On Monday 11th November we invited several people, who had been alive during World War Two, in to school to talk to us about their experiences. We were extremely lucky to have a huge take up for this offer, with about 20 visitors, including one gentleman who is 100 years old, and they all had vastly differing and incredible stories which they shared with us.

We found it fascinating listening to all the different tales they had to tell and many of them also brought in artefacts to share with us. These included the following: a week’s worth of rations, medals, shrapnel, maps, a gas mask, ration books and identity cards. We also viewed lots of photographs and newspaper clippings. Hearing these stories first hand was very moving and certainly brought our history topic alive for us.

The afternoon was rounded off with a tea party at which the spam sandwiches were treated with a bit of suspicion and the verdict was a bit like people’s reaction to marmite. However,  the cakes and jelly were a huge hit! A big thank you to all the parents who supplied the refreshments and/or who helped on the afternoon. The two victory cakes were amazing and there was even enough left to have some more later in the week!

Below are details of some of the many fascinating stories our guests recounted to us. We hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we enjoyed hearing them first-hand. There are also some pictures of the event. Details of our afternoon have also been published in the Romsey Advertiser.

 

Derrick

In the horrible days of World War 2, Derrick was 20 years old; his job was a supplier and he traveled around the world supplying different interesting things he travelled to Italy, Egypt and country’s in South America. He also had to ration like most other people in World War 2. In one of the country’s Derrick was suppling to he met a lady.
After the horrifying war was over Derrick married that lady then had his daughter.

by Sam

 

Mr William Whitlock’s Story

Mr William Whitlock was 9 years old when the War started. After receiving news from his cousin (who worked in the Military) that he should evacuate the house, his parents took him away to live in a cottage they owned in the countryside. They were very lucky to be able to move away to somewhere safer. He had to do jobs around the cottage and work on their small farm doing task such as leadings the horses to the ‘rick’ (a stack of hay in the open air). His cousin who was older than him served in the Military spending much of his time at sea. His aunt went to work as a cook for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). The ATS was the women’s branch of the British Army. He remembers, one day when he was playing, he saw an ambulance with a red cross on it. It was carrying injured soldiers inside which made him think of his cousin at War. In 1942 the American Army showed up and built a camp close to his cottage. Towards the end of the War, when he was around 14 or 15 years old, he ended up in the role of driver, a bit like a taxi driver, for Military personnel from the near-by American Camp. Sometimes he was asked to drive important Military men around.

By Oscar G Coupe

 

 

Mrs Vera Bowles

Mrs Vera Bowles was evacuated with her older sister, who was 2 years older.   None of the children knew where they were going, it was extremely frightening for them. All the children from Vera’s local school went with her, they didn’t know if they would ever see their parents again, which made them upset. They were taken to a place called March, which was in the countryside away from the bombing. Vera settled very well in her new home and made lots of friends, although all the children missed their beloved parents. There was only one school, which had to be shared amongst lots of children. Sometimes they used the local cinema as a school, which was good as the children, on occasions, could watch a film.   This was difficult as there were no desks and so they had to use their laps to write which was uncomfortable and meant holes were made in their writing paper when they wrote!

When Vera and the other children went outside to play, they had to remember to take their gas masks with them in case of a gas attack. The food rationing was terrible, there were no eggs or chocolate, but she sometimes had random sweets which she didn’t always like.   She wasn’t fortunate to have butter, but had margarine on her bread which didn’t taste nice!

After 10 months, Vera’s sister turned 16 and had to return home.   Vera was given a choice to go home or stay in the country, so she chose to go home too. There had been no bombing at home whilst the girls were away, but when they returned the bomb raids started.

By Freya Lines

 

Dr Ronald Bachelor

Dr Bachelor was born 1934. Before the war, he lived in Southampton. His father was a store man.

He was evacuated after the Blitz to South Wales for a year. He enjoyed St John’s school and learnt Welsh. St John’s school is still there. He recalled bombing taking place and having to take different routes when he walked. When Ronald returned he had a Welsh accent. His parents made a private arrangement to Billet him to Wales.

In 1944, On D-Day, he was reunited with his family. He was very happy to be back with his parents because the people who he had lived with did not know how to look after children. They only had a baby and the mum was young.

He did not like being an evacuee, there was no water in the house and when he returned his mum had to take him to the doctors because he had something wrong with his skin.

