大象传媒

This story was told to East Ayrshire staff at their tea party on the 11th June 2004 by Heather Mills of Colchester in Essex.

I was born in Edinburgh in 1932 and when war broke out in 1939 the family home was in Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, but in September 1939 I was visiting my aunt in Scotland. I can remember the panic in the family and being put on a train with a label on my coat. The carriage was full of soldiers who gave me sweets and put me on to the bus at York to go onto Boroughbridge. My mother was crying when I got off the bus safe.

My father joined the Army and my mother, sister and I moved to Dagenham near London to be near our grandparents. While there I remember the first time we had to leave the house and run into the Anderson Shelter and wait for the 鈥渁ll clear鈥�. Once when running for the shelter my doll fell and her head burst 鈥� my grandfather glued the head together and knitted a bonnet for it. Knitting was a skill he developed while in the Navy during World War I. My sister and I were evacuated twice 鈥� first with a woman who made me sell empty beer bottles for 1 penny each and next with a middle aged childless couple who did not like the idea of refugees. After this my father took my sister and I to stay with our paternal grandparents in Ireland - our third evacuation

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