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The first time I remember that I knew there was going to be a war, was a conversation my Mother and Father had. They said all of London’s children would be evacuated.

When we went shopping there were many children getting onto double decker buses with their gas masks and their labels. My Mother must have thought this was not for my two sisters and me.

My Mother came from Cornwall,so she got in touch with a relative who lived there and asked her to look after us during the war. We did not know who this woman was, but my Mother said it was her Stepfathers second wife, her Mother had died.

We called her ‘Gran Coe’and she was 70 plus.
When you think my eldest sister (Florence) was 6, I (Monica) was 5 and my youngest sister (Pat) was three and a half. Gran Coe had not had children of her own nad I wonder looking back what her thoughts were, being made responsible for us!

Mum packed our suitcases and we got onto the coach (called the Royal Blue) and headed for Grampound, which is between St Austell and Truro. The journey took 12 hours and our Mother came with us, to stay for a few days to settle us in. She then returned to Hammersmith where the family home was.

Years later I asked her why she did not stay with us and she said she felt her place was to be at home incase my father got a 48 hour leave pass (he was billeted on the coast in charge of search lights). When later in life I had 3 of my own children I knew I could never leave them, it must have been a hard choice for her to make!

When Mum went home I remember the 3 of us in tears when we went to bed.

We were in Cornwall with Gran Coe for three and a half years. Mum came to see us every 6 months, dad coming with her when he could.

I remember Mum was to arrive at tea-time and she did not come, we were so upset. I thought she did not want to see us.

What we didn’t know was there was a raid in Plymouth and the train she was on could not move.

Mum spent all night in the train with bombs dropping all around her. She arrived the next day thank goodness. No-one had telephones in those days!

So there we were! Our school was across the road, with a park next to it. There were swings, a bowling green and a river that ran through. The water was white because it came from the clay workings in St Austall. To this day the school and park are still there but the river runs clear now.

My memories of Grampound are taking a china jug to the farm for milk and cream. The village hall at the top of the hill made Cornish Pasties every Friday and they tasted lovely!

There were a lot of evacuees in Grampound and we made a lot of friends. There were not many signs of war there. Just every so often lorries of men in army uniform driving through the village, we didn’t know where they went.

What we did know was the Blitz of London was going on, and people were being killed every night. Houses and buildings brought to rubble, it must have been frightening for the people who stayed in London!

Mum had an incendary bomb in the family home, thank God she was out when it came down, because those bombs set fire to everything.

The Blitz of London eventually came to an end, and things went quiet for a while. Mum was given another home and she thought after three and a half years it was safe to bring us home. How wrong she was! We came home to more air raids mainly at night. A lorry would drive around the streets with a large gun on the back trying to bring the enemy planes down. I don’t know how effective it was but it made a lot of noise!

Then came the Doodlebugs, a rocket with an engine. When the engine cut out it came down blowing everything up in it’s wake.

It was then that Mum got us a Morrison Shelter. This was a solid iron table, it filled the kitchen it was so big. It had wirecovering on all four sides so that in a raid, rubble and walls could not fall in on us. We had a mattress and bedding and the four of us slept there every night.

Between my school and home there was a chocolate factory with a large air raid shelter. If there was an air raid on the way home from school, instead of running home I could go to the shelter and and be safe. People were very nice in those days.

Then came the rockets, there was no warning so you didn’t know anything about it until the damage was done.

Life carried on, shops that got bombed seemed to clear the mess up quite quickly and the familiar board ‘Business as usual’ went up.

If we were lucky enough to be in Hammersmith Market when there were bananas for sale we would queue for a long time, and then would only be allowed a pound of bananas per person. Mum made banana custard, so it would go further.

Mum was very good at making meals out of almost nothing. It was amazing what you could make with powdered eggs! And if you could not have all your meat ration you could top it up with corned beef.

I suppose except for being away from our parents, which in itself was traumatic, my sisters and I had a better life than some of the children that were sent away to God knows where.

My former husband and his brother were very unlucky in their evacuation, they had to be hospitalised with malnutrition and were sent home early to their parents. The people they were evacuated to, did not give them the food that was meant for them (the Government paid for this, so there was no excuse).
Thousands of men, women and children died in the war, so that we could have the freedom that is so precious in our daily lives. It is important we never let anyone take this away from us.