大象传媒

Memories of wartime as seen by Doreen Brackpool

These memories are not going to be in any particular order. Looking back down the years certain things stick out and others just vanish.

I lived in London on and off, when I wasn鈥檛 being evacuated. I was between 4 and 9 years old when the second world was happening.
Yes, I do remember being frightened and aware a bit of what was going on round the world. But I do remember nice things like food parcels from Australia where some of my relatives lived. They contained things like tinned peaches, salmon, Spam etc. I don鈥檛 think this food was easily available, except on the black market. Some food didn鈥檛 arrive because the ships bringing it where destroyed by the enemy, which was sad.

I was evacuated three times. However I was lucky because my father was an infant school teacher. So we were all together, my mother and sister and father, some of the time. I remember once we went to Wiltshire, with my father鈥檚 school. We lived in an old water mill. It was infested with rats. This was frightening because we had to sleep on the floor on a mattress. The mill race was just outside the kitchen door and one day my sister of 18months fell in. I ran to fetch my mother but because I didn鈥檛 understand the danger , I didn鈥檛 put any urgency into my voice, she nearly didn鈥檛 go and see what had happened. I had my schooling in Lacock Abbey. This was in a room rather like a dungeon. I discovered this summer that it was the old Abbesses room.

On one of the journeys out of London (There had been 3), I remember children who needed the toilet, being passed by hand over the heads of the grownups.

The second time we were evacuated, we went to Ilminster in Somerset. This time I think we just went on our own. We actually were quite happy there, it was summertime. We played out of doors when we weren鈥檛 at school. The war was far away and I don鈥檛 think my sister and I thought about it. I think my mother and the lady we were staying with used to listen to the radio to hear of the war. I remember a couple of things from Ilminster. One morning, getting ready for school and looking towards the window, I saw the head of an elephant going passed. The circus had come to town! The other thing was to do with food. Somehow my mother had obtained something called sheet gelatine to make a jelly. She did so but without flavouring or colouring because such things were expensive and difficult to get. Unfortunately it was rather disgusting and uneatable!

In between these visits, we were in London and experienced bombing. At our house we had a shelter in the garden which was a big deep hole with a corrugated roof with grass on the top. When the air raid warning came on (a really nasty noise that I hate to this day) we all shot down the garden whatever the time of the day, sat on the bunks or went to sleep on them. We had candles and blankets to help make it more comfortable. At some point in the war we also used our cellar in Putney.
My grandmother had an indoors shelter called a Morrison. This was a bit like a cast iron table. We used to play under it.

Whilst we were at Lacock my father was in the home guard. This was in addition to teaching the evacuees. These children didn鈥檛 as far as I know have parents with them. They stayed with various families in and around the village. I have in my possession a list of their addresses in the village and their homes in Notting Hill Gate. I also have in my possession a very small suitcase which I probably used whilst being evacuated.

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