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I was evacuated from East Dulwich to Ashtead in Surrey with my sister, Mavis, just before the outbreak of war. Neither Mavis nor I have any significant recollection of leaving Dulwich. This is particularly surprising when you see some of the film shown recently of the evacuation of London’s schoolchildren - those long lines of children with gas masks and weeping mothers - surely we should have remembered something like this! Perhaps it was all too traumatic! However, this is not consistent with memories of the following year, during which we seem to have been reasonably happy, though often left to our own devices.

The latter part of the day of our evacuation is, by contrast, a significant early memory. Mavis at this time was still in the mixed part of Dulwich Hamlet school (she was coming up six years old), but I had moved to the all-boy part of the school on reaching the age of seven in 1938. Obviously my parents had succeeded in arranging for us to go together with the boys’ party and Mavis was the only girl; she recalls mother saying that we must make sure we are kept together - an appeal she had no doubt made to the authorities. We both remember gathering in the hall at Ashtead waiting to be assigned to our billets. And we waited a long time! - to the very last, presumably because there was difficulty in placing a ‘mixed pair’. Eventually, quite late in the evening, we were taken with our bar of chocolate and brown bag of biscuits to the Leg of Mutton and Cauliflower Hotel.

It appears that the school staff were not immediately aware of what had happened to us. My memory is of two of the teachers having a meal at the pub and, spotting us, saying "there they are!".

I remember being in a room with all of the staff of the hotel and hearing Neville Chamberlain’s broadcast that we were at war with Germany. In my memory the room seems to have been dark, but perhaps this had more to do with the mood of those present.

At the pub we seem to have been left mostly in the charge of the cook, who taught us card games such as "fish" and "beat your neighbours out of doors". I remember her eating raw sausage! After a month we were transferred to the care of a family, the Marriots, who ran a tailoring business in the High Street.

There were two or three sons working with their father and Mavis and I seem to have spent much of our time, when not at school, on our own. Mavis must have gone to the local school, while there were makeshift arrangements for the boys of Dulwich Hamlet; my one memory of school is of a lesson in a room in a house overlooking the High Street. I can recall a drawing class in Ashtead Park and a visit to Ashtead Woods - whether this was recreational or educational I cannot remember.

In the meantime our parents had moved to Morden in Surrey, a bus ride of ten miles or so from Ashtead, and decided to have us back to live with them. I gather that, whilst we seem to have been relatively happy, they were not sure that our guardians had much time to look after us properly. In September 1940 we therefore returned to live with our parents and new sister, Audrey, born in March. My mother said that she had to scrub us for days to get us clean!

And there we were back together as a family just as the Blitz started. During the air raids, until we had a brick shelter built in the garden, Mavis and I slept in the small wedge shaped space under the stairs. My mother and baby sister slept in the larger cupboard under the stairs - where the coal was usually kept!
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