大象传媒

I lived in the village of Barnack, near Stamford, in Lincolnshire, and was nearly 4 years of age at the start of the war.

I remember a young girl from London, Jeanette Isaman, joined our family as an evacuee. Her brother, Gerald, stayed with the family next door.

At the local school, we practiced putting on our gas-masks. The headmaster, Mr Charles Allerton, would hammer on the door, as if there had been an air- raid warning, and the children would get their gas-masks on as quickly as possible.

At home, we sheltered in the cupboard under the stairs when the sirens went off. On the eve of my 5th birthday, an incendiary bomb landed on the school, opposite our house.

A large country house, Walcot Hall, near Barnack, became a base for American Servicemen.
Occasionally, the local children were invited to a party there, where we enjoyed a wonderful spread of food, and went home with a selection of 'goodies', a real treat.

Later in the war, we had new neighbours, a family from London. Several of their relations stayed there as well, and my elder sister, Betty, and I, took the young boys for walks.

When peace was declared in 1945, we were invited to go back to London with them, and joined in the victory celebrations, a distant memory.

I was fortunate in not having any horror stories to recall.

Rosemary Deacon, nee Miller, now living in Tintagel, Cornwall

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