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I was evacuated in 1941 to Marazion in Cornwall, the school was Devonport High, and was generally in Penzance except for the 40 boys who lived in The Rookery in Marazion. Every day we walked a mile to the station caught a train to Penzance and dispersed to our various classes. Initially we shared the Penzance High School building, attending morning assembly at St Johns Hall where we always had our speech days in the four years we were away.
The sad thing was that all the young energetic teachers went to war and we were left with retired gentlemen or ladies who were generally not so hot, they did there best (this is all covered in a book written by Harold Whitfield entitled "A Torch in Flame"). It wasn't long before we found premise in private houses or other buildings spread around the town, when we had Chemistry lessons we had to hike to the science building in Morrab Road, Art was in Causeway Head, and PT at the Penzance County High School. The girls school was not far away and we walked up a lane adjacent to their sports fields we would climb the hedge and ogle them as they played basket ball with their skirts tucked into their nickers!
The Rookery was presided over by Mr.K.C.Sparrow and his wife, his nickname was inevitably "Dicky" he was the Biology master and a very competent Scout Master, our troop was 18th Devonport but it lay fallow 'til the end of the war when it was resuscitated and I was the Patrol Leader of the Kingfishers. We would breakfast in the mornings have a scratch meal lunchtimes Fish and chips two days, Cornish pasties, or in a "British
Restaurant" where the food was awful We always had a splendid meal in the evenings and then supervised homework in the evenings.8 o'clock sharp cocoa and a slice of bread and dripping and lights out at 9. We all slept in dormitories ranging in size from 3 to 10. I eventually became a House Prefect, there were two of us and we had our own room. My opposite number was Reggie Leadbeater with whom I am still in touch, he had been evacuated from Guernsey in the Channel Isles when the Germans occupied the Islands.
Every fourth Saturday we worked in the garden which kept us supplied with vegetables and in the evenings we watched silent 8mm movies. I saw all the Charlie Chaplin Films, Laurel and Hardy etc. Every Christmas we had a big production. The first year it was "The Thief of Baghdad" The second and third year"A Christmas Carol" and the third year "Jane Eyre" I played Bob Cratchit the second year, Scrooge in the third year and I adapted and directed "Jane Eyre" in the final year. The Rookery belonged to Lord St. Levan and the first year those of us who had remained at the Rookery were invited to St Michael’s Mount to celebrate Boxing Day with Lady St. Levan. We had the biggest cracker you've ever seen, it took four of us to pull it -two at each end thank goodness it didn't have a correspondingly big bang!
One of my most poignant memories which was never ever mentioned was when one of our schoolmates was told that his father had been killed in the war. I remember two occasions. The first time was a boy called Calvert, I happened to be standing on the staircase when I saw - Calvert and Mr Sparrow together, Kenneth Sparrow appeared to be speaking earnestly and seriously to him, then the door to The Sparrow's living quarters opened and a smart attractive woman in a WRENS uniform came in she knelt beside Calvert and hugged him and held him close for sometime and then led him behind the door followed by Mr Sparrow, Calvert was gently sobbing. I felt like an intruder, and have never told this story before. No-one ever said anything and yet we all knew that his father had been a war casualty. Calvert was left with his grief, we were all kind to him in funny boyish ways not knowing how to handle the situation, and gradually Calvert came back to us, but he was never quite the same. His mother, for that was who the lady in the uniform was, only spent a few hours with Calvert, she must have had some very pressing duty, but then that’s War! The second was John Woodcock, how he was told I don't know but poor John walked around in a daze for weeks. Tears would well out of his eyes quite unbidden, gradually he regained his composure and he was able to tell me that his father had gone down on a Battleship, I think it was the ‘Renown’ but can't be sure. One day when John was getting up in the morning and he was putting on his socks - most of us slopped off in Slippers and only put our socks on when we finally dressed after washing? (The question mark is deliberate)- I asked him why he put his socks on first. He looked at me whimsically and said "Well you see my father told me that I should always put my socks on first" and his eyes filled with tears!

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