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ROSEMARY CASSON (neé Beresford)

I was born in 1934 and when war broke out I was living in Paignton, Devon with my mother, father, my sister Diana and brothers - David, Patrick and the twins Eammon and John.

In September 1940 a lady came to fetch Diana, David and myself and we were taken by train to Liverpool before being evacuated to South Africa. We carried our gas masks, labels and small suitcases. We were taken with lots of other children to a large girls school known as the ‘holdings’. We had to wait there until the ships could be got in and out of the harbour safely with an escort.

One evening we were in bed in the dormitory where we slept with other girls. It was stormy, pouring down with rain and very windy. The sirens went off. We got up quickly to make our way to the air raid shelter. I was going through the door when there was a great gust of wind and the heavy old fashioned door slammed shut on my thumb. My sister quickly opened the door and I was screaming and yelling but we had to just keep going to get to the shelter. I was frightened by all of the sounds and the dark, not knowing where we were going but I was more worried about my thumb then anything else not realising there was a much bigger danger from the bombs. When the all clear came someone took a look at my thumb — it was swollen and sore and eventually I lost the nail.

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