- Contributed by听
- Barbara Cooke /Batty
- People in story:听
- Julia Watson,Julia Ellan Watson,Jane Batty & John Batty
- Location of story:听
- London and Wales
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A4012354
- Contributed on:听
- 05 May 2005
I will start with Julia Ellen ( my mother ) She was evacuated to Llanelli in south wales. She was 7 yrs old. Julia & her two sisters Kathleen & Flo both younger than her stayed in the same street. Julia stayed with a lovely couple who me & my family got to know as Auntie Annie & Uncle Eddie. Julia kept in contact with them for 30 Yrs but lost contact a few years before they both died, which was sad. Auntie Annie would visit us every year she would go to crufts while she was here. I also went to visit them both when I was 9 & 10 When my mum & her two sisters came back after the war my nan Julia Watson was not to keen on the things that the girls had bought back, they each had a nice doll one which my nan was not able to afford she also was not happy with the nice clothes and the good eating habits they had, like lots of meat and plenty of fresh vegetables which was grown in the gardens they stayed at in Wales. Julia Watson my nan moved out to St. Albans in the war but hated it, My uncle was born there and as soon as she was out of hospital went straight back to Lambeth in London where her in-laws were living. she said she did not like the country and she wanted to be at home in London when her family come home after the war. My nan said she never wanted to move again and she only did once. My grandad was shot in the war but survived and died aged 69 with shrapnel from the bullit still in him.
My father John Batty was 9 when the war broke out his family wanted to stay in the east end of London. My nan Jane Batty was queing at the butchers one day and was going to go to the fish shop after, when the siren went off, she went down to the underground and after a while heard a bomb explode, when she came out from the underground the street which she was going to buy the fish from had been hit by a bomb & some people had been killed. My nan said after that she will move out of London so she went chingford to stay with her mother, sister and my dad John who loved being in the country. He said he loved being a country boy. One sad story he told us about was he had a pet rabbit which went missing one day and then found out what he had eaten for dinner. That is when he was told this is what war is about. After the war when my Grandad came home they moved back to London and stayed there.
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