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WW2 StoriesLast updated: 08 February 2006

Use the links below to read aselection of wartime storiesrecollected and written bypeople from the Aberystwytharea.

Iori's El AlemainIorwerth Lewis saw his first action in El Alamein inOctober 1942...

Mulberry HarboursJoan Jones from Aber helped build the MulberryHarbours for the D-Day landings...

Student DaysCaryl Davies was a student during the war andrecalls the great Alexandra Hall food scandal. ....

Exchanging EggsPatricia Canon Fitzpatrick discovered the buyingpower of fresh chickens' eggs....

A London LassMyrtle Parker left London for the safety of the MidWales countryside...

A Childhood PrankSarah Hughes remembers a prank she and hersister played on an army conovy...

VJ Street PartyAberystwyth organised a special street party to markVJ Day sixty years on...

WW2 Mini SiteRead more wartime memories written by peoplefrom across Mid Wales...

your comments

Pauline Mayze - LondonMe and my cousin Doreen was evacuated to Aberystwyth westayed at a big house with a magistrate and his wife.Wed Oct 28 12:24:10 2009

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14 May 2012Accessibility helpText only

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Arthur Woods I was evacuated to Devils Bridge From Loraine St SchoolLiverpool...became Welsh & in a few weeks will visitpontrhydygroes again. Mon Jun 30 10:05:29 2008

Yvonne from SwanseaCan anyone tell me which armed forces were in theAberystwyth area in the Spring/Summer of 1940?Mon Jan 21 10:48:45 2008

Ronald Jones LiverpoolI was evacuated to Aberystwyth aged about 11, I am now76. I think I was staying in the Carleon hotel at first, andwas then moved somewhere else. I loved Aberystwyth, Iremember we used to go on the funicular. I also loved thepeople they were so kind. Is the Carleon hotel still there?Wed Jun 6 09:27:00 2007

Norman Carter from CaliforniaI was posted to Aberystwyth as a Flight Cadet.We lived inthe last Hotel north. While there I remember doing threemile cross country runs, barefoot in the beautifulcountryside. And of course lots of marching and drills on thesea front. I met my first real girlfriend Sheelah PatriciaLewis from Haverfordwest. She was a biology student at theUniversity and we had great memorable times together.While there I played a part in a play called "Ghost Train"with the local theater group. More fun. I went off to becomea Flying boat Pilot/navigator and somehow we lost touch. Ioften recall 20the great times that the townspeople let usshare. Thu Sep 21 09:06:00 2006

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Action in El AlameinLast updated: 24 November 2005

Iori Lewis joined thePembrokeshire andCardiganshire yeomanry inJune 1939. After training onthe south coast of England hesaw his first action in ElAlamein in October 1942.

By Victor Iorwerth Lewis from Cardigan:

"My name is Iori Lewis, I live in Aberystwyth and I joined thelocal regiment which was the Pembrokeshire CardiganshireYeomanry in June 1939 and was called up on the first ofSeptember.

We stayed in Cardigan as a battery. There was one battery inCardigan and one in Aberystwyth. The Cardigan battery tookin people in Newport Pembrokeshire, Newcastle Emlyn,Llanybydder, Llandysyl. The Aberystwyth battery took inpeople from the Machynlleth area and Aberystwyth itself,Tregaron, Aberaeron.

We stayed in Cardigan from the 1st September until 28thDecember when we moved from Cardigan and joined theAberystwyth battery and we finished up in Llandudno. At thetime I thought we were in France but we weren't we were inLlandudno, where we stayed for about 4 months, training allthe time.

Then we went to the Midlands to guard the factories andthen on to Sussex where we did coastal battery workexpecting the invasion of course which didn't come. Westayed there until June 1941. Then further training inAldershot. Then we moved to Dorset to a place calledPidlington and from there we went abroad in June 1942sailing from Liverpool.

We didn't know where we were going as usual the armywouldn't tell you. We finished up in Durban. We had awonderful 25 days there, well looked after by the peoplethere. We were well fed and then we finished up in Egypt inPort Tufiq. We had our guns back and then we were trainingin the desert and our very first action was in El Alamein onthe 23rd October 1942."

Iori faces action at El Alamein...

your comments

Ceredig Hughes LeicesterMy mother's brother was called Johnny Davies and duringthe war he served with the Royal Marines. After the war hetravelled around the world as a merchant seaman (a veryinteresting character). He was born at treal mawr a farmnear Llanon. Does any one remember him?


