大象传媒

JUNE鈥橲 WARTIME EVACUATION
BIRMINGHAM TO LOUGHBOROUGH

When the Second World War started in September 1939 I was six years old and I lived in Birmingham with my parents, Alfie and Gertie , brothers Edgar aged 9; Brian aged 1 month; and sisters Reene aged 17; Dorothy aged 4; and Olive aged 18 months. I remember going with my sister Reene to a local Birmingham community hall to be fitted with a gas mask. My new baby brother had what was called a Mickey Mouse gas mask made specially for small babies. We had to carry our gas masks at all times and often had practices at school on how to put them on. I hated putting mine on because I always felt I couldn鈥檛 breathe properly.

Soon the air raid sirens started wailing to warn us that the Germans were on the way to bomb us. At first my mother made beds for us in the cupboard under the stairs (this being regarded by the authorities as the strongest and therefore the safest part of most houses), but as the raids grew more fierce and more frequent she decided we must all go down the bottom of the garden into our air raid shelter. To build the shelter, which I think was provided by Birmingham City Council, we had to dig an area about 4 feet down and then put corrugated steel round the sides and top, earth was put on the roof and sandbags placed to protect the entrance. We eventually grew flowers on top of ours to disguise it from the air and make it look pretty.

Bunk beds were placed inside on the damp-proof flooring. We would go down into the shelter every time the sirens went which was usually at night although I do remember the occasional daytime raid. At night we would all sleepily make our way to the shelter, each of us carrying a specific something to make our time there more comfortable. My particular job was to grab two pillows and being only six years old I remember it being a struggle.

Soon Hitler decided to send his bombers over every night so Mother decided that we all might as well go to bed in the shelter every night come what may and at our proper bed-times to save us having a disturbed night. We always knew the very distinctive engine sound of the German bombers and bombs were dropped near us and bomb craters appeared in the fields opposite our house. (We lived on the edge of Birmingham). A large piece of shrapnel went through our roof one night and we had to put a bucket in the roof space to catch rainwater until someone came to repair it.

The barrage balloons and searchlights fascinated us as children and my sisters and I named our local ones. We would sing songs in the air raid shelter like 鈥淩un rabbit, run rabbit鈥�, 鈥淧ack up your troubles鈥� and 鈥� It鈥檚 a long way to Tipperary鈥�. We would try to drown out our next-door-but-one neighbours who would always be singing sombre hymns! My father, who was a Grenadier Guardsman in the 1st World War and badly injured in France, was in the Home Guard and before going out he would always put the blackout blocks on the windows because no lights were allowed to show. If an occasional chink of light became visible and was seen by the local patrolling Air Raid Warden (ARP) he would shout something like 鈥淧ut that bloody light out鈥�. All street lights were banned and we had special torches with shades on to help us see our way to the shelter. At school we had a very big shelter built and we had practice sessions on how to enter the shelter in an orderly manner. The teachers organised games down there to stop us becoming bored or frightened.

During 1940 the air raids were so frequent that Birmingham City Council decided that all school children would be evacuated. My brother Edgar (aged 9) my sister Dorothy (aged 5) and I (aged 7) went down to the school one morning to find a fleet of buses outside the school. We had our gas masks and a few personal belongings with us and we all queued up in an orderly fashion to board the buses. I cannot remember whether Mother was with us to see us off, but I feel fairly sure she would have been even though she had two other small children to look after. Edgar had been asked to look after his two younger sisters, but when it came time to board the bus Edgar was nowhere to be seen so I was told to take care of Dorothy. (It was sometime later that we discovered that Edgar did not want to go away from home so he hid in the school toilets until all the buses had left - then he went home!),

We were evacuated to a town in Leicestershire called Loughborough. I do not remember anything of the journey, but when we arrived I remember standing in a big school hall where there were lots of adults. Strangers who were there to choose a child 鈥� an evacuee. Most people only wanted one child but my mother had stipulated that we were to stay together and not many people wanted to take in two strange children (perhaps it鈥檚 as well that Edgar ran away because I鈥檓 certain no-one would have taken in three children). Dorothy and I were almost the last children to be picked out. Dorothy says she can remember me crying when we were in the school hall . A lady called Mrs. Wilkinson took us to her home. She had children of her own who were older than us who made us very welcome and we liked being there.

Our headmaster and some of our teachers were evacuated with us and we had to have makeshift classrooms in Church and Community halls. Not very satisfactory for our education ! I remember being in one Church hall where several classes were being taught all in the same room, each teacher surrounded by pupils. I could clearly hear what the next teacher was teaching as well as trying to listen to my own teacher. We later moved to another Church hall which had a few separate rooms to accommodate us which was much better.

A few weeks passed by and we must have had some very cold weather because the nearby canal froze up. One of Mrs. Wilkinson鈥檚 daughters, aged about 18, went skating on the ice and fell through and was drowned. I don鈥檛 remember much about this except that a lady down the road, Mrs. Sharp, agreed to take Dorothy and I because obviously poor Mrs. Wilkinson felt unable to look after two little evacuees while she was so distressed. Mrs. Sharp didn鈥檛 really want us and soon got tired of looking after her two noisy and energetic little strangers.
She decided to keep Dorothy and despatched me off to someone else.

