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When war was declared I was only about 3. . Though I remember hearing Neville Chamberlain’s broadcast I could not understand the words Somehow I sensed that something important was being said.

Today children learn their tables in a classroom but I remember that often I had to learn mine in an air aid shelter underneath the school playground. We sat on benches. There was very little light so we could not do any written work, so instead we were given poems to learn.

At home, because food was rationed, our meals were very simple with soups and plenty of vegetables. It was the custom in those days that whenever visiting friends or relations one would take along some coffee or tea.

In 1943 I was evacuated by train to Langport in Somerset. From the train we were taken to the Village Hall where I was picked out by an elderly couple because I looked “cute”. One memory I have of those days was of being put to bed at 6.30 after a glass of hot milk and a sandwich made of bread and sugar.
I attended the village school. Much of my free time was spent going for long walks and sometimes stealing apples. One feature of daily life was the arrival of the milk, not in cartons or bottles, but poured into a jug that was taken to the front door.

At the time I though of the War a great adventure; it was only when I became older that I thought differently

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