World War TwoA Childhood PrankA London LassATA in ActionAction in El AlameinAir Raid FearBattle of Arakan, BurmaDavid's DunkirkExchanging EggsFrom Anfield to Capel BangorFrom Kent to CardiganFrom Scapa Flow to SingaporeLand ArmyLlandod's Loudspeaker VanLlwyndafydd DaysMulberry HarboursNo Glory in WarNursing in the EastParaffin CakesPassage From IndiaRations and the BlackoutSpoils of WarStars in BattledressStudent DaysThe Battle of KohimaThe Fire WardenThe ParatrooperThe Russian ConvoysTraining in AberystwythWartime Memories from HayWartime Romance


Tue Jan 22 17:07:13 2008

B. Davies, AberystwythIt would be nice if you could include some stories aboutyour old comrade Jack Jones, MBEMon Jan 21 08:40:18 2008

LindseyDavid, If you contact the local RAF in Aberystwyth they willget you in contact with Iori.Wed Oct 11 14:59:50 2006

david kettlety pontyberem sa 15 5adMy father Len Kettlety also served with the P&C Yeomanrydespite being a Wiltshireman. He was with 406 battery andwas at Llandysul and Piddlehinton. His friends were JackHughes and Jack Jones who was killed with Major Evans inthe desert in 1942/3. I would very much like to contact IoriLewis or any other members of the P&C Yeomanry with aview to swopping photos etc. Thu May 4 09:35:17 2006



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Action in El AlameinLast updated: 24 November 2005

After two years of intensivetraining Iori Lewis a memberof the Pembrokeshire andCardiganshire yeomanry sawhis first action in El Alamein inOctober 1942.


"We were of course amateurs, we were not regular soldiers.In El Alemain we were fired at for the first night constantly.We were there for six days in action. We didn't take ourboots off, clothes off or wash, didn't have time to eat, a littlewater.

Eventually the battle moved on and we went through withthem on to Tripoli, fighting all the way, suffering casualitiesand we finished up in Tunis when the war finished out there,the Germans and Italians surrendered.

We were moved back to Hommes near Tripoli where we didfurther training. We were there for two months and then wewent on to the invasion of Solano, landing on the beaches atSolano.

We went over in LCTs, Landing Craft Tanks for guns. It sohappens I was in charge of four guns and my instruction wasto look for the blue flag which was when we were to go intoaction. When we were quite near, never having been on alanding craft tank before, we stopped about a quarter of amile from the beach, I thought this is my opportunity to goup on deck to find out where this blue flag is.

There was a lot of firing, mortar shells on the beach itselfand I had a good look round and spotted the blue flag.Meanwhile the captain had brought both the engines up toget the boat up the beach to get the guns off and I was ontop deck. I dashed down four flights of stairs. I managed bya hop skip and a jump to catch the last gun going out bywrapping my arms round the barrel and my legs round thebarrel and my whole body being dragged through the water.

I often wonder if I hadn't got off that boat what the chargewould have been when I got back to Tripoli because no waycould I have got off the boat besides being on that gun. Thecharge could have been failure to abandon ship possibly andit would have been a court martial offence.

Anyway I got off the gun I caught up with them and we wentinto action immediately in a vineyard. We had to clear thevine from the field of fire to get the guns in action and allaround us were beautiful black grapes. We kept on firing allnight meanwhile eating the grapes. Those grapes causedmore casualties than the Germans did not having seengrapes for donkey's years. So the ground around was wellfertilised!




We moved on then through Naples, then the weather startedto break and the conditions were terrible. We were ankledeep in mud half the time, we had difficulty in moving theguns about and this was from September. In November theweather really broke and we moved along until we came toMount Collino which is before Cassino."

Iori's war draws to a close...


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Action in El AlameinLast updated: 08 February 2006

After surviving the battle at ElAlamein Iori Lewis's batallionof the Pembrokeshire andCardiganshire yeomanry wereheading for Denmark whenpeace was declared. Hereflects on the end of the war.


"On January 21st we were drawn back taken out of action tocome back to this country for the second front. We pulledout near Naples, cleaned the guns and cleaned the vehiclesup ready to hand them back. Then two days after we'dfinished cleaning the guns we were pushed back into action.The Germans were pushing so we were back in action againwhich was most distressing and disappointing because weexpected to go home.

