大象传媒

When war broke out I lived at Ramsgate and in the early part of 1940 most nights the air raid siren would sound as the German planes came to either drop mines in the Channel or to attack our defences. Tunnels had been dug underneath the town with 40 entrances and my mother, father and I spent many nights in the tunnels.
We felt safe in the dampness underground and were able to rest on the wooden bunks provided.

After the retreat from Dunkirk and there was a possibility of an invasion, it was decided that all school children in Ramsgate should be sent to the safety of the countryside. Even our parents didn't know where we were being taken and our goodbyes took place outside the railway station. For some children it was their first time on a train.

On June 2nd 1940 dressed nicely, wearing a luggage label bearing my name and carrying my gasmask in a cardboard box along with a small suitcase, I boarded the train. We thought the journey would never end but eventually we arrived at Uttoxeter in Staffordshire where we were taken by coaches to a large school for food and a short medical examination before travelling further. My particular school was transported to a small village named Leigh where, in the village hall, ladies were waiting to pick children of their choice. With four other girls I was taken to live at the Railway Inn, a busy pub in the centre of the village. We became known as the "Princes' girls".

There was no running water at the Inn - water had to be carried from a pump and most rooms were lit by candle or oil lamps. Mrs. Prince cooked on a black kitchen range heated by coal and when it was cold she would heat bricks to
warm our beds. The one toilet was at the end of the garden - a wooden bench with a hole over a bucket! There was an "outhouse" containing a large copper which was filled with water and heated for us to take a bath in tin baths once a week. Wash day was equally hard work for this lady who had taken in 5 evacuees. We were never asked to do chores but walked a lot to give her a bit of peace. Sometimes we got lost as all signposts had been removed.

We were welcomed by the local children and out-of-school activities included picking blackberries from the hedgerows to make jam for which we were paid a small sum. Farmers sometimes let us help with hay making but we were usually more of a hindrance than a help.

I have good memories of my evacuation as we were untouched by what was happening elsewhere but after 18 months my parents moved from Ramsgate to the outskirts of London where I joined them and spent the remainder of the war.

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