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Douglas Hare now lives in Tisbury.
In August 1939 ,at the age of twelve, Douglas lived in as seaside home. At Bexhill. One day the family returned home they found two evacuees door step. In September 1939 war was declared and they all helped to fill sandbags to protect the house.

At school the sports pitch had to be shortened due to long air aid shelter where the whole school of eighty boys and staff used in the event of air raids. In the holidays he and some of his friends volunteered to pump out the water to keep the shelter dry.

On the 10 May 1940 after France fell there was a perception the England would be invaded. The family was evacuated to Abingdon near the RAF airbase.
He remembers that this move ruined his chances of making the 1st X1 cricket team.

On 8 Aug 1940 at thirteen he was evacuated to Canada with his Mother and sister and brother to stay with friends.The convoy of six ocean liners, which took three weeks to cross the Atlantic, was heavily defended by battleships. It was a very traumatic experience for Douglas. Even at thirteen he felt a degree of responsibility for the family as his father stayed at home. It was a very poignant moment in his life when he sailed for Canada.

In June 1945 they returned to the UK and stayed with his uncle at Barham as their house had been requisitioned as a forces canteen. He attended the celebrations on August 15 1945 in London and climbed the railings of Buckingham palace aged eighteen. He joined up into occupation army in Italy Royal Sussex and was de-mobbed before going to university.

Ann Hare now lives in Tisbury

Ann was 6 when war broke out . She Came back early from Holidays and went to stay with her grandparents at West Wickham in Kent. There was a real fear that Britain was going to be invaded and she was given a lined cloth bag with a bone handle containing a change of clothes . Her grandfather tacked up a Carpet over the door in the hall to prevent any blast material damaging anyone.

She changed schools due to the risk of bombing in Surrey and moved to local school called St Peters in Coulsdon.

In 1940 her cousin spent all school holidays with her and they spent many hours in their garden in 1940 watching the aeroplane 鈥渄og fights鈥� above. He mother frequently scooped them up and taking them to the shelter where they spent many hours singing their favourite songs and eating biscuits .

During the blitz they slept under the stairs and later moved to a shelter and slept on a bed. She remembers the Sky was red for several nights during a particularly heavy bombing.

In 1944 aged ten Ann went back to her old school and remembers hearing the Doodlebugs cutting out over the hill. Aged eleven she was transferred to School in Somerset at St Cristophers at Burham on sea. She found it very worrying as she did not know what might happen to her parents. She stayed there for a term.

On VJ Day she was at guide camp near Dorking and an Oil bomb landed in the road which spilt oil everywhere but it did not ignite . Her father鈥檚 cousin was reported missing and later dead and this unhappy event hang like a cloud over the family.

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