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Frances Margaret Ann Milne

Evacuation Wanderings

My first place of evacuation was to Bladon near Oxford. Evacuation was organized through the schools but I went from a public school called the Girls Private Day School Trust. This was at the time of the ‘false war’ and I went the day before war was declared! I stayed there about three months, with my mother and sister at my Aunt’s house and went to school to Oxford High School. I made some good friends and was happy there.

After three months we went back to Ealing and I want back to my school. It was my School Certificate year. In my specialist subject, Biology, I had fallen behind and had to work very hard to catch up. However, I was evacuated again two weeks before exams started. I went to Barnstaple and I had to go to Bideford to take the rest of my exams. In the end, I passed top in Biology!!

I stayed in Devon until the autumn and did six weeks Barnstaple Grammar School in the sixth form, doing a pre-nursing course, but then back I went to Oxford again. I continued with the pre-nursing, but couldn’t get into the Radcliffe Infirmary for two years, so instead of waiting I did orthoptics at the Eye Hospital dealing with such problems as eye squints in children.

Later in the war, I came to Guildford and got my first job at Royal Surrey Hospital. I stayed in that job until after the war.

We did suffer air raids in Guildford — the buzz-bombs or doodle bugs. We used to dive under the table when we heard them. One Tuesday, when I was off duty, I was in my digs and heard the drone of a flying bomb — the engine suddenly stopped and I dived for cover, but fortunately, it landed in a field just beside the A3 (then known as the Guildford By-Pass) — so a near miss for me.

Although I had a ration book, I never had to shop for rations — at first my mother did it, and then when I was in digs, the landlady dealt with the food shopping.

The war didn’t really stop my social life as a young woman: I used to come up to London and go to the theatre and of course, I was outside Buckingham Palace on VE Night and remember the Royal Family had to come out on to the balcony five times. We heard that Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were out in the crowd, but didn’t see them. The war was over and the feeling was terrific.

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