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Idris Davis Evacuee |
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“It was the day that the Germans moved on Poland...I was at school in London...We had to be at school at six o’clock in the morning and we had to carry with us some clothing, that sort of thing...The register was called and we all filed into the playground. I seem to remember that all the schools walked to the nearest railway station and we were put on trains. We didn’t know where we were going.
“We started off quite early and we went down to Chichester. We were then taken by coach to a place called Sidlesham...It was a beautiful, warm day. We sat in a playground and then we were visited by our prospective foster parents...Nothing was pre-arranged, it was too quick. The first to go were the well behaved, pretty girls and the very last were the big scruffy children like myself. I recall that six of us were left. A tractor and a flat top arrived and took us to a farm...until we could be found other accomodation. We were given tea in jam jars, with no sugar, porridge in the morning and we were working quite late in the fields lifting spuds... “I was turfed out of one place. I got back from school and my cardboard box was packed. I was told I had to go somewhere, wherever I could...It was the time of the (threatened) invasion. There was an influx of troops and she found that she could let her room out to a couple of wives, or a soldier and his wife, so I was sent on my way. I spent my first night away from there sleeping with some pigs, because it was the only dry place I could find. “I was there (Sidlesham) until ’41. Then I got a scolarship to a school in Wales. It was there in ’44...a lot of our boys went and joined the services straight from shool and were being killed. Three of us decided that we were going to do our bit. We were only fifteen so we went down to Bristol and joined the Navy...Two months later we were taken to the Isle of Man, trained, and we were on our way... |
