蜜芽传媒

THE PEOPLE鈥橲 WAR

Recollections and reflections of 鈥淭he Peoples War鈥� experienced by
A seventeen-year old school girl in August 1939 to the end of the
War in Europe in May 1945

In August 1939 I was at an International Holiday School in Dunkirk when we were suddenly told we all had to return to our own country. No reason was given, and apart from the German and Austrian students, we were quite mystified, as we really had no inkling of the situation in Europe. Certainly we had noticed some odd things in France, like the confiscations of our cameras when we were on an organised trip to Dunkirk Docks but I am afraid it did not mean anything to us.

When we arrived back in England I was amazed to see how much had changed. Preparations were being made for the probability of war. Trenches were being dug in parks and school playing-fields, large balloon-like flying things were up in the sky around London (later we were informed that they were barrage balloons to deter low-flying enemy aircraft) and big shelters were being erected, including some small ones for private gardens.

My father, who worked in the Ministry of Defence, told me later that the Government had been preparing for the possibility of war since 1936 but the public were unaware of this although gas masks were issued in 1938. He also said that he could not tell me not to go to Dunkirk although he had been worried about it 鈥� this could have resulted in my being interned for 5 years which would have been an experience I would not have relished.

1939-40 - Evacuation

The day after I arrived home from Dunkirk we heard on the wireless that all children were to report to their own schools, taking with them emergency rations such as biscuits, chocolate, a bottle of water and some fruit. We were also to take our gas masks and wear our winter school uniforms (the latter command was not welcomed as it was very hot indeed but the powers-that-be seemed oblivious to that so we endured this inconvenient situation for four more days.).

On Friday 1st September 1939 we were told that we would now be evacuated but not to where. It was 4 p.m. when the buses arrived to take us to the station where we boarded a train, still not being told our destination. At about 4.30 p.m. our train was shunted into a siding to allow trains filled with soldiers to pass. We finally reached our destination 鈥� Bedford! Bedford is only about 45 miles from London but it had taken 4 陆 hours! We were deposited in the cattle market from whence we were taken to our billets. We must have been a sorry-looking lot 鈥� tired and hungry, carrying cases and gas masks and wearing winter clothes, and worst of all with labels tied round our necks. Imagine 17 and 18 year olds wearing labels! Some of the local ladies had brought us tea and homemade cakes in the cattle market. We ate our emergency rations and were then introduced to our billet mothers and any of their family who were around.

It was about 10 p.m. before we settled into our billets. Two of us were sent to a house where we shared a bed in the room of the daughter of the house. She was not too pleased to have two strangers in with her, although she was the same age as I was. We were horrified to find waterproof sheets on the bed - we were told that this was because they did not know what age the evacuees were to be and were worried in case they might be bedwetters. I was only there for about six weeks because the mother was in poor health and could not cope with having an extra person to look after.

I was transferred to a little terraced house on the other side of the river. It was quite different from the first place, which was very like my own home, and I had never been anywhere where there was no bathroom or inside toilet! I was somewhat surprised but it was good for me to realise how privileged I had been compared with hundreds of people living in our country before the war. There was a 13yr old girl here who was very spoiled by her father and it was obvious that she resented my presence and did not want to share either her house or parents with anyone else. The lady of the house was a dear, sweet person of whom I grew very fond but the man was quite obnoxious. He was very uncouth and treated his wife abominably although he seemed to tolerate me. He used to go to the pub every night and would sit down to dinner in his shirt and braces 鈥� situations that I was not used to and which were further shocks to my system! Unfortunately there was more to come. While his wife was in bed with 鈥榝lu he started to be 鈥渢oo friendly鈥� as I told the Billet Officer and I was too scared to be alone in the same room with him. I asked for another transfer although I did not want to leave his wife.

