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"The Beff’s home was a real home from home to me."
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The support material for this module is also available as a print-friendly
PDF split into 3 parts for easier download - about 10MB to each part: Part1,
Part2, Part3 -
these open in a new window. Individual experiences are also available as
PDFs from the appropriate web pages. Once downloaded you may make as many
copies as you wish for educational purposes. The evacuee pages require javascript to be enabled on your computer -
most computers will have javascript enabled. The
PDFs cover all material available on the website; transcripts and
enlargements can also be found in
Extras which opens in a new
window. To open PDFs you will need Acrobat Reader. Most computers will already have the Reader but if not there is a free download here
Charles Tyrrell's Experiences as an Evacuee
Charles Tyrrell was evacuated from his home in Liverpool and had mixed
experiences as an evacuee.
Below you will learn something of Charles' story and his feelings
as he became one of the many children evacuated for their
safety.
During the course of the story you will need Activity Sheets to answer
questions. All Activity Sheets are available individually as required
on the pages of the story or within the PDF
of Charles's Story (4MB).
PAGE 6 0F 6
DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES: KEN GILES / CHARLES TYRRELL
CHARLES TYRRELL
Compare and Contrast
Read the passages below. On Activity Sheet 9 answer the following
-
- Can you find three things similar about the end of their evacuation?
- How many differences can you find?
Ken Giles:
‘After ten months at the camp my
father took me home. My last childhood
memory of Selsey is of father running
up the road to catch the bus to
Chichester Station. He had my suitcase
in one hand and me tucked under the
other arm. Looking up I saw a group of
our fighters which had surrounded a
German bomber. I didn’t see its end but
the bomber had no chance of escape’.
Charles Tyrrell:
‘My departure from Leek was very sudden. One
Saturday morning we were together with some of our
friends in the children’s playground, when Alan came
running over to me shouting “Dad’s here! Dad’s
here!”,
and pointing at the fence, over which could be seen
Dad’s smiling face below his blue trilby. Within seconds
we were in his arms and his first words to us were “I’m
taking you home”. My next clear recollection is sitting
alongside Dad in the railway carriage with his arm
around me and my head buried in his chest’.
PAGE 5 0F 6
DAD'S HERE!
CHARLES TYRRELL
'My departure from Leek was very sudden. One
Saturday morning we were together with some of our friends playing in
the children’s playground, when Alan came running over to me shouting “Dad’s
here! Dad’s here!”, and pointing at the fence, over the
top of which could be seen Dad’s smiling face below his blue trilby.
Within seconds we were in his arms and his first words to us were “I’m
taking you home”. My next clear recollection is sitting alongside
Dad in the railway carriage with his arm around me and my head buried
in his chest.
I have always remembered Leek with great affection,
and I did make a sort of pilgrimage back there when I was able to meet
young Jack Beff, married with a family. I was able to thank him personally
for what his parents had done for me during the war.'
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Compare Charles' and Ken's experiences on the next page. |
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PAGE 4 0F 6
DAD'S HERE!
CHARLES TYRRELL
Charles left the Smiths and was taken to a Dr Barnardo’s home.
He stayed there for about a month until a new home could be found
in Leek.
'Back at Leek, my situation had improved
tremendously. I was once again in touch with my brother Alan and
our friends from home. We all now settled down to a happy sojourn
in a beautiful corner of a beautiful county. The huge Ashbourne Road
School was a happy place for all of us. The local boys and girls
were a really good crowd and we had great fun together.
Most of all though, my new found happiness
at Leek was due entirely to old Mr and Mrs Beff, with whom I had
been newly billeted. Mr and Mrs Beff were of pensionable age, and
they had lived in their council house since it had been built. They
had one son, Jack, who was serving abroad with the army at this time,
so it was Jack’s room which was lent to me. The Beff’s
home was a real home from home to me. I felt instantly comfortable
in this, my new home, and Mr and Mrs Beff were a new Mam and Dad
to me.
No boots off at the back door here, or
go up to your soulless room. It was a warm, loving house I was in
now. Well fed and clothed, I counted myself very lucky to have been
billeted here.
