大象传媒

My name is Pam Webb and I was born in 1925 in London, in South London. I was just 14 then so I was one of the oldest children at school to be evacuated and our whole school was evacuated from Camberwell to Yeovil.

Most people had a terrible time I think, they were upset and frightened but because we were all the whole school and I went to a big house, I had a lovely time. It was really quite fun. Nice to be in a group of ten kids of whom I was the eldest because then I was able to dictate for the first time in my life because I was always at the bottom of the pile at home. That was quite enjoyable.

I stayed there for the three years until it was time to finish school and thoroughly enjoyed it. I stayed on an extra year to do a shorthand typing course so that I could come home and鈥� But really the only things that interested me about that time are the actual journey and the scene of being evacuated, which I remember. As I say, I enjoyed it when I got there.

I had to be in charge of a little girl because I was older. We had to start by walking to Waterloo Station. It was ever such a long way, and then we had to get into trains and they gave us milk and biscuits. Every time we stopped, they gave us milk and biscuits. Everywhere 鈥� all the way down. The maths mistress, she said, 鈥淣ow we mustn鈥檛 talk about it girls, but it鈥檚 my opinion we鈥檙e going to the West Country鈥�. Well, all I knew was, if you were having a good time, you went up West. That was in London. I didn鈥檛 know anything about the West Country. It might have been anywhere.

Anyhow, when we got there after a lot more changes, we got to Yeovil Station, where they put us on buses. And they banged the sides of the bus and said 鈥淭his lot for East Coker鈥�, and this little kid who鈥檇 been so good just screamed and hollered because she knew where cocoa came from, and she thought she was in Africa, and of course it took a long while to persuade her that she really was still in England.

But when we got to this place that was quite good, they put ten of us with one big house, the lady of the Manor was quite elderly, or I thought she was then, but we were rather posh for the first time in our lives and we asked to get our bikes. Difficult to get our bikes down there but our parents did send them. And there we were. We were going to the seaside, we thought, on the bikes. They said 鈥淥h no, no, you can鈥檛 go to Blue Anchor鈥�, so we went to Wookey Hole instead, which was very nice. We enjoyed it. Came home and told her we鈥檇 had a lovely time, and because we didn鈥檛 make any fuss, she bought us all tennis rackets and had her lawn set down for a tennis court for us, because we were such good children, which of course, we鈥檇 never been told before in our lives. So that was rather nice.

Queen Mary, the elderly one, was coming down to see us. Not to see us, but see our lady in charge of the house. Nobody had any petrol, nobody at all. But our old lady was able to send a chauffeur-driven vehicle to pick up the evacuees from the town and bring them out to the house, so that we could be presented to the old Queen. Of course, people had got to know that she was on her way. Everyone was out on the streets, and we, of course, leant out of this posh car.
Very special all the while we were evacuated.

I was actually confirmed there, and because I was being confirmed, we had a tea reception for everybody, for all the mothers of the village children and so on, and the Bishop came and stayed at our house. The Bishop and I had to receive everybody at the door. So there鈥檚 this funny little kid from South Lambeth and the old Bishop. It was quite an amusing time we had because anything we wanted, it all seemed so different somehow there. Well everything was different. They had a lot of money and we had very little. They were pleasant too and nobody ever told us off. So long as we caught the school bus, and we didn鈥檛 go out after blackout, we could do as we like.

But after three years I came home and joined the rat-race in London and lived at the top of a block of flats at Islington by then, did a lot of various hospital jobs and we were mundane after that. But I must admit that the beginning of it I really enjoyed.

Almost everyone you speak to seems to have had somebody who was nasty to them. A friend of mine who went to a different school from me, they had to take her little brother and he kept wetting the bed, and she kept getting sent from one place to the other. They didn鈥檛 like her little brother. It鈥檚 just the luck of the draw.

But it did me a lot of good, I must admit. Grew up hundred鈥檚 of years. They said that if you went in the Forces it was the making of you, but I think I grew up far more just being evacuated, and suddenly finding I could boss everybody about, it just did the trick for me.

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