大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by a volunteer on behalf of Mrs Joyce Avard and has been added to the site with her permission. Joyce fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I was on holiday with my family in Cornwall when war was declared. We were visiting family friends and it was thought best that we stayed with them rather than return to Chislehurst. My father was a policeman, so he had to go back to do his duty.
After six months, we went back to Chiselhurst because it looked like the war was over, but soon it all started up again. We were outside of the official evacuation zone, so had to make our own arrangements to leave. We could not go back to Cornwall as our friends had already taken on some evacuees, so my mother, my sister, my brother and I went to live in a cottage in the village of Dell in Devon.
The cottage was very different to what we were used to. There was a well in the front garden from which we had to draw all our water. We cooked on a wood burning stove and had oil lamps for light. The toilet was at the bottom of the garden and had to be emptied.
I remember in the village there lived two old ladies who we used to call 'the witches'! They had a very old ramshackle house and cooked in a big black pot which looked like a cauldron. They used to grow vegetables to sell at the market and sometimes we would go to help them with polishing the apples and tying up the bunches of mint.
When I was 13 I came back to Chiselhurst. My mother went away to Nottingham, but I stayed behind to look after my dad. At this time my dad met a solider who was looking for somewhere to stay with his wife, so my dad invited them to live with us. I became great friends with her and we are still in touch today.
I remember the sound of the Doodlebugs. It was very chilling when they fell silent and you knew there was about to be an explosion. My school was bombed and the headmistress and a teacher were killed.
Our parents were very worried all the time. We always had to be very quiet when the news came on. It was very important that they could listen. Us children didn't worry so much, but we didn't really know what was going on.
My father had an accident when he was near an explosion which set fire to a box of matches in his pocket. During his recovery he developed a terrible rash and I remember going to see him wrapped up in bandages like a mummy. The doctors told him to move nearer the sea, which is why we ended up moving to Hastings.
When my brother came home from fighting, he had developed a fear of heights. He had been in America and gave us silk stockings and all the extra sweet coupons he had been given.
Another vivid memory was seeing the river thames on fire, even though we were 20 miles away. I think they had bombed an area where there were oil drums.
Life was hard during the war, there were lots of disruptions to education, but we all did the best we could.

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