大象传媒

"This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Radio Berkshire's Action Desk on behalf of George Corbett and has been added to the site with his permission. George fully understands the site's terms and conditions"

I was evacuated for the first time, to a family in Naseby, in Leicestershire. The family with whom I was billeted were reasonably friendly as I recall, without giving me the impression that I was particularly welcome. There was another boy with me though, who was of a similar age and, although I can鈥檛 remember his name, we seemed to get on alright.

The most profound memory of my first evacuation however was the diet. I knew nothing about food shortages then, of course, that is if there were any at that early stage of the war. What I do know is that every other day, without fail, the lady of the house would send her Greyhound dog off into the field that the house backed onto and on every other day, again without fail, the dog would return with a rabbit. These rabbits would provide the meat of the main, daily meal, for the entire three months that I was there. It would be varied. One day it might be boiled rabbit, another day it might be baked rabbit and, on extremely rare, and presumably special occasions, it would be rabbit pie. In whatever form, and no matter what day of the week, it was always rabbit. The rabbit was always followed by boiled rice pudding with jam. Where on Earth all of the rice came from, I have no idea. Perhaps the dog brought that back as well. It obviously had a very marked effect on me, because many years passed before I could be happily introduced to either cooked rabbit in any shape or form, or any concoction with rice as its main ingredient.

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