I went to live with a Mr. & Mrs. Smith. They were a delightful old couple and looked after me very well. Mr. Smith taught me to do joined-up writing and Mrs. Smith taught me to embroider. They took me to the local library every week as I loved reading. I wasn鈥檛 allowed to play outside on a Sunday; I could only read or embroider but I didn鈥檛 think this odd because I enjoyed doing these things. I would visit Dorothy quite often but she was very unhappy once I had moved away so shortly afterwards she persuaded Mother to take her back home to Birmingham and the bombing.

I can鈥檛 remember how long I lived with Mr. & Mrs. Smith; they were very old and eventually they became ill and couldn鈥檛 look after me so once again I was moved on. This time it was to another elderly couple though not as old as Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Mr. & Mrs. Albert and Nellie Wise lived in Albany Street on the other side of Loughborough to where I had lived before. They were a kindly couple who had never had children and were very happy to look after me. They also had a lodger from the nearby Royal Air Force Station. This lodger would change quite frequently. I suppose they used to get posted elsewhere or were lost in the war. I never ever found out. Every Saturday I would visit Mr. & Mrs. Smith if they were well enough.

Albert Wise was the Chief Groundsman at Loughborough College which after the war became a university. The first little girl to come to the house to ask me out to play was Janet who lived a few doors away. To this day (2004) we are frequently in touch, and still send each other Christmas cards and birthday cards and presents. We would play ball games and skipping etc. but we were also very imaginative in our play. Albany Street was unadopted by the local highways authority so the road was just earth. Using sticks we would draw on the loose surface such things as houses with rooms or a maze to get out of. The games would differ day by day and it was great fun.

When the fortunes of war turned in our favour the air raids on Birmingham became less frequent and one by one the evacuees left Loughborough to return home. Eventually the last few left were taken out of the Church Halls and placed in proper schools. I was one of these. This was much better for our education. I was sent to Roseberry Street School which I found very enjoyable. We had nice teachers 鈥� one was named Mr. Cross - a name which didn鈥檛 suit him because he was one of the most pleasant men you could wish to meet. He always called me 鈥淪miler鈥� because he said I was always smiling !

My friend Janet and I went to the Methodist Sunday School in Knighthorpe Road every Sunday. We were also in the Girls Life Brigade. We enjoyed taking part in the Annual Sunday School Anniversary when we would wear pretty dresses and sing in the children鈥檚 choir as well as sing solos and do Bible readings. We children were put on raised platforms facing the congregation. Clothing, as well as food, was severely rationed and one year because I couldn鈥檛 have a new dress my mother made me one out of her wedding dress 鈥� it was beautiful. The people who ran the Knighthorpe Road Sunday School entered me into an elocution contest in 1943. Children from all over Loughborough and District took part 鈥� it was run by the Loughborough and District Sunday School Union and was called the Competitive Sunday School Musical Festival so it must have involved music as well but after all this time I remember very little about it. I remember standing on the stage to recite the 23rd Psalm and the poem 鈥淪omeone鈥�. I came FIRST in my section and still have my Certificate and the Judges鈥� marking sheet dated 27th March 1943. I received book tokens as my prize and I chose two books. One was 鈥楥herrystones鈥�, a book of verse, and I鈥檝e forgotten what the other one was called because unfortunately I no longer have it. But I still have 鈥楥herrystones鈥� !

While I was in Loughborough I received a letter every week from home and I in turn sent a letter home every week. Very few people had telephones in those days so letter writing was virtually the only form of communication. Mother would knit jumpers and skirts for me and pixie hats which were very fashionable for children during the war. These items would have to be posted. Mother came to see me but not very often because travelling was very difficult during the war, and trains were there mainly for the troops. Besides, my mother would not have had much money to spare for travelling as she had a young family to look after. While I was evacuated she had two more babies. Terence was born on 5th October 1941 but died a few days later. Clive, my parents鈥� last child, was born in January 1943.

Evacuation was rather strange at first because all of a sudden I was like an only child after being part of a large family at home. My 鈥榠ndoors鈥� time was filled with playing cards, embroidery and reading. The families I stayed with each had a radio but television, of course, was many years distant in the future.

I was evacuated for about three and a half to four years and as far as I can remember they were very happy years. The thought of sending small children away to strangers for that long filled me with horror when I became a mother myself. But 鈥榥eeds must鈥� applied then just as it does now. I鈥檓 so grateful that the world into which my four children were born was relatively peaceful and that they were always able to live with me at home. It must have been a very difficult time for parents and children during the War when they were separated, but evacuation of children to safer places was accepted by everyone as the wisest option. Birmingham, at the heart of industrial England, was a prime target for German bombers and took a real pounding. So many lives were lost.

Eventually the time came for me to return home to Birmingham and join my large family. This was a bit of a culture shock after being treated like an only child for so many years! My mother came to Loughborough to collect me and when we walked into our council house my grandmother was there looking after my brothers and sisters 鈥� I didn鈥檛 recognise her and I thought she was a Children鈥檚 Nanny! At that age I didn鈥檛 realise we were far too poor to have such a luxury but I did read a lot and knew that some families employed them.

I moved back home to Birmingham a few months before the end of the war carrying with me memories which will remain with me all my life.

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