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This story has been entered onto this site by Leanne and Louise on behalf of Joan Gibson and they fully understand the conditions.

I was evacuated to Workington when I was 13 years old for four months. To be evacuated, I had to go to school to be taken down to the station to be sent away with my class, and I didn’t have a choice whether I stayed or left. My sister’s husband was in the Air force and fought in the war. I lived with an elderly couple. The family had a spinster daughter and a son who wasn’t married.
The family I lived with sent me to learn short hand typing and English.
Me, and the friends that I had made while being evacuated, went to the parks to read and listen to the radio daily. On some evenings people would have parties and on other nights we used to go to the Theatre Royal, the Empire Theatre and local cinemas, but we stayed in the area which we lived in. One time when we were at the cinema a bomb set off outside and the gutters were all on fire.
I was bombed twice, one time it fell in a sand bucket and the other time in the gutters. Lots of peoples’ sons returned home but died shortly after getting back. Some had to have lots of operations.

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