My Memories as an Evacuee, Charles Carley
I was 13 years-old and lived in Welling, a town in the South East of London. Welling was in a corridor of towns from Dover to London and therefore was in a direct line from the continent where the world war two had been raging for several years, and had suffered air raids from German bombs. V1 “doodlebugs” which were flying bombs (like aeroplanes without pilots) and at the time that I am writing about, V2s, which were huge rockets packed with explosives that came hurtling out of the atmosphere.
In all this time, children were allowed to leave cities like London and the areas such as I lived in and go to safer areas of Britain (some even went to America and Canada). The children were known as evacuees.
My pal and I thought that it would be an adventure to go and our parents agreed that we could go. No-one knew where you would end up. We assembled at a school in Welling, complete with a large label tied to our coat, so that everyone knew who we were, and a gas mask in its cardboard box around our necks.
We were herded on to buses that took us into a train station and after stopping and starting all day, eventually arrived in Leeds which is the principal city of Yorkshire. Having been allocated to different buses we then all left Leeds for different villages and towns. My pal and I finished up in a mining village in the West Riding of Yorkshire called Allerton Bywater, where we were given a warm welcome and a good meal in the Methodist chapel hall. All the local population seemed to be there to see us and to ‘adopt’ us into their homes.
I went with a Mrs. Dorothy Jones who had recently lost her husband who was killed in the coal mine and hoped I would be company for her son Stan who was a few years older than me. My friends stayed with a family the other side of the village. Once I got over the trauma of leaving home and my family, I soon settled into the village life.
Everyone was brilliant and treated us so well. Mrs. Jones and Stan were an extension of my family. So much so, that they invited my mum and sisters, to come and stay too, which they did.
School was not what we had been used to but we got really involved with the sports activities. The local farmers used to like us to help as we were “big lads” and paid us to.
It was a sad day when on our 14th birthday we had to leave to return home to start work.
We are still good friends with our ‘adopted’ families and visit occasionally as indeed so does your mum.
Copy of a letter written by C. E. Carley to grandson J. D. Twizell for a school project. April 1997.
Mrs. Jones was Dorothy Silkstone, born 28th August 1898. She had married Richard Jones, born 10th September 1898 in 1925, and their son Stanley Jones was born in 1925. Richard Jones was killed at Allerton Bywater Colliery on 20th July 1943, when inspecting a mis-fire, he was crushed by a fall of coal, and died from head and neck injuries. Mrs. Jones passed away in 2002, a month before her 104th birthday, and Stanley on 13th December 2009. Stanley Jones’ Second World War research is also featured in these displays.
The photo below shows from left to right, back row: Charles Carley, his mother, Dorothy Jones, and Stanley Jones in his rover scout uniform. The front row shows Charles’ sisters Dorothy, Irene and Margaret. Charlies family were invited by my Grandma for a short holiday. They stayed all summer.
Kippax Roll of Honour 