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A child’s memories

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War started, father panicked and wanted to get his family away from Morden — four children from six weeks to seven years old. Packed us in an Austin 7 (the only car in our road) and drove us to Winchester. It was mother’s birthday, he left us with the WVS and returned home, because he worked in London. WVS housed us with many others. We went to the house of the local baker and were given one room with mattresses on the floor. Mother walked around the town with us daily, calling in at centres for food and mostly sitting in the gardens of Winchester Cathedral. Soon the WVS managed to get the two oldest of us into a local school, which was bursting at the seams actually, including evacuees.

When my mother noticed the baker was always itching, she told Dad she couldn’t stay any longer and we were taken back to Morden, by which time we found Dad had made two air raid shelters in our garden, one was a brick built shelter at ground level and is still used today, the other one was a dug-out. We spent some years going to school between air raids, queueing for food when each of the older children kept a place in different queues. We were lucky the two younger children had green ration books, which allowed us to buy fruit and Rose hip syrup. Mother decided to keep chickens, which made us very popular. I still remember the smell of chicken food cooking.

Father had joined the Air Force, although he was really too old at 34. He was obliged to sign up in Wales where the age limit was 2 years older than England. Consequently later he was demobbed in Wales, I had a lovely time then, being taken on a tour of Wales in order to promote the National Savings Campaign.

During the last two years of the war. Father was stationed in Hemswell, Lincolnshire, and we went to live during the long summer holiday of 1943 with a family in an old cottage. It was so pleasant that we stayed months instead of weeks. Two girls went to the local school and the old couple were delighted to have us in their cottage and amused at our funny London ways. They grew all their own food and some of us helped on a farm. The old lady had a glass eye which was very obvious, it fell out frequently on the floor, which she said made it feel gritty. The old man rode an ancient and very large three wheeled tricycle. Mother had a built-in babysitter and was able to enjoy evenings at the RAF camp, she was also able to shop at the NAAFI with great delight.

As war ended we were able to return to the south, but recently I visited the aerodrome only to find car boot sales with one or two museum relics, in what was the airfield. The cottage had been rebuilt exactly as it was, we were entertained by the present owner who has sent lots of information to Lincoln Museum. My brother who was 4 years old remembered the gate and stile, also the field which we used to roll down and I sat in the lounge seeing the same view as I had seen many years ago. We told the present owner how we went to the toilet in a hut outside, also that the old couple who had lived in the cottage kept a pig, which they killed each year and hung in the kitchen, carving off a slice each day for breakfast.

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