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The Diary of the Evacuation to Canada of
50 girls from Roedean School
part two.
Siriol Colley
neé Lewis
At this point apart from an entry at Armistice Day and Christmas the diary
finishes. The idyllic summer in Chester, Nova Scotia came to an end like
all things, on the return to school and to normality. My diary makes little
reference to the conditions at home in England and the suffering of my
family and my mother in England. We never appreciated while in Canada that we might
not return to Britain or see our parents again. It did not enter our heads
that we should not win the war nor that the Germans might invade Britain.
‘The evacuation to Canada was a difficult time for all concerned. Parents
had to decide very quickly whether they wished their daughter to go overseas
and were given little time in which to realise how this enforced separation
might affect both themselves and their child. They were desperate to save
their children from the danger and rigor of war, and seized on what was
considered to be the best option available at the time. Almost certainly,
they did not realise how impossible communication would become, leaving the
children for several years without any reassurance from home. It was a
bleak period in the childhood of many the evacuees.
However, Roedean girls who were at Edgehill
during that time speak of their Canadian hosts with immense gratitude. Many
have remained friends for life and many too, stayed in Canada to continue
their education, going on to university there and making their life in the
country that had given them so much hospitality at a time when a large part
of the world was in turmoil.
The families of the Canadian girls were
very hospitable to the Roedean contingent and invited them to spend holidays
with them.’
The rest of the story will have to be taken from the school magazine of
Edgehill and a few letters kept by me. I have only a few recollections of the
year at Edgehill. The school coped with the whole contingent except for Pat
Hollis who was a little older and went to Dalhousie University to study medicine. I was billeted in the Annexe of King’s School, the boys School in
Windsor and shared a room with Averil and Betty Rogers. At home in
England we were to
take O’ levels and we took the equivalent examination in Nova Scotia. I had
planned to study medicine and as the science subjects were
insufficient for this profession at Edgehill I went on to study at Dalhousie
where I stayed in the residence for women
students, Sheriff Hall.
There are only a few diary notes before I discontinued:
Christmas term Edgehill 1940.
I have been put to sleep with Betty Rogers and Averil Davenport Browne in
the top room of King’s House. Miss Briggs is in charge. Being at this house
is much nicer than being over at the school. There are 18 of us here with
Miss Briggs, the Mackenzie’s and the maid. … Jacq and Betty are over at the
main building and don’t like it very much. After about the third week
Barbara and I began Chemistry at the K.C.S.. .. I went every day except
Wednesday. On Mondays we do lab. work but with no gas laid on in Windsor we
had to do experiments with alcohol lamps. Barbara and I do not get on very
well doing them. The water in Windsor is foul – Avon River mud – a red
colour. The water is very soft though.
Just after Armistice which I spent at Mrs Bell’s, the weather became cold.
We played hockey against house no 2 in the freezing cold. The wind blew
though everything, The next day, we went to school in the cold though it had
not snowed in the night. By dinner time the snow was quite thick and the
snow flaks were spinning slowly to the ground. This was November. At half
term Dot brought back a small black cat which we called Hekadyse. It was
quite black with a white front. but poor Hekadyse did not stay very long.
About two weeks after half term Hilda Jones got German Measles Consequently
we had to go into quarantine which we enjoyed. We went skating twice and
had plenty of time to revise for exams and we had a week of exams in the
house. I came fifth in the form.
Christmas Holidays
Friday 20th
I am so thankful. Today we broke up for the Christmas Hols. till the 16th
of January. Betty and Averil left to stay with Miss Laurie at Oakfield.
They were to accompany me part of the way but at the last moment went by
car. Pat, thank goodness, met me in Halifax and helped me carry my copious
luggage. Mrs Stanley drove us to Chester. Pat and I watched the sea waves
carried on to the ice.
Saturday 21st
I went down to see the Woodroofes in the morning from Mrs Bell’s. In the
afternoon Pat and I went skating on the rink.
Sunday 22nd
After writing home and my Christmas cards, Pat and I went skating on the
lake. This time it was fine. The ice was perfect, like glass. I got on
quite well and don’t feel so wobbly on skates. We skated the whole
afternoon.
Monday 23rd
This morning I woke to find snow on the ground. Philip came round and
called for me and took me to get a Christmas tree. We got a perfect one
just before someone else came along for the same tree. This afternoon I
went down to Pats' and we went and got presents for the children. I sent off
some Christmas cards and in the evening sat down and wrote my diary after
dinner.
That was the last entry in my diary and so from now on I have to rely on the
following entry in the Edgehill Review about the arrival of the
Roedean Contingent.
