大象传媒

This story was submitted to the peoples war website by Simon Gulliford from St Georges school Broadstairs and has been added on behalf of Mrs Vale
with her permission who understands the conditions about her contribution

When war broke out I was in a sweet shop in Dane valley. We had been given gas masks and I ran home swinging it around saying I鈥檓 not putting it on! I never did wear it all through the war!
On the 2nd June 1940 we were evacuated from Drapers mill school Margate to a farm in Stafford. We were put on a train with two teachers and as we were waiting on the train during the journey, a train carrying soldiers pulled up alongside and passed us sweets and bananas through the windows. When we arrived at out destination we
Were taken to a school where people arrived to pick us out. The lady chose my two friends but not me and I began to cry as she only wanted two. The lady was the vicar鈥檚 wife and asked me my name, she then took me because she also knew someone called Phyllis and felt it was meant to be. We stayed with the vicar who was quite strict but were very nice. We had midnight feasts, but once we were caught scrumping apples and were given cod liver oil as a punishment. I was away for about 18 months. When we were at Stafford we saw Coventry on fire from miles away. Because we were on a farm in Gnosall, we had plenty of Geese eggs and had lots of Jam sandwiches because there were fruit trees everywhere, especially plum and damson. I remember Italian prisoners of war on the farms with big letter P on their backs. I remember getting a four day old baby goat and bottle feeding it and doing the same to a bull, to the point that they would come up the lane to meet me on the way home from school, but the other evacuees were terrified and ran off. One of the older bulls wore a vale so he culd not run and charge. We had to drive a heifer 4 miles back to the farm once, and it ran up the steps of the station near Gnosall and ran along the railway line before it got captured! The farm was called the Hollies

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