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I was sx when the war began. My father, being in the T.A. was called up immediately and posted to Orkney. He didn't want his wife and three children to be n Edinburgh in case of bombing, so he arranged for us to go to stay with a great aunt who lived six miles from Lockerbie, at Jardine Hall. So my mother left her beautiful new city bungalow with every convenience to live in the depths of the countryside. We finally, when it became clear the war was dragging on, got our own cottage - it had been condemned, having no sanitation, running water, gas or electricity! But my mother was tough and resourceful, and made it habitable. We did have a spring at the back door for our water supply. My two brothers and I walked two miles and back daily to a two teacher school, and we learned to love country life. My mother always promised we would go to Edinburgh the day the war ended. My father was in the Middle east and we hadn't seen him for three years. True to her word, when she reqalised peace was about to be declared, she took us into Lockerbie station and from there to the city. I will never forget the excitement of dancing in Princes Street, along with thousands of others - civilians and soldiers - on VE night. I was twelve at the time and remember being kissed by a happily drunk sailor! We did return to our cottage and resume life in Jardine Hall for our Edinburgh house was rented out to pay the mortgage (£5 a month!)and we had no idea when Dad was coming home. We spent weeks waiting for his return, playing in the woods and constantly glancing towards the cart track through which he would approach the cottage. Finally, after VJ day, we spied him, kitbag on his shoulder, trudging up the lane! What excitement! We resumed life in the city in September 1945 but we did miss Lockerbie. In fact my younger brother used to return in the summer holidays to work on a local farm, for a year or two. However we didn't keep up our connections, because although it was only seventy miles from Edinburgh that was a long way in the days when people didn't have cars, or money for fares. I loved my country upbringing, and am constantly struck by the strength my mother exhibited in bringing up the three of us alone in that remote condemned cottage, especially since my older brother was very ill and in hospital in Dumfries for over a year during 1943-44.

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