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This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life on behalf of Angela Rowe.

My family lived in Westminster, London. We were bombed out at 3 minutes past seven on Christmas Eve 1939. My mother was injured by a falling wall in the bedroom. She was in St. George’s Hospital and My sister, my brother and me stayed in a rest centre until she recovered. We were looked after by the WVS volunteers. It was a big hall and there were lots of families there.
When mum came out of hospital we were evacuated to Templeton in Devon. We stayed on a farm called Colston Barton in part of the farmhouse. It was a bit different from London, no electricity with oil lamps for lighting, water from a well and cooking on a primus stove.I began courting a local boy, a farmer’s son. One day my mother said that we were going back to London. I was 17. She said that I could stay in Devon – but only if I married! Luckily my young man was delighted with the idea. We went off on our bicycles and visited the local church. We went and told the parson we wanted to get married. He looked at me and said the banns lasted for 6months so we didn’t have to get married straight away. We replied that we wanted to get married as soon as possible – I was thinking of what my mother had said, that I’d have to go back to London if I was single!

So we were married and I remain in Devon to this day. So the war changed my life forever.

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