大象传媒

My story is that of a schoolgirl living in Guernsey whose life changed drastically when war broke out.
鈥淚 remember being taken on holiday in Wales by her maternal grandparents in 1939, leaving Guernsey on Sept 1st, travelling by boat and train and arriving in Treforest, near Pontypridd, some time after midnight鈥�.
鈥淲e spent the next day visiting relatives, then, on Sunday September 3rd at breakfast, the news bulletin on the wireless said that Mr Neville Chamberlain was to make an important announcement at 11am. I realised that this broadcast was very important, and we all gathered round and listened intently. Of course, he announced that 鈥楨ngland is now at war with Germany鈥欌��.
鈥淢y grandparents took me back to Guernsey the very next day and my life settled back to normal, undisturbed by the war, until Dunkirk鈥�.
鈥淔rom then on there was an unease amongst the adults. Early in June 1940 my friend and I went for a swim after school and then climbed a flight of steps to a plateau on the cliff above the bathing places, because we heard there was a German submarine out in the roads, but we couldn鈥檛 see it, so we went home鈥�.
鈥淭here was a lot of muttered talk amongst parents about the awful events in France, and the way German troops were marching through Europe and suddenly everybody was using a big word 鈥� evacuation 鈥� and arguing whether, as advised by the local authority, they should 鈥榞o鈥� or 鈥榮tay鈥欌��.
鈥淚t was decided by the authority that school children should be sent away from the island first, and, fearing that occupation by the Germans was imminent, our parents were asked to take us to our school in the early hours of the morning of June 21st.
I was woken up at 2am, told briefly by my parents that I was going to England, but I was not to worry, just consider it a big adventure, and they would be following in a few days鈥�.
鈥淚 signed in at school between 3/3.30am, with my little case and carrier bag containing my sandwiches for the journey, and my teddy bear!鈥�.
鈥淲e got to the harbour around 6am and the boat wasn鈥檛 in yet. During the morning the boat arrived, by which time we were all sitting forlornly on our suitcases, wondering what the day would bring鈥�.
鈥淭he boat, incidentally, was a cattle boat because, as with Dunkirk, all types of boats had been asked to help with the evacuation of the schoolchildren. At noon we went on board and were put down in the hold, but there was fresh straw and bedding for us to sit on鈥�.
鈥淲e arrived in Weymouth just before midnight. The WVS were there and ready with hot drinks, and we were ushered into a hall or warehouse where we were seen briefly by a doctor, and a label was put on our lapel鈥�.
鈥淲e were told nothing. About 1.30am we were put on a train, and off we went. I remember sleeping fitfully, but thankfully we were all too tired to be really sad or scared, just curious about where we might be going鈥�.
鈥淥ur destination proved to be Glasgow, and when we alighted from the train, we were taken in buses to various church halls in the region. I went to St Ninians, Pollockshields鈥�
鈥淥ver the next few weeks we had quite a good time, as the Scottish hospitality was wonderful, something I shall never forget, at a time when we really needed love and care. One has to remember that being aged 10/12 in 1940 was very different to being 10/12 today, we were very young and unworldly鈥�.
鈥淒uring this time we thought about our parents and families and wondered what was happening to them. We were encouraged to remember if we had any relatives in the UK who they might be with. Luckily I had a good memory and I wrote to my auntie in Treforest. Thankfully my family had gone there initially and were now in Barry where my father had found work as a porter in the TB hospital. My father then wrote me a lovely letter, telling me to be a good girl, saying they were all thinking about me and loved me very much. I couldn鈥檛 get over this, as I never realised before just how loved I was, and it meant more to me than words could convey鈥�.
鈥淚 was then fostered out, as were many of the Guernsey schoolchildren, but I was placed with an English couple in their fifties or sixties, very set in their ways. My foster parents were not unkind, but were unused to children and made me do certain household chores, which I had never done in my life, and I got into terrible trouble once because I put her best bone-handled knives into very hot water! During this time I was visited by a friend of my mother who was appalled to find me in a drab brown dress, down to my ankles, scrubbing the front steps of the house. She took me out and 鈥榣oved鈥� me, and I felt much better 鈥攖he next best thing to my mum鈥�.
鈥淎fter six months my lovely grandmother came to collect me and took me back with her to Portsmouth, where she and my grandfather were living. Soon after I was taken to Barry and was so happy to see my mum and dad, and brothers and sisters, including a baby which had arrived the previous November. I went to school in Barry and it was quite a happy time鈥�.
鈥淚n 1941 my father decided to get a job in Portsmouth, were we stayed for the remainder of the war. The constant bombing raids nevertheless brought many hilarious moments, as well as worries 鈥� like the local girls fighting over the parachutes when they came down, as the silk was much sought after, especially for wedding dresses!鈥�
鈥淥ur house was in a street with the railway line behind, as we lost all our windows, not from the bombs alone, but from our own guns as they travelled on wagons up and down the line firing at German planes. I also remember when the Germans dropped incendiary bombs, and the men used to climb out on the roof to get them out of the gutter before the house caught fire鈥�.
鈥淚n 1942 I gained a scholarship to Portsmouth Municipal College and was again evacuated, this time to Hampshire to the lovely village of Stockbridge鈥�.
鈥淎s the war progressed I remember the first of the V1 and V2 rockets, which later came to be known as 鈥榙oodlebugs鈥� I was washing my hair one night when I heard the V1 overhead, then horror of horrors, there was a deathly silence, which meant that it was immediately going to fall to earth. Before I could move the house shook with the explosion nearby, and the water in the jug poised over my head went down the back of my neck! I think Portsmouth was one of the first cities to be bombed by these rockets towards the end of the war, but afterwards London and other places suffered likewise鈥�.
鈥淎t the end of the war my dad went back to Guernsey as soon as he could in the summer of 1945, but my mum was again pregnant and we had to remain in Portsmouth until my brother was born. My eldest sister didn鈥檛 return to Guernsey as she had become engaged to a soldier during the last months of the war and later married him in Portsmouth, before returning to his home in Shropshire.
鈥淢y mum, brothers, one sister and myself finally went back to Guernsey from Eastleigh Airport in November 1945 by the 鈥楻apide鈥� plane and the journey was almost as eventful as when I left the island in 1940! The plane held seven and it was intended that my family would be the only occupants. However at the 鈥榚leventh hour鈥� a lady was brought in who had to get back to Guernsey as a matter of urgency. We happily agreed to this and I had one of the children on my knee to make the necessary room. We were flying out of Eastleigh but the plane developed technical difficulties prior to take off and so we didn鈥檛 leave till dusk at 4.30pm.and this meant arriving at Guernsey Airport after dark, and as no facilities were in place, at that time, for night flying we had to be led in by a flare path. Big drama! At least it was for the staff, we travellers did not realise the potential danger. We arrived to be met by ambulances, fire engines and a very worried dad! My six week old brother was counted the 1001 person returning to the island after the five years of German occupation.
It took many months after the war for things to revert to anything like normal, but they were never quite the same. There was a lot of 鈥榟igh feeling鈥� between the people who evacuated and those who remained on Guernsey, each group thinking they were right. My beloved late husband and his family had remained in Guernsey all through the war years, and he had his own memories of those difficult years, sadly not recorded鈥�

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