My Evacuation

Eric Scott

I remember getting on a train at St Pancras station, London, and during the journey we were given a cardboard carton of warm milk.  I have never been able to drink 'raw' milk since.

We arrived at Henry Gotch School in Windmill Avenue, Kettering, from where I was taken by car to Hillcrest Avenue.  A lady answered the door and said "He'll do", so I moved in.

Hilda and Charlie Pettit turned out to be wonderful people who really looked after me and unlike the people my brother was sent to live with in Arthington in Yorkshire, Hilda and Charlie never asked my mother for clothes or anything else.  I kept up with them and they even met my wife Jenny many years later.  We were very upset when they died.

I remember playing in Wicksteed Park and Uncle Charlie used to take me to Kettering Town football matches on a Saturday.  He was leather sorter in one of the town's shoe factories and used to regularly mend my shoes.

I went to Henry Gotch School, but I cannot remember anything about that nor any of the other boys and girls.

I cannot remember when I was evacuated, nor when I returned to Norbury in South London and I do not know to to find this information.