大象传媒

I was born in Lowestoft, but my mother was from the Bath area. When the war started, a friend and I were evacuated down there. We had been there about a year when they started bombing Bristol and we ended up in the shelters. We decided to come back here, but there was a lot of bombing here as well, so we were evacuated to the midlands. I was sent to a mining village. I didn鈥檛 know anyone there at all, and was living with a complete stranger at the age of 12. It was a very traumatic time. The lady I stayed with was an agent for a tea company. I went round doing the work for her! She had three children, all of whom were older than me. One son, aged 17, worked down the pits. I was often left to wake him up and make sure he got to work on time. He had an ugly temper! I was there for two years, before moving elsewhere for six months. I then went back to Lowestoft to start work at 14 1/2 at the co-op shoe shop.

It was a rule that if you had a spare room, you had to billet sailors. You never knew who you were getting. They used to come round in a lorry, and be dropped off as they got to you. Some were nice, others weren鈥檛. I remember one from Guernsey used to come and visit while on leave, as did one from Canada. Suddenly there was no contact from them. We weren鈥檛 next of kin so wouldn鈥檛 have been told if anything had happened.

My dad had been injured and captured during the First World War. I remember that as soon as war was declared, he rounded up my brothers and the neighbours, and dug a huge hole in the garden. They then buried the 10x8 garden shed in it for us to use as a shelter in event of attack.

My brother was in the Far East, and used to send packets of tea back from Ceylon. That was a very welcome addition to the ration! They also used to send coconuts. They would just write the address on the shell and stick it in the post. Even in the middle of a war, they would still get through!

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