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“We were picked over like a child slave market”

Seeing the Lancaster bomber during a visit to East Kirkby Aviation Museum today, jolted childhood memories of the war years for Chapel St Leonards WI Press Officer, Sylvia.

Sylvia recalled being a six-year-old child when she was a refugee from the British town of Derby.
“I was only six when I was evacuated”, Sylvia told us. “We were just put a name tag on, given an apple and a banana, put in a queue, put onto buses and just sent off. We didn’t know where we were going. I thought my mum and father had given us away!”
Sylvia said there was no communication and she didn’t know for weeks after whether she would be reunited with her parents.

“It was a terrifying experience for children”, Sylvia told us, “because no one told us what was happening - we were just sent away. We thought we were being given away.

“When we arrived at our destination, we were sat in a little school room with a label saying our name. We were just sat there while the people of the village walked around and picked who they wanted.

“Now, I think of it as a child slave market”, Sylvia said, “But back then, it felt so..so humiliating and upsetting because they seemed to pick all the pretty ones first, If your face didn’t fit, you were the last to be picked!”

Sylvia recalled she was one of the first evacuees to be retured home. She went on to tell us that she remembered sitting on the cellar steps with her grandmother during a bomb raid over Derby. She heard a bomb drop in the street causing the tin bath to clatter off the cellar wall.

1941 - “How Many Legs?’
Ald J A Hipkin reported to Spilsby R.D.C. on Monday, that at Thorpe (Wainfteet) the rats had raided the store of jam made by the Women’s Institute and practically eaten it all.
Capt Richardson: How many legs had these rats got? (Laughter.)
Mrs. I. M. Ward said it was unfortunately true. The building where the jam was stored abutted a drain. When the jam inspector came round she advised the jam-makers to leave the cupboard door open.The rats got in.
The Chairman: Not an ideal place for jam near a sewage drain.
Capt. Richardson: Thank God, I did not have any of it!
Mr. W. H. Mackinder: Can any of this jam be salvaged. (Laughter.)

1945
During enemy activity over an East Coast town, [Skegness] in the early hours of Sunday morning, various districts were subjected to cannon fire.
Bullets struck an amusement centre and the roadways near a cinema. A farm in the open country also received attention.
Two police officers, a Sgt. Barnes, and a P.c. Hodson,in a police car were machine gunned while crossing an open space in the district, and had a narrow escape, the road being struck immediately behind the vehicle.

1945
Sgt. Air Gunner Raymond Gamble, younger son of Mr. and Mrs. B. Gamble of 192 Drummond Road, Skegness, is missing on operations over enemy territory. He is an old Grammar School boy, and was always known by his schoolmates as “Billy.”
Pte. Ron Woodward, of the 14th Lincolns, serving in the B.L.A. is also missing. He is the 20 year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Woodward, of 11 Alexandra Road, and before joining up was employed by Messrs. Butlin’s Ltd., as an electrician.
It is believed that he was captured unhurt, as he took up a position as an out, post a long way in front of his company to gain information of enemy positions. It is thought he and this companions were taken by surprise at night, there being no firing from the position. The next day the house was in German occupation.

We are currently researching whether these men were actually killed in the war or whether they were eventually found. Check back soon!

IN AN AIR RAID
If Caught Out-of-Doors

It is imperative to take cover if you see any kind of hostile activity in the air or if you hear anti-aircraft gun-fire in the neighbourhood. It may be an air battle; it may be a bombing raid. You may not have heard a warning. But you must resist the temptation to see what is going on, and take what cover you can.
If you are in the street you will have to decide quickly whether you can get home in, say, five minutes, without running.
Tell the police officer or warden that you are near your home and they will not hinder you from going there.

GO INTO PUBLIC SHELTER
If you are at some distance from home follow the guidance of the policeman or warden, and go into a public shelter. These have seating accommodation, and wardens will be present. Their job is to see that no particular shelter becomes over-crowded, to give help and advice, and to decide when it is safe to leave after the raid is over. They will detect the noise of rattles if gas is used, and tell people to put on the masks.
But, bear this in mind—they will not have any masks to give to people who have not brought their own!

MOREOVER, KEEP CHEERFUL
In a shelter everyone should do his or her best to keep everyone else’s spirits high. It is a trying experience, but it can be made bearable if people keep as cheerful as possible.

Public shelters in Skegness are available at (1) County Hotel, North Parade, (2) Seacroft Hotel, (3) Banana Stores, Corner of High Street and Briarway (4) Lumley Hotel (5) Grammar School, outside normal school hours for adults, (6) Ship Hotel.
1940