When we got evacuated there'd been a lot of talk in the school, and we didn't know anything about it, until my mum turned round and said 'You're going on a long holiday. There'll be a war, but you shan't be away too long. You're going to the country, and you'll soon be home, the war won't last long.'

So we got everything ready, and we all met at the school, and they put red arm bands around us, and little brown labels, and we carried our gas masks and what little possessions we had. We all got on the train and we got off at Wrexham, and there were cars waiting. WVS people took us to the Majestic Cinema and we thought 'Oh! We're going to see a film!' but apparently it wasn't. We were all issued with a bag, a tin of corned beef, chocolate and a few more goodies were put into the bag. Then we were taken from there back into the cars, and we were taken to our destinations.

My destination was Gwersyllt. My mum had stressed that the eldest had to go with the youngest, and we weren't to be separated. We had to be in twos. So of course we got out of the car in the middle of the avenue. All these people around were saying 'Well I've asked for a little girl' or 'I've asked for a little boy'.. Anyway, this lady came and said 'Well my mum has put in for two little girls but she's not in at the moment'. She said, 'She'll be in later on tonight, but we will take them in when she comes', so that was my sister, Sheila, and I. We were taken in to the house, and she brought the neighbours children in to introduce us, and we couldn't understand a word they were saying!

We woke up the next morning, and we could hear all these strange noises. There were chickens in the garden. We'd never seen anything like that before. And then Mrs Ellison (I called her Aunty Maggie) took us round to introduce us to different people. She was a widow from the First World War. Her husband and her son had been killed and she was left with four children; three daughters and a son.

Some of the children were very.. cruel. Well, I don't say 'cruel'- you know how children are.. they'd call us evacuees and all this thing, you know. And it was strange though, because every so often there used to be a social worker- I don't know what they called them then- and she used to come and ask us to go for a walk. And we'd go out for a walk, and she'd ask us, quietly, 'Are you being treated alright? Are you happy?' And everything.. which we were. She was a wonderful old lady. Strict, but lovely.

I was playing out in the street with my friends and this big posh car pulled up. It was very unusual in those days to see a big posh car. And the nun and the priest (and I think, but I'm not quite sure- I think there was a policeman) got out, and Aunty Maggie called me and my sister and we went in. They said 'We've got bad news. Your parents have been killed, and your eldest brother and sister have been killed.' And do you know what? I don't honestly remember our reactions. It just went blank. But, funnily enough, we'd guessed- or I'd guessed- earlier on, because at Christmas time Aunty Maggie took us across the road to a party and I thought 'Aren't these people wonderful? They're making such a fuss of us', and I thought 'There's something strange here'.

It had happened apparently before Christmas but they'd kept it til after Christmas so that it wouldn't spoil our Christmas. Once my eldest brother and sister had turned 14 (that was the age to leave school or go to college), my mum and dad had come to take Rita and Peter home. That left four of us. And apparently, when the bomb dropped, they were in the house and they got killed. If they'd stayed in Wrexham, that wouldn't have happened- but still...

My mum must have been pregnant when we got evacuated, because she had a baby in April 1940 and at the time (of the bombing), the baby had pneumonia, so she was taken to hospital. And while she was in hospital, that's when the landmine dropped at the top of the street. We lived in a four storey house. They had the coal cellars, where you lifted the grid and put the coal down, and I had two little brothers, one was two and the other was three.

And when the land mine did drop, my Uncle Tom had just gathered the two little boys together. When they came round the next day, the wardens could hear this bang bang, and they lifted up this coal grid, and they got them all out, covered in coal dust and debris and everything, and they were saved. BUT what we didn't know was, they were put in a home. My baby sister- she got better- and she was put in a home, in a convent. We didn't know anything about this- where they were or.. (but) we knew they were alive.

I was 9 years of age when I got evacuated, my sister was 11, and then there was my older brother and sister, the ones who got killed. There were 9 children including the baby, and there's 7 of us left now. Very happy and very close.