters and we all respected them and worked hard for them, quite a lot of competition to maintain your form position. Nice tennis courts, I liked tennis

We changed Billets often - I think we had five or six altogether for various reasons. One was a lady who had run a guest house and did very good catering and either side of us there were Canadian troops billetted and the landlady had them into supper sometimes, they were perfect gentlemen but they went to Dieppe so I think many of them must not have survived. They were very keen to go and if they didn't have enough to do the might have got into trouble, I remember their massive vehicles parked outside. Some of them were married, probably married before they came over.

But finally we managed to rent a cottage at Felpham and I was able to cycle to school in the summer term and travel by train in the winter. In Lyon street we had the cottage to ourselves. The landlady supplied the food rations and I have memories of meat pies of a dubious date. We also lived in with the lady who ran the off licence in West Street, her husband was in the army so we had lots of space and she did the catering.

Later we had lots of East End children and families arrived and may well have been bombed out. My mother helped them to make and mend clothes as so often they had been donated clothes but these were not often suitable so they had to be adopted.

I was recruited by the school, there was no suggested of further education although I did stay until I was just 16 and then started work and had to return to school to take my School Certificate, which I passed. Had I returned to my Grandparents I would have had to have gone to a Secretarial College. One was placed with a job. Chichester High School supplied most of the staff for County Hall but myself and I other girl were found a job with the Inland Revenue in Chichester but much to everyone's disgust I didn't stay more than about six months, partly the discipline, partly the expense of travelling and I immediately found another job with a local builder and timer merchants company. The first job would have been good eventually but one had to move around the country and the job was boring, lots of copying. Once a woman married then a new one was required so there was always a need for new people.

I met my husband as we lived close to him in Lyon street and he was in High Street and through his very local family that I became interested in local history.

My fiance was in the RAF and he went to South Africa to train as a pilot but by the time he had qualified VE had come so he returned to UK and we got married on 19/11/1945

After the war because my mother was here and we had this nice cottage so we all stayed. Still live in that same house today my husband's great grandfather had bought it in 1860

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