Anyway we survived eventually getting back to this country inApril 1944. Again retraining they didn't need us until July buteven so we were in action against Carne in France. Then wemoved along to Follais and into Holland. Conditions were verybad weather wise. We did have a break Christmas 1944where we couldn't move forward because of ice and snowand the lack of supplies. We were in a place calledZimmerman not far from the German border.

It was a small town and the only time I made friends abroadin the army. I met a young family, Jack was a schoolmasterthe other son was young in school. We were there for fifteendays. We had a wonderful time, they looked after us as muchas they could.

We moved on across the Rhine, I went forward as a mineinstructor which I did a course on. I was now sent forwardwith a team of men to camouflage the ammunition andprepare the site for the guns to come in so as not to let theGermans know we were moving there. We kept a low profile.We went through and we finished up in a place calledRhinefeld.

We were heading for Denmark at the time when the warfinished and it was a great shock to the system. When theysaid that the war was over it felt as if you'd been maderedundant, having been in that situation for four years. I wasin the army for six years.

Then they decided to disband the regiment which they didwith a lot of others and they asked me to stay on for sixmonths, I'd already done six and a half years. They askedme to stay on, I was a warrant officer, so I stayed on for sixmonths and I did exactly seven years.

Coming out the army I had a job. I'd worked for Shell BPbefore the war so I had a job to go back to. So when I cameout it was September I went back to work in October.Meanwhile I'd got married on April the 3rd 1946 to a




wonderful wife.

But I found it very difficult to settle down to civilian life.Unlike other people some of my friends went drinking andsome of them actually killed themselves drinking after thewar. I had the blessing of a good wife who did look after me.

In Cardigan where I went back to live you might see a carevery half hour and there was one stage where I was afraidto cross the street in Cardigan because of the noise. I retiredin 1984. I was 19 when I joined up. It taught me a lot. Onething it taught me was to recognize the good the bad andthe ugly. You met so many different people moving aroundbut I picked my old sweetheart from back home who I'dknown way before the war."

Click through some of Iori's war photosBack to Iori's story...Read more WW2 stories by Aberystwyth people...


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Iori's WarLast updated: 24 November 2005

Cardigan born Iori Lewis joined the Cardiganshire andPembrokeshire Yeomanry in 1939. He spent the next six yearstravelling throughout Europe and saw action at El Alamein,Sulano Beach and was heading for Denmark when the conflictended. Here are a selection of his wartime photos:

The Cardigan Battery of the Pembrokeshire and

Cardiganshire Yeomanry

1 2 3 4 5 6

Iori joined the Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire Yeomanryin June 1939.





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Home Guard exercises on Ardwyn School Field c. 1943

1 2 3 4 5 6

Iori Lewis: "This was the occasion when a flame throwergot out of control. Many senior Ardwyn pupils were members

of the Home Guard under the command of school masterMajor W. G. Rowlands."





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Dick Meredith

1 2 3 4 5 6

A photograph of one of Iori's compatriots in thePembrokeshire and Cardiganshire Yeomanry, Dick Meredith.





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Sevenum, Holland, 1944

1 2 3 4 5 6

A photograph of Iori and his gun crew at Sevenum, Holland,1944. Iori is pictured in the top left of the photograph.





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55 Howitzer Gun

1 2 3 4 5 6

A .55 Howitzer Gun. Iori was involved in the landings atSolano beach where he had to ensure that the guns were

safely deployed onto the beach.





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Camouflaged shells in Holland

1 2 3 4 5 6

Iori received training as a mine instructor during the war.During service in Holland he was responsible for

camouflaging the ammunition and preparing the site for theguns to come in so as not to let the Germans know they

were moving in.

Read more about Iori's WarMore WW2 stories





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Mulberry HarboursLast updated: 24 November 2005

Joan Jones spent an idyllicchildhood playing on thebeaches around Poole inDorset. She was 13 in 1939and left school the followingyear to work for the wareffort.

By Joan Jones resident of Llanafan, Ceredigion:

"My name is Joan, I was born near Poole, Dorset in 1926; Iwas the second child in a family of seven children. I had ahappy childhood as the family lived near the Chines Beachesand Parks. Before the Second World War my father was aBoatman on the big lake, so we, the children had boat ridesand even steamer rides to Swanage and Weymouth duringthe Summer Season.