Seeing as how I was 17 yrs old and not yet very worldly- wise, it was a situation I did not know how to handle. On looking back I wonder how some of the attractive 15 and 16 yr old girls coped with similar situations? One never hears about them but I am sure there must have been a lot of incidents like this or worse, maybe ending in pregnancy. Who could they turn to? They dare not tell their teacher and certainly not their billet-mothers. One girl I was aware of was taken home because her parents were afraid that she was getting so fond of her billet parents that she might not want to go home when the war ended. After all 5 years is a long time to be separated and I wish we could hear how many of the evacuees found it difficult to settle on returning to their homes.

Many children who were in a Primary School at the onset of the war returned to find that either their school was no longer there because of the bombing, or that they had to go into a Secondary School - which would be quite frightening. Also many children who were evacuated were taught by unqualified teachers or squashed into classes of fifty or more 鈥� I know this because at one time I had fifty-five children of Primary Two age and the registers only had room for sixty! Their schooling was, therefore, very patchy and those who had to take the Eleven-plus or get their Matriculation qualifying exam for university or college must have had a hard time. 30 years later when I wanted to teach in Scotland I had to sit either a Maths or English exam because I had no Highers in these subjects and the General Teaching Council required them. This was quite upsetting because I had a London University Teaching Diploma, and I was not responsible for being unable to take my Higher Leaving Certificate. When the war came, it was decided to accept the results of the Ordinary Certificate, along with an endorsement from the Headteacher of the school to the effect that I would have passed a Higher Certificate if it had been possible to do so. In fact, once we had been evacuated, we only attended school in the afternoons because the Bedford Comprehensive children used it in the mornings.

We had quite a good social life in the third billet. Two retired schoolmistresses did 鈥渢heir duty鈥� by taking in four evacuees; two were 12 yrs old and two of us were 17. As long as we did not bother the 鈥淎unts鈥� as we had to call them, we could do what we liked in the mornings such as go roller-skating at a nearby indoor rink, row on the river or have a drink of chocolate at a caf茅 鈥� these were things I could never have done if I had been at home. The 鈥淎unts鈥� gave us access to their study, which their nephews had used when they attended the 鈥楤edford鈥� school. This was a Public School and obviously considered to be far superior to our High School for Girls as far as the 鈥淎unts鈥� were concerned. However we did not bother about this, as we were more interested in using the games such as Monopoly, Chinese Chequers and playing cards etc. There was an old gramophone with plenty of records like 鈥淭he Sun has got his Hat on鈥� and 鈥淭he Isle of Capri鈥� which we would dance to. The boys from the Church Youth Club were allowed to come in the evenings from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. so I really did enjoy that period of the war!

Unfortunately, when we went home in June, the war was becoming very serious. I was due to attend college in September 1940, and had had to go to a local school and observe the teachers working with either infants, juniors or seniors so that when I finally went to college I could decide which age of children I wanted to teach. Just before we were due to start college, however, a bomb was dropped in the grounds. After two months of searching, a pre-war guesthouse at Weston-super-Mare was found. There were about 150 students all crammed into a house that previously had about thirty guests so studying was going to be difficult to say the least. We had lectures in church halls or vestries, drill halls and even, in the evenings, in schools and we also played hockey and netball on the sands, much to the amusement of the soldiers. .

Between leaving Bedford and going to college I spent four months back at Waltham Abbey in Essex. This was the beginning of concentrated bombing and we spent most nights in the shelter. This was just outside the entrance to the Royal Gunpowder Factory but I never thought much about the fact that this might be dangerous! The shelter had been built for 60 workers to sit in if an incident did happen but as it was numbered 13 a lot of people were superstitious and would not use it. Those of us who lived nearby brought deck chairs, blankets and anything else that would make the place more comfortable and we spent five months there. There was an Ack-ack gun just beside the shelter and some of the ladies took the lads who were manning it homemade cakes and scones. This was one of the best times of the war for me because everyone was helping to make things as comfortable as possible for one and all. My mother joined the W.V.S. and was happy being able to help others, especially when a landmine fell in the watercress beds by the Abbey. It was fortunate that the beds cushioned the worst of the damage as the road beside them was cobbled. I joined the part-time W.V.S. and served tea and hundreds of tomato sandwiches to the solders and airman billeted round and about. Usually these soldiers would appear at the factory dances and other social events, which was very good for us unattached girls. The fact that they were trying to do the Tango for the first time in their lives, wearing great army clodhoppers made it all quite amusing; in fact it was hilarious and made it easier to 鈥榖reak the ice鈥� as they, like us, were away from home probably for the first time.

