大象传媒

I was five years old when the war broke out, living in Streatham, South London. I was evacuated with the school but this happened on September 1st. At five years old i was sent away to an unknown family in Chichester. I have vivid memories of the train journey because i was so excited but on arriving at my hosts home and being put to bed i screamed all night so was wrappedly passed over to someone else. The people to whom i eventually went were absolutley super! I was there for a year. I came home in the September 1940 and the blitz started so i was sent back again. I wasn't sent back to my previous family but went to Dunstable. There i was with one family for a short time but then passed on to another family. This was hell on earth. It was filthy, dirty, very little to eat. Many other evacuees there who were very rough hit me. Worst of all we slept three in a bed. The saving grace they had two chow dogs who were kenneled at the end of the garden and i spent all my time sitting in the kennel with them. My parents eventually traced where i was because communications between those in charge had given them the wrong address but as soon my parents came down they took me home. I stayed in London until 1944. Then the flying bombs started which was very frightening. One day i had been shopping with my mother and walking home we knew the sirens had gone but this never stopped us from doing anything. However, on this occasion we could hear whistles blowing and this indicated that danger was inniment. Suddenly an air raid warden appeared from nowhere threw me on the ground, threw my mother on top of me and there was the most almighty explosion with broken glass and falling rubble. If this gentlemen had not seen us and acted so quickly we would have been very badley injured. On arriving home though, we found all the ceilings down in the house and my fathers face covered in blood. This of course was very frightening for a ten year old and thereafter every time i heard an air raid warning i started to shake. Hence, i was off again and evacuatede to Pool in Dorset. Homesickness was a huge problem there. At the age of five, i don't remember being homesick but at ten it lasted for weeks and weeks.I stayed there until July of 1945 but of course the war in Europe finished on May 8th. I expected to come home straight away but i must of waited until the end of the school year. Because i sat London examinations, i was able to come back and start grammer school in the summer of 1945. One thing i paticularly remember, in June of 1944, Pool harbour was covered in American boats! Water was just not visible and the next day we went down there, it was utterly silent and not a boat in sight and so i often wondered what happened in the night and where all the boats went. I think it may have been D-Day. My memories of being evacuated, evacuation of children had never happened before in England and it will never happen again.

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