Even though it was a one and half mile walk to church forSunday school, I was a regular attendant, calling at myaunt's house on the way home, it was here in September1939 about 11am, that my sister and I heard the voice ofNeville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister announcing on theradio, that war had been declared on Germany. We wereterrified and ran all the way home.

I left school in March 1940, just fourteen years old, and wentinto a dressmaking and alterations shop. Little did I knowthat the excellent training would come in so useful during thelong years of clothing coupons, when the ability to makesomething from nothing would be such an asset.

When this job finished in 1941, I was aged fifteen years andworked for a Chemist's wife helping in the shop and doingvarious chores. Unfortunately on my sixteenth birthday thisjob came to an end, as my wages should have been raisedfrom ten shillings to twelve shillings per week. The Chemistcould not afford the extra pay. After that blow, my lifechanged drastically."

Joan takes part in a significant war operation...





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Mulberry HarboursLast updated: 24 November 2005

After an idyllic childhood spentin Dorset Joan Jones joined ateam involved in an importantoperation, building theMulberry Harbour that wasused in the D Day landings of1944.

Joan Jones from Llanafan, Ceredigion:

"When I arrived home unemployed, my father Fred Quincyannounced that Marley Tile Company in Poole, where he wasnow employed as a Storeman, was looking for womenemployees. However, because of my youth it was doubtful ifI would be taken on, even though my father would be able to"keep an eye" on me.

However, I was successful and every morning, rain or shine,I was at work at 7:30am. I made the four mile journeywearing bib and brace overalls made by myself from blackoutcurtains and a scarf on my head made from a large yellowduster dyed with blue dye making it a brilliant green.

The Marley Tile factory was a long building with a corrugatedroof and asbestos walls. No one at the factory knew whatthey were making until the secret was revealed on D-Day.

The concrete was dredged from a deep lake. The men workedat the top end of the factory mixing concrete, which waspoured into huge moulds approximately one foot high and atleast twelve foot long. At the other end of the factory abouttwenty five women stood all day on wet concrete floors, incheap wooden sole shoes, making the wire reinforcementswhich went into the long wooden moulds.

We stood at metal stands fixing thin wire onto stronger wirecrossways, for the whole length of the mould using a Pinchertype tool, called a Nipper. The take home pay for a womanwas £2.30 per week, not much for standing from 8:00amuntil 5:30pm with thirty minutes lunch, plus two fifteenminute tea breaks.

Occasionally I was asked to help Grace Polard the welder.Grace had her own room with a large table where she weldedwire, there was little protection in those days, just gogglesand asbestos gloves, my job was to hold the wire still.

After the men in the factory poured the concrete into themoulds, it was allowed to go off (set) and then taken awayon large lorries to a secret location, now known to beSouthampton.

This hard work went on until 1944 when the MulberryHarbour was put together. In spite of the heavy work andlong hours I remember singing to music on the radio all daylong and listening to Worker's Playtime.

Sometimes in the afternoon around 4:00 pm, with my




workmates, we would rush out to cheer huge planes leavingthe RAF at Tarant Rushdown near Blandford and BradburyRings. The planes were flying low as they went off to bombHamburg and other German cities.

After 1944 the factory went back to making Marley Tiles, Idid stay on for about three months but found lifting thecrates of tiles in and out of the colour dip very difficult andon getting a crushed toe I decided to get the necessarydoctor's certificate and leave. At just eighteen years andthree months, I was out of work again."

Joan starts work with the NAAFI...

your comments

Russell Moxham in LondonI was born in Poole and grew up in and around Blandford,my grandfather having been the last in a long line of miners(apparently English) in South Wales. Every effort made todocument stories like these is worthwhile indeed.Tue Mar 10 15:05:28 2009

Jill HarveyI live in Wimborne, I work for a special school in Winton, Weare organising our Summer Fayre with the theme VE Day,on serching the web for local links to WW2 organisations toperhaps attend our Fayre, I came across this story.Wonderful stories such as these should be documented. Atthe weekends I cycle over Tarrant Rushton old airfield,which has returned to fields for crops. I often wonder abouthow life was there in the war.Tue Jun 28 11:32:23 2005



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Mulberry HarboursLast updated: 08 February 2006

After working in the MarleyTile Factory in Dorset wherethe Mulberry Harbours wereconstructed Joan worked as acook with the NAAFI inNorthern Germany where shemet her future husband.

