大象传媒

Kingston upon thames is said to have been the last local authority in London to evacuate the children to the country to avoid the bombing. I would have been 5yrs old in 1944. I had started school but a lot of time was spent going in and out of the air raid shelters, which were built alongside the playground. I went to St Joseph's RC school which was adjacent to the Fairfield in Kinston. I have some memories of class time and being given Cod Liver Oil and Malt. I also wore a red siren suit, which was a struggle to put on an take off. For a time I carried a cardboard box containing a red Mickey Mouse gas mask which also had a red nose. I hated the shelters and they frightened me.

Being evacuated was exciting. My two older sisters, another girl Pat who lived near us, myself and our mother, all assembled for transport to our various destinations. We were given labels to wear, my mother objected saying she was responsible for us children. I remember a train journey to what must have been Waterloo railway station. We were then separated from some of the other children from my infant class. I remember waving goodbye to a boy with very fair curly hair, his name was Flanagan. Our mother was pregnant although I was unaware of this at the time. The rest of the journey is a blank, until we arrived at a community or school hall. The wait or allocation of a billet took ages and I fell asleep. The village was called Burbage, near to Hinkley in Leicestershire.My sisters were billeted separately and my mother and me together.

My eldest sister Margaret recalled that she was placed with a Mrs Munton, she had a daughter younger than Margaret. The modern house was entered via a manicured garden, the interior of the house was spartan and contained very little furniture. They wiped their feet, then removed their shoes. The loop on Margaret's coat was broken, and Mrs Munton made disaproving noises and mended it on the spot. Margaret felt that her mother was being criticized. She recalled waking up on the first morning in a vast double bed, she could see a cornfield where walkers looked as if they were floating throught the ripened corn.

Margaret was dreadfully homesick, and this proved to be something she had to contend with for all of her childhood. However this was rooted in an earlier experience when she was under 5yrs of age. She was moved to another house and still didnt settle, she was them moved to a billet next to our house and her bedroom looked into ours. In this house there were two older boys, the man of the house was from Yorkshire and was warm and fiendly. His wife, Mrs Fox was not remembered with affection. I remember her as kind, and she used to get me to sing "Mares eat Oats and does eat Oats" etc. I once dropped a new laid egg, as I hid it behind my back for her to guess what I was hiding. Mrs Fox wasnt cross as I expected, after all an egg was precious.Mrs Fox used to make stockings on a machine in her home and she disliked doing this. On Saturdays her sons were given their sweet rations and sat in the front room eating their sweets. Margaret recalled that she was always upset by this and didnt remember gettng her sweets. For sunday lunch they had Yorkshire pudding and gravy,followed by a plate of meat with vegetables and potatoes. In the evening they went to Mrs Fox' mother and had the same again. Two dinners in one day was amazing to us.

My other sister Kathleen seemed to cope despite living with a strict Methodist family who didnt like Catholics.There was one daughter and the father was a Japanese prisoner of war. Kathleen found the family who were billeted on the farm, of cornfield fame, and played with these children who we knew from our church at home. There name was Dann.I remember Kathleen crying when she was butted on the backside by a goat.

Pat, although billeted, in another house, was constantly with us. She was with a family who had twins and there was no father. Margaret, in her wisdom said there had to be a father. Her biology was correct, but she knew nothing about the social norms of the day. She was 13yrs and Kathleen was 11yrs.

The older girls went to school and were considered to be very clever, Margaret thought that they may have been put in a class below them. I wasnt sent to school.

Our landlady was a Mrs Dunkley, and I think her husband was away in the Army. She had one son, who stored birds eggs in a box under our bed. I played with them until I broke one. Mrs Dunkley made a point of asking me not to play on the postage size lawn, every blade stood to attention. She said "I dont suppose you have see one of those before". I replied that I had, and that our one at home was much bigger. She was nonplussed and had nothing to say to that.

One day, when Mrs Dunkley was at work, my mother decided to have an illicit bath, over and above the rationed weekly bath. She lit the geyser and it exploded covering the bathroom, herself and me in soot. She was terrified she wouldnt get it cleaned up before Mrs Dunkley returned from work. My mother was pretty miserable and was constantly told that the baby was delicate and always would be, should it survive at all. It was a wonder she didnt have a miscarriage when the geyser exploded.

My mother was very unhappy and finally the doctor advised her to go home and risk the bombs. I returned with her and after much pestering, the three girls returned home three months later escorted by Mrs Dann. Margaret and Kathleen had passed the Scholorship but couldnt get to the Grammar School in Wimbledon and instead were sometimes tutored in a teahers house and variously attended Latchmere school nearby. Eventually I returned to school on the Fairfield.

One day I arrived home to find a large linen basket in the sitting room. It contained the new baby girl. Our new little sister was very strong and healthy. However as a toddler she was always afraid of loud noises, she must have heard the exploding geyser.

Janet Norman-Byrne December 2001. Acknowledgements to my big sister Margaret. She died in 2002.RIP.

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