大象传媒

Every friday in august 1939 we went to our local school, we being Beryl, 10 years,myself Robert, 8 years and Olive who was five. We had to report to the school because we thought we were to be evacuated on that day. On the 1st September we were told that we would be leaving that day.Our mother who had attended every other friday did not happen to be with us that day, so we left without her knowing. She would have been informed after we had left.
We were taken to Weston Super Mare when we alighted from the train as we were three we wanted to stay together and we weren't amongst the first to be picked for accommodation.
Finally we were chosen at 5pm by a Wing Commander'wife who lived in a big top floor flat on the sea front. There were two teenage daughter's who we all got on well with.We were shown to our bedroom, all in the same room, we had a sea view.
I remember a large dining room where everyone sat around.My younger sister cried so much that we were soon moved to the kitchen to eat on our own.
When my Mother came to see us at christmas my younger sister was so upset she took her back with her.
In December the Wing Commander's wife could not manage us on her own as her two daughters had been called up for the services, so we were transferred to another billet
Our landlady was retired, her daughter lived with her and she mostly looked after us, her husband was in Dunkirk and brought back on one of the small boats, so he stayed in the house for a few months during which time his wife became pregnant before being recalled to his regiment.The baby was a girl and when she was born that meant there was less room for us.
So we were moved on to a very crowded house with seven more evacuees billeted there. After six months we were moved again to a billet with Granma and Grandad Richards and there daughter who also was married and her husband was away in the army.My sister and I had to do most of the housework, when my Dad came to see us one saturday and saw how it was he told Granma that he was not happy with the way we were being treated, he told her he would come back the following wednesday to collect his two children and to have them ready to go home.
This return was in 1943 and we had been away four years.

This story was added to the People's War site by Robert E Morgan with help from Pamela Fawke of London CSV. The author is aware of the site's Terms an Conditions

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