Joan Jones from Llanafan, Ceredigion:

"I then decided I would like to try the kitchen work at a largeNAAFI at Wareham, especially as it was not far from myhome in Poole. I was at Wareham on V.E. Day, from there Iwent on a cooking course in Lulworth, then on to the largeBritish RAF and WAFS and American Air force base at Tarant-Rushden with approximately six thousand personnel, we thethree cooks worked very hard. All cooks worked very hard.

All cakes and scones had to be ready before 10:00 am forthe mobile canteen to take out to the hangers in the fields.All the cooking was done on four coal-fired ranges in themiddle of the kitchen, however, we the cooks enjoyed thecooking, the lovely pies, cakes and even the chips for theRAF.

In August 1946 aged just twenty, I volunteered to go toGermany and after all the usual inoculations finished up incharge of two large Club Kitchens in Northern Germany, onthe Baltic Sea, at Flensbury close to the Danish border. Itwas here that I met George, later to become my husband.

At nineteen and a half years of age George was in the RoyalArmored Corps and by coincidence, his had been one of thetanks off the Mulberry Harbour at Aromanches on D-Day.George's tank had been one, of only twelve, left after thefreeing of Caen. The Royal Armoured Corps was based atFlensbury and romance flourished.

I did get transferred to Schleswich Holstein, which wasanother huge base. Whilst here, I had several Germansworking for me and found they were very nice people andexcellent workers. In June 1947, George, my fiancee was tobe demobed, so I gave my notice and came back to Britain inJuly 1947.

1947 In August 1947 George came to Parkstone to bring meback to Wales. George was working at his old job with theForestry Commission, a job he had had since the age offourteen. George's father was head forester at the time.

George and I were married in October 1947 and I became ahousewife. However when our son Norman went to GrammarSchool, when twelve years old, I took a job with the Ministryof Agriculture in the experimental laboratory two miles awayat Trawscoed.

I started at the bottom in the Bacterial Department sterilizingand making up the media to test farm animal's milk, water




and feed. Years later I changed to the difficult field ofMicrobiology and by the time I retired had worked my wayup the ladder to become a Scientific Officer, a long way fromthe Mulberry Harbour days at the Marley Tile factory.

Sadly my dear husband George passed away three yearsago. I am very content to stay here in the beautiful YstwythValley with my memories."

Back to Joan's story...Read more WW2 stories by Aberystwyth people...


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Student DaysLast updated: 08 February 2006

During the Second World War,Caryl Davies fromAberystwyth was a studentin the college by the sea andshe shares two more light-hearted tales from those days.

By Caryl Davies from Aberystwyth

"My memories of the Second World War are really memoriesof being a student in Aberystwyth where comparativelyspeaking, the war hardly touched us at all.

Of course, the proportion of women to men in the studentpopulation was much greater than is normal or certainly thanwas normal at that time. Otherwise, apart from the blackoutand food problems, life was not very different from what itwould have been in peace time. Travelling was difficult ofcourse and even slower and less reliable than it is today.

What springs to my mind as typifying this period in my life isthe great Alexandra hall food scandal. I can't remember inwhich year this revolt happened or what sort of pressures westudents thought we could bring to bear. Neither do Iremember being malnourished.

Breakfast was the issue and the number of sardines issued toeach student. But behind this trivial and frivolous soundingcomplaint lay the more serious conviction that our rationswere being siphoned off so to speak by the warden toprovide party food for the American airman she invited forcoffee on a regular basis.

This reminds me of another episode which sounds equallytrivial in retrospect. There was an American airbase nearAberaeron and this represented a hazard and a threat fordelicately nurtured women students though not apparently fortheir warden.

My parents had friends living in Aberaeron and they wereeager for me to visit them for the weekend when I asked thewarden for permission to go, she said I must have writtenrequests both from my parents and their friends inAberaeron.

I must have produced these because I can rememberspending a quiet and innocent weekend in Aberaeron,unharrassed by marauding packs of American GIs."

By Caryl Davies from Aberystwyth

Read more WW2 stories by Aberystwyth people...

