大象传媒

In September 1939, the children who were being evacuated from Gwladys Street school, walked in a crocodile line, to Kirkdale Railway Station with parents and teachers.
I do not think my mother would have let my two younger brothers and I go but she was
nursing our dad.He had lung cancer. Dad died early in January 1940.
I can鈥檛 remember carrying a case, but they must have been in the Guards van. We had a gas mask slung around our shoulders. Each child was given a carrier bag. It contained a tin of corned beef, a tin of condensed milk, a big bar of chocolate and something else I can鈥檛 remember.
We arrived at Craven Arms station (Shropshire). Then we were coached to the village Hall, where the women, who we were going to be lodged with, picked out who they would take.
My parents wanted us to stay together as a family. We were aged 7,10 and 13 years old but we each went to separate houses. My younger brother went home after our dad died. I went home in the March and the 10 year old a month later.
All the children were homesick longing to be back home with their families.
On the plus side, the two eighty year olds I lived with were kind. They gave us plenty of fresh food.
We put ropes on the trees for swings. We had a pond to skate on and sledges to slide
down the hills. We were not bad children but we thought everything was free. We found apples and pears on the trees and the fields full of snowdrops. We found a walnut tree in the church ground. They knew it was the evacuees. The pods had stained our hands.

'This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by 大象传媒 Radio Merseyside鈥檚 People鈥檚 War team on behalf of Pat Mountfield and has been added to the site with his / her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.'

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