大象传媒

At the start of the war I was living with my family (the Bubb family) in Ramsgate, I had three brothers and one sister, along with both my parents. When the German bombing started at the beginning of the war one of my brothers and I were evacuated to a farm in Hixon, Staffordshire.

I remember we didn鈥檛 like it there at all. We were very unhappy staying with the couple we were billeted with. They were very strict with us on the farm, and I remember that if I did something wrong the farmer would sit me down on his knee and rub my face with his beard stubble, not the most common form of punishment but nasty all the same! Every night we would have to say our prayers, and I remember one night my brother got one word wrong so he was punished every night for a whole week! In the end my parents actually moved to Wolverhampton where my father got a job in a tank factory, and my mother became a cleaner at a place called Penn Manor. This was owned by a Frenchman who used to deal on the black market, selling things like sugar. My mother told me that she threatened to report him a number of times! When he found out that my brother and I had been evacuated he said that we should all be together as a family again. Soon after we were moved away from the farm and went to stay with our parents and other siblings, and we were a lot happier with that!

Before the end of the war we all moved back to Ramsgate again as my father鈥檚 health was deteriorating, and the doctor said the fresh air there would do him some good. But I鈥檒l always remember moving away from that farm and back in with my parents, we were so glad to be back after almost two years apart. Before that we鈥檇 never been away from them for any length of time, but it wasn鈥檛 exactly much of a holiday!

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by James Barton and has been added to the website on behalf of Dorothy Farbrace with his/her permission and they fully understand the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

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