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I was evacuated at the beginning of the war with my grandmother, sister and brother. My grandmother and brother went with one family, my sister and me with another. Unfortunately one of the families my sister and I went to were very strict and unkind. They handed out good hidings instead of sweets. The last straw came when my mother visited one weekend and found us looked out of the house with food left on the doorstep. My mother went to the Billeting officer and complained - thank goodness and we were removed to yet another family. Sadly I do believe there was religious prejudice — we were Roman Catholics and the people we were billeted with were non Catholics. One family befriended my grandmother and brother who were Irish Catholics. My grandmother stayed with Mrs Riley for years after the war.

Thinking back I must have been about 5 - 6 years old. The Ursuline Nuns from a Convent school in Dalston had a great part in our being evacuated which was a good thing. We stayed on in Northampton after the war. I did not return to London until I was 19 to do my nurses training at the German hospital in Dalston.

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