| Rating: | ★★★★ |
| Category: | Other |
The Evacuees at Thorne during World War II
Two days before war was declared, on September 1st 1939, a train load of 230 boys and their teachers came to Thorne. They, and a further 36 during the following week, were from Hull Grammar School. Their billets had been arranged some six months before, when Thorne Grammar School staff had responded to a request from the Rural District Council, to find willing hosts.
Resolved to maintain its identity as a long established school, Hull Grammar School shared the Thorne Grammar School premises, but separately, with its own staff, organisation and curriculum. When the new term began about a fortnight later, Thorne had an extended morning session starting at 8.20am. Hull took over from 2.20 until 6.00pm and also had Saturday morning sessions.
They had their own uniform, the red caps of which, they claimed, cheered up their adoptive town. They also had their prefects, or ‘praeposters’ as they were known, but relationships between the two schools were limited by a rule signed by both Headmasters, forbidding unescorted contact between Hull boys and Thorne girls.
Responsibility for fire-watching the premises was shared by the staffs of the two schools. On weekdays, Thorne’s duty was from 6.00pm to midnight, Hull’s from 12 to 6.00am.
Approaching Xmas 1939, there was discussion on whether the Hull boys should be invited to Thorne’s parties, or if any friendships formed might make ‘the rule’ difficult to impose in future. The parties were in fact shared.
During the school year more school groups arrived in Thorne, a further 188 for the Grammar School, 117 boys and girls from Malet Lambert School and 59 from Blundell St Senior Boys School.
Beside the official school groups, many individual children were sent to relatives in Thorne, or whole families came to live in the town. South Common School, now known as Green Top School, was built in 1939 and opened ahead of the planned date to give much needed extra accommodation for the growing numbers.
After the dreadful air raids which flattened much of Hull in the early years of the war, the perceived dangers had receded by 1943, and the boys from Hull Grammar School returned to Hull during the summer holiday. Those living with family members were more likely to stay on and some to find employment in the town after leaving school. Some found partners and have lived here ever since; quite a large number of Thorne people can claim descent from Hull families.
Hull Grammar School produced its own magazine, the “Hullensian”, at irregular intervals during the war years. Some issues describe visits made by boys to a colliery, walks along the canal and so on. Thanks are expressed to their hosts who looked after the boys so well for 8/6 (42½ p) per week. [But in the winter of 1939 the minimum rate for an agricultural worker for a 50 hour week was just under £2.00]
Towards the end of the war there was another intake of evacuees, when some of those who were suffering in the South from V1s and V2s travelled to Thorne. The town could offer both safety from the bombing and temporary housing for those who had lost their own in London.
The December 1939 “Hullensian” has a number of Limericks and poems about evacuees, some of which are reprinted here –
Said a host in St Nicholas Road “I once had a restful abode! But from 6 p.m. on All that quiet is gone – I’ve to drive them to bed with a goad”. Said a Foster Road hostess I knew (She’d a regular scholar or two); Such young demons they seem That I sometimes could scream! Do they really spell Hull with a ‘u’? Said a kind Durham Avenue dame, “I’m so glad that my billetee came: He is keen on his food Vary rarely is rude – And he even remembers my name”. A praeposter who lived in Fieldside, The laws of his elders defied. He did all of his ‘prep’ On the kitchen door step With the help of a local girl-guide. [But not, of course, from Thorne Grammar School] | Said a boy from Hull Grammar School, “Though I much prefer home, as a rule, Spite of feeling forlorn I’d rather have Thorne Than a billet, say, somewhere in Goole. A hostess in Middlebrook Lane Was recently driven insane. The fault, I regret Of that chess playing set. (We’ve warned them again and again) Said a lively young girl, when they smacked her For speeding round Thorne on a tractor, “Don’t worry. Keep cool! I belong to a school Where the motto is “Vive Audacter!” “From a thorn in the flesh”,said Saint Paul, “I have suffered much wormwood and gall”, But he spelt it, you see, With no capital ‘T’, So he can’t have known trouble at all. |
The following reminiscences were taken from an early thread on the former TGS site on MSN Groups
"At the beginning of W.W.W.2 Hull was getting a pasting from the Hun so they evacuated loads of under 11's-a lot of whom came to Thorne. Now I cannot imagine for one minute that Turner agreed to this, but the next move was to evacuate Hull Grammar School (and Malet Lambert G.S. - ed) and their staff en bloc to Thorne. They were just nothing like us - all boys,no classical tradition and they played Soccer. And then they moved in. It was done by T.G.S. doing something like 8.00-2.30, and Hull doing 2.30-6.30 plus Saturday morning. We had a lunch break and school dinners whereas they went straight thro'. There was no recognition given to these people-no mention in Assembly-no sporting interface-no doffing of caps to their teachers. Can you imagine what a proud person like Turner must have felt, sharing with this bunch of city slickers. Being young, being at war, and belonging to a generation that had not been reared to question, meant we just got on with it. Seems crazy that we got out of bed at 6ish, had breakfast and pushed off to school in the total blackout and until now not queried the strangeness. Plus our mothers having to cater lunch for the evacuees, and then the whole family holding back tea until the evacuees came in at 6.45 p.m. This went on for 3 or 4 yrs. But the biggest happening was how the Head, the teachers and the pupils were completely ignored and never mentioned.
