Yeovil at war
Yeovil at war
The wartime Yeovil recollections of David Whybrew
I was brought up in London in SE17. I went to the Surrey Square School. I started there aged four years. Life was perfectly normal. We suffered from ‘urban poverty’ but we were happy. It was a nice school.
On 1st
September
1939 I
was
evacuated.
We were
transported
by tram
to
Waterloo
station.
We said
goodbye
to
everyone
we had
ever
known
except
the
teachers.
The head
teacher
was Miss
Marie
Fisher.
She was
a
practices
teacher.
She was
a
professionally
trained
classic
singer.
Other
teachers
were
Miss
Beecham
and Miss
Whale.
We ended
up in
Yeovil,
Somerset
and I
have no
idea
why. We
were
taken to
the
Liberal
Hall and
given
supplies
for 1
week. I
have no
idea how
evacuees
were
allocated.
Yeovil
could
not cope
with the
number
of
refugees
and I
was
taken to
a
village
3 miles
away
called
Mudford.
I went from urban poverty to rural poverty. The people were very kind. Waiting to be chosen by hosts was like being in cattle market. I was taken into the village and to the door of a house. The daughter of the house answered the door. “We will have him if his name is David” she said. The house was owned by a lady widow. She had 3 sons, 1 daughter and a brother. I am still in contact with that family.
There was no room at the village school so we used the village hut which was a wooden army hut. Miss Fisher came into her own. There was no equipment. She told us stories about her singing tour in America under the trees in the orchard. She took us out locally to see the Blacksmith, the cheese maker, the cider maker and the farm workers. Children gradually went back. Mother visited. There were cheap trips. I wanted to go back but I knew I couldn’t say anything.
The
school
was then
moved to
2 rooms
in the
pub, the
Half
Moon
Inn. We
had no
equipment
or
paper.
Miss
Fisher
played
the
piano
and sang
to us.
Then
Miss
Fisher
got
married.
We had a
sense of
freedom
and
would
rampage
over the
countryside.
I don’t
know how
the
locals
survived
with the
scruffy
little
kids
over
running
them.
I then went to the village school and had to learn to blend with the country kids. It was a matter of survival.
After 18
months I
passed
the 11
plus. I
had an
interview
at the
local
secondary
school.
I went
to it on
my own.
I recall
the
headmaster
interviewing
me and a
child
crawling
across
the
floor. I
got in
and
started
there in
September
1944.
The head
teacher
was Mr
Dennis
Thompson.
I was
there
for 2
terms
and then
I
returned
to
London.
Back in
London I
felt
like a
fish out
of
water.
Reproduced from the BBC's "WW2 People's War" under the 'fair dealing' terms.
