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We originally came down for a month's holiday in 1939 and I can remember being unceremoniously put out into the garden with two other little cousins while the adults listened to the wireless. This was Mr. Chamberlain's broadcast about the fact that we were at war with Germany. Obviously after a family council it was decided that the womenfolk stay down in Bognor rather than go back to London which was expected to be Hitler's main target now that war was declared.
We found a lovely cottage, beautiful roses in back and front gardens, I went to school in Victoria Drive - I believe it is now a factory - my girl cousin worked for the Abbey National and my boy cousin went back to Imperial College which had been evacuated to Swansea.
One night I was woken by a huge explosion and lots of fire bells ringing and at school in prayers the next day they talked about a 'land-mine' going off. No satisfaction at home for me when I asked what a 'land-mine' was so I just gave up asking and used my very fertile 5-year-old imagination as I did later about the searchlights and, eventually, the barrage balloons.
I stopped believing in fairy stories from then on.
My mother called for me as usual one day after school and told me that we would not be able to have our tea on the beach as had been planned because we couldn't get onto the beach. By this time I had stopped believing anything I was told by family and my mother, realising that I thought that this was just a cop-out on her part, took me right up to the barbed wire which prevented access to the beach to prove her point.
The next day we seemed to rush to Guildford. Looking back it is obvious why there was a rush (France had fallen to the Germans) but to an ignorant 5-year-old kid that train journey spent sitting on a suitcase in a crowded guard's van was scary and confusing.

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