大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People's War website by Don and Betty Tempest of the Lancshomeguard on behalf of Irene Proctor and added to the site with her permission.

It was to be a great adventure, going away on a train for the first time. we were very excited, everybody was giving us sweets and chocolate. My sisters, Rita (8) and Joan (9) as well as myself (6) could not understand why all the mothers were crying.

We arrived at a station in Wales with our bright orange haversacks, made by our Father, and our Gas Masks. All the children were allocated to various families. We three were sent to a farm. The farmer and his wife never spoke English to us, so we felt very isolated. We were very home-sick.

After a few weeks I was transferred to the farm next door, which was much better. They had two sons, and also a little girl who had lost both her parents in an Air-Raid.

I used to visit my sisters to play with them, but they weren't very happy, so my mother took them back to Liverpool. I stayed behind with Mr & Mrs Evans who treated me very well.

At Christmas they bought me a lovely doll. My Father came to see me, and said he was taking me back home to Liverpool. The Evans wanted to adopt me, but my mother and father would not agree, even though they had four more children.

In Liverpool we lived near to the Docks, so we were constantly in fear of being bombed. My mother only took us to an Air-Raid shelter once, but it was so crowded, she said she would rather take her chances at home. We used to get under a big double bed for safety when the Air-Raids were on.

Most night when the Germans dropped Incendiary bombs, people used to be out in the streets throwing sand on them.

In October 1940, my mother had another baby, making six children in all. My Father was away in the Army, so mother had the responsibility of looking after us all.

In May 1941, my mother decided to take us all to visit our Grandma and Aunty who lived in Huyton, on the outskirts of Liverpool. We arrived back home and as we turned into what was our street, we found the whole block of houses had been bombed, and there were none left standing.

I can't imagine how my mother must have felt, as all our possessions were gone, and we all we had left were the clothes we stood up in.

We all went back on the tram to my Grandma' and Aunties, where we stayed until we were evacuated again, this time to Colomendy Camp in Mold, Wales.

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