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I was 7 when I was first evacuated and I was sent to Teignmouth where I spent the most unhappiest time of my life. I can’t remember the name of the lady I was billeted with but I do remember that there were two evacuees from London including myself and she used to hit us across the back of the legs with a cane as we went upstairs to bed every night. I was so unhappy that I wrote a letter about 3 pages long to my mother saying ‘I want to come home’ continuously until the last line which said ‘if I can't come home can you send me some money’.

It was as a result of this letter that Mum and Dad came down to visit me. It was unfortunate (or fortunate for me) that the Germans actually dropped some bombs on Teignmouth that night and we all spent the night under the stairs and kitchen table.
I think afterwards it was decided that it was a bomber just getting rid of its bombs.
As a result of this it was decided that I would be no worse off in London.

Unfortunately for me we were bombed out of our home shortly afterwards, and as a result I was then evacuated to Wakefield in Yorkshire. I remember when we come our of our shelter a gas main was on fire in the main street and the flames (to me as a child) were at least 200ft high. I was told by my mother years after that we had a hurricane lamp hanging on the shelter door to give us light, and when the bomb fell the glass shattered and landed on my face, and I didn’t receive a single cut! I think my time in Wakefield was reasonably happy but it was a mining community and as kids we used to play in amongst the pit props which resulted in us all getting lice in our head. The other unfortunate thing was that the women I was billeted with would only cook chips. It was literally ‘chips with everything’ and as a result I returned home with gastroenteritis.

M. J. Searle

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