Barbra Male was a 12 year old schoolgirl
from South London. She was evacuated with her school in June ,1940 to Illagon,
a small village near the coast of Cornwall. On November 17, 1941, she wrote
down all her experiences of her first year as an evacuee in a Lee School exercise
book:
“It was on June 14, 1940 that I left London. I did not know exactly where
I was going, but I did know we were going a very long way. We left Paddington
about nine-thirty a.m. Some of the small children were crying. There were about
111 people including a number of teachers that were leaving When the train left
Paddington Station the children brightened up. They soon forgot their troubles,
and they were all laughing for all they were worth.”
It must have been scary to have
to leave their homes to go live with strangers, but it was safer there than
staying in the large cities that were bombed.
