WWII stories: Evacuee’s family torn apart by war bomb
Imagine being separated from family as a young child – only for the life you left behind to be lost forever.
The devastation of an air strike on Joan’s family home has never diminished for the 95-year-old.
At the age of just nine, Joan was evacuated from London to Surrey along with her seven-year-old brother, with the aim of keeping them safe during the Second World War.
The siblings had already suffered tragedy when their older sister died from a brain tumour in 1939 – but there was more adversity ahead.
"My mother took us to the train station with a case each and a gas mask,” remembers Joan, who lives in Tooting.
"We were told we had to keep the gas mask with us at all times, because of the war.
"We got to Chertsey and sat on the green outside the station waiting for a family to come for us.
"The billeting officer had asked for us to be kept together because we’d just lost our sister. But no one came for us – I don’t think anyone was able to take two children."
Eventually Joan and her younger brother Rex were picked up – but weren’t able to stay together, although they attended the same school.
"I had five different billets (homes) over my time as an evacuee but luckily Rex stayed with the same middle-aged couple, who were lovely," explains Joan.
Tragic blow
Just months after being evacuated, the children were faced with another tragic blow.
An air attack had struck their family’s block of flats in Chelsea.
"The bomb went through the building and killed my father and paralysed my mother,” says Joan. “Her spine was fractured in three places. My uncle dug through the rubble for hours to find my mother in the bombing."
The next few years were tough, as the children were unable to visit their mother as she was moved from one hospital to the next.
Terrible injuries
"We never knew where she was, and she never knew where we were,” remembers Joan.
"Eventually the Red Cross charity came and took us to see her, and they told us ‘Whatever you do, don’t cry’. We did see our mother and she was lying on her stomach because of her injuries.
"As we got closer to the end of the war, parents would take their children back to London, but I had absolutely nowhere to go.”
As a teenager, Joan went on to care for her mother before later training as a nurse, getting married and working for John Lewis and Lambeth Council.
Although Joan was happily married for more than 56 years and enjoyed time travelling as far afield as Romania and Russia, her terrible memories of wartime have never left her.
"It was a lot for a nine-year-old to take on," admits Joan.