大象传媒

When war broke out I was living in Rochester with my parents and younger sister, Betty. I was nine years old and Betty was seven. I was a pupil at Rochester Grammar School and Betty was due to start there that month, so we were both evacuated with the school to Canterbury. However, we only stayed there for two nights as my parents came to see us and took us home.

When it seemed that our country was in danger of being invaded by Germany my sister and I were sent up to Abergele in North Wales to stay with our Welsh Grandmother (Nain) and our Aunties May and Gwen. One afternoon when we had just returned from school and were in the kitchen with Nain, there was a tremendous explosion and the whole kitchen shook. Nain grabbed us and buried our faces into the long black apron she was wearing. We were covered in soot and all the locks were blown off the doors. I cannot remember how long we stood there and then the neighbours came in to see if we were alright.

Then we heard that a damaged German bomber had flown over Abergele and dropped its bomb load. A house a little way up the road from us was hit and two ladies killed. There was other damage as well.

When I was older I thought how terrible it would have been for my parents if we had been killed when they had sent us so far away for our safety. We had a lucky escape.

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