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When war was declared our family was on holiday in North Wales, so my sister and I joined our school in Uttoxeter a few days later. Billets had been assigned in advance and all sisters, even up to the four Evans sisters were kept together. I was reasonably content with the situation — it was harder on my fourteen year old sister who was charged with taking care of me. The hideous black and white ‘dog tooth’ gas mask case which someone had brought me was the main source of distress. The following three months were quite fun. We had classes in the Uttoxeter girls’ high school in the afternoons and had walks, games and leisure activities in a local church in the mornings. We were also lucky that we had occasional visits from our parents at weekends. By December 1939 though, the majority of parents decided they would rather have their children at home regardless of what might happen.

It wasn’t until December 1940 that the blitz came to Manchester. This meant nights spent in the air raid shelter erected in the back garden — a corrugated iron construction with bricks three deep at the sides and a heavily sand-bagged roof. After the sirens sounded Dad would stand at the back door with his fire warden’s tin helmet on and give the sign when it was safe to dart across the passage to the shelter. It was quite important to do this as it was not uncommon to find pieces of shrapnel in the garden the next day. Our house fortunately was not damaged, but one or two nearby were ‘direct hits’ and many had windows blown in. Teachers at my school — just a few yards along the road—were kept very busy night after night putting out small fires caused by incendiary bombs — dozens of which fell on the building, which was probably mistaken for a factory. One day I remember we were not allowed in the village until a landmine attached to a parachute and caught in a tree outside the church had been dismantled. In the north, after 1942 there were many fewer air raids and the daytime alarms were more of an annoyance (to our teachers — not to us) disrupting classes and forcing us to repair to the shelters in the school itself.

We were clearly very fortunate and many memories of childhood wartime were quite pleasant. We spent a lot of time doing things for the war effort — putting on concerts, knitting scarves for airmen and as we became a little older, going to camp to pick peas etc. in the summer holidays.

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