A LADY FROM HULL has written seeking information about one of Bourne’s great charitable acts, the housing of 900 evacuees to escape the bombing of their home town during the Second World War of 1939-45. She was only five years old at the time but was swept up by these momentous events and found herself put on a train and sent to a faraway town to live among strangers.

Now she has been back to find out more about what happened but is distinctly resentful that she was robbed of her rightful place at home with her parents. “My memory of those early years are blank”, she writes, “and as I am now a great grandmother, my family want to know more about my early childhood.”

One Sunday in October, she and her husband came to Bourne to seek some answers but she did not know where to begin because memory plays tricks when trying to recall events from so long ago. She found some familiar places and took photographs but she also needed answers to the questions that had been buzzing around in her head for over half a century about where and when and, most importantly, why. “We went for lunch at the tea rooms next to the clock shop in Abbey Road”, she wrote. “I spoke to a man who said I should write to the town council and so I did. I had to start somewhere.”

The council has passed the letter on to me to answer and I have talked to the lady at length and she has agreed to have her story told in the hope that it may produce more information and, more importantly, to let people know the way it was.

Brenda Baker was five years old in 1939 and a pupil at Beverley Road Primary School in Stepney Lane, Hull. When war threatened, the government ordered the evacuation of children from vulnerable areas throughout the country to escape the expected bombing attacks by enemy aircraft. Her home town was an important port on the east coast and so the pupils, escorted by selected teachers, were taken by bus to the railway station where they were herded aboard a train bound for the comparative safety of South Lincolnshire. On arrival in Bourne station, they were met by members of the WVS, the Women’s Voluntary Service (now the WRVS), which had established a network of 200 volunteers to find homes for the newcomers in the area.

They were marched in crocodile to the Corn Exchange to be checked in and then the process of finding families began. The children were apprehensive and even frightened, with identification labels around their necks and each carrying a small suitcase containing a few belongings, many quite distraught, tearful and lonely, but all were comforted until they found a family that would take them in.

Brenda was not so lucky because no one had room for her and so she and several others were sent to dormitory accommodation that had been opened at Bourne House, a large and imposing Regency property in West Street formerly owned by a solicitor and now converted into flats. Here they were fed and given a place to sleep and soon they were attending lessons at the Abbey Primary School but the upheaval of moving in such dramatic circumstances was difficult for such young children and many had problems settling in.

The search to find a home for each boy and girl continued and eventually Brenda was taken in by a family across the road in West Street but there were to be two more moves before she was finally given a permanent home at Northorpe, two miles south of Bourne, where she lived with a kindly lady for the rest of her stay. “I remained there until returning to Hull many years later and I was very happy”, she said, “and I also attended the village school at Thurlby which I liked very much. I do have one abiding memory during my time at Northorpe and that is of my friend whose name was Eileen Wade who lived at one of the farms. We both developed scarlet fever and spent some time together in the isolation hospital at Bourne.”

Despite the trauma of evacuation, it proved to be fortuitous for Brenda and many of her friends because she later learned that Hull had indeed been badly bombed and large areas flattened including the family home in Walter’s Terrace off Sculcoates Lane. She returned home when the war ended in 1945 and began to pick up the threads of her former life. This meant starting a new school and making new friends but slowly, she once again became secure and fulfilled.

Brenda left school when she was fifteen and started work in a factory and in 1955, she married electrician John Chamberlin. They are both now 78 and live happily in retirement in North Ferriby, Hull. They also have three daughters, six grand-children and one great-grandchild and all have been wanting to know about her early life.

“I have tried to remember those wartime years and I thought a trip to Bourne would bring the memories flooding back”, she said. “But there are still so many vague periods from that time in my life and I do so want to tell my family more about being an evacuee.”

The evacuation operation was regarded as a major success. Most of the children remained until the war ended but their time in Bourne had made a lasting impression. Some stayed on while others came back regularly to visit the friends they had made, and so the strong bond that was established with Hull during those perilous times remains to this day.

PHOTO ALBUM
Brenda Baker in 1939 (inset) and after returning to Hull. Her first accommodation in Bourne was at Bourne House (top) and later she attended the village school at Thurlby (middle). During this period, she contracted scarlet fever and spent some time in the isolation hospital at Bourne (bottom).