大象传媒

August 1939 I was in Swtizerland. Everyone thought the war would end by Christmas! Relatives wanted us to stay but my mother decided to return to England as I was due to take Matric. We left Brig on 24th October 8pm but on arrival in Lausanne the train stopped. At 1am there was utter confusion. Eventually, early afternoon, we put on a train not knowing which coastal town we were going to. Arrived in Boulogne and boarded a ship. The channel was already mined so we had to stay below deck and crossed the following morning. Our trunk arrived safely in Victoria Station despite our broken journey!

My grammar school, Burlington was evacuated from London to Oxford. Joyce and I were billeted on a 77-year-old lady and her son, a retired army captain. He swore like a trooper when the King of the Belgians gave into Germany鈥攈e was letting the side down鈥擡ton! We only saw these people at weekends. A daily maid came, and we used her kitchenette in the evenings. It meant it was quiet for us to do our homework, unlike other girls who lived in noisy households. Every evening we came back to bread, Marmite and tea鈥攏othing else. We must have had a good school dinner! We shared Milham Ford School for lessons. I learnt to ride a bicycle and we enjoyed rides into the surrounding countryside. A novelty for someone whose home was near Oxford Street, London. As there were no signposts we went into village churches to find out where we were. One day, we heard that General de Gaulle was coming to speak to University students and two of us gatecrashed the meeting. We were spotted and asked to leave but I remember seeing this extremely tall man coming into the hall. We were old enough to appreciate living in such a lovely city but we were always worried about our parents in London.

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