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This story was submitted to the Peoples War site by Melanie Richardson and Sarah Coleman from the Folkestone School for Girls and has been added to the website on behalf of Olive Sherrard with her permission and she fully understands the sites terms and conditions

During the war by Olive Sherrar,

At the beginning of the war, I was living in Alexandria in Egypt. My father was in the armed service. At this time I was 10 years old and I remembers my mother listening to the radio when war was declared. At this time I can remember my mother crying as her family were in England. However I was excited, as I had never experiencing war before. My father was called away to the service. The air raid siren went, and we were confused as we had never heard a siren before. Most of the Egyptians rushed to the beach , but we stayed in our apartment. We could see a dog fight and I was petrified as they had 鈥渃ome to bomb us鈥�. The next thing I saw was the plane exploding into the sea. We then knew that this was the start of our war.
Few weeks later we were given notice to leave with instructions only carrying our most prized things. We were then taken by an army lorry, as the family of an army member, to the station where we were shipped off. We had no idea where we were going but we did know that father had to go back to the war. The band were playing 鈥楢uld Lang Syne鈥� and I was in tears.
The journey was confusing. We had no idea where we were going. The train stopped in a desert and we had to walk to a refreshment tent. The babies were crying due to the ordeal. It was a three day journey. We eventually ended up in Jerusalem. We stayed there for three months before being evacuated to South Africa. We then stayed in a hotel, mothers and children. Durban is totally different to England. Plenty of food, no blackouts. Mother enjoyed swimming. This is my fond memory of the war. The beautiful sunny days.
Mother and I went to a concert at the band stand which was on the sea front. There was a full moon, the stars were twinkling, palm trees were swaying and you could hear the lapping of the waves. During this time the service men would stop off at Durban on their way to the Far East preparing to go to fight in near areas. This particular night, a young soldier was invited to sing and he sang 鈥楤egin the begin鈥� by Carl Porter. His voice was vivid and it was clear he was a singer. Whenever I hear that song by Carl Porter, I immediately recall that night.

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