Evacuated, And For A Few Days They Visited Me To Barnstaple 1940/45 From Plymouth

A Memory of Barnstaple.

I came to Barnstaple in the year 1940, from Plymouth 24 hours, so I was told just before Plymouth was heavily bombed. I lived with my Mother at number 5 Gaydon Street with a lady I came to address as Aunty Rose, my Father at the time was stationed at an RAF airfield not far from Barnstaple . Now what I can remember is; just across the road, a small cake and bread shop, with steps leading up to the entrance. On the corner of Gaydon Street on the main road, was a stone mason his shop window display had grave stones etc. Across the road was the Doctors, with a petrol station as a neighbour. 1942 when the Americans arrived, they had a HQ at a large country house, and as kids we would ask for ANY GUM CHUM. One memory that sticks to mind was the time when I became very ill, due to lack of vitamins. To this day I never did find out how the Americans got to know about a sick child, but they had and appeared at the front door with a box of oranges

---

---