大象传媒

I was an only child and when I was eight there was talk of a war with Germany and children were being evacuated from the cities to the countryside. My father, who had served in the R.A.M.C. and been awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre for bravery in the first world war, had seen the horrors that such a conflict can bring and he thought I should be sent away. My mother was worried about her only child being away from her and she didn鈥檛 want me to go. By the time it was decided that I should go the girls from my school, Anfield Road, Liverpool, had all gone and so it was arranged that I should go with the boys and then be transferred to the girls when we arrived.
On Saturday 2nd September 1939 I went with my mother to the playground of the school and waited with the other children to march down to the railway station. There were a few girls there but they were with their brothers, I was the only one alone. My mother was very upset and a lady approached her and asked if I was going on my own, when she was told I was, she said she was going as a helper and if it would help she would look after me and make sure I was billeted in the same house as her and her two boys.
So I set off on the great adventure with Mrs Crossley and her sons Roy and David. I kissed my mother and got on the train not knowing where we were going. We travelled all day eating the food brought from home and singing songs, I never hear South of the Border, without being back on that train. In the late afternoon we arrived but we didn鈥檛 know where we were all the signs had been blacked out. We got off the train and were taken to toilets, which to my horror were nothing more than trenches, how I wanted to go home!
We were then sorted into schools and given a coloured flash to wear on our shoulders so people would know to which school we belonged, we were also given a packet of biscuits and a large bar of chocolate, I later found out we were the envy of the local children when they saw the chocolate, last but not least we received a stamped post card to send home.
We were put on buses and taken to a school in a village, which we discovered was called Clarach and was near Aberystwyth in Wales. People from the village came in and selected children to take to live with them, several said they would take me but Mrs Crossley said I was to go with her. It was dark when we were taken to Cwmcynfelin, a big house which was the largest in the village and now a Guest House. We were given some food and then went to bed and as we were so tired fell asleep.
The next morning we got up and after breakfast couldn鈥檛 get out quickly enough to explore the grounds of this big house. We discovered that the seashore was only a short walk down the road. To children from a big city this was heaven, sand, sea and countryside where we could play. When we got back we discovered that Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, had made a broadcast to say that war, with Germany, had been declared.
On Monday morning, after breakfast, we had to go to school, the local one, which had been closed, was re-opened. There were two classes, my teacher was called Mr Leach and because I was on my own he tended to spoil me, the other teacher was Mr Stringer and he taught the older boys. It was quite a walk to school and we took a packed lunch which we ate sitting on the grass outside the classroom if the weather was fine otherwise we stayed inside. When we got home we had a hot meal and then we went to the shore or to the river to play.
We were always in trouble because we stayed out too long playing and were late for our supper. Life was good although we had to go to school once we went home our playtime was wonderful.
When we had been there for a few weeks we, and all the paying guests, had to move out as members of the land army were being brought into the area and they all had to be billeted under the one roof. We were sent to live with Mr and Mrs Lloyd, at their house called Merivale which was further from school but nearer the sea. Mr Lloyd had a timber business in Aberystwyth and he went there each day in a pony and trap. He would take us to the end of the lane and then we would walk the rest of the way to school. At night, when we had had our meal, Mr Lloyd would let us have a ride on the pony which he kept in a nearby field. In this field was a well and the remains of a slate quarry and we used to get a big piece of slate and slide down the shale, this was enjoyable but I was often in trouble because I kept ripping my knickers on the slate.
One Saturday Roy Crossley and I went to Aberystwyth, with Mr Lloyd in the pony and trap, as we both had to get our hair cut. When this had been done we started to walk back to Clarach. We met another boy, Geoffrey Abbott , who said the quickest way back was over Constitution Hill, so we set off to climb the hill. As we went along Geoffrey suggested we visited a hermit who lived in a tin shack on the hill. When we arrived I was terrified of this old man with a beard. He gave us a sweet and much as I wanted to eat it, remembered that my mother had told me never to take sweets from strangers, so I waited to see if anything happened to the boys, who were chewing away, before I ate mine. When we left to continue our journey I was so relieved that we had escaped in one piece and more so when we arrived safely back home.
Life continued with school lessons, which weren鈥檛 too hard and sometimes we would go to a big field and after removing cow pats would play rounders. We still went out to the shore or the river and when it got dark would go home and listen to the wireless.
