- Contributed by听
- ROdell
- People in story:听
- Ruth Odell
- Location of story:听
- England
- Article ID:听
- A1941978
- Contributed on:听
- 31 October 2003
I was a pupil at Walthamstow High School for girls when the war started, and at the end of August 1939,when I was sixteen, my family and I were on holiday in Guernsey, and because my Father was a teacher at Shoreditch Central School, we had to cut our holiday short so that he could report to his school for evacuation.
I was also going to evacuate with my school.
So after we were back at Walthamstow, I went to my school and Father went to his. My eldest sister Peggie worked for Shell petroleum, and her office was evacuated to Bournemouth and my middle sister Amy worked for Lloyds Bank and she had to stay with an Aunt in Loughton, so that she could go to London each day. So on Sept. 1st 1939 our family was split up; and my Father and I had no idea where our respective schools would be going for evacuation.
We had to take a suitcase with the bare essentials and gasmasks and we processed in a crocodile to Walthamstow Station and got on a train. We eventually got to Kettering where, after much delay we were assigned to foster parents. I and a friend went with a young couple who had a baby. I don't remember much of what happened during the next week, except that we met each day as a school at the football stadium and sang popular songs and after a week we were moved on to Wellingborough, where I spent the next three years at school.
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