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From number 12 Parkham Street, Battersea. SW11,with my mother May, and my elder brother Ron, we were evacuated on 1st September 1939 to Wokingham, Berkshire. To be more precise, to Forest Road,'Wokingham Without',situated about two and half miles from town.
My father Ernie, stayed in London because of his work & moved from Parkham Street to number 27 Balfern Street, Battersea. This property sustained some war damage around November 1940 and Dad moved to number 42 Huntsmoor Road, Wandsworth. Other members of the family were taking refuge in the garden shelter on the evening of 16th April 1941 when a land mine dropped outside the front door and demolished all the houses. My Grandmother sustained some injuries and
was taken to hospital and thankfully made a full recovery. We lost everything we owned. I don't believe any of our possessions were salvaged. I still have Dad's paperwork for claiming compensation for war damage to both properties which was eventually paid out in 1946! Huntsmoor Road no longer exists. The underpass at the Wandsworth end of Trinity Road SW18 now replaces it. On the 17th February 1941, Dad was called up for active service and was enlisted into the R.A.F. and was stationed at Biggin Hill, Kent in No. 2713 Squadron, 2 Group as a Gunner Group V.
When the R.A.F. Regiment was raised in February 1942, Dad was one of the first to transfer. After training and embarkation leave he was posted overseas and served in Germany, France, Belgium and Holland.When stationed in Nimegen, Holland in 1944, sitting by the roadside with his comrades watching soldiers marching past on their way to Arnhem, Dad spotted his brother Frank who was serving in the Green Howards and had been since 1st December 1939. They managed to spend only a short time together before Frank was moved on. The 'odds' of meeting like this are incalculable.
We spent a short time in a cottage in Forest Road, but then moved into Ashridgewood, a large manor house owned by Mrs. Anderson that lay back off Forest Road and was approached by two drives. The 'front' drive was for visitors, being very impressive through an avenue of trees, while the 'back' drive was for staff and trades people.
I was five years old and remember the kindness and friendship shown to us by Mrs. Anderson and all her staff. The maids, cooks,,butler,footman,gardeners, woodman,chauffeur and cowman. In time,most of the younger staff left to enter the armed services, police or land army. Mrs. Flood, head cook stayed on as did the gardeners Mr. Bush and Mr. Holloway and Mr. Woodward the cowman.
The first school Ron and I attended was in Forest Road, more the village hall which also substituted as church and Sunday school. Because of the increased number of children, it was not possible for us all to attend at the same time, so we went in the mornings and the local children in the afternoons. We then moved into temporary 'class rooms' in a large house approached down a country lane off Forest Road opposite Binfield Road and from there to the Memorial Hall at Binfield. Mr. Jones was our teacher and he took us for every lesson. I have fond memories of him telling the stories of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and Just William and acting out all the characters which made these stories so memorable.
During summertime, our lessons would sometimes be taken in the playground. To the delight of us children, a friendly 'Jackdaw' would swoop down and steal shiny objects off our desks. We played lots of games, including cricket, rounders, quoits and 'pole vaulting'. (More of this later.)
Our final school was to the Binfield C of E in Terrace Road North. Included in our lessons was gardening and this pleasure has stayed with me ever since. Once a week we would be transported into Bracknell for a woodwork class. Punishment was swift to wrongdoers in those days, and the cane, albeit infrequent, was a painful and unwelcome visitor! Scrumping seemed to be the biggest misdemeanor.
On the 10th January 1942, my sister Anne was born at the Royal Berks Hospital, Reading. Ron and I were being looked after by Mr. and Mrs. Bush and their daughter. I have memories of taking Anne out for walks in the pram along Forest Road which had a slight incline. I was able to crawl under the handle and lay on the pram and 'freewheel' for long distances. There was no public transport here then, so walking was the only alternative. It was about two and half miles into Wokingham and about the same distance to school in Binfield. It's strange, but I remember walking to school as fun,but it couldn't have been. I remember we would take 'poles' with us that we had cut from the wood and we would 'pole vault' over hedges ditches and any other obstacle. I cannot imagine the state we were in when we got there! My good friend John Cummings lived with his younger brother David, Mum Vi and Dad Fred at the Changa Service Station at the cross roads of Forest Road and Warren House Road, opposite the Warren House pub. (Now called the Bullfinch). John and I would erect a beam and pole vault over this to the amazement of onlookers and we earned many cakes and buns from the local delivery baker who bet we couldn't jump that high.
On Boxing Days, the Wokingham Hunt would meet at the Warren House. The huntsmen in their red jackets,and the riders so immaculate and many ladies riding side saddle is the most typical picture of country life. Some of the hounds were those of Mrs. Anderson and were our friends. Many times Ron and I would be scolded for playing with them. There were quite a number of children locally and I remember the three Flynn brothers evacuated with Mr. and Mrs. Holloway, John Cummings of course, John Davies, Georgie Alan, Cecil Ray, Larbie Freeman, Jack and Michael 'Ozzy' Saxe and their brothers and sisters and Dusty the dog. Bunty and John Stowe, Eric and June Stroud and John Chilcott from Camberwell. The Burroughs brothers from the farm and more but names escape me. I remember the barber in Forest Road, his salon was in his shed and comprised a chair and a sheet! His hand clippers were dreaded by us all. For every clip he made he pulled out more hair and for this he charged 2d.(Old money)There was no choice of style, it was a short back and sides or as we called it, the 'Pudding Basin'. Mrs. Scott and her daughter lived in a bungalow in Forest Road and used one room as the Forest Road Stores, the only shop locally.
