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Jean was born in East Grinstead and 11 years old at the outbreak of war. She was due to go to the local Grammar School in September, but term started late and when it did Jean found herself sharing the school with the boys from Clapham R. C. College, who had been evacuated from London and whose teaching staff were Monks.

Jeans mother had been a teacher prior to her marriage in the 1920’s, but after her marriage had not been allowed to teach as apparently married women were not accepted in the teaching profession. By 1939 however, Jean’s mum was back teaching at Chequer Mead School in East Grinstead. Like the Grammar School the school had to share half the school with an evacuated group of pupils. In this case Waddon School near Croydon. The local pupils were taught in the morning and the ‘marched’ to St Marys in Windmill Lane for the afternoon, whilst the Waddon pupils were educated at Chequer Mead in the afternoon.

Between 1939 and 1943 East Grinstead was considered to be a ‘safe area’ and large numbers were evacuated into the town. Jean has very vivid memories of her father discussing the possibility of war in September 1939 and saying “I hope it won’t come to this”. With the issue of gas masks early in the war, Jean said there was a lot of concern about gas attacks. However after the early part of the war, things seemed to be fairly quiet in the town, though Jean was aware of some bombers jettisoning loads in the surrounding countryside.

Jean has kept a diary since childhood and her entry for July 9th 1943 reads as follows:- “Ghastly raid, Whitehall hit. All evening messenger until 11pm, with Brian Wilson. Thrilling, but sad”.

Jeans role as a messenger involved her donning a tin hat and cycling, delivering messages for a Mr Mitchell who was in charge of the service, which operated in the event of any communications breakdown.

Jean was taking an exam on the day the Whitehall cinema was bombed, but her mother and sister were under the Morrison Shelter in the family home in Cantelupe Road. Their fathers printing business ‘Cullens the Printers’ was in the same road and had no raid shelter. Jean was always amused to discover that the men at the printers used a disused well in the yard instead!

In the immediate aftermath of the bombing the full extent was not immediately apparent. However after a few days Jean became ware that a number of her Primary School friends had been killed. She recalls a knock on her door a few days later from a local chap who ran a small drama school asking her to take over the part in the forthcoming production in place of a child who had been killed.

Her diary entry for Sunday July 11th reads as follows:- “went down to the Canteen. Everyone is very miserable. Dick C. is dead, Evelyn, Isobel etc.”

The canteen was at the Literary and Scientific Institute in Queens Road and Jean helped out occasionally.

Evelyn was an only child

By 1944 Jean feels that there was a greater awareness that things were becoming more serious.

Her diary of June 5th reads:- “Rome has fallen”, but Squibs has been killed, now I’ll never get that postcard from Rome”.

And on June 6th she recalls:- “Invasion of France has begun, very quiet over here. Heard the wireless at school. Went round the club with Doreen, had long discussions with the boys”.

June 9th “Invasion going fine”

However by June 18th:- “Raids during the night” and on June 22nd:- “P Planes (Pilotless Planes, or Doodlebugs as they came to be known) very noisy”.

25th June:- “Watched flying bombs”

29th June:-“Doodlebugs. Did canteen duty at Club. Lots of troops in the area”

At approximately 7.00 am on the morning of July 12th Jean and family were at home when a flying bomb engine cut out over the house. Jean recalls her mother screaming and her father running into the hallway, flinging himself to the ground and yelling “its coming down on the house”. The V1 rocket went over the house and landed in the London Road, but all the windows broke in Cantelupe Road and the ceilings came down. Jean recalls the toilet covered with shards of glass and all the windows having to be boarded up.

Her diary entry for July 12th reads:- “Flying bomb in London Road. More damage than last year. Saw King and Queen”. Jean went into town later that day to post a letter and saw the Royal couple being shown the damage by local air raid wardens.

The 13th July entry reads:- “A day of clearing up, such a mess at home”.

On the 14th July entry reads:- “East Grinstead to be evacuated”. (Meaning the younger children, Jean being almost sixteen stayed)

Jean left school in the Autumn of 1944 and very soon afterwards started secretarial work at the Queen Victoria Hospital, after an RAF officer had mentioned he needed a Secretary to her father.

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