大象传媒

On the 3rd September, war was declared. Some preparations for curtains were made; we were all issued with gas masks which we had to carry everywhere. We were also issued with identity cards and these also had to be carried with us.

The government was concerned that London and all other big cities would be bombed, so they encouraged that everyone who didn鈥檛 have important reasons to be in the cities - especially London 鈥� to evacuate to the country.

Parents who needed to stay in London were persuaded to send their children to safer places. As the children鈥檚 education was very important all the children from individual schools were sent to the same small town, I attended a different school to my sister so we were sent different places. My brother, who was too young to be at school, stayed at home with my parents.

The day arrived for me to be evacuated. All the children from my school (all girls鈥� school) had to meet at a certain platform on Kings Cross. We had our gas masks with us. One small suitcase and a label tied to our coat buttons with our name and the name of the school written on it. It was absolute pandemonium at the station, there were crowds of people, some shouting, some lost and anxious to find a train to take them away from London. Many of the parents were crying, as we didn鈥檛 know if we would ever see each other again.

As the train pulled out of the station we were all very upset as neither our parents nor we knew where we were going. The train didn鈥檛 go very fast and most of children were too upset to eat their packed lunch. All the school teachers were evacuated with us, but some of them were very sad because they had left their own families in London.

About five hours after we left Kings Cross, the train pulled in to Grantham station 鈥� a small town in Lincolnshire. We left the train and lined up into a huge crocodile and we walked to a very large church hall. There, we all sat on the floor while the Billeting officer called out our names. We were collected in to small groups and walked to our new homes (billets). Not every one wanted to have strange children living with them so we weren鈥檛 always welcome 鈥� but the government made people accept evacuees as their part in the war effort.

I was taken to a house a long way from the hall, but when I got there, I wasn鈥檛 allowed to stay as I was a catholic and my host and hostess were Church of England. Feeling very tired and unwanted I was taken back to the church hall to find I was almost the only child left with nowhere to go. By this time I was feeling very homesick and was wondering what was going to happen to me. I was just 12 years old. Eventually, I was taken to a small collage, the people were very kind, but I had to leave after 2 days because they had to billet 3 A.T.S girls who they had been expecting.

With nowhere to go, the billeting officer took me home to his mother and I was made very welcome and I was happy. But Mrs. Knott had 3 children of her own and 4 of us evacuees and she was elderly. After 6 months, Mrs. Knott became unwell so we were all moved again.

This time, there were 2 of us billeted with a very nice family with one small son. Their house over looked fields and Mr. Clark would take us for long country walks. He taught us a great deal 鈥� the names of wild flowers, to recognise the different trees and to look for where the small mammals and birds hid.

The bombing in London was very heavy and because both my parents were busy doing war work 鈥� my father in the A.R.P doing light rescue work 鈥� helping to rescue people from their wreaked homes, and my mother was working in a restaurant helping to feed important workers whose work canteens had been destroyed. I didn鈥檛 see my parents for a very long time. Travelling on trains was very difficult - they were needed to transport soldiers, so ordinary people were discouraged from travelling. I used to write letters home and my parents would write to me, but I didn鈥檛 even see them at Christmas time.

Grantham was an 鈥榚ngineering town鈥�, tractors, engines and other important machinery was made there and now the factories were very busy making tanks and other armoured vehicles. As all the factories were together in the centre or town and could be easily bombed, satellite factories were built just outside the town in the countryside.
To keep us safe, Mr. Clark built an air raid shelter with his neighbour; it was dug deep under the fence between the two gardens with an entrance on both sides. It was at least 6 feet under the ground. It was very cold down there and apart from some chairs and a tin of biscuits there was nothing to pass the time. The reason why the shelter was built was because we were experiencing bombing raids.

All the adults who were old enough to be conscripted for military services had to do war work of some kind, and Mr. Clark had joined the Home Guard. He was trained as a soldier and learnt to shoot with a riffle. When his platoon was on duty they noticed odd lights being 鈥榳aved about鈥� in the countryside outside the town. Since it was a serious offence to shine any lights and all the houses were blacked out, it always seemed strange that after these lights were seen, the town was bombed. As you can imagine, the Home Guard and police spent a lot of time looking for the enemy 鈥榟elpers鈥� or spies or 鈥楩ifth Column鈥� as these people who were helping the enemy were called. Because of these raids, as soon as the sirens sounded, we were rushed out of our beds in to the shelter till the 鈥渁ll clear鈥� sounded and we went back to bed.

Since Grantham was becoming very unsafe to live in, we all moved to a much smaller town called Stamford. So again we had to get to know our new hosts and hostesses. This time, my friend and I lived with a very old couple. They were old fashioned and religious. We were not allowed to read anything except the bible on Sundays or play games.

