Evacuee To Bedford 1939

A Memory of Bedford.

I was evacuated to Bedford in 1939 aged 7 and stayed first of all with a Mrs Drake ,the wife of a captain Drake who was in command of a ship called the Warspite. I remember it was off Goldington rd. by the school where all the evacuees were taken and sat around the central hall to be selected and billeted with various families. Mrs Drake had a housemaid and I remember the air raid sirens sounding at 11.00 am to signal the start of the war on September 3rd. 1939. We all sheltered under the stairs at the house thinking the bombs would be falling at any moment. I have so many vivid memories of Bedford and my school days there . I was a good singer and was selected as a choir boy and sang in StPauls church by the market square. By then I had moved on to stay with a Mr. And Mrs. Day at the grove off Goldington rd. My most abiding memory must have been at the time of the Dunkirk evacuation and I remember walking along the embankment of the river and hundreds of soldiers lying on the grass. They had the emblems of the HLI on their shoulders and although I realise they were from the highland light infantry they told us they were Hitlers little infants, and we believed them !! We were asking them to give us kids their plastic gas mask goggles contained in their gas mask cases as they were great to wear and become the Lone Ranger. I really feel I could write a book about the Bedford evacuees. I am now aged 88 but remember those times so vividly. Don Lacey, Wirral, Merseyside.

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