By Isobel S

 

Mr Painter

When Mr Painter was 8 years old, he was evacuated three times with his bland and boring school called Bostall Lane School, which was in London. He used trams to escape from the terrible war, which was just starting; his school took 12 whole trams. When he arrived at his destination, he got sorted into billets. He was pleased with his billet because it smelt like delicious, juicy apples. His foster parents had an apple farm in the backgarden. Mr Painter had a hard time in the blackout especially his brother, who came home one day with a horrific black eye. After a while, he went to live with his family in his grandma’s tiny, cosy cottage in the countryside away from the awful war in London.

By Owen

 

Joyce

Joyce was 17 when the war started, and 18 when she joined the W.R.E.N.S. She liked her job and she met her husband through work aswell, and they got married when Joyce was 20. Once she was married, she left her job.

When they were rationing her mother was very good at making the most of what they had, Joyce missed out on a lot of sweets and treats. If you didn’t like the food that you were given, then you would go without. It was also quite hard going shopping because you would have to count out all your coupons to see if you had enough.

There was bombing not far away from Joyce’s house and it was apparently very frightening, but she just had to get on with it. In her shelter there was not much space and it was very cramped. There were bunk beds in the shelter in case they had to stay in it overnight. Joyce thought the worst thing about the war was the worry of when the planes flew over that they were going to drop bombs on them.

When the American G. I’s came over everyone was a bit nervous because they didn’t know what they were going to be like. But Joyce said that they were very generous and brought over lots of extra food for everybody to share.

By Isabel H

 

Mrs Axford

Mrs Axford was evacuated to Bournemouth by train from Southampton where she lived with her parents during the war: Her mum had 7 children and her father worked as a window cleaner, when she and her siblings were evacuated they were separated and went to different families so they had no contact with each other or knew where they were! she lived in Bournemouth with her billet for 2 years but was not very fond of her so she wrote to her mother every few months.

While she was in Bournemouth during the war, Mrs Axford got a job doing paper rounds and also collected dirty laundry and washed it then returned it this helped her earn some pocket money; she also would help with the housework: While she was in Bournemouth Mrs Axford also got to attend Primary school: When she was evacuated she got to pack very little in her suitcase all she could take was one pair of shoes, one coat two jumpers, two skirts and some underwear.

In Bournemouth when the air raid sirens started everyone had to go in the air raid shelters; these were small shelters made from tin that had a bench either side: it was really cold when you had to stay in their long periods of time. In the shelters there were no electric so it was just lit by candlelight which made it very cold, dark and wet.

During the war all food was rationed and they were only allowed the following amounts for the week 3 eggs, very thin rashes of bacon,2 ounces of butter, 4 ounces of sugar,4 ounces of sweets, 2 pounds of potato; they had to make this last for a week per person which is very little: They were always hungry.

After two years in Bournemouth Mrs Axford was allowed to return to her family in Southampton which was a very joyful but challenging as they had not seen each other for a long time and had built up a relationship with their billet.

By William

 

MRS OLIVER

Mrs Oliver wasn’t evacuated to anyone. She lived with her Grandparents in a small village. At the start of the war two boys were billeted to her and grandparents home. Mrs Oliver and the boys that were billeted over had to help grow rations in the garden. In the night they heard a lot of sirens because they lived a few miles away from an airfield. In the day when they had finished all their chores, they were allowed to play in the farmer’s field. In the middle of the war a mother and son came to live with Mrs Oliver, her grandparents and the two boys. When the war had finally finished, the Vicar who owned a different field threw a celebration party because the war was over. Mrs Oliver felt safe and brilliant that it was over.

By Evan Chapman

 

Mr Hobbs

Mr Hobbs joined the Navy in 1942. He flew planes for Britain. In each aircraft, there was one pilot.

During several raids on Samatra Island, Mr Hobbs’ regiment lost 32 aircraft!!! During the war, Mr Hobbs went to he HMS Royal Athur in Skuteness. Mr Hobbs is currently 95 years old. During plane landing practices, they used elephants to pull the planes!!!

Lorilee.

 

Mr and Mrs Lacey

Mrs Lacey was not an evacuee, instead she moved house in the war. Her family used to live in the North of England but every night, the petrifying German planes flew over her family’s house, so they moved to Romsey. Mr Lacey had 7 brothers and 2 sisters although he lived with his Grandma. When Mr and Mrs Lacey met they used to cook tea for William Hannah and Joseph Barbera, the Tom and Jerry cartoonists.

