大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a Phillip Wood, on behalf of MAargaret Birkin and has been added to the site with her permission. Margaret fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

Although I was back at home in Essex by V E Day, I was an Evacuee in Dursley for 2 years and 2 months. My parents kept every single letter I wrote 鈥nd what I noticed most, reading them all these years afterwards, is the complete lack of knowledge of what was actually going on in the rest of the world. We had no access to radio or newspapers and were completely cocooned in our own little world, consequently, my letters were full of such minutia as the price of a haircut, what we did in our lessons and spare time and what we had to eat.

I did read the letters again and for my own convenience typed out a selection of quotes, some of which have a bit more relevance to the world outside my billet and my school, e.g. a reference to 鈥淲arships Week鈥� and a trainer plane which crashed at Owlpen.

The same thing applies to my diary of 1945, by this time I was 16 and listened to the radio a great deal. I also had first-hand experience of V1鈥檚 and V2鈥檚 ant the noise of anti-aircraft activity. Even so, my diary is full of what I did at school, and after school, with my friends. There are only a few references to the wider picture e.g.

February 1st Russians 60 miles from Berlin.
February 4th Russians 40 miles from Berlin
May 1st News Flash 10.30 German Radio announced that Hitler is dead!
May 2nd News Flash 10.30 Berlin surrendered.
May 4th News Flash 8.50 German troops nearly all surrendered.
May 7th V.E. Day was announced for the following day.

Then follows what I actually did for the rest of the week. It all sounds terribly matter-of- fact , as though I were far more interested in what film I was going to see than anything that was happening in the world outside.

I think the thing that affected me most was when the newspapers showed the front-page pictures of our soldiers arriving at Belsen and other death camps鈥�.and later on, when war came close as we heard, 18 months after the event, that an uncle had died of starvation in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. Suddenly, war had become very real.

It is significant that my family of five was divided into four. My mother stayed on the East Coast with my 3 year old brother, my father, although in a reserved occupation, was drafted to Duxford to take charge of a workshop for the repair of bombers (mostly Stirlings), I went to Dursley and my older brother (different school) went to Hereford and Shropshire. We took it all in our stride and I do not suppose it did us any harm. We appreciated everything we had, and that was not a lot! I often tell my grandchildren how tidy my bedroom was鈥�.because we had so few possessions! A tennis racquet (second-hand) a hockey stick (donated by a cousin) a few books and a few clothes鈥hat was about it. My mother made me a gym-slip when I started at the High School in 1939 and it was let down 3 times before, in my 4th year, it was converted into a skirt (and turned of course). My 5th form skirt came from my American pen-friend, and in the 6th form, I made a skirt from an old dress given to me by a great- aunt! And dyed the correct bottle green!

One of my favourite garments was a cardigan (short sleeved by necessity0 made from 6 different skeins of wool, knitted in a 鈥� Harlequin stitch鈥� which connected the colours together. I even managed to get 6 different coloured buttons (probably a sample pack) to adorn the front. I loved my 鈥渏azzy jumper鈥� as I called it, plus another knitted in a very complicated pattern using 3 different colours, garnered from 3 old garments. My pride and joy however, was a magnificent white blouse, with ruffles, made in 1946 from parachute silk, which took me to Denmark when some of us young people were invited over by the Mayor of Esbjerg,. Worn with a black Georgette skirt, re-modelled from one of my great aunt鈥檚, it took me to the various receptions to which we were invited.

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