大象传媒

I was born in Wembley Middlesex in l93l. My parents were from Carmarthenshire originally so had all their family living in the area.

Two of my cousins came to London to work in l938. At the end of the school term July l939 I travelled with them to Wales to stay with an aunt for the school holidays. My father and three year old sister would be collecting me towards the end of the holiday. However,war broke out and instead of returning to London my mother and baby sister joined me in Nantgaredig.

The house was old - there was an electric point in each room and light but no water laid on. All water had to be pumped from a well lOO yards from the house and carried. You can imagine how hard my mother found this having lived in a modern house in London.

In l939 only the London County Council evacuated children officially but as Wembley was in Middlesex we were unofficial evacuees. In order that my mother could settle in Nantgaredig with the little ones I was sent to Carwe a mining village in the Gwendraeth Valley not far from Llanelli. I stayed with an uncle and aunt - my uncle being the local headmaster. Whilst there I was taken down a coal mine an experience I did not enjoy.

By January l94O my mother was settled and I rejoined my family and attended the local school. L.C.C. evacuees in the area had their own school and teachers. In l942 I took my eleven-plus exam - having to sit it on my own as it was the Middlesex exam that I had to take. I passed. As bombing in London seemed to have abated, the family returned to London and I started in Grammar School in September l942.

During the years l939-42 most summers I was sent to stay on various family farms - an experience in itself, as most had no water or electricity laid on to their farmhouses.

In Wembley during the winter of l943 we did experience a few bomb attacks and we had a Morrison shelter in our dining room. June l944 brought the doodle-bugs - a really horrifying experience - and after a couple of weeks my parents decided it was Wales again for us.

This time I went to Ammanford to stay with my uncle and aunt - my uncle having been moved from the Carwe school to be head master of Ammanford school. As the doodle-bugs were reaching Middlesex I was this time classified as an official evacuee. This complicated matters as I had to go to the evacuees school and obtain a transfer from Middlesex Education Authority to the L.C.C. Education Authority. However, with all the red-tape, my transfer did not come through until October l944 - what to do with me in the meantime was the question. Fortunately my headmaster uncle arranged for me to help out in the Nursery section of his school, which kept me occupied.

My mother and sisters were in Nantgaredig and I travelled by bus each weekend to join them.

During the war American soldiers were stationed on the outskirts of Carmarthen and were very kind to the children giving them sweets and chocolate.

Food was rationed but living among the country people and having farming family we were able to obtain the odd rabbit or chicken. Also family provided us with fresh eggs on occasion. The Towy river during those years was full of salmon and we were able to have a supply of fish.
One advantage I had over other evacuees was that I spoke Welsh and on occasion had to translate for a farming aunt when people came to beg for surplus food. Usually to be sold on the Black Market.

One memory I have of a Sunday evening being woken from sleep by people outside the house in Nantgaredig. The house was at the top of a hill and we could see quite plainly the red sky over the hills when Swansea was attacked.

When the end of the war in Europe was imminent, the family returned to London in April l945.

One of my achievements as an evacuee was learning to knit!

However, it was a very disturbing time for me as a child and my education did suffer.

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