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I was 9 and my sister Lillian was 11 when my mother took us to a hall in Bow. Then we were taken to Paddington Station and then to Banbury near Oxford. My mother didn’t tell us that we were going away from her, so it was quite frightening. She just told us to stay together. She may not have understood what was going to happen because she was partly foreign. She only came to this country in 1910 at the age of 18.

When we got to Banbury, we were taken to a church hall and put on a stage for people to choose just like pieces of furniture. We were the last on the stage because there were 2 of us. In the end a farmer’s wife took us.

The farmhouse had no heating or electric light and the toilet was in a shed in a field. They used oil lamps for lighting and when we went to bed she just gave us a candle to see with. We were so cold in the winter that we slept in our clothes. I remember being hungry all the time. My mother used to send us sixpenny postal orders when she could afford it, but my sister took mine and when I asked her if I could buy a cake from the bakers she said it was a waste of money. I don’t remember what she spent the money on. The farmer’s wife gave us the job of looking after the rabbits after school and we used to give them names. Mrs Hawkins, the farmer’s wife, said we shouldn’t be so silly because they were only animals. One night we were having supper and Mrs Hawkins took great pleasure in telling us that Billy was in the pot. Billy was one of the rabbits. I was really upset and said that I wouldn’t eat it. She said that if I didn’t eat it I’d get nothing else, so that night I went to bed even more hungry. I never remember having a bath while we stayed there. She did wash our hair, but she used rainwater collected from a barrel. I still shiver when I remember that time.

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