大象传媒

This story has been submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by a volunteer from Lincoln CSV Action Desk and added to the site on behalf of members of the Old Uffingtonians Association, which is the ex-pupils of Willesdon County Grammar School, with their permission. In this case the author is J. McGrath. The association fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I lived in Willesden, even in those days it was heavily industrialised and in fact had the lowest proportion of green belt/open air land in the whole of London.

We were actually evacuated on Saturday 2nd September 1939. The day before we declared war on Germany. Prior to evacuation we had had a couple of 鈥榙ummy鈥� runs 鈥� all the pupils at my school who had elected for evacuation, and their brothers & sisters brought their baggage to the school and marched (the not inconsiderable way) to Willesden Junction Station. (Then we had to march back!!)

At the time I was attending Willesden County School 鈥� a grammar school of that time, & most evacuees went as organised groups with their schools. It was the greatest single involvement of people that this country had known up to that time.

Came the day when it was to be the real thing, war was quite inevitable now, & we all congregated at the school at 9.30 in the morning. I was 13 years old at the time, but had with me four younger sisters aged 11, 9, 7 & 5 and a younger brother also aged 5. Doubtless some of the parents wept a few tears, but for most of the children it was a time of high excitement. Many of us, in those days of high unemployment & poverty, had never been on a train, certainly not on holiday and here we were starting off by train to 鈥淭he Country鈥�. That alone was enough to make it something we could always remember. However, the enormous crocodiles wending their way to the station were quite awesome 鈥� my 2 five year olds soon gave up carrying their own bags & wanting themselves to be carried.

At the station, several other schools were already there. Three trains came, were filled and departed. We got on the fourth. I imagine that at that time the seniors in charge of the party knew where particular schools were going, but we, the evacuees had not the remotest idea of where we were bound. However we were not too concerned, especially when 鈥渞ations鈥� were issued to each child 鈥� a carrier bag with an apple & orange, biscuits, lemonade, fruit drops & (untold luxury) a half-pound bar of chocolate. Yes, at this time were glad we were being evacuated.

After a journey much longer than it would take today 鈥� lots of stops and starts 鈥� we reached our destination, Castle Station, Northampton shortly after 2 o鈥檆lock. We disembarked & were at once loaded onto a fleet of buses & taken to the far side of the town. Again disembarked & we were now assembled in a school hall (Barry Road School), where chaos reigned. Local Government Officers 鈥� the Billeting Officers 鈥� local ladies pressed into service, our teachers (trying to mark registers & ensure that all their children were present), the children milling about everywhere. Little groups of children going out with the local ladies to prospective foster parents. I had decided that our six had to be close together, although I was prepared to go in two鈥檚 鈥� the 11 year old & 5 year old girls, the 9 & 7 year old girls, my little brother & I.

At about 5 o鈥檆lock we were taken off by two ladies & visited a number of houses 鈥� none of whom wanted two tired, bedraggled Londoners! Success at last & we got the middle two fixed & several houses later the other two girls. However nobody still wanted to take in the two boys. Roundabout 9 o鈥檆lock one lady took pity on us & said we could have her daughter鈥檚 bed for the night 鈥� but her daughter was returning from holiday the following day, so we would not be able to stay. About this time I did not feel quite so glad that we were being evacuated!! She was a very kind lady 鈥� a bath, some proper food (we鈥檇 only had that 鈥渞ation鈥� bag) & a lovely comfortable bed & my brother & I cried each other to sleep.

The Billeting Officer came for us at 9.30 the next morning and back to Barry Road School again. Better luck this time, a lady had asked for two boys. So off we went and we were acceptable. There was no form of market place picking, so we did not really feel we had been picked, however the rejections of the previous day had been hurtful. Since ours was a grammar school (mixed), there was an inference that we were the more able boys and girls and by further inference that we were the 鈥榥icer鈥� ones and therefore more acceptable. I have no recollection that any of my peer group had strong feelings about being picked, for as I say, we were the ones most sought after. Subsequently of course, it became apparent that mistakes of placement 鈥� on both sides 鈥� had occurred fairly frequently.

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