大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Regents Park Library on behalf of Kathy Randle and has been added to the site with her permission. Kathy Randle fully understands the site's terms and conditions

I was evacuated to the Midlands. The war broke out when I was 10 years old. My mother was a widow and I was an only child. Mum had to stay in London to earn a living for us both. As it was at the end of the summer holidays; I was still staying with my Great Aunt near Nuneaton in Warwickshire. Mum was due to come and fetch me back to London on the very Sunday that the war broke out. All but essential trains were cancelled so she could not travel. My aunt agreed to keep me for the time being.

Her family had grown up and left home and she was looking forward to some peace and quiet! Anyway I was given my own room and all was well as long as I did not make any noise!

I stayed there for four years; the worse four years of my life. I was so miserable and homesick. I really missed my mother and grandma and my uncle. Aunt and uncle were good to me
but had little understanding of how I felt.

One of the things I used to do to satisfy my sweet tooth, was to pull up carrots from the allotment behind the house. I just shook them to get the earth off then munch them; lovely and sweet!

When I left the Elimentary School at 14 years old
I could either work in Woolworths, or in a factory. As I did not fancy either, I asked to go back to London.

I arrived back and started work as a Junior Clerk
(a glorified tea-girl). Soon after this although the major bombing had finished; the "doodlebugs"
or buzz-bombs started. One dinner time (or lunch as it is now!), I was walking down Albany Street,
where we lived; and I heard the noise of the dreaded buzz-bomb. It seemed to follow me all the way home and I was listening intently for the silence which would mean that the bomb was about to fall! Fortunately, it landed in the Park and not on my head.

The pictures are of myself and my two cousins
on the allotment of my aunt and uncle with the Anderson shelter in the background. The other picture is of another Aunt who lived in Ramsgate and served in the Land Army.