More evacuee memories
26/07/2007
Mrs D Monger's reminisence about evacuees (linked below) has inspired me to write my own memories of those days.
Having passed the scholarship, I was due to start a new school in September 1939. Our school, Dagenham County High, all met together that September in a school near the Ford Motor factory, walked to the river through fords and were put on a ship. There were children from other schools there as well.
The ship departed and eventually we were put on shore along the Norfolk coast. I found out in the 1960s that it was Cromer. Everyone was put into a round building there, we had a straw sack to sleep on, and stayed overnight. The next morning our school was taken by coach to Southrepps. The war wasn't declared until after we got there.
We stayed there until March 1940 and meanwhile, back home, our school was opened to all other high schools in Dagenham, Barking and Ilford. In 1940 we were moved from Southrepps by train, picking up more children from Dagenham, and then taken to Ilfracombe where we shared the High School. Many stayed there until just before the war finished, but I went home in August 1940 and stayed with Dagenham County High.
The bombing started about a week after I got home - and didn't go away again - our school had fire bombs at one end but we just carried on!
J Wright, Gloucestershire