大象传媒

This story was add to the site by Eleanor Fell, on behalf of Edmund Southey, who has given his permission for his memories to be on the website and he understands the terms and conditions of the site.

I grew up in Dover and I went to Barton Road Junior School. One of my earliest memories of the war was when I was 8 year old and I was in St Andrews Church with my sister - Dimpy - and the air raid sirens went - it was the first time I'd heard the undulating wail - but I immediately knew what it was. Nobody took any notice, and we carried on with the service. I was quite worried and I expected to come out of mass and see the whole town ruined, but of course it wasn't.

The first thing I noticed in the weeks following the announcement that we were at war in Sept 1939, was that the town was flooded with soldiers. My father was called up immediately in the army as he was on the Reserves.

In 1940 I remember the dive bombers coming over Germany and bombing the harbour - I found it tremendously exciting to watch, and I used to watch from the cliff tops with my friends. Much better than the cinema!

In about April 1940 (immediately before Dunkirk) I was evacuated to Ynysddu in South Wales. I remember getting off the train at 3am after a 12 hour train journey - but I had no idea where I was. We went in a church hall or school hall. There was a amateur magician who was doing tricks for us, and my friend, David Kemp, was poking fun at him. A lady called Mrs Rees had been told to come by her husband and collect "two cheeky little buggers as won't cry to go home" so she spotted us two larking around with the magician and she decided to take us home.

Mr Rees worked in the mines and their children had grown up and left home, so it was just the two of us there at first. We were joined later by London evacuees, who were brother and sister, Edgar and Vera Weinbaum, who were Jewish. They were the first Jewish people I had met. Later two other girls from Slough joined us.

While I was an evacuee I became a member of a gang - which were mainly for the boys.
There were three rival children's gangs in the area that used to fight each other. They were 'The Welsh' 'The Dover' and 'The Londoners'. We fought with stones, rocks (which we rolled down the mountain) and also axes. We would have organised fights - and 'The Dover' generally came out on top - whereas 'The Londoners' were the softies! Even though we would get some pretty bad injuries - and we would hold the gashes under cold water to stem the bleeding - it was always exciting to have the fights!

The Welsh miners were keen on boxing, and Mr Rees provided us with boxing gloves so that we could have boxing matches. He would referee the matches between me, Edgar, David and any other boys that were around.

While in Wales I carried on attending Barton Road School, as the teachers had been evacuated with us. When I was 11 in 1942 I changed schools and went to Dover Grammar School which had been evacuated to Ebbw Vale nearby.

This meant I had to move to Ebbw Vale and leave Mr and Mrs Rees. It wasn't easy finding new digs, the local policeman would have to take a party of children around, until somebody agreed to take them in.

I went eventually went back to Dover in 1944 a lot rougher and tougher than when I left!

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