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I went to live with Mr and Mrs Gower on a farm in Ship Meadow in Suffolk as an evacuee in 1940 and I had a great time.

I learnt to swim in the main dyke — when I stood there it was up to my neck, on the summer evenings all the good swimmers used to go into the river Waverney at a place called Ellingham Locks. The first time I swam out of my depth I swam right across the river towards the lock, there were wooden palings around the bank; I put my hands on the palings thinking I’d made it. My fingers slipped and I couldn’t get a grip and went under, came up and went under again and mindful of the fact you were not supposed to go under 3 times I managed to get my fingers in the cracks and got my head above water and swam back to where I started from — a frightening experience!

At the back of the farmhouse there was quite a large orchard, very mixed with lots of different types of apples, including some russets — one of the first things the farmer Mr Gower said to us when we arrived was that we could eat any of the apples in the orchard but you mustn’t touch the russets. A russet is a late maturing apples, very special flavour with a very rough skin and it looks quite attractive. My friend Ron and I made a hide out in the orchard and dug this pit and lined it with straw and filled it with russets and covered them all over. Late in the year when everyone had gone out and we fancied and apple we would go into our hideout and enjoy Mr Gower’s russets!

It was in this same little hideout that we experimented with smoking pipes, we’d heard about rosewood pipes so we got some rosewood and hollowed it out and made stalks and stems. We went to the local shop to see Mrs Denny (where I would be moved to later when Mr Gower moved on) and we could get herb tobacco at 4d a quarter, the woodbines were in packets of 5 — 2d a packet! We started smoking this stuff and I didn’t enjoy it very much, in fact at one point I watched Bill — my friend — go very green! I gave up smoking when I was 14!

We had great fun on the farm but also had to go to school. I used to enjoy my schoolwork, we would do our homework and then go out and roam the marshes. My favourite subject was biology, I was very disappointed as the term before I was due to do my General Certificate the biology master got called up and they wouldn’t let me take the exam, it was my favourite subject and I was very annoyed and disappointed. I had to take mechanics and physics instead. I did get a distinction in mechanics.

I moved into the 6th form for a year but it was unsettling as my friends had gone back to Gravesend and they were in the ATC. Eventually the days in Ship Meadow came to an end — the end to many happy days! I went back to Gravesend and through my father’s contacts I got an interview in Lombard Street for a job in Barclays Bank.

This story was submitted to the People’s War website by Diana Wilkinson of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester and has been added to the site with Mr John Meiklejohn’s permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions

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