Class Four's visit from

1
Class Four's visit from Mrs Shannon.
2
Questions we asked Mrs Shannon...

• Did you have any brothers or sisters? She had 1
  brother and 1 sister.
• What were they called? Roy and Alice but she
  preferred to be called Toni.
• Did you all stay together? Roy worked in the RAF
  and Toni worked in the WAF (Womens Airforce)
  They didnt meet up again until the war had
  finished.
• What happened to you all after the war? Mrs
  Shannon got married and moved up to Lancashire in
  the 1960s.
• How did you keep in contact with your mum and dad
  while you were away? She wrote letters, every
  couple of weeks because it was too expensive to
  use a phone. Plus, not everyone had a phone
  anyway!
• Did you earn money during the war? She worked as
  a land girl but any money she got she kept for
  her family.
• Did your dad fight in the war? No he worked as a
  postman delivering telegrams and letters.
• What did your mum do? She worked in her sisters
  grocers shop so all the family got vegetables
  when they came in. They also were able to have
  bananas when they arrived.

3
More questions!

• Did you ever go into a bomb shelter? Every night
  we slept in a bomb shelter, just in case we were
  bombed.
• How far away from your house was the bomb
  shelter? About 12m away, at the end of the yard.
• Was your house bombed? Yes, next door was bombed
  and it blew out all our windows. We had to wait
  ages for new glass so they were boarded up for a
  long time which meant we had no light.
• How old were you when the war started? Around 14.
• Did you ever use your gas mask? No, but we had to
  carry it with us everywhere.
• Where did you move to from London? Devizes still
  in the south but away from cities.
• How long did you leave London for? She was
  evacuated for about 6 months but then worked as
  a Land girl. She came home around 1955.
• Did your parents do something for the war? No,
  they jobs, but sometimes dad helped the ARP.
• Did you ever see any Germans? She knew a lady who
  was German, who moved to England before the war.
  The lady did not want to go back to Germany
  because she didnt want her children to get hurt.
• Did you and your siblings get split up? Yes. They
  tried to run away before they were evacuated but
  a policeman found them a few hours after theyd
  run away and sent them back home.
• How did you travel? On the train. How long was
  the journey? A couple of hours.
• How long were you evacuated for? 5/6 months
• Did you keep in touch with anyone? Mum and Dad.

4
Yum, Yum?

• What food did you have for a treat? On a Sunday
  we had a chop and vegetables. There was no KFC,
  McDonalds or take aways. We did have fish and
  chips but only when the ships could go out and
  fish.
• What did you actually eat? Lots of bread and
  dripping, powdered egg, vegetables and we drank
  water or camp coffee. Her mum had to make
  everything we ate, we didnt have ready made
  meals. A pie was treat!
• Did you have a ration booklet? Everyone had to
  have a ration book, but children didnt look
  after their own, adults did.
• Have you eaten powdered egg and milk? Yes.
• What was your favourite meal during the war? A
  Sunday dinner.
• Did you go out for meals? Not really there wasnt
  many restaurants like now.
• Did you ever make tea? She had to put the dinner
  on for mum getting home from work.
• What was there to drink? They used to ask for a
  bottle of Tizer as a treat on a Sunday, but
  normally they drank water or camp coffee.
• What food was rationed? Meat, Bacon and Ham,
  sweets, milk, butter, fats, lard, dripping and
  sugar.
• Did you have chocolate? Very rarely as it was
  also rationed.

5
Even more questions...

• What chores did you do? She helped her mum cook
  and clean.
• Were the people who looked after you nice? Yes
  they were. They had a nice farm and there was
  always enough to eat.
• Did you ever live on a farm? Yes.
• Were other people living with you? When she was a
  land girl there were lots of other girls.
• Was anyone ever ill? What remedies did you have?
  Not many people were ill but if they did get
  poorly, they used herb mixtures instead of
  tablets and things.
• Did you or other people have pets? What happened
  to peoples pets who were evacuated? Not many
  people had pets as they needed food and people
  were rationed on their own food nevermind their
  pets! Rich people could afford pets, or people
  who traded on the black market.
• Did you have friends? She made friend with the
  other girls.
• Did you go to school? Only in the mornings when
  she was evacuated, the local children went in the
  afternoons.
• Did you play any games? Yes, she played tin can
  tig, which was a bit like hacky 1,2,3. they also
  listened to the wireless, played marbles and
  dominoes.
• What is the best invention of your time and why?
  Aeroplanes like jumbos, so lots of people could
  go abroad on holiday easily.
• What was it like to move away from your family?
  Horribly frightening.
• Did you sleep in your own room and was the bed
  comfy? Most of the time they slept in the bomb
  shelter so it was a bit cramped and scary!

6
Our thoughts on the day

• We thought it was interesting as we found out
  about food being rationed and what they did to
  entertain themselves.
• We are lucky that we dont have to be evacuated
  as it sounded terrifying. Were glad we have
  take-aways and lots of restaurants where we are
  able to choose what wed like to eat.
• We enjoyed Mrs Shannons visit as now we know a
  lot more about WWII.

It was really good because she gave us lots of
information Patrick B
We learnt something new, it was awesome Elli
Ross
Fun and interesting to listen to Katie and
Callum.
She was full of facts about WWII, it was
interesting - Tom
Interesting and exciting Jessica Edward
We learnt about life 70 years ago it was
amazing Luke Gabriel