大象传媒

During World War 2, my sister Margaret who was just 2, my brother Ken who was nearly 7, and me aged 9, lived at home with my mother in London when we were not evacuated. Like many volunteer housewives who had never worked in a factory before, mother worked at the Morgan Crucible Company which was then a munitions factory assembling radio parts for aeroplanes. This was part of the war effort which the government said was as important as being in the armed forces. She left home at 8am each morning and Ken, Margaret and I went to school part-time when we could. We spent much of the time in the school air raid shelter during air raids but at least we had our friends around us. We never went to school, or anywhere else for that matter, without our gas masks. We had gas mask drill at school. which taught us how to breath in our masks. I remember mine was kept in a tall, round yellow metal tin fastened to a long rope which I carried over my shoulder. It came in useful sometimes for me to swipe a bully who persistently tormented my younger brother. At the beginning of the war when my sister was only 2, she, like all the other young children was given a colourful Mickey Mouse gas mask which she was very proud of as he was her favourite cartoon character. When we said goodbye in the mornings, we never knew if we would see each other again at the end of the day which was a constant sadness to us all. My mother always said that if we had to die, please God let it be all together.

When we were evacuated on September 1st 1939, there were hundreds of trains packed with school children, mothers, teachers and disabled persons leaving London for unknown destinations. I can remember boarding one of these trains with my mother (whom we were very lucky to have with us), sister and brother having no idea whatsoever where we were going. The government kept this a complete secret from us all. To our amazement and excitement we suddenly found ourselves at the seaside resort of Brighton. What a thrill it was for us children to go to the sea! Evacuation was the largest social upheaval Britain had ever experienced. Middle class children found themselves billeted in labourer's cottages and East-Enders in middle class or aristocratic households. Some children had never even seen the sea, cows or chickens.

On the day war on Germany was declared, Sunday 3rd September 1939, I was out walking with my friend Audrey and her mother in Brighton. They had been evacuated with us. The air raid siren suddenly sounded and we desperately rushed to the nearest air raid shelter where we immediately put on our gas masks. We were absolutely terrified, as we had not experienced an air raid before. What an incredible relief it was when we discovered a little later that it was only a false alarm.

All I can remember about our Brighton evacuation at the beginning of the war was that on arrival we were dumped in a dirty, damp basement apartment with an elderly lady who was constantly coughing which my mother thought could be TB which was highly infectious. She immediately returned to the billeting offices and said: "If you don't find us something clean, I'm taking my 3 children straight back to London to the air raids." They said it was very difficult to find accommodation for 4 but eventually we were found a small place with a headmistress, Miss Lyford and her 2 simple maids. We were offered one small bedroom where we all slept with my mother, sister and I in one bed and my brother on a mattress on the floor. Despite the tremendous squeeze, my mother believed it was clean, and we were all together which was the most important thing to her and to us. The 2 simple maids were very willing but frightened me to death with their strange behaviour and appearance. I was a sensitive child of 9 and one of them, who was named Fanny, seemed to me to have huge, bulging eyes and spoke as if she had a plum in her mouth. Edith, the other maid, was dark, furtive and vacantly stared at me. My mother assured me that they did not mean any harm to us, so I then felt more secure. We later moved to more spacious accommodation around the comer.

The winter in Brighton was the severest for years with heavy falls of snow and as we lived on top of a hill, we spent a lot of time sledging and playing snowballs. Despite the freezing cold, my mother always insisted that fresh air was good for us and we were constantly taken for walks by the sea with her. The winds were biting which sometimes left us gasping for breath but it was very invigorating and we all thrived. I had only ever visited the seaside in summer before which was certainly very different. Perhaps it wasn't always as exciting to live by the sea as I thought.

We were in Brighton for only 9 months and returned to London because it was quiet and we were desperate to go home again. However, the Blitz of 1940 soon became apparent and we were thrust in at the beginning. We then had to accept part-time schooling but we were later pleased to hear that Ken had been selected with one other boy from his school to sit the Christs Hospital entrance examination.

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