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During the first Winter Term after the outbreak of the War, I was evacuated along with the rest of the school to the Convent’s sister house in the West of England. The nuns in this convent belonged to a German order, The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, and many of them had been marched away to an internment camp for the “duration” when war was declared, because they had the wrong passport.Cirencester was not prepared for the influx of evacuees and for the first few weeks we did not have much to eat. All I can remember is a diet of pickled red cabbage, bread and margarine and cocoa. We slept on the floor on the mattresses which we brought with us and this was great fun but I came home before Christmas
One day an R.A.F. officer called and said we would have to take in some new conscripts from the aerodrome along with every house in the area. We were allotted five very young recruits who seemed to have mountains of rucksacks and who slept exhausted all over the floor. After a few days they became more relaxed and friendly but they didn't stay long. However, we named our five budgerigars after them. Looking back on it, it amazes me that we had time for budgies! They were covered over at night and so escaped the broken glass from the conservatory where they were housed.
Everyone in the country loved Tommy Handley in the radio programme “Its that man again” or ITMA as it was called. It was a very topical programme and showed how the British Nation were responding to Hitler’s Blitz..
The Blitz went on for nine months and then there was a lull. We all remembered 10 May 1941 as the heaviest and last big bombing raid on London until 1944. England remained undefeated.

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