大象传媒

Where do I begin? I lived in Orpington, Kent with my parents who were both employed by the childrens鈥� homes there. My father was the baker on the 鈥渂oys鈥� side鈥� run by the Presentation Brothers which was called St Josephs and my mother worked in the knitting room at St Annes, the girls鈥� side run by the Sisters of Mercy.

The early part of the war was the same for me as for many children of my age. I remember the blitz and my mother saying 鈥淏iggin Hill鈥檚 warming up! And sure enough the warning would follow soon after and the sky over London on the horizon glowing bright red.

We were not evacuated until the doodlebugs started falling before they reached London when we were all packed off up to the North of England, the girls school including my mother and myself and assorted staff and nuns were sent to St Helens in what is now Merseyside. The boys, together with the staff and the brothers, were sent to Hesketh Bank.
As far as I can remember I only visited my father in Hesketh Bank once so I can鈥檛 tell you anything about it. For our part, St Annes was relocated in a miners鈥� hostel. I vividly remember living in green nissan huts which were for the most part extremely comfortable. We had school in one hut and another one became the infirmary. Mother鈥檚 knitting machines were accommodated in another hut and the refractory in yet another one. The other thing I remember was the mud! That was everywhere between the huts 鈥� and the frogs (we had a plague of frogs while we were there). We were all given clogs to wear and I remember having a lovely red pair. But what a noise we made when we all went out for a walk in a crocodile while the local Lancashire ladies came out of their houses to stare at the 鈥榲acuees.
I turned seven while I was up in St Helens and made my First Holy Communion there. I remember walking to the church via a bridge over a lake in my white dress, after which we had a lovely celebration breakfast which stands out in my memory because we never had food like that in the ordinary way.
For the very last six months of the war we were transferred to another camp outside Coventry somewhere. I can鈥檛 remember exactly where although I am sure that there must be lots of old St Annes girls who will remember. I didn鈥檛 really know much about it when the war actually ended but only know that the adults celebrated with a big party and a bonfire. Somehow they let off fireworks (where they got them from I鈥檝e no idea). We were in bed in our dormitories and heard the bangs. For my part, I was rigid with fear as I thought the Germans were coming and I thought I could hear the guns. We all got out of bed and cowered in fear when one of the nuns came in and admonished us for not being asleep in bed. She then calmed us down and explained that the war had ended and it was just the grown ups celebrating that we could hear.
Soon after that we returned to Orpington, a place I thought I would never see again and my house was still there although we had a certain amount of 鈥渨ar damage鈥� caused by a bomb falling at the back of us.

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