大象传媒

When war broke out I was 6years old without a care in the world, and the thought of war seemed exciting, and I wondered why the adults were so worried. Almost immediately I was evacuated to Brighton with my school. We were taken in groups house to house asking people if they would take us in. I stayed with an old lady,or I thought she was, and only remember feeling hungry most of the time. But by Xmas we were soon sent back to London again, as Brighton was thought to be an obvious landing for the enemy if they invaded (Who worked that one out). We were to be sent to the West Country instead. As there had at that point not been any air raids my mother decided I would not go. Soon after the bombing started we lost our house, so I went to stay with family friends in Clapham. Unfortunately we were quite close to Clapham Junction, a prime target for bombing, and so we went through an awful amount of air raids.Twice going to school I walked through rubble to find the school gone, seeing people taken from the rubble of their houses. Then the house next door to us was hit, and I awoke to a bed covered in broken glass. Another time during an air raid the blast sent be across the kitchen and I landed under the kitchen table with the dog. My mother found a place to stay in North London and I moved in with her. My father a regular soldier was away in the army, my brother at boarding school. New school, and more air raids. My father came home on leave and insisted that I be evacuated, so once more I was off, this time to Peterborough, where I was very happy to stay. Meanwhile my brother came home for a holiday from school and was killed in an air raid, and my mother moved again. I think she was very lonely as I was suddenly whisked backed to London. We were staying in a small flat over a shop, and my mother had to do fire watching duties at night, so I had the nights completely on my own, which I throughly enjoyed, staying up late reading till all hours.I never remember being particularly frightened. I was now at my seventh school, and at this point had to take what is now called eleven plus. How I passed I'll never know, as I did'nt take it very seriously. Then the doodlebugs started and once again I was to be evacuated, each time it was through contact with the school I was at. This time it was to be Wales. My mother came with me on the train and saw me settled. I was with an elderly couple who were very kind, but extremely religous. My memory of this period is mainly of church every evening and three times on Sundays. As I had taken my eleven plus in London I had to sit it again in Wales, so went to the Junior school until I passed and then was transferred to the Grammer school, two more schools. I was taken ill with Scarlet Fever and had to go into hospital as I was very ill, this was a horrible time as I had no one to visit me and became very unhappy. Then I was sent to a convalescent home for a while, and my mother came to visit me at Xmas. When I was better I was sent to another home, I am not sure why (maybe I was an obnoxious child) and there I hated it, there were other children in the house who treated my horribly. I was always made to eat on my own, and was tormented at school. In the May war was over, was I glad! But because there were so many children to get back to London, nothing happened, I expected to be sent home the day after war in Europe finished, but it was not to be. I became impatient, and about July I decided to act. I drew out my National Savings stamps my mother had been sending me, did'nt take any clothes and was off to the railway station. But - the next train for London left the following day. I could,nt go back to the house, so I spent the night in a tree in a field nearby. I got the train eventually and arrived in London. I had told no one where I was going, I did not know where my mother lived, as she had moved yet again, and so was completely lost. Luckily at the end of the war there were organizations at all the London stations on the lookout for children who had been evacuated and maybe had lost their homes and even their parents. I don't remember who took me in, but I was taken to a school used as a kind of holding area,I remember sleeping on a camp bed, and was soon reunited with my mother, who did'nt even know I was missing, But was she cross!! At last I was home for good. But it was only to be the two of us from then on, as my father had died in a concentration camp, after being taken prisoner by the Japanese in Burma.

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