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I’d only just started school when the war began and the government decided to send all the children out of London to escape the bombing. My school Princess May, was officially evacuated to Letchworth, in Hertfordshire.

It was the first time I’d ever been on a train and it felt exciting, like going on a holiday. Most of us had never been out of London before. I think the parents worried more then the kids. The day after I had been sent away, my brother Fred cycled out to Letchworth to see that I was all right. I stayed with an oldish lady and her husband. They wanted to adopt me, but my mum said she wanted me back, so I wasn’t there long.

I got sent to a convent school in Letchworth, where they made you eat up all your food. I had tapioca and it was so horrible seeing it for the first time I couldn’t eat it. I was taken in front of the Mother Superior and got a real telling-off. It was frightening – I’d never seen nuns before.

After a few months, mum came to get me and we went to Scotland to stay with my sister who was living there. I was the only English boy in my class, but there were a couple of kids who looked after me, so I was never in any bother.

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