The estate of Mrs. Anderson was large and virtually self sufficient. It comprised a bungalow, four semi-detached cottages and a detached cottage all occupied by her staff.There were many outbuildings that served as cow sheds, pig sty's, stables for the horses and kennels for the fox hounds. There was a harness room and frequently we would help in cleaning and waxing the harness. Adjoining the garage was the electricity generating room which supplied lighting to the big house and also recharged our wireless accumulators. The 'stoke hole', the room that held the boiler that supplied hot water to the big house and was 'stoked' with anthracite by Mr. Bush during the day.
And then there was 'Ashridgewood'. A vast expanse of woodland which was our playground. We knew every path, every track and every chestnut tree. There used to be Red Squirrels in the wood in the early days of the war but the Grey ones gradually took over. Along with the older boys and the farm dogs, hunting squirrels became a duty as these were considered vermin.
When 'shoots' took place, we would be enrolled as beaters flushing out the game. The guns would bring down the pheasants and wood pigeons and rabbits were always plentiful. Our reward would normally be a rabbit which was a welcome addition to the larder.
Milk, rabbits, pork when a pig was slaughtered,vegetables, fruit and chestnuts always seemed readily available at the appropriate seasons. We would pick wild strawberries by the roadside at Bill Hill, blackberries in abundance,& watercress from the stream that fed Bluemires lake. Coots, Moorhens, Pigeons and even Wrens were a source of eggs supply, but in accordance with country practice as we were taught, always leaving some eggs in the nest. Those eggs taken would be 'blown' and used for cakes and the shells saved for our collection. A short walk across the fields and mushrooms would be on the menu. I do remember occassions when Mum would ask us to gather stinging nettles. These we would bring home and she would boil them and they became our greens. It's hard to imagine that as young as we were, we used to help out and get paid (was it 2d an hour or 3d?)in topping and tailing turnips, hoeing fields of vegetables and haymaking. Stacking stooks, feeding the conveyors to the hay ricks, leading the big shire horses and occasionally driving the tractor under supervision.
The front drive leading to the big house was occupied by American troops, as was Bill Hill House, and we became great friends. They taught us to strip down, clean and reassemble their rifles and other guns. We even helped to seal the armoured tanks with a waterproof 'plastercine', and would then be given a ride to the ford at Emmbrook for the tanks to be cleaned.
Enclosing the field along the front drive was a wooden fence to keep the horses in. We became experts at walking along this like 'tight rope walkers' and received many goodies for our efforts including chocolate, chewing gum, American cigarettes to take home and tins of dried egg. How I loved that dried egg!
British soldiers occupied land on Bluemires farm. Walking over there one day, I stepped on some metal strapping which uncoiled and took a 'chunk' of flesh out of my right leg. A hanky substituted for a bandage and I still bear the scar today. Much to the amusement of my Grandchildren, I can stick a pin in the scar without it hurting as there is no feeling there!
I do remember taking shelter in a ditch at the top of the front drive with Ron and Georgie Alan while a 'dog fight' was taking place overhead. On another occasion from the same spot, we stood and watched the hundreds of aircraft and gliders on there way to Holland in September 1944. It was like a cloud that continuously passed over our heads and the noise of so many engines was frightening. One night a German plane dropped a string of bombs which landed in fields close to the big house and rattled the windows. The following day we were crawling in the craters salvaging shrapnel as a souvenir!
On the 11th December 1945, Dad was demobbed and after a short leave, was soon working back in London. During the week he would stay at his brothers house in Wandsworth and come home at weekends. When Ron left school, he took an apprenticeship in London and would stay with Dad during the week. He had a bicycle then and would cycle the thirty odd miles both ways.
On the eve of V.E. day, most of the residents celebrated on the green outside the Warren House which went on well into the early hours. The following day, a tea party for the children was held at the Changa Service Station and later with dancing around a large bonfire.
From the attached photograph; Back row, from left. No 2. My Mum. No 10. Brother Ron and immediatly below Rom peering out between two other children in the corner is me. From the front, left side of table. No10 is my sister Anne.

These are my memories of happy days .I now know that times were exceedingly hard and we,like so many others, went without. Having lost our home and all our possessions,we were probably poorer financialy than most.But we were luckier than some. We lived in the most beautiful surroundings and enjoyed the friendship of so many wonderful people.Now ,at the age of 72, I still recall that as children, we knew there were things that were not available to us,and those that were, cost money. We had so little, so we didn't ask.

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