大象传媒

This story was submitted to the Peoples War site by Ruth Dunn a pupil from Swavesey Village College on behalf of Grace Adams and has been added to this site with her permission. Grace Adams fully understands the site terms and conditions.

I lived in Eltham, south-east London during the war. It was very close to the Woolwich Arsenal, a weapons manufacturer; so many bombs were dropped close to where I lived. My younger sister, older sister and I were evacuated when we were nine, eleven and fourteen years old. We were taken to Woolwich station where we loaded on to a train with no idea where we were going. My mother gave us a lunch box which I remember contained sandwiches and chocolate, which we finished very quickly, as well as tinned food for our foster family.

The train stopped in Snodland and we had to wait quite a while until it was late when we got on the coach. The coach took us to Wateringbury. Here we were taken to the village hall and lined up. I remember clearly how we were the last children to be taken as we were three sisters and no one wanted us due to us wanting to stay together.

In the end we were lucky really and taken by the owner of Reeves Chocolate Factory and his young and beautiful wife. We were put in the attic bedroom and were in the care of the servants who disliked having more work due to looking after us. After a while, my mother came and stayed with us in the house. We had the servants' sitting room and although mother paid for our lodging, they were not happy. Two of the servants wanted us gone more than we thought. They hid a couple of silver spoons and laid the blame on us. Of course mother was very upset. They got found out but father was still extremely annoyed so came and took us home to London. I suppose the servants got what they wanted as we did leave. After that father evacuated us privately!

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