- Contributed byÌý
- warevacuee
- People in story:Ìý
- shirley wimborne
- Location of story:Ìý
- Wallingford Berkshire
- Article ID:Ìý
- A2052217
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 16 November 2003
I was evacuated at the age of 5 to Wallingford and placed into a 'billet' with a couple who owned a bicycle shop. The people were called Mr.& Mrs. Giles. Another girl evacuee was already there and for some vague reason I think she may have been Sheila Hancock the actress.
The reason I am saying this is that sometime ago I remember seeing a television programme and Ms. Hancock talking about her experiences during the war and stating she was evacuated to Wallingford, she is the same age as myself. However, she wasn't there very long after I arrived, and I stayed with the Giles's for a couple of years, until my mother was able to have me back again.
My father was in the Royal Artillery, so my mother was on her own. He would come to Wallingford when he was on leave to visit us.
I went back to London with my mother and lived through the bombing until the end of the war. During the time I was in London, I was rushed through the streets of Stepney to get a train to the Bank Station every time there was an air raid, so that we could sleep in the tube until the all clear sounded. It wasn't very pleasant, you didn't always have the same makeshift bed, and didn't know who had slept there before you.
The WVS and the Red Cross were always on hand though.
I was living in London when the last bomb fell in 1945.
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