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John Platt from WelshpoolI know not how but (not yet 17) I had an invite from thelady warden at Alexandra Hall to a musical evening. I wasthe only civilian and certainly the youngest the rest beingAirmen from No 6 ITW at Aber. I was amazed at the amountof the refreshments on offer.Mon Dec 29 12:04:08 2008



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Exchanging EggsLast updated: 24 November 2005

Patricia Fitzpatrick fromAberystwyth was only fivewhen the war started. Shemoved with her mother to theNorth West of England whereshe discovered a new form ofcurrency - fresh eggs from thefamily's chickens.

By Patricia Canon Fitzpatrick from Aberystwyth:

"My name is Patricia Canon Fitzpatrick and I wasapproximately 5 when the war started. We lived in London fora year or two during the war but my Father was with theMinistry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food and therefore theydecided that even though he had to stay in central Londonfor his work we were to to be moved.

We moved to a place called Ansdell which is in betweenLytham St Anne's and Blackpool. We were fortunate enoughto live right opposite the Lytham St Anne's golf course.Mother, my brother and myself. Mother was never in verygood health so I think perhaps I grew up a little bit quickerthan other kids of my age. I basically had to do things asFather was in London coming home perhaps once every fourweeks for a weekend.

Our garden was dug up and we had all veg in the garden. Iwas in charge of all that. One day I went out into the front, Iwas about 7. I saw two men coming along carrying saws andI remember standing there with my hands on my hips saying,'What are you going to do with those?' 'We're taking yourrailings love' he said. I said, 'What do you mean you're takingour railings? My mother won't let you take our railings', Isaid. 'Oh yes we've got to take them for the war effort.''Well', I said 'you can take them but you bring them backafter the war'. And I remember the look on their faces!

Ansdell's junior 'Private Walker'

Besides having the garden full of veg we used to keepchickens. These chickens were on a plot of unused land nextto a little row of shops. In those days it was wonderful tohave fresh eggs. It was my job to go to the beach to collectshells which we'd bash up to put in with the potato peelings,and off I'd go on my bicycle to feed the chickens and pick upthe eggs.

And this row of shops got used to me coming along afterschool with my bucket on my bicycle. I reckon I was theyoungest you know Dad's Army, Walker I was the youngestWalker ever because at the age of 7-8 I would go pick upthe eggs put them in my bucket and the third shop was afish shop and he'd come out and talk to me and one day heasked, 'How many eggs have you got?'. And I said, 'quite afew' because we had a few chickens. 'I'd give anything for afresh egg' he said so I said ok. I gave him two eggs and forthose two eggs he gave me a piece of fish.




I cottoned on to this and two or three doors down was agrocer so I used to go down and talk to the grocer by thedoor there, 'I'll give you two eggs if you like'. So I gave himtwo eggs and I got some fruit in exchange. So I would begoing out with a bucket of potato peelings and coming backwith eggs, fish and fruit. So we did quite well."

The Americans' arrive in Ansdell...


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Generous GIsLast updated: 08 February 2006

Patricia Canon Fitzpatrickrecalls the generosity of theGIs that came to Ansdell andhow the children used to trickthem into parting with theirchewing gum.

By Patricia Canon Fitzpatrick from Aberystwyth:

"When the Americans joined the war they came to Ansdelland they were very good to the children. I think they hadbottomless pockets because whenever you saw an Americanthey had their hands in their pockets ready to give youchewing gum. They were very good in the way that they usedto give parties for the children at Easter and ChristmasParties. They were fantastic.

We had a little trick living opposite the Lytham St Anne's golfcourse. The Americans used to play on the golf course so weused to go we used to go over into the bushes and whenthey hit the balls over we would run out and pick up the ballscome back into the bushes and then we'd say we found yourball. Well I had to be a child some times! They knew verywell what we'd done but then they gave us chewing gum andI think they were very tolerant with us.

We'd go home with chewing gum and a favourite thing of mymother's was to say, 'Don't you dare eat that chewing gum,if you swallow it, it'll stick to your heart.' I know better nowof course but we believed her then.

EvacueesAfter that we had evacuees. I remember there was a hall atthe end of the golf course where they were collected. I feltso sorry for them with their gas masks and their littlebuttoned up coats and little short trousers with tags on themand they were distributed around.

We weren't allowed to have any because there was only mymother who wasn't very well and us. Some people in ourroad did have them and the majority of them were very goodbut one lady had two boys and one day when she went outshe came back in to find that her banisters had all beenchopped up. They didn't stay there for very long!