By Kieran

 

Brian W

Brian first told us that he wasn’t evacuated during the war, his Mum told him that if she died, he would die with her.  He spent the whole war in Southampton where he carried on going to school.  One day when he was writing at school a daylight air raid took place and blew up half the school.  Lots of teachers and students died.  Later on, another student died and all that was left of him was a boot. He showed us a ration book and told us he was always hungry; he was only allowed 2oz of sweets or chocolate a week. For Christmas all he got was nuts and a satsuma. There were lots of public shelters in Southampton, but these were always damp and cold. In a park (near to Debenhams which was just being built) a local shelter took a direct hit from a bomb.  Everyone in the shelter was killed and the bodies were left in the ruins.  Later in his life, Brian became a local Councillor and got a plaque put up in the park to remember all the people who were killed.  The plaque is still there today.  After an air raid, the people who died were taken to a park and left out for people to claim.  When the Americans went to war, they threw out all of their rations and Brain was there!  I loved meeting Brian and listening to him tell us about his memories of the war.

By Harry Ault

 

The stories told to me at the VE party was that of a man who as a boy during the war he said that he was not allowed to be evacuated. The story told is that his mother said he would die with her, and I expect she could not bear to let him go. He remembers having an identity card and carrying a gas mark with him at all times.

When the bombs were dropped he told about hiding in a cold and damp air-raid shelter with his family.

He did go to the local school but often they were not taught because of the bombs and the war.

He talked a lot about the rations and food; he said that there was a ration book for every family. Even water was rationed; adults were allowed full glasses of water and children were only allowed a half a glass per day which seems very little. Sausages had lots of different meats in them; it could even be squirrel meat or rat meat.

Sweets were rationed every week and he showed us how little they could have and the weight of the sweets. He remembers the first time that he tasted orange juice and bananas after the war had ended. He said he’d never tasted anything like it !!

I really enjoyed talking to him and hearing how he lived during the war.

By Lucy

 

Mrs Randall

On Monday November 11^th I met Mrs Randall who was in world war two. She said that war was very frightening and in her house she could hear bombs from the attic, she also got her house bombed and all her furniture was wet. Mrs Randall said that it was very hard to sleep because all she could hear were bombs. Also she had two pets, one dog and one cat and she was looking after a foster boy named Colin. I found it very interesting learning all about it.

By Maisie 6RW

 

Mrs Randall

Mrs Randall (Barbara) was 7 at the time of the war and she was very, very scared. She and her family (including their dog) moved to Exeter; her Father joined the Royal Observers Corps to play his part for the war effort where he had to spot the enemy planes by standing on top of a church using a telescope. Sadly, Exeter was quite a dangerous place to be in so her house got bombed… When this happened, she and her brother hid under the stairs and, once everything had settled down, her Father went into the attic and threw sand and water at the place where the bomb hit. Thankfully, nobody got hurt.

Also, Barbara had an evacuee staying with her; his name was Colin and, luckily, Colin was a very nice little boy. He was also 7 so he and Barbara would play games with each other. Because she was only 7, Barbara didn’t really know what was happening at the time. She explained that it didn’t really affect her life because “You just had to accept it and move on.”

One thing she remembers is that she really didn’t like wearing gas masks because they were “horrible” and she always found it tricky to sleep since she could often hear the enemy planes in the sky.

By Freya Barr

 

Derrick

Derrick is a 100-year-old man who was born in 1919. His father was in WW1 and got very injured, he came back from war, got married and they soon gave birth to Derrick.

He was abroad for over 5 years during WW2 delivering medical supplies all over Europe. He went to places like Egypt, Italy and many more different countries. Whilst he was in a country that at the time was called Yugoslavia, he met a woman who he really liked and they got married. He was about 24 years old at this point.

It was very interesting meeting Derrick and listening to his very moving story.

By Eddie Harbour!

 

Mrs Axford

Mrs Axford was evacuated from Southampton to Bournemouth via train for two years. She wasn`t scared with animals. Mrs Axford was Billeted with Mrs Pluck and she wasn`t happy with her. She delivered newspapers morning and evening and she would collect laundry and return it when it was clean.

She packed:1 pair of shoes, a coat, 2 skirts and jumpers and underwear. She would hate Air raids [even though they were rare] as she didn’t like wearing Gasmasks and in the tin shelters it was freezing cold and there was 1 bench on each side and that was it. Her rations were:3 eggs,2 wafer-thin slices of bacon,2oz of butter,4oz of sugar and 4oz of sweets a week.

Her mum looked after her 6 siblings and her dad was a window cleaner. After the war she did see her parents.

