大象传媒

The talk of war with Germany was getting more and more headlines, and in 1939 we were all issued with Gas Masks. We collected ours from a community Hall in Waterworks Road. Each person was shown how to put on the mask, and it was checked to see if it fitted properly, we were then given a Cardboard box to make up, which would hold the mask, and a piece of string with which to carry it. A few weeks later I was evacuated to the Country along with several of my class mates, but not all. We left at around 9 o'clock in the morning from outside the school, myself and Reg went, but not Joan, she was allowed to stay in Birmingham, I was separated from my brother because we went in classes. The bus I was in took us to a small village in Herefordshire called Much Cowan, which is about 10 miles this side of Hereford. We assembled at the village school and after some refreshments, we were taken off by our new hosts. I don't know if we were picked out there and then or whether people had made special requests for what children they wanted, boys or girls and how many. I was selected by a farmers wife along with a classmate, who I knew quite well, but wasn't a particular friend of mine. His name was Gerald Packer and we got on quite well together considering. We were taken to a farm about a mile away from the school and introduced to the family. There were three boys and three girls, but all, except the youngest girl, Freda, were much older than us. The two eldest sons were working away from home on building sites, and we only saw them at weekends. The youngest son, Percy lived at home and helped on the farm with his father who was a big robust healthy looking red faced man with whiskers, a typical farmer and very old fashioned. His wife was also typical, she was a very hard working woman and had her eldest daughter at home to help her. The middle daughter, Eileen was a very beautiful looking girl, about sixteen and she was in service at a large house some miles away. It must have been a Saturday when we arrived because I remember listening to Neville Chamberlain, the Prime minister, on a very ancient looking Radio with a big horn loudspeaker, tell us that the ultimatum that Britain and France had given Hitler, had expired and we were now at war with Germany.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anastasia Travers a volunteer with WM CSV Actiondesk on behalf of John Harding and has been added to the site with his permission. John Harding fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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