Eastbourne Bombing

[mnmilt]

Do you know where in Wales your mother was evacuated to and where in London she came from?  That may help nail down the timeframe and pinpoint the family that you are looking for.  I just came across this information at http://llandeilo.org/catholic3.php.



The Second World War witnessed a significant increase in the Catholic population of Llandeilo. In June 1940 staff and pupils from Coloma Convent School Croydon were evacuated to Llandeilo. A local paper announced their arrival.

"The evacuees arrived on Sunday at 6.40 p.m. They numbered above 200, and the arrangements were carried without a hitch. They were taken from the station to the County School for tea and medical examination. The evacuees included a superior lot of girls who were in the Secondary Schools of the London County Council. They were accompanied by their teachers and sisters of the R.C. The children from Bootle are expected on Thursday".

Sister Mary Clare, one of the sisters involved has recalled her time in this area. Her account is reproduced here:

"In August 1939 about 500 pupils with approximately 20 staff including the Head Mistress, Mother Winifride and four Sisters evacuated their school Coloma, Croydon and set out, for what was then an unknown destination.

All wore labels and carried gas masks. Tearful parents watched the exodus, as well as those left behind for whom other plans were made.

The unknown destination proved to be Eastbourne but six months later danger loomed from across the Channel and once more there was an exodus this time, to a little known town called Llandeilo in South Wales, about fifteen miles from Carmarthen.

There is also a diary written by Mrs M Dineen that can be found at the Imperial War Museum

Ms diary in 4 volumes covering her experiences as an LCC (London County Council) helper with a group of Streatham schoolchildren (one of them her son) during their evacuation to Eastbourne, September 1939 - June 1940 and Llansadwin, South Wales, June 1940 - May 1945 with useful details of her life as an evacuee, her welfare work and involvement with fundraising activities and salvage operations, her billets, rationing and civilian conditions generally as a well as references to war news, Welsh customs, contact with locally based American forces, her strong religious convictions and thoughts on being separated from her husband, a London ARP Warden; also a photograph album and various loose prints, postcards and presscuttings associated with her two periods of evacuation.


My guess would be that the timeframe that you will be looking for is the second half of 1940.

Regards

Mark

[Exiled Mancunian]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the information in your posts.

When questioned about her spell in London, my mother can remember three addresses she lived at. They were 36 Heath Road, Thornton Heath; Gleneagles Road, Streatham; and Walderslade Road, Walderslade, Chatham. She cannot recall what dates, but I believe the above is the correct order.

I do know that she was still in Preston, Lancs in 1933 when her mother remarried following the death of her first husband, and they were in Manchester by 1953 when she married my father.

I asked her several times in the past when I was first starting on the family history trail and all she could tell me was that she was evacuated to Eastbourne first and then moved to Wales. I will ask my sister if she will mention it when she next visits her and see if she gets anywhere.

Anyway, thanks once again for the information. I will keep trying.

Exiled Mancunian

[Exiled Mancunian]

Hi Everyone,

I apologise for not thanking you all earlier for your replies to my earlier original post. My computer has been in for repair.

Thanks for all the information given and I will follow up the various leads.

If I get any results I will post them here.

Exiled Mancunian

[JOOBLES]

That's interesting about the bomb in the garden at number 15, my ancestors lived at 16 but it was way before the war in in 1881. That road was known as Chaple Drove back then, it later changed to Lower drove and later to Firle Road.

I was looking for No.16 on Google Street View and wondered why a few houses had disappeared so your info. on it being bombed has answered my question.

Thanks for that !

Julie