Age Concern Dorchester - Dorset's Living Memories

Evacuees at Chickerell School

M Carry (nee Dalley) writes

I was born at Chickerell, Nr Weymouth in 1938.  I had one brother, Tony who was a year and 5 months older.  We both attended the village school. At the age of 11 years I went on to further education at Weymouth Grammar School.  

Whilst at Chickerell School between the years from 1943 until 1948 we were at war for part of the time with Germany.  As a result of the conflict  we shared our home with 3 evacuees from Holloway, London – 2 boys and a girl – their names were Derek, Tony and Pat.   Derek was the  youngest, Tony was approximately  my age and Pat a few months older than my brother.   From my memories we seemed to get on well together.  Their mother used to come down from London to see them whenever she could, she took up war work on the London tubes as a guard.

I remember my parents saying when the evacuees first arrived they went to bed with their shoes on because they had been sleeping like that down on the tube station platforms at night to avoid the bombing.  For many years after the war their mother kept in touch  and Pat, the daughter, also returned to visit my mother.  The two boys died fairly young.  Tony joined the Navy and Derek died before he was 40 years old.

We walked to school about a mile each way – we used to take a short cut across the fields and through the brickworks quarry.  (Now a housing estate).