Impact of child evacuees remembered

Wednesday 09 May 2018

As Guernsey marks the 73rd anniversary of the island's liberation from German occupying forces, 85 year old Winifred De La Mare has told Express the story of how she was evacuated with Forest school, along with her younger brother, and their childhood in the UK.

Whilst many stories tell of the occupation of Guernsey and the hardship felt on island at that time Mrs De La Mare believes it is important to remember those children who left in their formative years witu many returning as strangers to their families in Guernsey.

Mrs De La Mare grew up in one of the houses opposite Forest school and at the time war broke out was just eight years old living with her brother Robert who was just six. Their family name was Brehaut and like many others the children were sent to the UK for their safety, at the time not knowing how long that evacuation would be for.

Mrs De La Mare wrote of her experience in a short story which she entitled, 'Short story of child evacuee 1940 to 1945.'

She told Express that she remembered walking to the Gouffre and there was a bus there to take them to town for a boat to Weymouth, this was part of the Forest School evacuation led by Headmaster; Percy Martel.

In her story she tells of the things that she did at such an impressionable age, how seeing trains for the very first time was frightening and what impact her time away made to her life and the life she returned to.

Pictured: Evacuees Winifred De La Mare and her brother Robert Brehaut

She writes: "I was then Winifred Brehaut aged eight years old with my brother Robert, six years old. I have only vague memories of the evacuation. Departure was via the Forest School and I can remember lying down below in an old ship and was very sea sick. Then seeing our first train for the journey up North and arriving at a large hall in Stockport Cheshire where we slept on the floor. Boiled eggs for breakfast were served from a bucket!"

"We were later sorted out to go and live with various people and that is when I was separated from my brother, which upset me very much, but in due course I found him living about a mile away. We were in Cheadle Hulme."

Cheadle Hulme is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester and a very different experience to living in the island of Guernsey. Mrs De La Mare continued: "I lived happilyt with a very nice homely Christian family with a daughter aged eleven years and a son of six years."

As we know now the North of England was prone to bombings and Mrs De La Mare tells of her memories of such events: "We did experience some air raids as we lived close to an R.A.F. airfield, where enemy aircraft were aiming for. One night six ‘time bombs’ were dropped in our area with one landing outside our front gate. We were all quickly driven away to the local cinema to spend the rest of the night and on to stay with relatives until the bombs had all been disposed of. The other bombs had landed in fields and left large craters. During these raids we three children used to shelter in a cupboard under the stairs with a tin of sweets kept for the occasion and after we could see the red sky over Manchester 10 miles away where a large part of the city was on fire."

"When I was eleven years old, after passing exams I was sent to another school of Guernsey girls in Rochdale, Lancashire and settled in another home with a middle aged widow. So this was a change from a country village to a smokey mill town! I was well cared for and happy there and during school holidays went to stay at my previous home."

Mrs De La Mare said that it was difficult to return to Guernsey after growing up in the UK. She writes: "Now at thirteen, the war over, the big wrench was to come home to my family after five years away (which were very impressive years). They were like strangers and had moved house and increased family with a new sister and brother! When various problems arose – I found myself wishing to return to England, however I gradually settled down to the Guernsey life!"

Mrs De La Mare kept in touch with her Cheshire friends and family all her life, often returning for holidays. Talking to Express last week she told us that one of her biggest regrets was not staying together with her brother, "I wished I had spoken out about my brother, but we just did as we were told, the family that took me in already had two children so could not take any more. The daughter of the couple who took me in became like a sister to me and I loved her like a sister,. She sadly passed away last year."

Pictured: Winifred De La Mare holding a photo of herself taken during her time at Forest school