FOCUS: The Guernsey evacuees who created a "lasting legacy" in Winsford

Monday 08 February 2021

A Cheshire-based non-fiction writer is trying to identify and get in contact with people from Guernsey who were evacuated to Winsford during the Second World War, in order to tell their untold story.

John Malam, an Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Cheshire West and Chester, is keen to speak to evacuees to Winsford and get their recollections of their time in the Cheshire town.

The non-fiction author has shared with Express a photograph of children evacuated from Guernsey to Winsford in 1940, together with two of their teachers from the Sisters of Mercy religious order.

"The children were from Delancey Primary School, which is the name the “Guernsey School” was also known by when it was based in Winsford from 1940 to 1945," he told Express. 

"I have the name of one of the Sisters who accompanied the children, Sister Mary de Sales, and I wonder if she is one of the nuns in the photograph. I also have the names of brothers Leonard and Ronnie Allen, who are in the centre of the photograph."

On 19 June 1940, Guernsey announced plans for the evacuation to England of the island’s children. An estimated 6,000 were to be evacuated, along with their teachers. Two days later, the first ships departed St Peter Port bound for Weymouth, Dorset. On board one ship were 68 children and their teachers from Delancey Primary School.

Pictured: A children's non-fiction author, John Malam was invited by the Guernsey School Library Service to visit the island’s primary schools during Book Week in 2004 (Credit: Winsford Guardian).

They were not the only children evacuated to the small industrial town in mid-Cheshire, as children from Liverpool and London were already there, one of whom recalls the day her foster-parents took in two of the Guernsey arrivals. 

Eileen Bennett was evacuated from Liverpool to Winsford in 1939, together with two of her four brothers. Her brothers went to live in Over, and she became the ward of Bernard and Phoebe Curzon, of 48 Ledward Street, Wharton.

“I remember when the refugees from the Channel Islands came,” Ms Bennett recalled.  “It was a Sunday, and Mama Curzon said: ‘I will bring you a little sister’. I ran home from Sunday School to find two boys, brothers Len and Ronnie."

Leonard, 8, and Ronnie Allen, 11, arrived in Winsford with their classmates from the Delancey Primary School, and their teachers.

"They were lovely brothers to me for three years," said Ms Bennett. "We had wonderful foster parents; we all knew how much they loved us, as we did them. I left Winsford in 1943, after living there for four years.”

Pictured: Pupils from the Winsford Guernsey School, with Leonard and Ronnie Allen indicated in the centre. 

Under the leadership of Sister Mary de Sales, the “Guernsey School” was established, which ensured the children in her care were taught together, just as they would have been on the island. 

Suitable premises were needed, and the Armstrong Hall in Wharton became the first home of the Winsford Guernsey School. The school was later moved to Wharton Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School, Chapel Road, next to the Armstrong Hall (known today as Chapel House).

Their stay in Cheshire lasted five years but made a deep cultural impression that Mr Malam said is still felt to this day. When the children first arrived, Winsford did not have a Catholic parish, church, or priest.

"There's a spiritual bond that owes its links to Sister Mary de Sales and the Sisters of Mercy. Their departure in 1945 left a void to fill in Winsford, and in the late 1940s the Roman Catholic parish of St Joseph’s was created," said Mr Malam.

"Fern Villa, Ways Green, was bought and in 1951 its stables were converted to become Winsford’s first Catholic church. The news reached Guernsey, from where Sister Mary de Sales sent a silver ciborium [chalice] to the parish priest, Father Thomas Fee, for use in the Communion service. On it was engraved: “From the Guernsey children evacuated to Winsford”."

People with information are invited to contact Mr Malam by emailing john@johnmalam.co.uk or by calling him on 01606 863540 or 07941 847937. 

Pictured top: Evacuees from Delancey Primary School to Winsford.