Introduction
My name is Kenneth Harris and my brother is Dennis, we lived
in a place called Edmonton, a suburb of London and we came to
Brandon in late August 1939 for a holiday and stayed with a Mr
and Mrs Swinger who lived in George Street which was just off
of the Market Square. The Swinger's were the
mother and father of a friend of my mother. Their
house was one of a terrace of flint houses at the top end of
the street just before it turned left into the Thetford
Road. A few houses away was a chapel or mission
hall that had an upstairs gallery. At the
beginning of the street was a factory that had something to do
with rabbits and I remember it had a terrible smell.
Outbreak of war
During our holiday the war broke out, so it was suggested that
my brother and I should stay in Brandon for our safety, so I
suppose we were the first evacuees in Brandon. It
was very sad, especially when we had to say goodbye to our
parents on Brandon station not knowing when we would see them
again. A song that always reminds me of that
parting was called "We'll Meet Again", sung by Vera
Lynn, it always brings a few tears to my eyes.
Brandon school
We were enrolled in the
Council School on the Market Square and my brother and I
thought Brandon's school was very nice and seem to remember
the children accepted us very well and wanted to know all
about London. The school was especially nice as it was
so close to George Street where we was staying at the
time. Our school back home in Edmonton, London, was
a long walk from home especially on cold winter mornings. |
Ken Harris, aged 15.
|
I was seven years old and my brother
was eleven. I was put in a class of eleven year olds and my
brother was put in the top class of fourteen year olds, it seemed our
standard of education coming from London was higher than that in
Suffolk but never the less we
soon made friends and they soon showed us the best places to go to
play and things to do. While we were there one of the things
they taught us was how to collect birds eggs and after a time we had
quite a collection. The collection became a problem
as Mr Swinger who we lived with worked as a forester and had told us
it was against the law to collect birds eggs, so we had to hide them
from him; we hid them in the roof of the outside smelly toilet in the
back garden. Some time later he found them and punished us
by smashing them all.
Memories
My brother and I will always
remember Mr Swinger coming home from work and sitting down to his
evening meal; he always started with a large Yorkshire pudding before
tucking into the main course.
Another thing I remember was the
weekly bus service to Bury St Edmunds; occasionally we would go there
to see relatives of the Swinger's. I also remember going
to the Avenue Cinema and sharing the lovers double seats with my
brother, something we had never seen before.
I also remember my brother used to
spend a lot of his school time looking after the school's farm animals
of chickens and pigs.
Schoolboy crush
I remember there were twin girls in my class who were very pretty and
I had a crush on one of them, but I cant remember her name.
I'm afraid she didn't feel the same about me as I did about her, I
suppose it was the age difference as she was probably three years
older than me.
Parents visit
While we were evacuated to Brandon my mother and father used to take
it in turns to come and see us every few weeks and stay for the
weekend. My father on a Saturday night would go to one of
the many local pubs and enjoy himself chatting to the locals.
My mother when she came had a great time, she would go dancing
on Saturday night to Thetford or one of the American bases and as you
can imagine young ladies were in short supply with all those
servicemen in the area. One weekend when my mother came to
see us and during the night there was an air raid and quite a few
bombs were dropped. The next morning she told us you are
not staying here, it’s safer in London; we haven't had any air raids
there yet. So after eleven months of being evacuated we
returned to London having acquired a Suffolk accent.
Back home to London
I spent many a happy time on the
High Street bridge and swimming in the river, but we were only in
Brandon for eleven months before returning home to London for the rest
of the war. Soon after arriving home the London Blitz started
and we had to get used to going down the air raid shelters of a night
time, but after a time this became a chore and we plucked up some
courage and stayed in the house where it was more comfortable.
The air raids were very noisy, because not only did we have to put up
with the bombs exploding, but we also had to put up with the Anti
Aircraft guns going off in a field at the back of our house where
there was an army camp. The noise made all the windows and doors
shake, but eventually we got used to it and slept through it all.
I remember after we got home to
London that things had only just started to get organised and my
father was asked to join the Home Guard. At first they did
not have any uniform or rifles, but had to make do with broom sticks
to be able to learn how to drill and march. When they did
get their uniforms and rifles, which they brought home, I did a
naughty thing and took my father's rifle out into the street one day
when we played cowboys and Indians!
Around twenty five years ago I
returned to Brandon with my wife, Joyce, and children and although the area
around the town centre hadn't changed much, I was surprised at how
much the town had grown with all the new houses that had been built.
Ken Harris and Joyce, at the
celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary, 2004.
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Ken with his brother Dennis, at
Den's home in Australia, 1998.
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Thank you Brandon for having my brother and I for eleven months, it's
something he and I will never forget.
- Ken Harris, 2007 |
