大象传媒

I was thirteen years old in 1939; and though war had seemed inevitable for months, no one had thought about air raid shelters, so return to school after the summer holidays was delayed. At the end of August mass evacuation of children from london began. The town of Dorking in Surry, is only twenty-four miles from London, but it was deemed to be a safe area, so hundreds of children began to arrive at Dorking Halls. The school children came with their teachers, with a satchel or case containing their few possessions, and a luggage label with their name on it, tied to their clothes. On other days toddlers and babies came with their mothers. The man in charge of finding accommodation for all these people, was the billeting officer. At this time I was a Girl Guide, the Girl Guides and Boy Scouts were pressed into service to help in any way they could. The weather that August and begining of September was sunny and very hot. In the main hall, with so many people in it, it became unbearably hot, so on Sunday the third of September, I slipped out of a side door to cool off, and get a breath of fresh air. Whilst standing outside, a Scout cycled by and shouted at me that the war had started. Feeling suddenly chilled, I turned to go back into the hall, walking towards me was the Headmaster of one of the village schools. He stopped me and asked where my gas mask was, I replied that it was at home because, the war was not on when I left home that morning...

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