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Evacuation 1939-40 of children
from Leeds to Aberford, part 1 of story

I am Mrs Mason, and this is my store cupboard of memories of the time when my sister Margaret and I became schoolgirl evacuees.

At that time, of course, I was not called Mrs Mason. My name then was Kathleen Blanchard.

Up to the time, that Margaret and I were evacuated, our mother, father, 2 brothers, 2 sisters and Margaret and I all lived together in Leeds. There were 8 of us, and Margaret and I were the youngest in the family.

When the Second World War started the government tried to make all the people living here, as safe as possible:
we had
q Blackouts at night time — this made sure that no light could be seen outside our homes, shops or buildings that enemy aeroplanes could see.
q Air-raid-patrol wardens used to go round the streets making sure that no houses were showing chinks of light.
q Very large water tanks were erected so that fires could be put out quickly, when bombs were dropped.
q Air-raid shelters were built, sometimes inside houses, sometimes in gardens, sometimes on street corners, and sometimes underground in fields.
q Sirens sounded when enemy aircraft were flying nearby. When the siren sounded, we all went quickly to the air-raid shelters, and the all-clear sounded when it was safe, to come out again.
q Everyone in the country had a gas mask.
q Searchlights were used across the sky to seek out enemy planes.
q Barrage balloons were put up in the sky on wires to do damage to enemy aeroplanes.
q Gun batteries shot the enemy aeroplanes down.

From what you have just heard, you can tell, that lots of things in our lives were noisy, and lots of things were happening.

People who look after us always try to keep us safe, don’t they - people like our parents or our carers, and so it was, that during World War 2, children could be sent to safety, away from the big city areas, because those were the areas where the enemy was likely to attack. Children could be sent out from the cities into the country, into the more rural areas, if their families wished.

Our mother wanted Margaret and me to be safe — as I said earlier we were the youngest children in the family — our brothers and sisters had all left school and were now in work. Our mother put my name and Margaret’s name down for evacuation.

When did I become an evacuee?
Well, now, in the year 1939 I had just had my 6th birthday, I was just 6 years old, and Margaret, my sister, was 10 years old, and at that time we were evacuated.

I do remember that we did have some meetings when all the children who were to be evacuated were called together, into the school hall, and were told what was going to happen … when I was 6… I don’t think I listened very well. I was giddy and giggly in those days. I do remember being told that we were to be given 2 sticks of barley sugar (they were like 2 sticks of see-through rock, twisted like rope). That was enough for me to get excited about. I left most of the “listening” to my older sister Margaret.

Now we come to the day of evacuation. Usually the children in my street who went to the same school went to school together. We just seemed to form ourselves into a group and the older ones looked after the younger ones. Through the estate we used to go, over the main road, over the field, across more roads, then onto the footpaths, into school. On this particular day — the day of evacuation, different things began to take place.

Did I like the trip?
On this day, our mother came to school with us!! When we got to the playground — on this day — we didn’t go into school… no…. Double-decker buses came into the school playground and we were getting on one of them.

Just before we got on, each of us was given a brown paper carrier bag, with string handles. Inside was a tin of corned beef, a packet of digestive biscuits, and yes, the 2 sticks of Barley Sugar (like see-through rock). I went upstairs on the bus and sat on the first double seat after the stairway. Margaret sat somewhere else.

We were going off, the bus was moving, we were waving, our mother was wiping her face with her hanky — she was crying. The bus pulled out of the school gates and we were off, up the road, onto the lanes and into the country.

On that bus we joggled, and we jiggled, we sang loudly and we giggled, we bounced, we pushed, we nudged, we stamped our feet and we leaned into each other, only just managing sometimes to hold on, as the bus swayed round the corners of the country lanes.

Some time later … we arrived in Aberford — we had become evacuees — we had gone from home, from the air-raids, and the bombs, and the guns, to a safer place.

For how long were we evacuees?…
I was an evacuee from the summer of 1939 to the spring of 1940. That is about 8 — 9 months. Margaret, my sister, was an evacuee longer than I was. It happened like this -
The blue double-decker buses took us to Aberford, to the village hall. We went inside, and a Billeting Officer ticked our names off from a list. This showed which address we had to go to, to be looked after. We were given a piece of paper with this address written on it, and the name of the person we were to ask for. Margaret and I were to go up Bunkers Hill with our case of clothes and ask for Mrs S_____. We had a stiff label pinned to our coat collars which showed our name and our own registration number. My number was KSOC 49/4. The first bit showed where we lived — it was like a postcode, and the numbers showed the family number, and the position in the family of the person. This number was a National Identity Number — I could be identified (if I got lost or if maybe I was killed) wherever I was. My National Identity Number KSOC 49/4 has stayed with me all my life, and has only recently stopped being used by the Government. The number 4 showed that, in the family that I was first registered with, I was person number 4 = there was Mrs S_____, her grown-up daughter E____, my sister Margaret whose number was KSOC49/3, and I, as I was the youngest, had the number KSOC49/4.

