大象传媒

I started at Wandsworth Grammar School, Sutherland Grove, Southfields, London, SW18 in September as the war broke out.
A few days before war was declared the whole school was evacuated.

We were marched to Southfields District line station each with a bag of belongings (mostly clothes), gas masks and brown parcel label tied to our coat bearing our name, address and the name of the school in case we got lost. This was prophetic as it proved later!

The train took us to Woking station where a number of double decker buses were waiting for us.

After each bus was filled with children, not all had a teacher with them, the buses were given to AA and RAC motorcyclists to escort to the various centres which were waiting to receive us.

Unfortunately, the AA man who led our little convoy of three buses must have misheard his instruction as to the intended destination.

Four hours or so later we arrived in Maidenhead, Berkshire, where no-one expected us!

The local WI ladies turned out to deal with this crowd of tired, fed-up children and divide us into groups of about twenty. Then each group was led in crocodile file by a WI lady who hawked us from door to door asking peaople to take us in.

For three days neither our parents nor the school had any idea what had happened to us untill our parents began to get postcards from us and were able to tell the school.

I can only assume that the unfortunate AA man should have taken us to Mayford or Maybury (both on the outskirts of Woking).

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