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BY HENRY GIBBINS AND HIS SISTER,
MRS.WINIFRED BLAND(NEE GIBBINS).

My name is Henry Gibbins and my story begins at the start of World War Two. It was the year of 1939 and everyone knew that there was going to be a war with Germany. I was seven and a half years old and lived with my large family in a new council flat in Hoxton, London.

I was evacuated with my older brother, Billy and two older sisters, Winnie and Ivy, to Leighton Buzzard, a small town in Bedfordshire. All four of us were billeted in a farm near the town. It was very strange to us because the farmhouse had no proper toilets and only oil lamps for lighting. We did not really fit in there and soon we found a new billet.

Our new home looked very grand, it was a mansion called Mentmore Hall and was owned by Lord Rosebery. However, we had rooms in the servants’ quarters and these were tiny rooms that were reached by narrow winding stairs.

We never saw the owner of the property and an estate manager and his wife were in charge of the house. He was a friendly man but his wife was not so friendly. I was often sent to bed with no food for coming home late from school. Our parents came to visit us and soon realised that we were not welcome there. As there had been no bombing in London at that time, we were taken back home.

At home many changes had taken place. The areas between the buildings had been dug up and air raid shelters were being built. Glass windows had sticky tape on them for safety and the ‘black-out’ was in force. Soon the threat of bombing became more serious and it was decided that we would be evacuated again.

This time it was more organised and many people were involved. Hundreds of children were taken on London buses to Paddington station to board trains to the West country. We all had luggage labels tied to our lapels showing our names and carried our belongings in parcels, carrier bags and even pillow cases. We were all given fruit and chocolate to eat on the journey. I went with my brother Billy and sister Ivy.

It was a long trip and when we arrived it was late in the day and we were all tired. We were in a small town named Melksham in Wiltshire. We were lined up and marched to a local school. The school hall had sacks of straw on the floor for us to sleep on. I slept well and the following day people arrived to take someone into their homes.

My brother and sister had already gone and somehow I had wandered off and got lost. After wandering for a time, a car came along and a schoolteacher took me to a nearby house. A middle-aged couple, Mr. And Mrs. Naish, came to the door and they became my foster parents for the following years until the war ended. Ivy was billeted in the home of a local grocer and Billy was with a family in a council house.

In time Billy decided to return home. He boarded a train and hid in the toilet for the whole of the journey. On arrival at Paddington he unlocked the door and found someone waiting there for him. He was taken straight back to Melksham. Ivy returned home in 1941, before the night of bombing in the East End that caused terrible fatalities in our family.

At our home in Hoxton were my mother and father, sisters Maggie, Rose, Winnie and Ivy and my brothers, George, Thomas and the youngest, Ronnie. Older members of the family were married and no longer living at home. It was in May 1941 that the flats were destroyed with a land mine. At the onset of the air raid, my mother, Ronnie, Rose, Winnie and Ivy were in the public air raid shelter outside but my father and brothers George (19 years) and Thomas (17 years) stayed in the flat and all three were killed.

My sister Maggie, aged 20 at the time, had spent the evening out with a friend and because of the severity of the air raid they had sheltered with many others in a church. When the raid was over she returned home to find the flats where we lived had been destroyed. Those in the public shelter had been taken to a school. Rescue workers told Maggie that one of her brothers had been alive and taken away by ambulance. By the time she traced the hospital to which he had been taken, he had died of his injuries.

I heard a rumour at school in Melksham from other evacuees that my Dad was lost in the debris. I did not know what the word ‘debris’ meant, but I feared the worst because it sounded like something ominous had happened. I was told of the tragedy the next time my Mother visited me. She was too distressed to tell me herself and so my younger brother, Ronnie, confirmed the rumours. Later I was made aware that my two brothers, George and Thomas had also been killed by the same explosion.

After recovering from the shock of our family loss, I remained in Melksham, at the home of Mr. And Mrs. Naish, where I was treated as a member of the family. I was happy there and the contact and friendship lasted for many years after the war had ended.

My sister Winnie was living at home at the time of the air raid and she continues with her story, in which she describes the air raid and the attempts of the surviving family members to establish another home.

AS I REMEMBER THE WAR YEARS - BY WINIFRED BLAND (nee GIBBINS).

We came home from Mentmore after being evacuated there, but Ivy, Billie and Henry were evacuated again to Melksham, Wiltshire. I stayed home as I was now fourteen and went out to work.

The first bomb that affected us was just outside the gate of our flat in Nuttall Street, Hoxton. We had no gas, electricity or water and the windows were broken. I found it very frightening. Mum (Eliza Gibbins), Ronnie (my youngest brother) and I went to Clifton, Bedfordshire, where our sister-in-law, Louise, was staying with her parents.

Things were very difficult as we had nowhere to stay. We managed for a while having our food with Louise family and sleeping in a house belonging to a Mrs. Brown, a little way up the road. After a while a got a job so I was busy all day. I cannot remember how long we managed like that. At that time, Dad, Maggie, Rose, Thomas and George were in London, Ivy, Billy and Henry were in Wiltshire.

We came home for a while, and then we were bombed out by a land mine that fell on Nuttall Street. That was when Dad, (Frederick Gibbins) George and Thomas were killed in the early hours of the morning.

Mum, Rose, Ivy, Ronnie and myself (Winnie) were in the air raid shelter. As rescuers got us out we were helped over the debris, where I remember two fires burning, and being taken to St. Leonards Hospital, which was in semi darkness with lots of us in the corridors. Rose, Ivy, Ronnie and myself found each other in a school hall in Haggerstone. I do not remember how we got there. There were mattresses all over the floor for us to rest. It was very frightening.

When it was daylight we went to our Aunt Mag’s house in Harman Street, which was two streets away from Nuttall Street, where we got cleaned up. Our hair was awful and we could not get a comb through it because of all the dust. I do not remember when we saw our Mum again as she was taken to another hospital.

I remember our eldest brother Freddie, who was in the army, came to us and he took us all to Clifton. A Mrs. Gallagher took all of us into her small cottage. We stayed there for quite a while. Then there was the funeral of my Dad and two brothers, which we all went to and I remember it vividly.

The funeral left from our Aunt Mag’s house in Harman Street. There were two horse drawn hearses, our Dad was in the front hearse and our two brothers, George and Thomas, were in the second hearse. There were many people watching as we left to make the journey to Manor Park cemetery in East London.

After the funeral we all went back to Clifton. After a while Mum got two rooms with a young family, Mr. And Mrs. C. Earl. We stayed with them until Mum got a three roomed flat in an old building above the fish shop in Clifton, the fish shop only opened about three times a week. This was our first home of our own after being bombed out.

The years were going by and things got a bit better in London. The war was still going on but Mum applied to be re-housed in London. I do not know how long she waited for the flat but it was a lovely flat, facing Hackney Downs. During this time Rose had married, Ivy and myself had boyfriends and Billy had come to Clifton after being ill. Mum moved to London but Rose and I stayed in Clifton to keep the flat going. Rose now had her little girl, Joan.

In time I went home to live with Mum, Ronnie, Maggie, Billy and Ivy for a while, but eventually Mum went back to Clifton again because of the bombing, while Maggie and I stayed on at the flat in London. Because of the air raids I slept down in Old Street Tube station and Maggie was sleeping in a friend’s shelter.

One morning a friend came down the tube station to find me as the Pembury flats had been hit, but luckily for us, our flat was only blasted. Doors and windows were missing and there was a lot of clearing up to do, but Maggie and I were not hurt.

We had many ups and downs with our family life during World War Two. We were all re-united at the end of the war in time for the VE celebrations.

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