One morning it was raining very hard so we waited until it cleared up before we went to school. When we arrived we were told that the dentist was coming to remove bad teeth and I was having one out. When my turn came they put a big rubber apron on me, Mr Leach said I looked like a rubber dolly, and out came the bad tooth. As a special treat, because of having our teeth out, we were given some books to read. They had beautiful coloured pictures of birds, animals and flowers and as I looked something happened which haunts me to this day, blood came out of my mouth and went on the book . There I was eight years old away from home and very scared, never before had I wanted or needed my mother as I did in that moment. I closed the book and started to cry. Mr Leach told Roy to take me home but I knew if we arrived home early I wouldn鈥檛 be allowed out to play so we waited at the end of the lane and got home at our usual time.
While our lives continued to be ideal , in Liverpool Mr Crossley was tired of looking after himself , and as there was no sign of trouble from the Germans, he decided it was time for Mrs Crossley to go home. He asked my parents if they wanted me to stay or return to Liverpool with them, my Mother wanted me to come home so it was arranged that I would return .Mrs Crossley came to the school and took us back to the house and once we had packed Roy and I waited at the end of the lane for the car which would take us home. After what seemed like an eternity Mr Crossley arrived and we were soon on the road to Liverpool. It was late when we reached home and I was so happy to see my parents, grandfather and uncle who I hadn鈥檛 seen for three months and who I had missed so much. Mummy hadn鈥檛 been able to visit me because daddy was an invalid and she couldn鈥檛 leave him for the long time it would take to come and see me.
My mother was horrified when I sang a song I had learnt from the boys, it went 鈥渙ur soldiers went to war our soldiers won, our soldiers stuck their bayonets up the jerries our soldiers went to war----鈥�. When we went to school to register that I was home, my mother told the teacher about the song. I didn鈥檛 know what all the fuss was about! It was many years later, when I was older and more worldly wise, that I realised what I had been singing.
I was very upset when Bob Parry , who lived opposite was killed at Dunkirk. He was only young and had joined the Liverpool Scottish Regiment before the war began as a territorial soldier and looked very handsome in his kilt. I was very fond of him because he used to give me a ride on the cross bar of his bike.
Food, such as meat, butter, sugar etc, was rationed and also sweets. We only got things like oranges very rarely and bananas hardly ever but we were always able to get apples.
We couldn鈥檛 get normal schooling as different ages were taught together because there was a shortage of children as well as teachers. Later on we had 鈥淗ome Teaching鈥� we would go to different houses, in the morning one week and the next in the afternoon.
There was a bad winter with plenty of snow and every house I had to go to was a long way from my house so it was quite a struggle to get to get to my lessons. When the air-raids became a regular thing we didn鈥檛 go to school.
Our house had a cellar, where my mother did the washing, and this was reinforced with a corrugated iron ceiling, various poles and a wall across the window. The work was paid for by the government and so we had to take the people in from the houses either side, in the event of an air-raid. We were in bed the first time the sirens were sounded and Mr Harvey, from next door, shouted for mummy to get all valuables, documents etc and go in the shelter because they, the Germans, were here, I am quite sure my mother expected to see Hitler in the middle of our road. We got up and went down to the shelter in the cellar. After a few nights of getting up from our beds my grandfather and Mr Harvey, got some wood and made nine bunk beds, we had one double bed and a hammock and started to go to bed in the cellar. As a child I didn鈥檛 realise the danger and the noise of the bombs exploding and guns being fired was quite exciting. The following morning I would collect shrapnel, I still have one piece!. After the first raids we would go and look at the places which had been bombed but this soon became boring as there were so many. I remember after one raid my mother found a hole in a window, about the size of a fifty pence piece, and she told my father she would have to report it to the air-raid wardens but she didn鈥檛 have time that day, the next morning when we got up we didn鈥檛 have any windows left, they had all been blown out.
One morning we found what looked like cotton wool all over the place and we discovered that a train full of bombs and shells had been blown up at a local railway siding and this was gun cotton which was over everything. There was a barrage balloon sited in Stanley Park, which was just along the road from where we lived, and there was great excitement one night when it broke from its moorings and was flying around loose eventually it was caught and put back safely on its moorings.
I became a Salvage Steward and every week would take my sack and call at every house in the road to collect paper and tin cans which were given to the bin-men when they called.