“The spring term of 1940 had drawn to a close. Classes were over for
another year, most of the staff had departed and the VI and VA were settling
down to write examinations. Terrible events in Europe were following one
another in swift succession, but we in Nova Scotia were enjoying perfect
summer weather. Every pool was fringed with blue irises. The scent of
syringa was in the air. The sea was a deep translucent blue. The younger
ones among us thought only of a long happy summer to come. Even the older
ones found it hard to realise what was happening on the other side of the
Atlantic.
Into this atmosphere came a cable from Major Ney
asking us to take fifty Roedean girls almost at once. The cable ended with
the words, “Safety first consideration.” We thought of Roedean on the high
white cliffs of England and the German guns less than thirty miles away, and
within a quarter of an hour a replv cable was dispatched saying, “Come.”
On July 5 the party arrived. All of Windsor was
at the station. Twelve cars had been lent to drive the girls out to the
school. Twice that number arrived. Everyone was anxious to help and to
welcome the weary travellers who had come so far.
The first few days were spent in getting to know
our guests and giving them a chance to know us, and find their way about
Edgehill. Laundry had to be looked after clothes, repacked and money
changed and banked. There had been many summer invitations given. Some
hostesses said that it would be easier to entertain little girls, some asked
for older girls. Some were willing to take two; others could only entertain
one, whilst one kind lady actually entertained three. With the help of Miss
Briggs and Miss Marshall [the teachers who came from Roedean with us] the
assignments were finally made. Hostesses were notified and came to fetch
their guests.
The Roedean girls spent fourteen happy weeks on
farms and in summer camps. They sailed, they swam, they picnicked and they
returned to us in September very brown and very well.
Meanwhile those in authority planned for the
autumn. We considered Edgehill full, with the Roedean contingent, but we
have recently been told by two eminent Canadian headmistresses from Toronto
and Montreal that we have such an airy spacious school that they consider
Major Ney well advised in asking us to house an extra fifty. We counted
space, what sitting-rooms could be converted into bedrooms, which members of
the staff would be willing to share rooms, what rooms were large enough to
take extra beds etc. When all was counted we were still more than twenty
spaces short.
Then came the problem of another house. The
Headmaster of King’s Collegiate School, who has been most tableware, chairs
and desks and the buying of what was needed. ‘King’s’ was practically
furnished by our Windsor friends. We had a ‘shower’ one fine afternoon in
early September and all brought what they could spare. One lady arrived
with a big dining-room table, another with two beds, others with glasses,
knives etc. One even came with a roll of linoleum. It did not take us long
to sort things and put them where they should be.
The Roedean girls returned to School two days
before the others. This gave them time to unpack and settle in before the
Edgehill girls arrived. Our opening day in September is always a social
occasion. Many parents drive their children back to school. The cars are
filled tip with little brothers and sisters or other relations. Old Girls,
finding it hard to keep away, drive back to look the new girls over and to
inspect the new mistresses. Fathers carry luggage up. Mothers unpack.
When more than the usual crowd arrived last September, they found the
English girls clad in their navy suits, looking spick and span and ready to
make friends with them helpful and sympathetic throughout, offered us his
own large house at a small rental to be paid at the close of war. So we
came into the temporary possession of ‘King’s House.’ Next came the counting
of linen,
School started in the usual way and the Roedean
girls were soon at home among us. They wear their Roedean uniform and we
wear ours. They have introduced some Roedean customs to us, for example a
Dalton Day and a questions box, while some of ours seem very popular with
them. They have added zest to our classes and taken part in all our
activities. We are struck with the spirit of these girls. They are
cheerful and buoyant, out to enjoy the experience of life in a new country
even if it means changes and are adjustment of many ideas.
When the war is over and guests go home we hope
they will take with them an abiding love for Canada and Canadians together
with an outlook which has immensely broadened by new contacts, new ideas,
and a happier way of living than is possible in England just now.”
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In the Edgehill review are two poems and a story
by my roommates, Betty and Averil and I think they are worthy of being
included in the story of our evacuation to Canada and convey the emotions of
the our exodus from Britain.
The first rather sad story is by Averil Davenport
–
Browne
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THY
WILL BE DONE
It was the war of 1939. A bad storm was raging, thunder
was crashing and fork lightning was playing havoc across the sky. In the
depths of the country, somewhere in England, in a small cottage, a lady was
seated by the fire. Over the mantelpiece hung two pictures of men dressed
in the uniform of the R. A. F.; the husband and son of the lady. One was an
older picture but both men had the same smile and the same happy-go-lucky
air. A boom of thunder, the loudest yet, was heard, but the lady did not
seem to hear it, she sat quite still, her thoughts far away.
