大象传媒

I was 16 when the war broke out. My school, Newcastle Church High School was evacuated to Alnwick where we were billeted with families for one term. We were a bit apprehensive, but the thing that struck me long afterwards was how awful for my parents. There were three of us and we were all evacuated to different places. My youngest brother went with his prep school to an old vicarage in County Durham, and my other brother to the Lake District.

It was then negotiated with the Duke of Northumberland that we would move into Alnwick Castle. It was grand, and cold! They had central heating in parts. Under the outer bailey there was a centrally heated service tunnel between the kitchens and the state dining room, so the guests could have their food warm. It became our air raid shelter when the sirens went.

There were a lot of air raid warnings but no strike on Alnwick. The planes were going to Tyneside, about 30 miles away. We only saw the occasional plane going over as they mainly came in over the sea. We saw the smoke and fires from the bombs.

I stayed there until I left school after the Higher Certificate and went to university at Cambridge. The area was a main centre for bombers as it was flat and near the continent. Most of the big bombadromes were in that area. We saw the planes towing out the gliders. We knew there was something big on around D-Day time as they called for all the students to give bloodl I was a regular blood donor anyway.

We went fire watching in the college buildings. Those of us who lived a long way away got the chance to stay on after the end of term to firewatch. There was always a queue to firewatch at the Observatory. as we got to look through all the telescopes. I was there for four years as I did a teachers' training course and was there when the war ended. On VE day we all swarmed out onto the streets and we partied! The churches were packed - we went there first, we were jolly thankful.

At Cambridge I re-met my husband, David. We had known each other as very small children and were pushed out together in our prams! They moved to London and our mothers kept in touch. He tracked me down at the Teachers' Training College. He was engaged to someone else, but at Christmas he sent me a card with a PS saying 'I'm not engaged anymore'. We married in 1947. We were living in London but married in Newcastle, the day after our present Queen. We had a 48 hour honeymoon in York on the way back to London.

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