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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Annie Keane of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ on behalf of Harry Frankland and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was 6 or 7 at start of war, and was evacuated from my home in Mitcham to Egham early on in the War. The stress on parents at that time must have been unimaginable — having to send their children away, combined with the stress of the war generally.

I was only in Egham for 3 weeks, and I was incredibly homesick. I came back home then, but went away again twice more during the war.

I remember one time when I was about 8 years old, sitting what seemed like a little country school. We were asked to start writing with in joined-up writing — I didn’t have a clue how to do that!

About 9 months after coming back from Egham, I was evacuated up to the North East — I was staying with family. It was a very small house, and I remember the whole time that I was there I was scratching. We all had fleabites, all the time. Children these days probably can’t imagine what it was like, and even though I was very young, I knew that it wasn’t right — people shouldn’t have to have lived like that.

My final evacuation was in June 1944, when they started buzz bombing. I live in Croydon now, only 2 — 3 miles from Mitcham where I grew up, and Croydon had the most buzz bombs in the city.

My final evacuation was to Hartlepool. I was never away for more than 3 months on each of the evacuations, and was moved from school to school through the whole war. I didn’t really understand everything that was happening when I was an 8 year old, but the experience has stayed with me for the rest of my life. When I visited the war graves in Belgium a few years ago, it brought it all home to me about the sacrifices that had been made.

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