大象传媒

To tell the story of how I lost my mother on the same day as my father, I must lay down some background first.

We lived in a tenement in Glasgow, but it was a fairly big tenement - two rooms and a kitchen. This was considered quite luxurious and not at all overcrowded. In the kitchen was a recess bed, or as we called it, 'the hole in the wall bed'.

My dad and my uncle Tommy were brothers, and my mum and my aunty Mary were sisters. The two brothers married the two sisters, so we were all like a complete family. I was the oldest, aged nine. The other Tommy (my cousin) was eight, my younger sister Betty was seven, my other cousin Michael was six, leaving my then youngest sister Mary, aged just three. When my dad was called up, Uncle Tommy, being a marine engineer, was kept back as his was a deferred occupation.

On 3 September 1939, the day the war started, my father (being a Territorial soldier), was called to the army at 9am, two hours before the war was declared. He came into my room dressed in his uniform and carrying his rifle. He put his arms around me and said, 'Well son, that's me away to the sojers.' I didn't see him again for three whole years.

The same day, we were notified to go to our school and to bring only whatever was necessary. We were to be evacuated to the country.

So! Upon evacuation my mother was put in charge of the five children. This was until we arrived at our destination, Ballinluig. From there we were marched to a nearby hall in the village of Logerate and the locals walked around and hand-picked whichever evacuees they wanted.

At this point, someone discovered that Tommy and Michael were brothers and therefore a separate family from ours, so of course they were separated from us. But Michael began screaming and shouting that he wanted to stay with my mum: 'I want to stay with my Auntie Lizzie!'

He screamed so much that the authorities decided it was best to let him stay with my mother and, as I was the oldest, I should be evacuated along with my cousin Tommy. Thus it was I was taken from my mother and placed in the home of a Mr and Mrs Campbell, leaving her with two evacuees named Tommy Mc Sorley.

So what did they do? They decided to call me 'Big Tommy', as I was the oldest, and the other was of course 'Wee Tommy'. This was 64 years ago, but to this day I am called 'Big Tommy', and the other is still 'Wee Tommy'. To make things more confusing, I am just 5ft 2in tall and 'Wee' Tommy is 5ft 8in.

But that is how Mrs Campbell ended up with two evacuees named Tommy Mc Sorley and how I got separated from my mother.

Strangely enough, the girl who is now my wife and whom I hadn't even met then, lived in the village of Mavis Valley, in the Burgh of Bishopbriggs - only four miles away from me. In this village there was an army encampment with a few hundred soldiers, but worse than that, there was also a very large ammunition dump situated somewhere in the village. In fact, my future father-in-law was employed as a guard at this dump, as he was too old for the army, having served in World War One.

It is so strange to think that the authorities could send us 75 miles away to protect us, yet allow an ammunition dump to be situated on our very doorstep. Strange the way bureaucratic minds work.

Our evacuation did not last of course. There was no way that city dwellers could ever take to the country, so we decided to go home six months after leaving. The experience DID give me a taste for the countryside, but just for a holiday, never for permanence.

So home we came. We were hardly settled back in our house when the air raids started and the bombs started falling.

-- Read all Tommy Mac's edited contributions to this website

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.