1940 鈥� 42 College

Then, at last, we got to our teaching college at Weston. Six of us had to have Bed and Breakfast at the W.C.A. for 6 months as we could not all be squeezed into the Guest House, which was anything but congenial. However, three of us became friends and remained so for 60 years until the other two died - one in 2002 and the other in 2003. Although we had our college work we were able to enjoy the delight of a small seaside town with good walks through the woods. In the summer we could bathe in the sea and in winter we had to learn to dive and life-save in the indoor swimming pool. There were quite a lot of airmen at nearby Locking Camp who provided us with boy-friends but as these men were only doing 6 weeks of 鈥渟quare bashing鈥� as it was called, no serious relationships tended to be formed.

Work on our placements in local schools was very difficult. There had been no students in the schools before and the teachers were quite out of their depth so they just handed the classes over to us and spent the days in the staff-room!! As none of us had ever taught before, I am afraid it was a disaster 鈥� the only good thing about it was that because the buses and trains were very few our tutors could not come and check on us as often as they would have done if we had been in London. The tutoring was carried out in 3 weekly cycles because our tutors took it in turns to come to Somerset for a very intensive course in their special subject. We had a block of music and drama; one of history and P.T.; and one of Biology and Hygiene etc. 鈥� it was quite difficult to fit all of the subjects given to us for homework but we managed.

Our teaching in the various schools was a little of 鈥渢rial and error鈥�. The first school my friend and I were sent to was a two--teacher village school. The Head Teacher had left to go to an Air force training camp so a 72 yr. old lady came to fill the gap! Unfortunately she could not keep order, as the building was just one long room partitioned off to make two classes. When she was teaching arithmetic and I was telling a story with actions her children listened to my story and acted it so the result was complete chaos! I鈥檓 afraid that those poor children did not learn much but I however learnt a few things:- (1) that if you allowed the children out to play or even to the toilet, they just disappeared (2) not to take them out of a nature walk or, once again, they never came back and (3) not to expect the boys to remain in school all day. Some were 鈥淒onkey Boys鈥� who earned money taking children out on the sands on a donkey 鈥� these boys were probably eight or nine years old and others were deck chair boys, and there were other situations where the Head Mistress turned a blind eye. I was glad when that came to an end, although the next one was nearly as bad. The Headmaster was trying out some new ideas he had read about, the worst of them was that each class had 鈥榝ree play鈥� for the first hour of every morning. This meant doing a different activity each day. They would have music one day and playing with balls or skipping another etc. This did not work at all as the music, which meant playing with different instruments, and ball games which included some sort of football or rounders, which needed to be supervised, got completely out of hand. Again, I was exceedingly glad when that finished and thought that there could not be anything worse.

I was wrong! The third school was a Church school where religion was taught for the first hour. I had to teach the Collect and the responses to lots of prayers to five year olds who had not a clue as to what it was all about. The Head would suddenly fling open the door and pounce upon some poor little soul and ask him a question. If he or she got it wrong they were punished 鈥� possibly getting the cane. I was horrified as I had never been to a school where the cane was used and knew that I could never use it, especially for bad spelling or making mistakes in reading. One child got the cane for reading 鈥渨as鈥� instead of 鈥渟aw鈥� and I was most upset. I felt I should be punished instead because that seemed to me to be poor teaching! Thank goodness that was the last school I had to go to.

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