As we stood that day knocking on Mrs S_____’s cottage door, I suddenly felt that Mrs S_____ was going to be a witch, and there was a horrible smell coming through the open door. It smelt like dirty water — like stale apples. I told Margaret not to stay there, but Margaret told me to “stand still” and “behave”. Although we were registered as living with Mrs S_____, we didn’t stay there many weeks. There were some good things and some bad things whilst we were there. The bad things were that the lavatory was in an outhouse, sideways on to the house. You couldn’t flush that lavatory — it was called a dry lavatory. Margaret always had to come with me to go to the lavatory. She used to open a small door in the lavatory wall, to see if any rats were there: and if there were, we had to wait for them to run away before we dared to go in.

Mrs S_____ was not used to young children. I was too giggly and too difficult. Mrs S_____ didn’t like me talking at meal times, and, when I started whispering to Margaret, I was sent away from the table, and I was often sent to bed. So Mrs S_____, I’m sorry to say, had a lot of my tantrums to cope with.

After school, Margaret and I were taken to the fields to pick potatoes — at least Margaret picked potatoes — I was put into the cart and had to try to avoid the buckets full of cold, wet potatoes coming all over me. The women and the older children went on picking until it was dark and it became very cold sitting crouched in the cart.

One of the best things that happened whilst we were with Mrs S_____ was when we climbed over the fence, right down at the bottom side of the garden onto a back lane and we went to watch the blacksmith making new shoes for the horses. I liked to stand and watch the fire, I liked to watch how the big cart horses would stand on 3 legs whilst the blacksmith shaped a new metal shoe, and I couldn’t understand how the horse didn’t seem to feel the heat of the metal when it was put on its foot. There was always a lot of smoke.

Did our family visit us when we were evacuees?
Our mother didn’t come whilst we were at Mrs S_____’s house, but my oldest sister, Anne, came. One day she brought new cardigans that she had knitted — a green one for Margaret and a blue one for me. Margaret’s had green shiny buttons with gold around the edges, mine had blue wooden buttons with little “pinochios” painted on them.

Sometimes at the weekend we could catch a red and cream double-decker bus and go home to Leeds. One Saturday we missed the bus, and, rather than go back to Mrs S_____’s, Margaret decided we should walk all the way home. It was about 8 miles, and it took us from lunchtime until late teatime to get home. In those days my mother was very very worried about Margaret and me and soon we were moved to another house to stay with different people.

At the new house, Mrs A_____’s house, there were other young children but Margaret and I had to sleep up in the attic space which had a very very low ceiling. We slept on green canvas camp beds and we were very very cold. Pigs were kept just outside the door at the back. We never saw them, but they were very noisy, and very very smelly.

What was it like being away from our mum and dad?
We were, I think, “uncomfortable” — I don’t think we could “settle”. Our home at home always had a lot of activity — 2 older brothers, 2 older sisters, 2 parents, they always had stories to tell — they talked about things and did things — they did things with us — we knew where we were there — we had a niche, we felt secure. In these evacuation circumstances I think we were too isolated, we were too cut off from our family as a whole. I don’t think the people we stayed with really wanted us, and I in particular was difficult - shy on the one hand, but noisy on the other. We didn’t really fit in.

What new school did I go to and did I like it?
Our school in Leeds had been a 2 form entry school. When we became evacuees we went to a small, church school. It seemed to have one classroom for about 3 years groups — I remember the school I had left in Leeds and I remember the first-ever school that I went to, at the age of 4 ½, but I can’t remember much at all about the classroom activity at my evacuation school — I remember where the blackboard was, but nothing about what was put on it. I remember one day someone important came with some new money in blue paper rolls, and we were each given a shiny “ship” half-penny, which, if it was able to be used today would be worth ¼ of one new penny that we use.

At that school I remember the outside lavatories. The doors were wooden — tall and pointy at the top — straight at the bottom. One day I had a spearmint chew and I put that on the floor whilst I was inside the lavatory, but someone must have put their hand under the door and they stole my spearmint chew, and I was very upset about that.

At playtimes we went round the back of the school. There was a small field there, and a stream and a wall. I remember another evacuee being at school. Her name was Fiona G____. She had shiny red hair. She was altogether clean and shiny - nicely dressed and very “silkily” spoken. She was a very well behaved girl. At playtimes Fiona G____ used to climb over the wall round the school field and run off, and some of us had to go and find the teacher who then had to go over the wall herself, to bring Fiona G____ back again into school.

What was it like moving?
Well, one day a boy came into the classroom and spoke to the teacher. The teacher then told me that I had to wait for this boy after school as he was going to take Margaret and me to another home. He took us first back to Mrs A_____’s house to collect our clothes, but we couldn’t find much, except a pair of socks, and Mrs A_____ wasn’t in. This boy had a bike, but he pushed the bike, and walked with us through the fields, through the gates, over the cattle grid, all the way up to a cottage in Becca, number 2 ___ ___.

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