Evacuation

It was September 1944, I was a student nurse in Apeldoorn and I had been at home on sick leave as I had TB. The cure was bedrest and good food. We lived in occupied Holland, Groningen, not far from the German border. My father worked there on the railway and he was told by the Underground that we had to leave our house and go underground. We put what belongings we could in an empty room belonging to a neighbour. The rest we just had to leave in our house. Father and Nico, my brother, dressed as workmen and cycled to Makkum, the village where my parents were born, and where we had a lot of relations. Nobody wanted me as I was ill and did not have a ration card. Read more......

I went to Butterburn School, now demolished and then to Rockwell for 1941 - 1944. I left when I was 15 years old. I have lots of happy memories from both schools, and often wonder where all my classmates are now? I was evacuated to Kirriemuir in 1939 when the war broke out, and I went to schools there also. I am now a war widow, but I often look back and remember my happy school days.

I was born in D.R.I. on 27th June, 1931. I lived at 2 Park Lane with my six brothers and sisters in a one room attic. My father was in the army at outbreak of war. My mother and all of the family were sent to Banchory for the remainder of the war. It was a cultural shock for us. We had never seen cows in a field. We lived on a farm for six years. We were so happy then. We did not want to come home. We cried all the way back to Dundee.