They had not bothered to have electricity connected so we only had poor gaslight to see by and had to take a candle to bed. Mrs. Clare鈥檚 eyesight was very poor and the poor lighting didn鈥檛 help, so the vegetables her husband grew on his allotment were often served up with 2 or 3 juicy caterpillars 鈥� revolting 鈥� and the rest of the food was awful too.

Trying to do our homework before going to bed was difficult the gas lights wasn鈥檛 turned on until an hour after lighting up time, till then we sat in the dark.

There was a bath in the house, but Mr. And Mrs. Claire thought that having a bath was bad for you, so in desperation, we used to sneak our bath towels out and have a bath at our headmistress鈥檚 house and stay there to do our homework. Mr. Clare鈥檚 behaviour towards us could have been better so we were moved 鈥榦ut of the frying pan, into the fire.鈥�

We didn鈥檛 tell our parents about the awful time we were having, because they had enough to worry about keeping themselves safe in London. My mother, like so many others, used to sleep on a platform on the London underground to be safe from the bombs. I can鈥檛 remember the name of the next people we stayed with but they were really awful and unkind. They didn鈥檛 like each other very much and were always arguing. Because they were treating us so badly, we were moved again.

This time, we were moved into a big house with an unmarried lady. She was kind and fed us well, but she believed in ghosts and spirits and used to frighten us with stories she told us and things she believed in. We often didn鈥檛 sleep because of strange noises in our bedroom and used to think it was spirits moving about. In the morning, we would find that the window had been partly left open and it had been the blinds rattling in the window that had frightened us.

The bombing eased in London and quite a few of the girls had grown up and left school, so it was decided that the rest of us would go back to London. Our school had been bombed, so had the travel across London to another one. Then the bombing started again, Doodle bugs this time. Yet we still went to school even though it was difficult to get to sometimes because of the overnight damage. We were very ingenious at finding different ways of getting to school, even if it took ages, we wouldn鈥檛 let the enemy beat us so that we missed our lessons.

The time came for me to leave school and find a job. Because all the young men were 鈥榗alled up鈥� for military service, I was the first girl ever to be employed as a laboratory technician.

Many women were able to get employment and were doing many things they would never have been able to do if there hadn't been a shortage of men. Since the war, women have had a much wider choice of careers.

Although the war was coming to an end, civilians, both men and women, still helped the war effort.
Women were expected to work in munitions factories even if they had children, once these children were over 14 years old.
Men were air raid wardens, fire watcher or joined the home guard. Fire watchers used to be stationed on the top floors of tall buildings to watch for fires breaking out when the German air force dropped bombs.

Doodle bugs were very frightening. They were shaped like rockets; they had no pilot but were driven by a motor. You could hear them as they flew overhead, but if the motor cut out it meant the rocket was going to land and explode near you. They caused a lot of damage.

When the air raid sirens sounded everyone was scared and you tried to get to an air raid shelter. Our own anti-aircraft guns were very noisy, the gunners tried to shoot down the German bombers, but they mostly managed to drop their bombs and added to the dreadful noise. When the all clear sounded you wondered if you would find your house still there.

Where did we go when we were evacuated?

Both Grantham and Stamford had some empty large houses. We would have lessons in these various buildings in the mornings. In the afternoon we would have lessons in the local secondary school and those pupils would have theirs in the large houses. Unfortunately we used a different building each morning so you had to have a good memory.
No school lunches, no petrol, we walked miles every day.

School rules

Never forget your gas mask.
Wear school uniform at all times (even on Sundays)
You must go to church on Sundays (your own religion)
You must assemble at the parish church every morning for a service whatever your religion
You must not eat in the street (not even a sweet)
You must have a properly filled in permission slip signed by your form mistress if you want to go for a walk or to the cinema
You must always have two other people (girls) with you when doing out of school activities, in case you have an accident. One girl will stay with you, one to get help
Saturday morning school is compulsory
Do not stop to talk to boys on the street.
N.B. remember, we were living in small towns and our teachers lived amongst us, it wasn鈥檛 a good idea to break the rules 鈥� someone always saw you.

One Sunday, I was walking to church and my headmistress was walking towards me. As I walked there was a small gap at the bottom of my coat and I wasn鈥檛 wearing my school skirt, she noticed this. The next day, she called me to her room and I got a terrible telling off. If our hair touched the collar of our blouse, it had to be tied back in two bunches. The teachers were constantly watching to see we obeyed this rule.

My most embarrassing moment

Our headmistress lived in a really large old house 鈥� a mini mansion. When I stayed with the Claire鈥檚 in Stamford, we used to do our homework in a downstairs room of this house. Several of us were complaining about our teachers. The room had a very large old-fashioned fireplace with a huge chimney; we didn鈥檛 know our voices travelled up the chimney to the room above. When the headmistress came down, she told us she had heard everything we said.

My saddest time

Leaving on the train from Kings Cross with all the parents and children crying. Neither they nor we knew where we were going or if we would see each other again.

My happiest moment

Going back home 鈥� with a broad Lincolnshire accent.

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