She was thinking of the World War of 1914 to 1918. Her
husband had been a young man then, a dare-devil pilot in the R. A. F. On
such a night as this with the storm equally bad, he had gone up alone in his
plane as a volunteer to destroy an ammunition dump on the German lines. The
storm was it its worst as he neared his objective and luckily the thunder
drowned the buzz of his engines. As he dropped his deadly missiles, a
flash of lightning had hit his plane and the controls had gone useless. By
that time the plane had been heard and searchlights were seeking the skies
so that anti-aircraft guns could do their fatal work. Her husband had been
killed after a few minutes, shrapnel had pierced his heart, but by a miracle
the plane had come down in the Allied lines, and his body was recovered.
The lady by the fire stirred and her eyes filled with
tears. Her only son who had been born just after the war was now a pilot
like his father before him, and was in an aerodrome in France.
“Oh God” she had pleaded, “don’t let my son go away. He
is all I have.” But he had gone to fight for his country which he
loved; who indeed would not have done so?
The lady by the fire stirred and her eyes filled with
tears [heard] singing, the heavenly choir:
“Oh valiant hearts, who to your glory come,
Through dust of conflict and through battle flame.
Tranquil you lie, your knightly virtue proved,
Your memory hallowed in the land you love.”
“Oh God”, she whispered, “Thy will be done. Keep my son
safe in Thy Heavenly Home.”
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THE ROEDYSSEY
‘Twas on
the 26th of June,
(We all were from Roedean)
When up to Liverpool we hied
Oh! what a tragic scene!
Our fond mamas and fond papas
Their hearts were well nigh broke,
But their courage was undaunted
Though all we did was croak.
At nine o’clock, we steamed away
From that beloved shore.
We turned our faces to the west
Because of this d—n war.
Miss Marshall and Miss Briggs were there,
We clung to them for aid,
But then our troubles were forgot—
We saw the supper laid.
We hadn’t sailed past Erin’s coast,
(Alack! Ah woe is me!)
The wind blew loud, the waves rose high
And surly grew the sea.
Then one by one we wobbled down
And on our bunks we fell.
And of those next two days we think
We really should not tell.
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At last the dreadful storm was o’er,
We heaved a thankful sigh
For during those tempestuous days,
We seemed about to die.
Thus on we sailed, on either side
Lay ice bergs cold and bleak
A few days more,
—
land was espied,
“Hurrah” we all did shriek.
On Thursday e’en we disembarked
No customs we went through;
To smile so sweetly for the press
Was all we had to do.
At Edgehill school our journey closed,
At last our travels ceased;
But oh! when we unpacked our trunks,
We found our clothes had creased!
Delightful summer days we spent;
And now we’re working hard
Except for missing everyone,
Our joy is never marred.
Please do not criticise too much
Our brains are not like thine;
For we on pumpkin pie have fed,
And drunk Canadian wine.
Averil Davenport Brown
Betty Rogers.
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ARRAMARILLAURIMBLEDOO
“Arramarillaurimblee
Lived in an ice cream cone.
The roof was dyed a Prussian blue
On top of a pumice stone.
The windows were of astrophel
The doors of gilded ash
Her food was alamander jell
With sausages and mash.
Arramarillaurimbledoo
Knitted sleeveless sweaters
And every time the cow said “Moo”
She sent them in her letters.
Until one day she found a worm
In some treacle toffee,
And from that brute she caught a germ
And died from sacramoffee.”
With apologies to Edward Lear and all readers (if any) of nonsense rhymes
Betty Rogers and
Averil Davenport Browne.
GROUP PICTURE
(Reading from left to right)
R.Hurst, D. Davidson.
R.Hurst, A. Jacob, W. Preiswerk, F. Tregunno, B. Waters,
D. Davidson, P. Hazeldine, P.Collins.
S.Morse, L. Fowlow, D. Bradshaw.
M. House, A. Waterman.
The Staff Wing.
L.Benson, P. Collins.
Miss Leonard.
Scene from Closing Programme.
B.de Roode, B. Waters, S. Monies, Miss Harris.
J.Sircom, N. Portas, A. Jacob.
J.Sircom, L. Fowlow, D. Bradshaw, S. Morse.
R.Hurst, D. Davidson, J. Tanner, M. Conner, A. Jacob, A.
Trehearne.
Tobogganing.
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