Sam Watson

Recollections of five years of evacuation in Devon.

Evacuation

Sam Watson and his twin sister Audrey were born in Thornton Heath near Croydon in April 1935. On the 13th of June 1940, the twins were evacuated with their school from Croydon to Bideford, Devon. Billeted with Mr and Mrs Hill, Sam and Audrey remained in Bideford until 1945. Their foster parents ‘were strict with us in all that we did, but neither of us recall any harshness or ill-treatment during our five years with them. We were well dressed, well fed and were both very happy’.

Away from the family

As a result of the war and evacuation, Sam and Audrey’s family was separated for most of the war. The twins’ mother remained in Croydon for the duration of the war. Their older sister, Joan, was evacuated to the same area but neither Sam nor Audrey had much contact with her. Sam and Audrey’s father was prior to the war part of the Royal Naval Reserve. When war drew closer in 1938, he was recalled for service. The twins’ father visited them twice in Bideford before he died of drowning in September 1943. Sam and Audrey were not told about their father’s death until the following year and it was not until 1945 that they were able to visit his grave.   

The presence of war

Although evacuation to Bideford removed the twins from the heavy aerial bombardments of London, the war was still present around them. Mr Hill was a member of the ARP and was responsible for the local ARP equipment. Every Sunday morning Sam and Audrey would accompany Mr Hill to the ARP store. To Sam the store was ‘ Aladdins cave, filled with everything imaginable, from gas capes to gas respirators for babies...There were greatcoats, stirrup pumps, buckets, tins of gas ointment, uniforms for members of the ARP, steel helmets, the list was endless, picks, shovels, ladders, vehicles’.

Also the American presence in Bideford is strong in Sam’s memory. ‘We spent much of our waking hours with the Americans, they were always very generous with sweets and chewing gum, we would climb over the tanks and sit in the seats look through the periscopes from the driver's position I remember having a prism from one of these periscopes, where it came from, I do not recall’.

Sam and Audrey returned to Croydon at the end of the war.