- Contributed by听
- James Aitken
- Article ID:听
- A1124498
- Contributed on:听
- 28 July 2003
After a serious German bombing raid on Edinburgh (I believe they were after the Forth Bridge and some shipping in the Firth of Forth) a plan was put in place to evacuate children from the city to the surrounding countryside.
My family had retired to the Anderson shelter in our backyard at the start of the raid. Being the youngest, I was lowered into the shelter first. The floor was awash up to my knees with water from previous rain, and so it was not considered a very good idea to stay there. Clutching our gas masks, which were mandatory during air raids, we made our way to a community shelter somewhere handy to our street.
The next day came the news that a stray bomb had landed at Corstorphine Zoo and had killed a giraffe. This would have been around 1940 or 1941, when I was five or six, and my sister seven or eight years old.
I don't know the details of the method used to place children for evacuation, but I do recall my parents, who had a car, driving my sister and I to a humble cottage on the outskirts of Edinburgh. My father was an officer with the ARP (Air Raid Precautions), being medically unfit for active duty. My mother was employed in an aircraft factory making tail planes for Lancaster bombers.
My parents were not too happy with the arrangements, but had to leave us for that first night. Our 'adopting' family had children of their own, and my recollection was that they were not very well off. The first thing they did, once my parents had left, was to go through our suitcases and help themselves to some small treats that Mum and Dad had left to soften the blow of separation. The sleeping arrangements were that my sister and I were to share a bed which was built into an alcove in the wall of the living area.
The next day my parents returned to collect us and we were then taken to another location just outside Linlithgow. This was a huge manor house on a private estate. The place was called The Craigs, and thus began a few years of the most memorable times for young children. I can only describe it as similar to a boarding school. Boys and girls each had their own dormitory and schooling was conducted in situ.
We had plenty of free time to explore the grounds of the estate, and my recollection of huge banks of rhododendrons will be in my mind forever. I still love those plants today and although I live in the tropics of Queensland, Australia, I have got some tropical varieties in my garden.
One of our teachers, a young lady, had a visit from her fianc茅 who was an officer in the army. I still recall his coming home on leave in uniform for a visit. They were constantly blowing kisses at each other!
Food was reasonably plentiful and I saw my first brace of pheasants hanging in the foyer, which must have been from the estate. Parents were able to visit as often as they were able, and my folks came frequently and would take my sister and I out to Linlithgow for the afternoon.
As this was wartime, one was constantly reminded of the need for care with the usage of material. The one that sticks in my mind even today was the little 'ditty' we were taught as to the use of toilet paper: 'One's too little, two's not enough, three's just right, four's too much.'
In retrospect, I have to admit to enjoying my time at The Craigs, but I was very happy when the danger had passed and we were able to return home. I'm grateful to the owners of the estate for making it available to us children during those harrowing times.
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