大象传媒

Transcribed from an interview held at Gillingham Library (Kent) on 7th. July 2005.

First Evacuation

I was born in 1937 so I was two at the beginning of the war and eight when it finished. I can always remember my mum telling me about when we were first evacuated. I was a member of a big family; my mum actually had ten children at the time. Obviously the older ones were in the forces. I had two brothers in the Navy and a sister in the Wrens. Mum thought she was going to be evacuated taking all the children and they would all be billeted together, that they鈥檇 stay together. When we got there she found that they had to be split up. People didn鈥檛 want to take lots of children; they wanted them in ones and twos.

Eventually my mum had to agree to have her family split. She was with me; I was a toddler, and my younger brother who was a baby in arms. A policeman鈥榮 wife kindly took us in, and she said when she went into the bedroom, there was this beautiful bed with a big satin eiderdown and because she was breastfeeding my brother at the time, she sat up all night in the chair because she was frightened of getting milk on the bed! So she went home to Peckham and my brother and I stayed with her all through the war whereas my older brother and sisters stayed there.

I know my brothers and sisters weren鈥檛 happy there. My dad used to go down there at least once a month to see them, and he noticed my young brothers were getting thin; they were with an elderly person who wasn鈥檛 feeding them properly. So their first billet wasn鈥檛 very happy, neither was my sisters鈥�. They were with some people in the same village, and they weren鈥檛 a very nice couple. Eventually they were moved to Worthing where they were billeted with a very nice family. They were happy with them, but their first experience of evacuation wasn鈥檛 a good one.

After the war they went back to see the family in Worthing and when I was grown up I was taken down to see them. So they鈥檝e got sad memories and happy memories. They were evacuated for only 2 years so were all homes during the worst of the raids, doodle bugs and rockets.

Our home in Peckham

My dad was a brickie and worked for the Council. He actually taught himself during the war to lay bricks because, obviously, a lot of the young ones had gone. As well as his ordinary job he had to do fire watching at nights.

We lived in a four bedroom flat in Peckham. It had no amenities. It had running cold water obviously. The flats were built in such a way, there was a square and then an oblong flat and then another square, and in the middle of the oblong, we had a barrage balloon in there. It was lovely for the children! When it was down low, full up, there used to be pockets of canvas underneath, so we used to sit in there. It was very, very dangerous when you think of it now because we could have tipped in and gone under and no-one would have known we were there. We used to swing in there. When they let the balloon down, all the children would come and we used to stamp on it, to get the air out.

Finally the RAF left because they were billeted there to look after the balloon and they鈥檇 had this big coal bunker and you know coal was on rations. One day some kiddies were digging down there and they found this load of coal, so, of course, everybody was down there digging up this coal! We thought Christmas had come early!

I remember them coming and taking all the iron away. There were railings outside the flats but they were taken away. We lost all the iron and other metal.

Entertainment

We always had a radio. I loved the radio, which was part of our lives really. We would listen to Worker鈥檚 Playtime and other shows. You used to have to go and get the battery things, the accumulators, you had to go and get them filled up, recharged, and you had to be careful when you carried it not to spill it, it would burn because it was acid.

Dad could sing when he was young and we all used to sing, it was a form of entertainment. I used to sing as well, take off the stars. I used to perform like Carmen Miranda for these American soldiers and they used to give me money.

Air Raids

My sister was born in 1944 and she was actually born during an air raid. She was a very pretty baby, so they took her down and showed her off in the air raid shelter! They always used to say to her 鈥淗itler threw you in through the window鈥�! In actual fact our blocks of flats were bombed but they had their own air raid shelter built underground. There was a real feeling of community there. They used to sing and tell stories, but the smell was vile! I can remember it now.

One night they dropped five bombs on us and the whole of the middle of the road was taken out, it was a crossroads. All this corner of the flats went and in the other three corners, houses were demolished. We were at the end flat and we had a drying room next to us, which actually took all the blast. Mostly the windows were just blown in and we had soot come down the fireplace, but basically nothing bad. The drying room actually saved us. In some ways it wasn鈥檛 too bad because you got a bit of compensation so Mum was able to have some new curtains.

My dad had fought in the First World War but he would not go in a shelter, he helped to build them but he said it was a waste of time but he would do a lot of fire fighting.

I remember one time; I think I was going to put a bet on for my dad. Although it was illegal, you always had a bookie standing on the corner. I was coming home when an air raid started. I remember running, panicking, running all the way home.

Where my husband lived in Deptford they were actually bombed but luckily enough nobody was in the eight flats above. It was Saturday night and everybody was down the pub, so nobody died or got hurt. The bomb knocked out all of the eight flats above. We were the only family in at the time; we were in my Gran鈥檚 flat on the bottom level.

Daily life in the war

We still went to school and our school was a little church school and they didn鈥檛 cook dinners. So we used to have to walk to a bigger school which was quite a little walk away in our dinner hour, have our dinner , and then walk all the way back. We used to do that and think it was nothing really.

The school dinners were alright, I always ate mine. And if you wanted bread you鈥檇 hear that the baker was baking bread and you鈥檇 rush over there, it used to burn our arms as we carried it home still hot from the ovens.

