大象传媒

I was 10 years old when the war was about to begin. The 3rd child with 3 brothers and 3 sisters. The eldest boy Ernest was 13, Violet next 12, then me. Gordon 9 was next, followed by Glenys 7 , Sonny 5 and Dorry 3.

6 of us were evacuated to Colne. We all had to go to the eldest childs school to be checked off with his teacher. Excitement ran along with sadness, for the mothers of course it became too much seeing their children go and then came the tears.

The buses came to the school gates and we were told to move forward and to board in a orderly fashion. We arrived at the railway station and allocated to the coach we had to sit in. we each had a label in our coats and the gas masks over our shoulder. Each of us carried a bag with essential clothes, tooth brush etc.
There were so many children who had never been away from home before (not even on holiday!) that Colne might have well been the Costa del Sol!

We arrived to be met by volunteers who marched us to a school yard where we all stood in lines. One by one or even in twos a lady took them to stay. No-one wanted 6 of us so we were broken up.

I was next door to Gordon and Sonny, Violet and Glenys in the next street and Ernest seemed along way off. The couple were kind to me but as I had never slept by myself before it was really scary.

The next day we all had to meet up at a certain time in the park where organised games were arranged for us. I remember Mr and Mrs Brown called me in as there was an important announcement on the radio and of course it was the prime minister telling of the dreaded war with Germany, the words 'we are at war with Germany'.
Our father had died when I was 8 years old. He had fought in the 1St World War and had been found on a battlefield in France with a revolver in his hand. He had been shot along with so many others. What a waste of lives!

I was given 6d to spend on a fair by Mrs Brown. It was like being a millionaire, I had never had more than 2d before because I had saved up my 1/2ds. These were usually given to me by a neighbour for running an erand.

I remember one time I was asked to go to the shop for Mrs brown to collect 3 meat pies she had ordered for tea. We were sat at the table eating them when the shopkeeper came to ask for them back, thet were someone else's order! I had been to the wrong shop! Afterwards though we had a regular order for our tea as his pies were the best.

The war broke up my family for some stayed at Colne while others came back to Bradford and we all began to grow up.

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