大象传媒

I had been teaching in Dagenham for a year. Originally Dagenham was a neutral area but at the last minute it became an Evacuation Area. London had already commandeered the railways and buses and so we were evacuated by the Thames Pleasure Boat from Dagenham Docks. Children, teachers and pregnant mothers.

Our boat, I think the Royal Sovereign, went to Lowestoft where we found the Navy refused us accommodation (shelled in WW1), so we were put in a modern school and slept on straw. At 1am we were wakened and given blankets. Our rations were bread, margarine, crumbly red cheese and bruised apples. Staff were given tea and meat paste as extras. One school was billetted in a cinema. Imagine the toilet facilities!

We were there for three days. I was on Lowestoft beach when War was declared with another young teacher and about 20 5-7 yr olds. We stayed there when the siren went off as we had no idea of what to do. After three days billets were found for us in villages round about. Three female, five male and one wife and numerous children ended up in Somerleyton. It was chaotic sorting out the children. Abolut 20 boys and two masters were put in a squash court. Pregnant mothers with small children were put into cottages and the rest split up. The organisers had not thought of the teachers and finally decided to put us in the local off licence, who also did B & B. The three females shared one room, 2 men shared and the couple shared.

There was no mains drainage and one cold tap into the house and a 25w bulb in the small dining room. There was a kitchen table, hardchairs and very little room.

After about a fortnight the children were absorbed into the small local school and I had about 15 5-6 yr olds in a room with a curtain to separate us from the boys. At about the same time Ann and I were asked if we could have a bath (no bathroom) and I ws told visitors usually swam in the sea. Very reluctantly the copper was heated and Ann and I shared a tub.

After a while the children began to return and the married lady had made friends with a retired teacher (whose husband ran a market garden). Her children had gone and she offered to have us.

There was no electricity, no sewerage, a pump in the yard, an earth closet round the back. But we were made very welcome. The children drifted back and staff were reallocated or called up. Ann went to College, but I remained and was very happy until Dunkirk when we were moved inland as we were too near the coast. We were near Leamington Spa and I had to share a bed with a local girl.

After three weeks I was recalled to Dagenham and was there until the blitz really started. I was either in the school shelter with my class or leaning out of the staff room window watching the RAF taking on the German bombers. Volunteers were asked for evacuation again and I went to Somerset by train. While I was there I saw Bristol being bombed - a bomber went right over the village.

I stayed there until April 41 when I got married and moved to Buckinghamshire, a short while in Farnham Common and then moved to Stokenchurch to live with my parents who had been evacuated from London where my father was a teacher. I worked in Loudwater which was a cycle ride and two buses away until June 1943. I returned due to pregnancy but I did do a bit of supply work in Cadmere End and Ibstone.

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