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15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

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My Childhood Memories

by Angela Ng

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Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation

Contributed by听
Angela Ng
People in story:听
Dorine and George Outen
Location of story:听
London
Background to story:听
Civilian
Article ID:听
A4438190
Contributed on:听
12 July 2005

I am a pupil from Prudhoe Community High School, Northumberland, entering Dorine and George Outen's stor onto the website, and they fully understand the website terms and conditions of use.

The Outen Couple were only children when the WW2 broke out. Mr. George Outen was only five years old, the eldest of three (at that time) and lived in Far East London with his large family. His Father was unfit to join the Army due to the fact that he was deaf. Because of this, his father was allowed to stay at home and had the job to work in an American Airfield in Coggesall in North Essex.
Throughout George鈥檚 life, he had experienced many horrendous memories such as seeing blistering bombs gliding across the sky, which are described as 鈥 fireworks鈥. He remembered a time when an incendiary bomb had landed nearby and he and his friends had the confidence to poke the fire. Unfortunately, two of George鈥檚 friend was injured and one was struck on the neck and the other was struck on the leg. Luckily, both survived and I am sure they have learnt their lesson.
Due to the War, there were food, and clothing rations and it created some difficulty for George and his family. George remembers that there was little to eat however enough to survive and there were hardly any sweets because the sugar was on ration. In that time, the diets were much more healthy than today, thanks to the rations!
George had an interrupted school life and attended at a country school. Fortunately the school was not bombed and he carried on going to school through the War.
Mrs. Dorine Outen was only three at the time and lived in Rainham in Essex with her older sister and parents. Her mother was a housewife and her father was a home guard. Dorine鈥檚 mother, sister and herself were evacuated to Bristol where they lived with some distant relatives in Bristol. However, it was later bombed therefore had to be evacuated again to Naldon in Essex, which is on the River Black Water. Dorine had also experienced the rationing and she remembered how her mother used some old Army blankets to make coats.
She had also remembered the state of the shelters and how it was so damp. Lastly she can remember the date May 8th, when the hostilities had ceased and how the flags were hanged everywhere and the church bells were ringing triumphantly once again.
The couple had many experiences when they only little children and it has been an honour to interview them.

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