I remember going to Goudhurst for hopping. Three Chimneys Farm, Goudhurst. I know there used to be an aerodrome or something near there, because we used to see the aircraft and there were also nurses under canvas there as well, because they used to come and sing round the campfire. I can always remember this nurse singing 鈥淪ilver Wings in the Moonlight鈥�. Sitting there, singing songs, because everybody used to do that. We always used to go hopping, during the war and after because that was the way my Mum got money to buy presents and extras for Christmas.

On a Friday night we used to have baths. You were only allowed to use so much water and being a big family we used to share the bath water, and they used to what you call 鈥榮kim鈥� off the top. It was done in a routine. They would start with the younger ones first and work their way up but when I was a bit older I asked if I could go first! We used to have a bucket to take the water from the boiler to the bath and dad used to top it up with water. We used to wash our hair with that horrible soft soap and cut our nails and toenails. Mum used to bath us and my dad dried. When I went to secondary school at the age of eleven I found out that I was the only one still being bathed by their mum and dad on a Friday night. I didn鈥檛 tell anyone but after that I bathed myself!

We didn鈥檛 have laundrettes in those days and everything went to the bag wash. You might have a nice coloured dress but when it came back there was no colour left, it was white, because everything would be bleached!

Rationing

Most foods were on rations but Kennedy鈥檚 used to do sausages. Sausages weren鈥檛 rationed so mum would take two kiddies with her before we went to school and we used to have to queue up because everyone would know they were going to be sold and we used to get a pound each.

Another thing that wasn鈥檛 on rations was rabbits. There used to be a stall down the market and every now and again we would hear that there would be rabbits and you used to have to queue up again, because each person got one rabbit. They used to hook the rabbit up with the fur still on then they would skin it and my mum would make a meal out of it. They used to keep the skin and a man would come round and collect them and make them into things like fur rugs.

Some people were quite nasty to us because my mum had a big family she had more ration books. You鈥檇 be surprised how many people, when my mum used to go shopping they鈥檇 say, 鈥淥oh, look at her with all those ration books!鈥� But she had to feed a family. I suppose because she had more she could have a joint of meat or whatever. I used to hate to go shopping because of that.

We didn鈥檛 get bananas in the war. My brother was stationed in the Mediterranean and he said he would send us home some bananas. This tin arrived, like a square biscuit tin, and when we opened it! You know what bananas are like when they鈥檝e gone off. That was my first sight of bananas! Up 鈥榯il then the only time I saw a banana was in the Johnny Weismuller films. We used to love films. We did still go to the pictures, even though it was a luxury that was my mum鈥檚 treat. My dad used to have to look after the children so that she could go.

Although money was short we always had a good pair of shoes. Easter, I had a summer pair of sandals, and then I would get a pair of shoes for the winter. And they would have to last you. Because my mum had the coupons and my friend was an only child, my mum would give her mum the coupons and I would get her second hand clothes. She had new and I had second hand! There actually used to be second hand clothes stalls, and I often had to go down there. I hated it, but it was what you had to do. Except for the one new dress you got at Easter and the one at Christmas they were all hand-me-downs.

When my dad came home from work in the evening he would cut out the coupons and my young brother and I would go to the sweet shop where we would choose 2 ozs. of sweets each. We were able to have these as my older brothers and sisters gave up their rations for us.

A Wartime Mother

When I think back to what my mum did, how she fed all us children. We didn鈥檛 have a lot of nice clothes or anything but I never knew what it was like to be hungry.

Mum always managed to do a lovely Christmas dinner and we were always happy with colouring books. She always did a stocking with an orange and an apple and so many sweets and three penny bits. Dad always used to make the Christmas Pudding and he would never finish making it until the last person in the family had had a stir, made a wish, because it was considered lucky.

When coal was rationed we sometimes had to have coke. When the mums heard that someone was selling coke, the women, as the men were at work, would buy a bag load each and my mum would carry that up on her stomach. We lived in a flat, four flights of stairs up. At one time only a couple of months before my sister was born.

The end of the war

We had a street party for V.E. Day. My sister has a photograph of it. It was lovely, we had chairs and tables in the square and everybody contributed towards the food; sandwiches, cakes and jellies. Somebody brought out a piano and we had a sing-song. I can remember all the children playing games and in the evening the grownups dancing.

Just after the war finished they took all the children from Peckham and Camberwell in Charabancs to Dymchurch; and that was the first time I saw the sea, because you couldn鈥檛 go to the seaside during the war. The beaches were all barricaded off and some of the swimming baths were closed too. I was eight or nine before I saw the sea.

My memories of the war are not all sad. I was frightened on occasions, like when the bomb came down on the flats, being caught outside during the air raids, and also at night when everything went dark. I think the rockets and the doodle bugs were the most frightening as they often came during the daytime.
However, we used to play on the bomb sites, they were exciting playgrounds.

The family were separated for a time; but my dad did take me to visit my brothers and sisters so I did see them on occasions, but I can鈥檛 say that I had a bad war. It was a bad time for many people died who being killed by the bombs, but as a child I didn鈥檛 realise how bad it was. None of my family including aunts, uncles and cousins were either injured or killed. We were extremely lucky.

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