The May blitz in 1941 was the worst time, night after night of heavy bombing my friend Barbara and all her family were killed when her house had a direct hit by a land mine.
In those days there was no television and we got the news from the radio. There was a British man called William Joyce who was a nazi sympathiser who lived in Germany and who broadcast under the name of Lord Haw Haw. You would hear 鈥淕ermany calling, Germany calling鈥� and then he would come on with his propaganda saying people were hanging white flags from their houses and other lies but nobody believed him. At the end of the war he was executed for treason. The broadcasts by Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, rallied the people.
The air raids tapered off and life became a little more normal, the schools re-opened and I attended daily. Some years earlier I had set my heart on going to the Queen Mary High School for Girls and I knew that the only way I could go there was to win a scholarship, as my parents could not afford the fees. We began to work towards going in for the scholarship examination. On a snowy January day in 1942 I went to Queen Mary school to sit for the examination and then had the wait until the summer to see if my dream was going to be realised. My friends Ronald and Norman Gow had gone to live with an aunt and uncle in Wales and Ron had taken the exam in Liverpool so his result came to Anfield Road and it was given to me to take to his parents, he had won a scholarship to Liverpool Collegiate. The following morning as I went to school I met one of my friends going home to tell her mother she had passed. I approached the playground with some trepidation but although I could see Miss Crosbie, the headmistress, sending girls to other girls she wanted, nobody came to me. My heart sank as I thought I hadn鈥檛 passed but suddenly I was called and was given the news that I had won a place at Queen Mary and I could go home to tell my parents. I ran home as fast as I could and when I arrived was so breathless I was unable to speak. Eventually I was able to give them the good news. Mummy and I went to tell Mrs Gow and to use their telephone, they were only one of three people in our road to have a 鈥榩hone, so I could ring my grandpa Morton and when I told him he shouted 鈥渨ell done鈥� so loud both Mummy and Mrs Gow heard him.
In July I left Anfield Road and in September started at Queen Mary. This was a newly built school some way from where I lived and I had to go on the tram. Because of the war no sports field had been made but to help the war effort we grew crops on what would after the war be the hockey pitches, tennis courts etc. My mother was very grateful for the lettuce, radish, potatoes etc I used to take home. Another good thing about Q.M. were the school dinners which helped out with our food rations. By the time I changed schools the air raids had all but finished although we still had one or two during the day when we would go to the air raid shelters in the school grounds and have spelling bees and sing. At the end of the first year we went to Shrewsbury for a holiday, we stayed in a college while the students were on holiday and had a wonderful time. In the summer holidays we had concerts in Stanley, Newsham, Walton Hall, Calderstones and Otterspool parks. Ron, Norman and I would go most afternoons, if you stood up you could see them for nothing. On a Sunday there would be brass band concerts at the band stands in the parks.
During the war there would be special weeks in aid of the armed forces, Salute the Soldier, Wings for Victory etc and there would be concerts in the Philharmonic Hall to raise money for the war effort. As our music teacher was the chorus master of the Liverpool philharmonic choir the Q.M. choir often sang in these concerts which was a big thrill for us to perform in such a wonderful setting.
The school had adopted a ship and we would knit scarves and balaclavas for the sailors as part of our 鈥渨ar effort鈥�.
I was a member of the Girl Guides and once a month, after church, we would parade around the nearby streets. One day when I was carrying the flag an American soldier stopped and saluted, I felt very proud.
In June 1944 we heard that the Allied troops had invaded France in order to defeat the Germans, my Uncle Alex who was a Major in the Kings Liverpool Regiment was amongst those taking part so we were all worried about his safety, thankfully he came through it unscathed. The war, in Europe, continued until the following May when the Surrender by the Germans was announced. What a wonderful time, we had the day off school and from somewhere, in spite of the food rationing, food was found for street parties. Somebody brought their piano into the road, Sammy Watmough, one of our gang, had a music group who played for the singing and dancing well into the night.
In August atomic bombs were dropped on two cities in Japan and a couple of days later the Japanese surrendered and at last the war was over. More parties were held this time even better as it meant that before too long men and women would be able to come home.
Church services were held and the bells, which had been silenced during the war, were ringing once again. There was a service of thanksgiving held on St. Georges Hall Plateau and the Queen Mary choir took part.
The war was well and truly over.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.