- Contributed by听
- Braintree Library
- People in story:听
- Phyllis Webb
- Location of story:听
- Henley on Thames
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A3276849
- Contributed on:听
- 15 November 2004
I was evacuated on 1/9/1939 to Henley on Thames but when we got there they were no billets for us due to a mix up. We were taken around the streets all day looking for a billet; we were given chocolate, corned beef, condensed milk and a bag of nuts and raisins.
I was evacuated with my two sisters and 1 brother. We first went to retired teachers 鈥 they had a big house and a maid and we were very happy there. After Xmas the lady of the house was taken ill and we had to be split up. I went with my youngest sister to an old couple who had never had children. They looked after us quite well but didn鈥檛 wash us! So we had to move again, this time to a lady who wouldn鈥檛 let us back into the house until 6pm. It was in the middle of winter and there was thick snow and we had to sit in a field under a blackberry bush. We wrote to my Mum and asked our teacher to post the the letters for us. Then it turned out that this teacher was having an affair with the lady and that鈥檚 why she wouldn鈥檛 let us in until after 6pm!
When my Mum came down to see us in about March 1940 she took us both back to London. But when the bombing started again we were sent back to Henley and separated, this time I went on my own to a couple who had 2 daughters who were horrible to me! Eventually my aunt came to take me back to London when I was about 12.
I do remember that everything that went wrong was blamed on the evacuees. One funny story was told by a neighbour who, when she was picking runner beans, was asked by 2 evacuee children what they were. When she told them, the evacuees replied they didn鈥檛 eat grass! When the neighbour asked what they did eat they replied 鈥渁 ha'porth a fish and a pennyworth of chips!鈥
I left school in 1944 and went to work for a theatre ticket booking agency. One day when I was going to work the sirens went off 鈥 it was a doodlebug. The sound cut out and the bomb exploded, an ARP warden pushed me behind a wall. I was covered in dust but I was OK.
Phyllis Webb
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