Wifies at War

Wifies at War 05 Seaton

Evelyn Falconer was 5 when the war began, she lived in Froghall Avenue and went to Causewayend School.
When asked about the bombing, this was her response:

“When I came home from school I was machine-gunned on the way up Canal road — you know where that is? I was machine-gunned there and a lady who lived in the houses (they’re not there any more)…cottages, they ran out and pulled all the children into their houses.

When asked about how the families received information, Evelyn shared this little story:

“My brother being a prisoner over in Poland, they were allowed letters home, but they were all censored and the bits they weren’t allowed to tell you, the Germans (their captors) scored out so you couldn’t really see what was going on, they couldn’t really tell you.
But there was a lady across the road, her son was in the same camp as my brother and if my mother got a letter, she used to run over and she would say,” What did it say? What did it say?” And if she got a letter my mother used to run over because it was the only information they had about the family when they were away.”

VE Day memory:

“There was a big street party outside in the street, all the neighbours would bring everything they had, there was singing and dancing…a big lot of people. We went down to… you know where Marks and Spencer’s is at the corner? It used to be the ‘Queen’, they called it. It was a big statue of the Queen (it ’s at Queen’s Cross now). Lots of people gathered there to celebrate and at the Castlegate as well, everybody was so glad.
My husband (a boy at the time)* walked from here (Seaton)* over the Broad Hill down to the harbour, the Navy boats were in, right? And the sailors took them on board and he always remembers they gave him a great big plate of rice and he ate it all!”

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Games the children played:

“There was skipping, walking on stilts (home-made stilts - 2 tin cans and string), kick the can, beddies (hopscotch), leavie-o. Now leavie-o. You had 2 groups, 2 teams; one team went away and hid, but they used to go a long way. I come from Froghall… down to Sunnybank swings. So we used to leave marks on the road and then one went back and told the leader of the other team…. a rough idea of where we were and they get to try and follow the clues we had left - to catch us. It was good fun and you’d play for hours.”

Sheila Strachan was 6 when war was declared. She lived on Park Road, beside Urquhart Road. She went to school on King Street.

This is her memory of the bombings:

“Urquhart Road, just round from where my school was, was badly burned and we were off school for a while.

I also waved to a German pilot when I was off school!
D’you remember the time Trinity Cemetery was bombed, he didn’t drop his bombs anywhere else but the cemetery along the road there, and I was sitting on the windowsill in Park Road ( up at the top we lived) and I sat and waved to this plane, coz it was as close as anything and I just said to my mother, ‘I was waving to a man and he had a big cross on his aeroplane!’.
At that time I did not know it was a German plane… I gave him a wave…and he waved back!”

Mrs Amy Lees (Seaton)

Amy was 15 when the war began, she worked in Esslemont and McIntosh

When asked about the bombing, this is what she told the children:

“They did say they tried to bomb Balmoral Castle… but they never managed though they tried a few times but they never got it. They used to follow the River Dee. As soon as they got to the Dee at the Harbour they could go right up there and got up to Deeside. But they never got it.
Do you know how there are milestones out in the country? Well all the milestones were taken away so if there were any German spies going around they didn’t know where they were… they mebbe had an idea but there were no milestones to tell them how far they were from such and such a place.”

'It was on April 23rd, 1943, I was walking home to Westburn Road through The Royal Mental Hospital (Cornhill) with my friend after being at Rosemount
nightschool. I was 18. A bomber came flying over and began to drop incendiary bombs, one of which hit the Kilgour and Walker textile factory and flames began to shoot up into the air. We were ushered into a bomb shelter at the top of Berryden Road until the all clear sounded. Unfortunately, 5 people from the hospital were killed.'

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