Shirley Webb nee Pell was born in 1930 and lived in Westgate-on-Sea, Kent with her mother, father and three siblings. She attended the local Church of England school and lived in a three-storey terraced house. Her father’s business was on the ground floor of the building.
She isn’t sure how she found out about the evacuation, but remembers thinking it was going to be a bit of an adventure! She was taken to the train station where she was separated from her brother and travelled with her class and teacher to Staffordshire.
They arrived in Colton and were taken to the school that they would later attend. It was here she was reunited with her brother and the children were picked by the villagers. Unfortunately for the pair, her brother had physically been labelled as a bet wetter, and they were the last to be chosen. They were eventually taken to the biggest house in the village which stood in its own grounds.
They had very little to do with the adults at this house, and were instead taken care of by their 18 year old daughter who didn’t really know how to look after small children. Shirley and her brother ended up spending more time with the house servants, who she thought were far nicer. They shared their meals with the servants and the cook in particular was a lovely lady who used to take them back to her home in Rugeley. You can listen to her speaking about her experiences in the clip below:
Transcript of Shirley’s audio clip
She was delighted to go home.