The Evacues

A Memory of Wickford.

My sister and I were evacuated to Wickford in 1940, I was just over 5 years old and my sister 11 years old.
We came from the east end of London. We moved into a bungalow with an elderly lady called Mrs Walker, there was also a middle-aged man, I think he was Mrs Walker's husband.
We did not live there for very long as the enemy planes were crashing and dropping bombs on the area, I remember we had a bad winter with very deep snow for us to play in.
We were suddenly put on a train back to London and then on to the Wye Valley.
After the war I hitch-hiked from Leytonstone E11 all the way to Wickford and we ended up at Mrs Walker's bungalow only to find that she had died and been buried two weeks before, the middle-aged man had already left the bungalow, I presumed he had sold the bungalow.
I wondered if anybody remembers the Mrs Walker who lived in a bungalow at the end of a lane or small Road?
Mrs Walker used to play the piano to us and was very kind.
Leonard Askew

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