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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by a volunteer from Age Concern Dorchester on behalf of Mary Martin and has been added to the site with her permission. Mary fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

It was a lovely summer’s day in August 1939. There had been a lot of undercurrent talking in our house near Ravenscourt Park about a coming war, but I was too young to realize the real seriousness. My sister, Stella who was married and living in a new development in Richings Park, Iver, Buckinghamshire arrived home to see us. The next thing I knew was some hurried packing and Mummy telling me I was going to stay with my sister and her husband. Apparently she had had a visit from the Council a day or so earlier informing her that she was going to be given a young evacuee from inner London. Young children were being sent to the country to get them away from London and the expected bombing following the outbreak of war with Germany. My dear sister was apprehensive about having a strange child sent to her and thought the better of two evils was to have ‘the devil she knew’!! A loving sister’s sentiments.
It was the last day of August 1939 when I arrived. I had the spare bedroom which I would share with my new niece or nephew due in March. I was trilled at the idea of being an auntie at 14years! The following Sunday morning, 3rd September - a beautiful sunny warm day, the air was still, the birds singing, the bees humming — I was just outside the backdoor. The radio was playing when suddenly the voice of the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, came on air and with sadness in his voice announced that from that moment we were at war with Germany as all negotiations with Hitler had broken down, I can feel and remember it well, a sort of chill coming over me as I began to realize that our peaceful carefree life - even at that early age - would never be quite the same again. And then the first sound of the siren - very eerie!!
I started at a new school in September — St Bernard’s Convent, Langley, Slough. My sister’s neighbour had an older daughter who had just left the convent and kindly gave me her old uniform. It was strange at first, but I soon made friends and settled down. The nuns were kind.
Daddy bought me a new Rudge Whitworth bicycle — my pride and joy. Everyone in Iver rode bikes.
I made a lot of friends in Richings Park. Helen next door was very sweet and introduced me to many people nearly all a year or two older than me, but it didn’t seem to matter. We had some great times until one by one the young boys were old enough and were called up and enlisted in the Forces.
Here are some of the things we did together as a group of friends. There was a tremendous feeling of togetherness:-
Roller Skating
We used to go down to the tarmac footpath between the railway and canal. They taught me to roller skate. I used to ice skate at Richmond Ice Rink before the war, but the balancing was different. It was great fun and when I was proficient, we went along in pairs.
Music/Singing Club
We formed this club held in my sister’s house as they had a lovely grand piano. The Leaches were all good at music- Joyce played the piano, Arthur the cello. We used to do part singing and learnt quite a few songs.
Ballroom dancing
We formed a dancing club and met at Rex Standerwick’s home. There was a lovely room with a parquet floor. His mother used to make us sandwiches and things. His parents used to go out and leave us to enjoy ourselves. All the furniture was pushed to the wall leaving a wonderful dancing area. Everything was put back in place after the dance session. We respected other people’s property in those days!
The Sports Club
Cricket on Sundays with the wives and mothers in charge of teas, tennis, ‘oldies playing bowls, evenings in the club house — it all seemed idyllic to me.
Then everything begun to change
The ‘war’ became very serious in my mind as all the boys began to be enlisted and some of the girls were old enough to join in the Forces or Land Army. I was too young, but dearly wanted to join the WRNS. In my class at the Convent, four of us wanted to do this.
At the end of 1941, the war was getting rather serious. London was seeing a lot of bombing so my father found a cottage in Cowley about 2-3 miles from Iver to which he and Mummy moved and I went to live with them. Very sadly my dear father was killed in July 1942 so life changed rather for us. I left the Convent and went to Pitman’s to do accountancy, shorthand typing and commercial French. Friends of my sister’s in Iver — one was a Director of Britannic Cable Co. in Iver - said there was a vacancy in the Accounts Dept. so I went there and sadly didn’t join the WRNS because I thought it was unkind to leave my mother on her own. It was a reserved occupation — cables were very important to the war effort and I learnt a lot about cables!
On May 8, 1945 I married my darling husband Kenneth. It was VE Day!

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