About the contributor

Reminiscing about my time as an evacuee and after.

I was 7 on the 28th August 1939 and was evacuated a few days later with my school. I remember being on the railway platform and my mother saying "tell them that this coat is for Sundays". I thought that was funny as I understood I was going on a day trip.

I was away for four years - only coming home when I passed my scholarship to Grammar School

At first we only went to school half days, as the village school was so small. We alternated from mornings one week, then afternoons.

The couple who took me in were retired, and I was looked after very well. My parents came to see me at various times, not very often as they were both doing war work. My brother was billeted not far from me, but he also passed for Grammar School so went home after two years.

I remember going with the school, potato picking, and also picking sprouts which was very hard as it was winter time.

The cottage I lived in had outside toilets - not flush ones, which were called Dolly Vardens, and they had to be emptied manually - the smell wasn't very nice in the summer!

I had only been home abou 10 months when my mother left home. She moved not far from our house and took a room with an elderly widow. I didn't know what happened - probably just the
war.

My father looked after us and I did see my mother occasionally. As we had come over from Ireland just before the war, there was no family nearby so we had to look out for ourselves.

My brother joined the army as soon as he was 18 and I started work at 16.

I feel that the war robbed me of my mother, as I saw so little of her while I was away, and then with her leaving home she was more like an Auntie you see infreqnently.

I never had the chance to get to know her as I got older as she died when I was 16yrs and 4 months.

It is only now as I am older and think back that I realise what I missed.

I was lucky enough to marry a lovely man and had two children of my own. We were married for 48 years and I hope that our children had the love that I missed.