| Wartime memories
Letters home
The letters that follow were written by my mother to my
father between 1939 and 1942.
My mother was a teacher at St Leonard’s C of E Primary
School, Streatham in South London and was evacuated with her pupils. My
father stayed in London (he was a policeman during the war). My parents
had been married for only five months when war broke out and my mother
promised my father that she would write to him every day, and he kept all
the letters which I found after his death.
At first the school was evacuated about 30 miles away, to
the Sussex countryside – near enough for my mother, and some of the
children to return home to London at the weekends. But although close in
miles, it was a very different community for the children (and my mother!)
who appear to have found the change from town to country living rather
difficult.
Later in the war the
school was evacuated to the South Devon coast. At first they all enjoyed
being at the seaside, but then the area was bombed, and they were
frightened by being so far from their families in London.
Hilary Dawson
3rd Sept 1939
My dearest,
What a world this is! We’ve had such an exciting day,
everyone has been most kind and helpful. You should have been at school -
farewells etc – we arrived at Stretham Station and got entrained. We did
not know until the train stopped at Horsham where we were going.
At Horsham station there were lots of people to help us
with the luggage and also St John’s people.
We then got in a school bus and were taken for a few miles
through the country lanes. Our school filled three buses and I was the
only teacher – with two mothers as helpers in the middle coach.
We arrived finally at Shipley School where another welcome
awaited us. We were given a drink and the children had to go to the nurse
and doctor. Then we were divided up again. Children were sent in twos and
threes to various cottages around. The rest of the children – 23 - and
myself and the helpers were told that we were going to the squire’s at the
Castle.
So here we are – it’s a marvellous place.
The Squire was called up this morning – he is a territorial
and his wife is charming. We have a butler and the whole staff to wait on
us. We have bedrooms with running water in them. I have a little room to
myself and the housekeeper has just fixed up a bedside lamp for me. The
whole staff and family are ever so kind to us. But you an imagine it -
I’ll have to bath about a dozen small boys tomorrow night. The others of
our party are not so fortunate.
Mrs Seper is in a most picturesque but unsanitary small
cottage.
We are all miles away from each other. Some of our school
are at Southwater, some at Shipley, some at Itching.
The children are not at all homesick – yet!
They are so excited at being in a real castle complete with
turrets and moat etc. There are marvellous grounds where we can walk and
the children can play.
The news is pretty rotten isn’t it?
We can listen to the wireless if we want to but I send the
children out of the room.
By the way we have had two rooms put as playrooms for the
children with toys and books in them.
Oct 2nd 1939
One bright spot, eight of our small boys went into the
field nearby and let the horse loose. Mrs Honeybun wanted to put the fear
of the Lord into them, so she lined them up in front of the other children
and lectured them. This didn’t seem to work very well so she said she
would go and fetch the cane. She made them all kneel down. Off she went
to search for some formidable looking stick. Our hall cum classroom has
two doors and while Mrs Honeybun was coming in one door with a stick in
her hand Mrs Summer, the Vicar’s wife walked in at the other. You should
have seen her face!
Oct 9th
…I went to school after you had gone to enquire about the
isolation period. Apparently the children who have not had chicken pox
must stay away for three weeks after the last contact with the infection.
So our children will probably be away for months if they have to wait
until three weeks after the last one is better. I took five to school
with me today as they have had it before.
It’s been a rotten day today! I don’t think it has stopped
raining once and what with the rain and the chicken pox and the fact that
it’s Monday I’m as fed up as can be! My helpers are being imposed on
right and left. They have to look after the invalids, the contacts and do
all the work. The nurses who are supposed to look after the invalids when
they are ill refuse to come in because chicken pox is infectious. I’ve
written to Mrs Burwell asking for additional help and also written to Mr
Soper and the billeting officer so I can’t do much more.
I think that it’s grossly unfair to expect helpers to look
after four sick children and the domestic work etc. I told Mrs T to ask
for a bedpan as I didn’t think it was right for children with chicken pox
to use the same lavatories as others and Mrs B’s nurse, whom she asked
said that it was quite unnecessary and anyway a bedpan costs 7/6 and might
get broken. It makes my blood boil – our children are just evacuees who
don’t matter.
The doctor thinks one of the children in a cottage nearby
has scarlet fever. And all the time there is another evacuee living in
the same house. He saw the children on Saturday and is not coming until
Tuesday. If it does turn out to be scarlet fever, I think I’ll report it.
So you can tell why I’m feeling fed up.
Oct 25th
We’ve had such a funny day today. Yesterday a man came to
school and announced he was
Uncle Charlie, who has done Punch and Judy on the beach for years at
Littlehampton. He arranged to come and perform today at 2d per head. So
at 12.15 today he arrived and all the children , except about half a dozen
trooped into our largest classroom. It was really as good as being on the
beach. The old fellow handed his cap round for the money and then we
started. It was quite a good show — the children’s expressions were
marvellous. After this — by the way I had chicken for lunch - we decided
to spend the afternoon acorn picking. All the children took out their
dinner satchels and we collected a sack full.
Oct 26th
What a day I’ve had. We arrived at school today and found
a letter from the Director of Education for West Sussex saying that, as a
householder who had children billetted with them, had complained about the
proposed half term holiday, there would be no half term holiday for the
evacuees but only for the West Sussex staff and children. The Vicar was
there. I told him that apart from any thing else that I needed two days
holiday for health reasons as one couldn’t work 14 hours per day for weeks
without a rest. I told Mrs Honeybun that I meant to take two days anyway.
The Vicar laughed and called me a rebel. However he phoned up and told
the education authorities that as we were working together in
Sussex there was no point in only half the school working
and the other half being on holiday; after much argument the school is
getting the two days – I breathe again!
June 17th 1940
As you can see we are now in Paignton. We had quite good
journey down except that we all got so thirsty. At Salisbury the WVS
brought water for the children but the poor teachers were not even thought
of. We arrived at Paignton station at 1.30. We were taken by coach to our
distributing centre. This happened to be, for us, Polsham school. There
the scene resembled a slave market. All the children went into the hall
and were given buns and lemonade while the platform was full of posh
ladies of the town. They proceeded to pick their children. Our children
ought to be happy here, as everybody seemed intent on helping. We were
told that altogether Paignton has had about 2000 children. Miss Kershaw
and I are billeted together here. We have separate bedrooms. The lady to
whom the house belongs is a single lady and lives by herself. She is a
retired school teacher. The school, which is extremely modern is about
two minutes down the road and the sea is at the bottom of the road about
five minutes away. We have to report at school at 2 today so we are
having a lazy morning……
The school is a bungalow in the form of square with all the
centre a grass patch. Around the edge of the grass are like cloisters and
each classroom has large windows. The walls are cream, the paint white.
The hall is magnificent. The built in stage has long green velvet
curtains and so have the windows. The school certainly puts all London
schools in the shade. From all accounts I don’t think Paignton is
particularly a safe area. I understand that representations were made to
Whitehall against us coming here as it is not thought by everybody to be
safe district. However here we are.
July 7th 1940
This is just a short note to let you know that I am all
right. I thought it best not to let you now about the raids around here
but as the wireless said last night that a bomb had been dropped in S.
Devon I thought that you might worry. We have had several enemy planes
over here and often see our fighters rushing about after them but
yesterday morning there was a terrific explosion. And apparently a bomb
had been dropped in a village outside Paignton. From what we can gather,
and of course it may be rumour, so don’t pin too much faith to it – the
bomb dropped in a field and did no damage at all. This is certainly no
safety area but I cannot leave here on that account. What would happen to
the children if all the teachers ran away! |
