大象传媒

In October 1939 my mother Catherine Moore was eight months pregant. I was one of 3 daughters - 10, 11 & 12 years older than the baby she was expecting.
She was sent to a big hotel in Blackpool with other pregnant women and much to her dismay she found out she could have taken us 3 daughters with her but we had been sent to Marple in Cheshire to a lovely lady called Mrs Wilson. She only had the one daughter at boarding school - her husband was a physicist or a chemist or whatever- and spent most of his time in Manchester, so the only company she had was the maid Blanche. Mrs Wilson spoilt us all- she was a lovely lady. She bought christmas dresses for us and arranged parties for xmas. But as me mother had the baby on November 6th we all wanted to go home for that Christmas with having the new baby you see. ~And Mrs Wilson was very upset at this. Anyway we went home and Mrs Wilson wouldnt have us back after that- she was so upset.
By then the eldest of the 3 of us was 14 and ready for work so me and me next sister were sent to Blackburn to live with a Mrs Preston- cos me mum thought it was safer for us to be out of Manchester. Mrs Preston just had the one daughter who was a bit snooty. We were never allowed into the living room or lounge- us two sisters ate and slept in the kitchen- we used to have two folding up camp beds with an army blanket to cover us up and had to use our clothes folded up for a pillow.
We were sent out to school earlier in the morning than we should have done because Mr & Mrs Preston both worked so their daughter could go to private school. We had to wait till about six o clock at night for them all to come home- we had to hang around outside in all weathers. We made a shelter out of corrugated metal in the field opposite of where they lived and used to stay in there to keep out of the rain. One day it collapsed on us injuring my sister in her eye- she had a huge black eye. When our mother came out to see us at the weekend
and saw it she was really upset and decided to fetch us home.
During the course of war me an me sister were sent to at least 5 different homes- that was the circumstances of our family.
The last one was me and a sister and 2 other sisters (friends from school) and we all lived with their aunty in Blackpool. Maybe people thought of us as working class because they never let us into their lounge- we spent most of the time playing in the garage.
Being a child in the war gave us more of an experience of life than if there hadn't been one. But in a way I'm sorry it happened- I would have preferred to have stayed in one home with my mum.
I now understand why children in care can be so bitter about their circumstances.

This story has been submitted to the Peoples War Website by Rupert Creed for GMR Action Desk on behalf of Josephine Oates with her permission. The author is aware of the site's terms and conditions

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