By Ethan-MD

 

Miss Sylvie Ireland

When the war started Sylvie was 12 and her sister was 10. Her and her sister were evacuated but her three brothers were not. Her brothers were 4,6 and 8; she was evacuated to a place in Dorset called Parkston. When she arrived in Dorset, she didn’t make any friends, but her billet had a dog and a little boy who was 5 who she had to look after. She had stayed in Dorset for 18 months and had no house to come back to. She didn’t like the idea of rationing and to go with it you didn’t get a lot of rations. Her billeted family were nice, but she was homesick. Her dad’s job was to make sure all the families were in the air raid shelters then he would be the last in. If Sylvie had a choice, then she would have stayed at home with her mum and brothers. Her, her mum, her 3 brothers and her sister were the only ones who survived the war. Right now to this very day her and one brother are still alive.

By Priya Fowler

 

Mrs Fosh

Mrs Fosh told us about her dad ; he received some chocolate as a gift and was on a boat when a bomb fell from the sky. The soldiers on one side of the boat ran to the other to keep safe, when they got to the other side where her father was someone bumped into him and he dropped the chocolate into the sea.

By Evie Shaw 6RW

 

Mrs Bowls

Mrs Bowls was evacuated during the war with her older sister to a place called March. They were away for about 10 months, but she had many friends and the rooms were very comfortable where she stayed. All of the schools were closed down so the children had to go to work aged 14.

Matthew Kesby

 

Joyce

Joyce was born in 1922, so when the war started Joyce was 17; she was too old to be evacuated from Southampton. She joined the WRENS (Womans Royal Naval Service) but when she got married (aged 20) she stopped working. Her husband worked in the Navy.

Joyce remembers that the bombing was awful. One day when she was in town she could hear and see two German planes flying directly above her. Thankfully they didn’t drop any bombs but everybody who saw was frightened.

By:Megan

 

Dr Ronald Batchelor

Before Dr Ronald Batchelor was billeted, he lived on Bernard Street and went to St John’s Primary School.  Before school each morning he used to go across the bombed houses and buildings.

He was then evacuated to South Wales with his sister privately for one year after the Blitz.  He didn’t much like his new home as it was not ideal and there was not much water so he could barely wash.  From not being clean enough, Dr. Batchelor developed a skin complaint called impetigo.  His billet mother didn’t know how to look after children very much, so Dr Batchelor and his sister didn’t really enjoy their time there.  He didn’t mind his new school where he was taught Welsh, though he didn’t know anyone as an evacuee.  He missed his family and wanted to go home to see them.  He was back in Southampton for D Day on June the 6th.  Dr Batchelor was born in 1934, but if he was older, he would have been sent to France as a Linguist.

By Sophie C.

 

Mrs Oliver

In ww2, Mrs Oliver wasn’t evacuated she lived in a village in summer set. Two boys got evacuated to Mrs Oliver’s house she lived with her grandma and grandpa and her two evacuee boys in her house. It was a small house they had chickens and they grew veggies in her spare time. She would run around in the fields. She didn’t really have much spare time as she had school. At the school, they didn’t have to wear a uniform as they had to ratio clothes. Her school was called Moirlync. She also had a pet cat. They had to listen to the radio as they did not have any TVs.

By Jess

 

Dennis Brian

In World War 2, Dennis Brian was not evacuated and had to survive with his Mother and his farther had gone to war. When the bombing started Dennis Brian and his Mother had to stay in their house and hide underneath the kitchen table. When rationing was introduced Dennis Brian and his Mother only had a tiny amount of food each week. They only had 2-3-4 slices of bread (depending on how big the family was) 10 inch long and 5 inch tall piece of cheese! In those days, they were very smart people. Dennis lived in London which was one of the main targets.

By Isla

 

MRS FOSH

Mrs Fosh’s dad was trapped on the beach of Dunkirk and had somehow managed to get his hands on some chocolate, waiting to get rescued. When out of the fog, came the boats of all shapes and sizes as he rushed onto the boats full of English soilders the shipped was bombed on the opposite side to him. So all the soldiers on that side ran to his side- the ship tipped and he lost the grip on the chocolate which dropped into the sea never to be seen again.

By Noah

 

Miss Oliver

Miss Oliver wasn’t evacuated and she only had one older brother and a cat at the beginning of the war. Her mum was pregnant during the war, the new family that came to join her family had 2 boys; one boy that was mean the other was nice! Mrs Oliver got picked to work in a garden and help grow food for the men at War and also for people’s rations. She lived near an airfield, which was very dangerous; a bomb landed only 2 miles away from it! Miss Oliver was allowed to play in the field which the vicar which owned. A big party was thrown to celebrate the war ending. She thought war was horrible and she felt delighted when it was over.

By Nancy