We had a good time. For children generally the war yearsweren't bad years. People pulled together, there was noquarelling with neighbours, there was no fighting no stealing.You'd think with having chickens like we had them, on apiece of spare land away from the house where we couldn'tsee them, that one or two of them would have disappeared,but they didn't do those things in the war years. Everybodyrespected everybody else.

Moving to WalesWe came to Wales because my Father came to open the




Ministry for Agriculture Food and Fisheries in the Trawsgoedmansion. He was the first one there and I played in thatmansion. There were only six people working there and hecame straight from London in 1946 to open that as a ministrydepartment. I spent a marvellous childhood there. Well Icould be a child there couldn't I whereas before everythingwas on me because mother was ill."



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A London LassLast updated: 24 November 2005

Myrtle Parker was evacuatedto her grandfather's relationsliving in Aberystwyth after herfamily's home and business inFulham, West London weredestroyed by bombing inNovember 1940.

By Dr Myrtle Parker from Talybont:

"In November 1940 my family's home and business inFulham West London was destroyed due to bombing. Twentyeight of our neighbours died so we were lucky to havesurvived. My father was serving in the Royal Navy inGibraltar.

We then evacuated to my Grandfather's relations who wereliving in Aberystwyth and I went to Ardwyn school. MyMother had been searching for any available housing to rentor buy but was unable to find somewhere accessible for meto attend school.

She did find a cottage three and a half miles from Aberangellin Merionethshire using the track of the Hendreddu Quarry'snarrow gauge railway. The cottage was previously occupiedby the workers from the Hendre ddu slate quarry, which wasno longer being mined.

It was a haven of peace and we went there for holidays andto give the relatives a break, so many people kindly sharedtheir homes in those difficult times. We walked the track orbicycled and lorries used the track, carrying ammunition forstorage, in the quarry. Unfortunately the track was damagedby the transport and the bicycling was hazardous due toloose sleepers and an adjacent river.

The cottage was the end one of a row of six. A middle onewas sometimes occupied by a widower and two young sons.The two at the other end were derelict and the one next toours was used for coal and wood storage. In the bad weathersome sheep would go into the cottage and being mountainsheep could climb the stairs.

We had an oil lamp for light in the living room and candles inthe bedrooms. We carried drinking water in a bucket from aspring in the farmer's field which he had kindly struck for us.The farmer lived about half a mile from the cottage he was abachelor and had a housekeeper. He also had an accumulatoroperated radio.

He asked us to visit every evening when we were at thecottage to hear the 9 o'clock news with him. We would thendiscuss events, mainly the progress of the war, and if we hada London visitor he was very keen to know what Londonerswere thinking.

He was also very concerned that we should not use riverwater for anything other than washing. We had to carry all




water to the brow of the hill so we did not waste it. Coal wasalso delivered to the foot of the hill and then carried up thehill by a bucket and stored. We had a chemical Elsan toiletwhich was emptied by burying in the ground.

We carried all our food and oil for the lamp on the bicyclewhich we pushed as we walked from the village, also anyluggage that we brought with us from Aberystwyth. Wetravelled from Aberystwyth by Crossville bus which alsocarried unaccompanied parcels and was a very good service.

Our friends that came from London were so pleased to beable to sleep in the tranquil, and beautiful surroundings afterleaving the war torn city.

Manoeuvres in the night at Aberangell

your comments

Emma Sterland from LondonI was fascinated to read Myrtle Parker's description ofHendre Ddu cottages, as I own one of the remainingcottages (three of the 6 were pulled down). I have beenrestoring it over the last three years, and can sympathisewith the conditions Myrtle describes as it was very basicwhen I first took it on – no running water, sewerage orelectricity. It was wonderful to read a little bit about thehistory of the cottages. I would love to chat to Myrtle andinvite her to return to the place she was evacuated duringthe war, if she would like. Perhaps it would make aninteresting follow-up programme.Tue Feb 10 15:41:02 2009

Dorothy Mason, FranceI was born in the Queens Hotel Emergency Maternity HomeAberystwyth in 1944.Does anyone know of this "Hotel"Iwould welcome anyone who has any news .Thanks DorothySun Sep 16 20:55:46 2007



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Myrtle ParkerLast updated: 08 February 2006

Myrtle Parker recounts a taleof mistaken identity as friendsstaying in Aberangell wereconvinced at the sight ofunknown lights that theGerman invasion had started.

