大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by Edward Fawcett for Three Counties Action on behalf of Betsy Stanley and has been added to the site with her permission.The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.It started on the 1st September 1939 when we were told to report to school with gas-masks,name label pinned to collar and a case with clothing and toiletries.I was 13years old.We 'crocodiled' from the Latchmere to Clapham Junction station where we got on a train and nobody knew where we were going.About an hour later we got out on a station in Hampshire called Petersfield.We came out of the station and we walked around the streets and people came out of their houses and picked who they liked.Me and my friend were the last two left.I felt a little bit hurt as if people were saying somebody's got to have 'em.Eventually an elderly couple, Mr & Mrs Bonniface took us in.Because they were old we were too much for them so by November we went to a younger couple Mr & Mrs Hall.At Christmas we all went back home for the holidays but when we came back to Petersfield my friend didn't return because I think she was home sick.We stayed with Mr&Mrs Hall for 18 months and they treated me like a younger sister.They had a lovely piano and we used to have sing songs in the parlour.Eventually Mr Hall was called up into the Navy.Mrs Hall went back to live with her mother in Southsea so I ended up in a 'half way house'where we would stop until they found us a new billet.The local school was too small to accommodate all the local children and us so we ended up going round all different places for lessons such as the Council Chamber and the Chapel school room.We seemed to wander around half the day going from one lesson to another.Eventually the school ended up in a big house called Hilton House,the Spain,Petersfield.This house had lots of grounds where we used to grow lots of things.I particularly remember the lettuces.I was having a wail of a time,I didn't want to leave school.It was funny that we used to come home every holiday,even during the Blitz.Many a night I spent in the cold Anderson shelter.Everyone I stayed with were wonderful people,they really looked after us, very kind people.Mr&Miss Barnes were the last people I stayed with.They were my inspiration to join the Church.When I was 16 I had to leave school and come home.I didn't want to leave,I didn't want to leave the country.I loved Petersfield.A funny thing happened once.We saw this aeroplane,a bomber coming ,so we waved and the pilot waved back but we didn't realise he was a German until he got closer and then he dropped a bomb!which landed on a nearby greenhouse but that was quite a way from us but we heard it.After leaving school I went to work at Landis and Gears in the typing pool.I hated it, I didn't like the work stuck in an office so I went and joined up.I volunteered for the ATS when I was 18 in 1944 and it was early 1945 when I went to Pontifract barracks.They asked me what I wanted to do so I said I wanted to drive.The test to get on this course was to put together Meccano and as my brother had a set I was used to playing with it and sailed through the test.So I was sent to Camberley in Surrey to do the driver training and the Queen,or Princess Elizabeth as she was then was on the intake before me and she came back to the school,inspected us and gave us a pep talk and she had only been there herself six weeks before! Once I had been trained I did mainly convoy work and we could drive anything from Standard Utility trucks to 3 Ton Bedfords.I did alot of work driving officers about.On VE Day I was on leave so I went up outside Buckingham Palace to see the King,Queen,Winnie and the Princesses.We didn't half cheer!

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