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EVACUATION

September 1st 1939 today only one school was open in our area, my name is Doreen just 13 – brothers Rick 11 George 8 and Ronald who was 4 years old all walked together with our mother and grandmother, there were other groups coming from all directions clutching belongings - a change of clothing mostly in brown paper carrier bags also gas masks heading towards the school, double decked buses were lined up outside the gates and only the children were allowed in to have a name label tied on and seated upon a bus.
One could say the silence was deafening it was so quiet except for the muffled sobs from both sides of the fence, tears were streaming down every face as the children drove away and left parents, would they every see them again? Most were in shock but some did cry out and banged on the windows at seeing their mothers going further away as we drove to Hither Green station to file onto trains to go into the Kent countryside, as the trains passed the children waved or made faces at each other, we arrived in Ashford and walked to the school to have lunch.
Forming into groups with a lady carrying a clipboard and walking down a street was to be the worse day of our lives, families came out looked us all over and took the odd one or two children, we were running out of road - true we were grubby, tearstained and tired but no one wanted four children together, at last Rick and George went into one house Ronald and I next door, both houses had boys of 8 years.
After settling in we played out in the fields and stream at the end of the gardens mixing with both locals and evacuees quite enjoying the break in a way. The adults lapsed into silence as we children came in but we knew that war was imminent, hadn’t we helped to erect the Anderson shelter in the garden, put in the bunks - candles in jars with a box of matches nearby, seen our mother make and put up blackout curtains then stick brown tape to all of the windows in case they shattered with blast, filled buckets with sand and earth in case incendiary bombs fell – jugs and saucepans to fill with water each night in case supplies were cut, being Londoners knew what would happen when war was declared we would be in the front line.
War was declared at 11am on Sunday 3rd September 1939 sirens sounded straight away, we were about to be bombed off the face of the earth, all of us were called in and herded into the small front room, a dim light was turned on to reveal a stuffed chimney – sealed windows – heavy curtains against a gas attack also a good supply of food and drinks, which surprised us as we came from the danger zone and had such a small store. Apart from that day nothing really happened, there was no room at the school for evacuees when the locals returned. I was sent to a group of my age with a strange teacher, we roamed the woods doing nature study subjects and drawing, mostly of the church and windmill luckily the weather was lovely – on the wet days we went into the garden shed at the teachers billet to draw, read and discuss Wind in the Willows.
The boys went to the school playground and sports shed, still laugh at the 30 a side football that they played. Although we had no school premises, we kept school hours and had sandwiches at mid-day, the days seemed so long as it grew colder and wet, we picked blackberries in the wood and collected conkers to play with. We grew homesick although we wrote and received letters from our mother each day. Two months and 11 days after we arrived, it was 11th November - Armistice Day we came back home. Come what may we were all together again.

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