Evacuation 1940 1944

A Memory of Northampton.

Our whole family were evacuated from Bow, London, to Kingsthorpe in November 1940. This was following the sudden sad death of my father in July 1940 and the blitz that began in September 1940.
On our arrival the family was split up and taken to three different council houses. Mum was with a widow Mrs. Rose Jolley (she later married again to a man named White) at 173, Kingsland Avenue. My brother Len, myself Albert and younger sister Evelyn were with a Mr. & Mrs. Middleton at 47 Western Avenue (?) and our eldest sister May was about two or three doors away with a Mr. & Mrs. Percival.
The Middletons had at least two children, there was a Peter & Joy.
Mrs. Jolley had two daughters, Olive & Doris. Doris a married neighbour, Bert Lorriman, who was serving in the R.A.F. and I believe Olive married a chap named ? Hillier who was in the Navy.
I remember our first winter was very bad and I'm sure the snow was about a foot deep.
Difficult to remember the school that I went to but my brother Len went to Bective Road. I believe I also went there for a while.
We used to play across the fields opposite where we lived and had lots of great fun. We also used to go to the River Nene and fish with our nets for "tiddlers".
When we wanted to go to the pictures, if it was an "A" film we would wait for an adult and ask them to take us in.
In the evenings we watched our bombers flying off on to their raids on Germany.
In December 1944 Mum`s brother suggested that she moved back south which is how we came to be living at Southborough, near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, which is where Uncle Vic was living with his family.

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