Air raid sirens rarely sounded at Leek.
When they did, it was usually during the time we were at the rec,
(recreation ground), and we often saw German bombers in the distance,
or heard them if we could not see them. And on one or two clear evenings,
we were able to see the anti-aircraft gun flashes around Stoke-on-Trent,
as attempts were made to shoot the bombers down'.
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See how I returned home on the next page. |
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PAGE 3 0F 6
CHARLES' STORY
CHARLES TYRRELL
 Creative Writing
Charles' first evacuation was not very successful. He felt unhappy
and lonely.
Having read the first part of Charles' story on the previous pages,
try the activities below using Activity Sheet 8.
- Can you write poem about an unhappy evacuee?
You might think about
- what it would be like to leave your family and friends
- how you would feel on a journey to a new home with people you
had never met
- evacuees did not know how long they would be away from home
- how it would feel to be an 'unwanted child'
- What do you think Charles wrote in his letter home? Imagine you
are Charles and write a letter to your parents explaining why you
don't want to stay in your foster home.
PAGE 2 0F 6
CHARLES' STORY
CHARLES TYRRELL
‘The house was a newly built council house on a very nice
hillside estate and the
newly married Smiths were its first occupants. The house was beautifully
furnished and it even had carpets on the stairs as well as in the
bathrooms.
More amazing still, it even had a bathroom
with hot water taps, and a toilet
upstairs. My bedroom was an urchin’s nightmare, all spick and
span, no clothes
or boots allowed on the floor; and sadly it almost became my prison
cell because
when I was not at school or visiting Alan and the others, I was told
to stay in my
room all the time, except for a few occasions when Mr Smith, whom
I liked very
much, and who tried his best to make my stay happy, brought me down
to the
living room (spotlessly pristine) and the three of us played some
board game or
other. Mr Smith at least tried to talk to me, and I have to admit
that I cried
myself to sleep more than once’.
- Why was Charles so unhappy?
- What do you think Charles’ home
in Liverpool must have been like?
- What do you think happened next?
‘Eventually I could stand it no longer
and wrote a letter home asking for rescue. It seemed an awful long
time after writing the letter that, being confined to my room as
usual, I heard the doorbell ring. Then I was
called down to be confronted with one of the most wonderful sights
of my young life. My Dad, standing on
the doorstep resplendent in his never to be forgotten blue suit,
white shirt and tie, and his smart matching
trilby hat. I threw myself in his arms and cried and cried as he
hugged me tight. Dad took us into the town
and we had a snack at a cafe which was where he told me to go back
to the Smiths and he would see that I
was moved elsewhere.’
PAGE 1 0F 6
AN UNWANTED CHILD
CHARLES TYRRELL
Written Comprehension
Read Charles' Story on this page and then answer the questions using
Activity Sheet 7.
‘All the paperwork had
been done. Evacuation day had arrived. We had kissed
our Mothers goodbye, and were now (for the first time in our lives),
seated on a
Liverpool Corporation double decker bus outside Heyworth Street School.
Within
seconds we were out of sight of our tearful mothers, and within ten
minutes we were being sorted into compartments of a train which had
been
awaiting us at Lime Street Station.
The train steamed us through the
countryside, flashing through nameless
stations, (all name boards having been removed in case of invasion)
during
which time we ate our packed lunch and drank our bottled water’.
- How do you think Charles felt during the journey?
‘I was the first to be dropped off at my new
home, where for the first (and only) time in my life, I was
forced to assume the mantle of an unwanted child. When I stepped
out of the car, I was confronted by two
ladies, one young, one older who were in fact Mam and newly married
daughter.
Without so much as a hello to me, the younger woman
informed the social department lady who
accompanied us, that she had asked for a girl. Eventually, she
agreed that I would be accommodated on the
understanding that a girl would be provided and I would be taken
elsewhere’.
- Why do you think the ladies wanted a girl evacuee?
- Do you think
Charles and the ladies became friends?
- What
do you think their home was like?
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