大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by Margaret Daly of Brighton and Hove City Council on behalf of Mrs V. Tomlins and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions."

On Friday 1st September 1939 the whole of our school was evacuated from London. We walked in a long crocodile from the school to Waterloo Station wearing our labels and carrying our suitcases which contained our clothes and a packet of sandwiches and an apple.

At the station we went on to Platform One; our parents weren't allowed on the platform, and I remember looking out of the carriage window and seeing them grouped behind the platform gate.

At this point we knew we were going to Devon. I shared a carriage with my friend Irene and her small sister Doreen, and Doris who was five, whose Mother had asked me to look after her; I was all of 10 3/4!

We arrived in Devon at St David's Exeter; we went from the station to a Market where ladies gave us tea and cake and a carrier bag with things for our hosts. All I can remember being in the bag was a tin of corned beef and a packet of Cream Crackers.

We were then put on a bus and dispersed to different parts of the town. I went to Alphington near the bridge over the Exe. Doris and I were billeted with an elderly couple who had a grown up son and daughter, and Irene and her sister were billeted next door. They were kind and we settled in well.

The following Monday, we went to school in the morning at the local church hall; in the afternoon we went for a nature walk to allow more children to do some schooling. Our first job had been to write to our parents with our address.

Doris and I were happy in this billet but calamity overtook the family; first the Daughter tripped over a dog lead in the blackout and had to have bed rest at home with a broken hip, then in the severe weather after Christmas when the Exe froze over, the Mother slipped on the ice and broke her arm. The outcome was that we had to change billets. Doris' Mum came and took her back to London, and I was placed with a younger couple with a small boy of 5; here I was used as an au pair, cleaning, shopping and looking after the small boy whilst they went to the pub or to the pictures. They constantly quarrelled and fought and left each other.

School was my only refuge and even there it was constant change; five schools in two years.

Then came 23rd September 1942 when the Germans decided to bomb Exeter in one of their so-called 'Cathedral Cities raids'. They did it for two nights, the damage was mostly to the top of the town, my hosts' mother had her home completely demolished.

I had been feeling homesick for some time, so I took the opportunity to write a postcard to my parents saying that if they didn't come and fetch me, I would find my own way home.

My mother was on the next train. My parents by this time felt that if Exeter was being bombed, I might as well be in London. It was a wonderful homecoming; my whole family - Dad, Grandparents, Uncles and Aunts - were there to greet us.

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