By Dr Myrtle Parker from Talybont:

"In the Summer of 1942 we had a friend who taught Frenchand some German in a London Grammar school visiting usfor a holiday. She was very concerned about the possibility ofan invasion by the Germans which was frequently beingtalked about in London circles.

One night we were preparing to go to bed when we heardEnglish men's voices at the front door and they werediscussing a map. The friend immediately shouted to them inGerman asking them what they wanted. There was no replyand my Mother said, 'They cannot be German they have noaccent'. Our friend said, 'Spies would be taught good Englishwithout an accent!'.

Now we were convinced the dreaded invasion had startedand we moved heavy furniture against the door as abarricade and armed ourselves with pokers and some otherfireside implements. Our friend crept out of the back of thecottage it was a very dark night, there was no moonlight.She got near to the intruders and came back very agitated tosay they were trying to get to the quarry and that on theopposite mountain there were very many hand torch lightsmoving about.

They were heading in the direction of the quarry but on thewrong side of the valley. My Mother went upstairs, openedthe window and shouted to whoever was there that theywere going in the wrong direction and that they should turnround and go down the hill. The reply was in true cockney,'Alright Ma! We are the British Army on manoeuvres, go backto bed'

Our friend was still not impressed, and in the darknesswalked alone the half mile to the farm and woke the farmerup by throwing stones at his window to tell him what washappening on his land. Surprisingly he was not cross becausehe could not stop laughing. Authorities had told him, and hadhad his permission to use the land for the manoeuvres. Hehad not talked about it because he knew, 'Careless talk costslives', this was what the poster kept reminding us during thewar years."

By Myrtle Parker.






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A Childhood PrankLast updated: 08 February 2006

Sarah Hughes was only 5when the war started. Nowresident in Aberystwyth, hereshe remembers a 'brush withthe soldiers' in her childhoodhome of Button Bridge,Shropshire.

By Sarah Hughes from Aberystwyth:

"My name is Sarah. When I was young, about 5, the warstarted and this must have changed my childhood a lotthough I didn't realise it at the time.

My sister Anne was a year older than I and she and I oneday were sitting on the fence of one of the fields in ButtonBridge which is where we were living, and one of theseendless convoys was approaching up the road.

Now these convoys were a laughing stock really and a causeof great frustration because of course you could hardly driveyour car anywhere in the war. On the Bewdley Bridge, therewas a policeman to stop you because you couldn't goanywhere but to work in your car - it wasn't allowed and he'dstand there and stop every motorist.

Now the convoys had jeeps and armoured cars andeverything and they were going where they liked and theyused to fill the road up and there used to be jokes in Punchabout it - a cartoon of someone sitting at the wheel of theircar with a cobweb growing under their elbow because they'dsat there so long waiting for these convoys to go by.

And there was a convoy coming up the hill along the mainroad and Anne and I were approached by the senior manwho was a little bit muddled, looking round trying to findsignposts you see. But once you were in the country youwere lost because there were no signposts, they'd takenthem all down or they'd covered them up or defaced them.

They didn't actually see one big milestone sitting in front ofour gate which was hidden in the hedge, a great big one,really old one and that hadn't I don't think been defaced butit was covered with greenery.

Anyway he said, 'Are we on the right road for Highly?' Anneand I looked at each other and we didn't know where Highlywas really, anymore than anywhere else, so we pointed downthe lane to the right past our bungalow and off went thewhole convoy just on our word down this lane.

It was great everything going by and we stood there andwatched them going by and then we ran in the house andsaid, "Oh Mother Look what's happened! We've been able to helpthese soldiers to try and find Highly." "Oh" said Mother, "Where did they go?" "Straight down the lane", we said "that's where we sent




them". "Oh dear" she said, "that's the wrong way they should havegone straight on for Highly".

I think it was probably quite a while before they got to thebottom of the dead end lane and found the River Severnbarring their way. They had to turn round and come all theway back up again and Anne and I didn't go out when theywere coming back up again. We kept very quiet in the house.But mother said it wasn't our fault and maybe if they wereenemy soldiers it would have been a very good thing. So thatwas our little brush with the soldiers!"

By Sarah Hughes from Aberystwyth


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