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I was privately evacuated from the outskirts of London to my grandparents’ home in Witney at the outbreak of the war and have very happy memories of the town.

On 3rd September 1939, all my family were staying at my grandmother’s cottage on Church Green and I remember being in their small back garden listening to the radio. It was a lovely summer day and I well remember hearing the voice of Mr Neville Chamberlain. It didn’t mean a lot to me at the time. I was 12 years old, but realised that all the adults seemed to have very serious faces.

Within a short time, the church bells rang out and everyone thought we had been invaded, but it was a false alarm.

I remember going down to Witney Station to see all the evacuees arriving, a very tired band of children, all wearing labels and carrying gas masks in cardboard boxes. They were them taken to a reception centre to be allocated to foster homes.

I was in Witney when the 2 bombs dropped and when the church spire was damaged.

Mrs A J D…
Yealmpton, Plymouth, Devon

15 January 1990

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