1st September 1939

1st September 1939.. Why does that day stand out in my memory? Because it was the day that really changed my life and I can recall so many details of the events of that day. My Mother and Father had, after much discussion, decided to put our names down for evacuation from Southampton in the event of a war. My brother and I were pupils at Freemantle School but as we had a sister who was still a baby my Mother could accompany us as a helper in charge of ten unaccompanied children. We were given twenty-four hours notice and told to be in the school playground at 6a.m on the morning of Friday 1st September 1939 and to take a change of clothing and sandwiches for the journey. On being counted it was found that at the last minute so many Mothers had decided that they couldn’t be parted from their children that not as many had arrived as had been expected. By 10.30am the organisers decided that it was time for us to move and we boarded the tram outside the school to go to the station. The tram passed my Grandmothers house and she was standing outside as we went by.
I remember many tears on the platform. The children ranged from five to fourteen years in age and many had never been away from home before. To these children it must have been quite frightening but to some of us it was quite an adventure. I was just two weeks away from my thirteenth birthday (quite grown up I thought) and I had my Mother, Don my six year old brother, and Mary my two year old sister with me and also my very best friend of the time, Betty who had been living with us for the past year. The trains on those days had separate compartments and we were in one with a Mrs. Edsall and her twin girls and two other unaccompanied children. She was wearing a straw hat, which had fake red cherries on it. The train started off. We had no idea where we were going and all the grown ups were trying to keep everyone spirits up. After about an hour the train stopped in a siding. One of the unaccompanied children wanted to go to the toilet. The nearest one was in the next carriage which could only be reached by walking along the wooden step which ran along the edge of the train as there was no platform so my Mother arranged with the person in charge next door to pass each child in turn with instructions to stay put if the train started. Many men were being called up and so the trains were full of troops and they obviously had priority over us so we were shunted into the sidings quite often and just sat and waited.

About midday we arrived at Whitchurch and were marched up a hill to the local school. The Boy Scouts had organised a hot drink for us but I remember that we could not enjoy it, as it tasted so smoky. We still had our sandwiches but were not allowed to eat them, as we did not know how long we were going to stay in one spot. We were then given a brown paper carrier bag that contained rations for forty-eight hours. A packet of plain biscuits, tin of corn beef and some chocolate. It was raining then and I remember Mrs. Edsall being very concerned that the colour from the cherries on her hat was running and ruining her Sunday Best. Also we had stood our carrier bags down and as we picked them up from the wet ground the bottoms fell out and everyone was trying to gather up the contents. We then went quite a few miles by bus to a village called Baughurst and arrived there at about half past four in the afternoon. Ten hours since we had arrived at the school in the morning so you can guess we were all pretty tired by then. The billeting officer, a Miss Zoe Stokes, had the job of placing everyone in homes locally. I believe that the people of the village had been detailed to take as many of the children as they could accommodate and had not had much choice in the matter. They came to look at us to take their pick. My Mother was quite adamant that we should not be split up, which was a bit silly really as counting Betty there was five of us and not many houses or cottages in a village had space for that many so we were left to last and as it was getting a bit late by then Miss Stokes said “Well you had better come back with me for the night and we shall see what we can do tomorrow”
She loaded us into her little Ford car and we set off through the village until we came to a long driveway leading to a modern Manor house known as Inhurst House and occupied by Mrs. Stokes and her three unmarried daughters, Miss Muriel, Miss Sybil and Miss Zoe who was the youngest aged about forty. We were shown into the billiard room that had been converted into sleeping quarters for just such an emergency with straw paliasses laid on the floor. There was a small adjoining cloakroom where we had a wash and then after a jug of cocoa we settled down for the night

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