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I was evacuated from Bootle to Seaforth in 1940/1941. I cannot be any more accurate as I was only 5 years old. Myself and my two older brothers (Tommy then aged 9 and Billy aged 7).

My younger brother Gordon was too young to be evacuated as he was only 18 months old and had to remain with my mother. My father had been killed at sea on board SS Navasota and my mother was widowed aged 28 with four children.

We were sent to Seaforth by train and then we were taken by coach to the village hall, where we were kitted out with new clothes, issued with a gas mask and ear plugs. The best dressed children were selected first. I was then separated from my brothers and taken to Rhyader.

They were taken to a farm in Llanstefan. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven as I was billeted to a sweet shop and for 6 weeks was taught to play the piano and generally lived the life of reilly!!

Unfortunately for me they realised we’d been separated and I was then sent to the farm with my brothers.

Our lives at the farm were extremely difficult. We had many chores and tasks to undertake before and after school like churning butter, mucking out cows and pigs and general farm duties. My mother couldn’t afford to visit us very often as money was tight and she had to work in a barrage balloon factory.

My mother did however, make a surprise visit to us one day only to find three very underfed children, absolutley crawling with lice, and dirty and unkempt. She immediatley contacted the billeting officer and had us moved to another farm but not before she walloped the woman supposedly looking after us!! For this she was fined 10 shillings.

Our lives looked up at the next billet but I could sit here all day writing about our experiences. Evacuation for us was sheer torture and one that no other human should have to suffer.

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