大象传媒

SCHOOL RESTARTS
[Ronald Eric Gould, born 12/7/1928, was a pupil Les Vauxbelets College, Guernsey, from 1935 鈥� 1942 and was evacuated with the school in June 1940. The following is an edited extract from a typescript he prepared in 2005.]

Two or three weeks after our arrival our teachers, the Brothers, started classes in a house where they were living called "Burnside" - just two doors down from the house where we lived. The Brothers could only take some of us, so some went in the morning and some in the afternoon. We did not learn a great deal, this went on for a week or two and then the School was lent the use of St Peter's Schoolroom which proved very useful, as we were being provided with a midday meal at the congregational hall opposite.

At this time I had a letter from my mother who had come across to Basingstoke with her mother-in-law and somehow she had managed to find out where the Vauxbelets School had got to, but she was very worried as she had had a letter from Bro Clarence, the Headmaster, asking her if she could pay the school fees. She had to tell him no way could she do so and I never heard anymore about it. I think he had to write to any parent he had the address of.

About this time a letter appeared in the local Altrincham paper and I quote.

"Sir, Efforts are being made to collect funds for supplying boots and clothing for 90 boys now billeted in Hale. These boys are In our midst through no fault of their own. They are separated from their parents, their home and their friends some perhaps never to re-unite. They came here stripped of everything" their wants are thus many and their means smaLl Gifts in cash or kind will be gratefully received.
J W Parry" Chairman Guernsey Refugees Clothing Committee.鈥滻

The people of Hale responded very kindly.

Shortly after this the Brothers took a lease on a large house on the Dunham Road called "Oakleigh". A few of the older boys had left, either to work or to join the forces, so our number of 90 boys was dropping. The one snag with this move was that we were still being fed at midday down at St Peters and so every dinnertime, rain or shine, we were lined up, marched down about 1陆 miles, fed and marched back again. I can tell you, by the time we got back we were hungry again!. "Oakleigh" was a gentleman's residence and had lovely grounds and our Headmaster, Brother Clarence, loved gardening, but not the hard work and if any boy showed any sign of being able to use a hoe or a rake he was quite likely to let you stay out of class. Nice at the time, but then you had to try hard to catch up on the lessons you had missed. I did this quite a few times! One thing I do remember, one of our teachers, Brother Aldhem, used to make model aircraft out of firewood - they were beautifully finished and he sold them for a Shilling each. He made me a "Lysander", all the other boys wanted "Spitfires". I had to be different!

I remember the Winter of 1941 at "Oakleigh". We had a lot of snow and ice and the drive down to the front gate was quite steep and the boys started to use it as a slide and in a very short time it was all like a sheet of glass, no-one could stand up on it.

One of our teachers had a bike and he decided he would like to show us cyclists the countryside, so first of all he took us to Hayfield in Derbyshire, a well-known beauty spot. I do not remember much about that trip except we started off through Stockport. Then later he took us to Chester and Chester was a long way away and our cycles were not in a condition to go a long way. I remember Dudley Carr茅 had a child's bike with small cranks, how he managed to get back I'll never know! As it was, some of us got lost in Northwich, remember it was wartime and all the road signs had been removed, it was certainly very late, and very dark before we got back to Hale and there were no more runs.

We were very lucky in being billeted with the Yearsleys but one was always apprehensive of being moved on and as time went on some were and if the billeting officer could not find them a new place they would be sent to a Hostel called "Glengarry". It was a place to dread, in fact it was finally inspected by the Sanitary Inspector of the Board of Health and I will quote a few details of his report of December 1941.
1 Large Front Room
2 Middle Room, dining room in daytime, 2 tables 4 forms at night used as a bedroom for 9 boys
3 Kitchen
4 Scullery
5 Pantry
6-12 Bedrooms not used
13 Small cellar, not more than 60 square feet - sleeps 4 boys, 2 in each of 2 single camp beds
14 Used for domestic washing also personal washing of boys, there being 4 or 5 enamel bowls laid out on a table for the purpose, room also used for drying wet clothes O f the boys although no proper means of heating exists.
15 Stairwell and area at bottom of steps, area of 80 square feet, 4 camp beds to sleep 7 boys.
There are two W.C.s - 1 internal, 1 external 1 bath and 1 lavatory basin.

Just think, 20 boys sleeping in the cellars on camp beds and this was not for only a couple of weeks. We, who were not sent to "Glengarry" knew that it was not a good place but we did not know it was so bad.

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