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I was evacuated from Gorton, Manchester, on the 3rd September 1939 shortly after Neville Chamberlain announced that we were at war with Germany. My evacuation was private and i went with two other boys, Brian and Tim, sons of a friend of my mother, to a farm just outside, Elesmere in Shropshire.
The farm was a dreadful shock to a ten year old townee. It was in the middle of nowhere near a large mere. It had no electricity, a single cold tap in the kitchen and an outside twin privy with honey buckets. I had to share a bed with two other unknown boys; there were five of us all told. All this came as a shock to a boy used to living in a modern house built in only 1936 with all mod cons. There was no school and the only diversion was to fish all day from a jetty on the mere. I had no interest in fishing, although my companions seemed keen enough on it. I was truly miserable. However, my mother came to visit me after a week or so, being brought by an uncle in his car. I promptly got to work on her to take me home, bombs or no bombs, I had had enough of the countryside.
Thus I returned to Gorton to roam the streets to find what mischief and entertainment I could. Initially I was on my own as all my friends had been evacuated, but gradually they began to return and life was a joy again. None of the Gorton schools were open, and so my mother bought some English and Maths books and began to teach me herself. I was joined in my lessons by a girl, Eileen, who thirteen years later became my wife.
In, I think, February 1940, my old school - Old Hall Drive, opened for half days and this continued for some weeks before it opened for full time lessons again.
In the spring of 1940, we took what was then called the "Scholarship Exam" in which we were both successful. Thus in September 1940, I began as a first former at Manchester Central High School for Boys in the centre of Manchester, and Eileen did likewise at Fairfield High Scool For Girls in Fairfield, Manchester. MCH School had been evacuated to Blackpool in September 1939, but reopened in Manchester in September 1940 in time for the Christmas Blitz!
A great deal has been written about the 1939 evacuation of children, and many pictures shown. However, little has been written about the misery caused to the children and that suffered by their parents. I was fortunate in that my misery did not last long, but I suspect that many children endured a great deal of unhappiness in the last quarter of 1939!

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