大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War website by Jake and Keziah, pupils from Teversham Primary School on behalf of Eileen Lawrence and has been added to the site with her permission. Eileen Lawrence fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was 17 when the war started. We were bombed every day. My boyfriend was in France in the B.E.F in 1939. Germany invaded France, so the servicemen were told to leave France immediately and managed to escape on the coal barge which could fit had a few men on it. They where going through an Italian submarine base, so the officer said to keep quiet so the submarines wouldn鈥檛 blow them up. They arrived in Gibraltar. The officer was so overwhelmed that he shot his gun and because of this, the Gibraltar people had guns trained upon them. Fortunately they were a friendly country and my boyfriend saw the guns and so the British soldiers whipped off their t-shirts to show they where part of the British Army. The people on the island said they were very welcome and they managed to get back to England. When he came back to his house it was completely empty. He didn鈥檛 know where my family was.
He picked up a telegram which said 鈥淵our son is either a P.O.W or missing or presumed dead鈥�. He didn鈥檛 know what to do with himself. He didn鈥檛 know where I lived. But just then my next door neighbour recognised his face. She took him to where I lived and my mum said he could stay. That night when my family was asleep he proposed to me, and said 鈥淲ill you marry me?鈥� I didn鈥檛 know what to say but I didn鈥檛 want to say no! I said you are going to consent with my Mum. She said 鈥測es鈥�. We got married on 14th September 1940.

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