大象传媒

This story is submitted by a volunteer on behalf of Radio Bristol Action Desk at City of Bristol College.

My sister (Katherine) and myself Terrence Withey were both due to be evacuated from Bristol. It was just the two of us but my sister fell ill so she couldn't come so I had to go on my own. We arrived at Exmouth in Devon. At a centre that took the evacuees in from which they were sent to various homes.
I remember I was one of the last, meaning that there was no home for me as such. Eventually with an officer I was billeted at st Andrews Road in a Guest house. I was met at the door by a lady, She said to the officer that she would be prepared to look after me but her elderly mother was ill in bed and so I would have to be quiet. It was a scary experience to see her mother in that state.
Looking back it was a tall experience but nevertheless I stayed there.
I remember my first night there vividly as I was taken to a large bedroom with a four poster bed and that was all mine. When I had come from a family in Bristol when it was sometimes necessary to sleep six to a bed or sorts went through my head.
I stayed there for considerable time.
My jobs were to clean the silver and cut potatoes down. After some time I found I could go to the bottom of the garden to the seafront which was sealed off due to war restrictions with barbed wire, but a little portion was open to the locals to go swimming in the sea. I looked forward to this.
With schooling Trafusses house is where we got some education. I remember the headmaster was from St Mary's school in Bristol. From Exmouth there were opportunities to go along the coast, as time went on I was finding a new way of life. Things were happening to me that had never happened before. The lady looking after me had a boyfriend living in Budley Salterton. It was often my job to run messages between them.

During the war people still had holidays and my relatives sometimes came down to see me on the weekend. My sister came down to see me and we were billeted together and the man of the house had a different suit for every day of the week. From there we moved on to somewhere else until we came back home after about a year or 18 months.

It was an experience one wouldn't come across everyday but it was influential

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