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Nutley village, being on the southern part of the Ashdown Forest was alive with army units during the war. The army used the forest extensively as a training and settlement area. Part of Nutley Garage, which was owned and run by my family, was taken over by the W.D. in 1940 for the purpose of using the petrol storage and pumps for refuelling Army Transport vehicles.

Going back to the early days, Nutley had a Refugee Committee as did many other towns and villages. This was set up mainly for children from the London area whose parents considered that bombing was getting too hot for comfort. I believe there were half a dozen or so children who were given homes in the village. We also had a request to offer a home for a Jewish boy from Vienna by name of Herbert Strumpel. He was given a home for the war years at Mrs English's at High Platt in School Lane.

He was a likeable lad and the school children soon made friends with him - also helping him to learn English and introduced him to the likes of cricket etc. He stayed in Nutley until the end of the war when I believe he made it back to Austria.

This story was submitted to the People's War website by Helena Noifeld of 大象传媒 Radio Kent and has been added to the website on behalf of David Joseph Ridley with his permission. He fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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