大象传媒

My Father was a Padre in the Royal Air Force before the war. We were posted to Egypt when I was four years old - to Aboukir, about 15 miles from Alexandria. The posting should have been for five years but early in 1939 we were to be evacuated home, we鈥檇 only been there 18 months. As on the outbound journey the liner awaited passengers at Port Said. I remember it being very dark with lights way above us and some desperate arguing going on to do with us boarding. I was then five years old. They were trying to get families home as early as February.

We eventually went home in March. My Father was then posted to Warrington until war was declared and he vanished and we returned to my Grandparents in Oxford. My Mother eventually got a flat- three rooms at the top of a Victorian house where we stayed until my Father was wounded at Dunkirk. He came home and went to Harwell and then St Athan.

The flat was sub-let, I was put in boarding school and Mother went to Wales. Firstly we had a little cottage in Llantwit Major and later a quarter on the camp. I was fetched by train in the holidays from Oxford and one holiday a surgeon came to St Athan and performed operations on any children needing their tonsils and adenoids removed. I was one of them and remember only being able to swallow ice cream, home-made by the lady in the little shop next to the cottage. When we lived on the camp I would cycle round with a friend in the holidays until one day a request came in asking the 鈥榃ing Commander鈥檚 daughter and her friend to stop going past the check points as the guards were having to salute us!鈥�

I used to go and see the aeroplanes all lined up and could recognise all the different engines. Once at the beginning of the war we were in Bury St Edmonds (I don鈥檛 know why we were there) and I heard a very strange noise and ran indoors and told the adults about this odd plane. They didn鈥檛 believe me at the time but it was later reported as having been a German plane.

I remember the Matron鈥檚 dog ate the entire butter ration once at boarding school.

My Father was once again posted and we returned to the flat. We saw the Americans come in their hoards down our road one their way south and of course for D-Day which was where Dad was. We could hear the bombing of Coventry, see the sky all lit up- the noise was horrendous. At night the planes droned over, wave after wave. My Mother was terrified waking up one night leaning out of my bedroom waving a torch.

My Mother was very clever at making things eke out, made wonderful scrambled eggs with dried egg powder. Eggs put down in Isinglass were fine 鈥榯il one went bad and then the smell was terrible. We shared a bathroom and used a huge iron thing with a gas geyser for hot water. By the time the water got up to the six inch limit it was tepid. Mother made my school dresses to make the coupons go a little bit further. Once I fancied a pretty clover print and somehow she and the assistant stretched the coupons so I got another dress. My Father sent me postcards of snow white and the seven dwarfs written in French which he translated on the back. He said it was sad to see all the animals and horses roaming free across the land. He never told me of any horrors although he must have seen plenty being a Chaplain based at one time at Baden Baden. He was mentioned in dispatches twice and had the D.S.O and Bar.

I also had a cousin in the Australian Air Force. He was killed at the end of the war when he joined the RAF as a test pilot.

We used to see the wounded Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen, walking over the bridge high over Headington Hill in their bright blue uniforms- they were casualties of shell shock and other mental traumas and were inmates of Headington Hall. They were allowed to go up to the village until one poor man got the shakes and broke a display case in the confectioners. He got so upset hey sent for the authorities and they never came back again. I was told never to flinch if I saw a man with a disfigured face.

I was lucky I was protected from the war really but of course it did have after-effects on everyone involved.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Becky Barugh of the 大象传媒 Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mrs Julia Frost who very kindly shared it with us. It has been added to the site with her permission and she fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Julia's stories:

• The P&O Turbo-Electrical Ship 鈥淰ictory of India鈥�, 20,000 Tons
• The Pompeian Swimming Bath aboard the Victory of India
• The postcard we sent on our way out to Egypt
• On the beach in Egypt
• Cairo, 1939
• Old world Cairo, 1939
• En route from Egypt to England
• P&O S.S 鈥淩ajputana鈥� 17,000 Tons
• The First Saloon Lounge aboard the Rajputana
• The First Class Dining Saloon aboard the Rajputana
• The First Saloon Music Room aboard the Rajputana
• The First Saloon Smoking Room aboard the Rajputana
• Julia Mary Wilkie, aged 5
• Mother and I aboard the Rajputana
• Richard and Muriel Wilkie
• Snow White Postcard 1
• Snow White Postcard 2
• Snow White Postcard 3
• Snow White Postcard 4
• Snow White Postcard 5
• Snow White Postcard 6
• Snow White Postcard 7
• Snow White Postcard 8
• Snow White Postcard 9
• Snow White Postcard 10
• Snow White Postcard 11
• Snow White Postcard 12
• Snow White Postcard 13
• Identity card

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