ALLAN SWALES 1942-1950
Allan, what you describe is more or less what my mother told me, although she also said that the TGS girls were told very firmly not to fraternise at all with the "interlopers" and that the attitude of many of the staff was that Hitler had a lot to answer for ! She also used to reminisce about the TGS air shelters being built and I can remember their still being there, when I was at junior school (Thorne Travis School, to be exact) and I used to go to play with Eileen Foster, the eldest daughter of Bob Foster, the then TGS caretaker. I think the shelters existed for a few years after the war ended.
Interesting that you describe Shipley Turner as a "proud" man. He died during my first term in the Second Form and I was absolutely terrified of him, but since reaching adulthood and becoming a teacher myself, I increasingly see him as an autocrat, maybe even someone who pretended to himself that TGS was secretly a great public school. One characteristic that sticks in my mind was the way he would suddenly fling an arm in one's direction and shout "Never ... ?" The answer, of course, was "... translate purpose with an infinitive, sir". English uses the infinitive to show purpose - eg "I come here not to praise Caesar, but to bury him", whereas Latin uses UT plus the subjunctive. I gained a Classics degree myself in the fullness of time and so the correct answer to Ship's demand would have the addendum "except when writing poetry, Sir, as did Virgil and Ovid". On second thoughts, even if I'd known that then, I wouldn't have dared say it .....
Marty
A few years ago when they were doing the alterations to the school ie building extensions to allow for the intake of 11 year olds again....they pulled down the old 'cow sheds'.....to reveal underneath....the old air raid shelters! For some reason no one there at the time knew of their existence... I believe there were some gas masks still down there...remember it was quite a surprise to read about it in the local paper when I 'd spent so much time in there whilst at TGS. I think that most of the info given to the papers at the time was from ex Hull evacuees......quite a few of whom stayed on in Thorne after the war.
Sue
One might think that people would want to share and share alike in a time of danger and deprivation,but it seems to me that Hull got a raw deal - inconvenient times ( including for firewatching teachers) -and exclusion. TGS did not suffer foreigners gladly.Hull boys were never invited to parties (Christmas or ATC) during 39 -42.I remember seeing them lining up to enter the classrooms as we were leaving - that's all, but maybe some old Thorne girl would now like to confess her dreadful sin in "fraternising" with the aliens. If so,I hope she is still ashamed and penitent for her tasteless preference for the city slickers instead of us local yokels.
ReplyDeleteRon
The really amazing thing from my point of view is that in the years 1939 to 1941 I had no contact whatsoever with the Hull pupils. Of course I knew that they were there - somewhere in the background - but to my recollection I never exchanged one word with any one of them. Like the rest of my peers I was never given the opportunity to do so.Indeed any contact was actively discouraged. That was a disgraceful way to treat young boys uprooted from their families and friends. Whether it was a mutual agreement between the two Headmasters I know not, but it just goes to show how an organisation can suppress its victims with the willing connivance of "decent" people. I left in 1941 to join a Service where comradeship and mutual support were (and are!) the keywords and after all these years I am still ashamed at the way the Hull Grammar School pupils were treated.
ReplyDeleteTom Clark
The arrangements for sharing the school were still in place when I entered TGS in 1942, and ended a year later when the Hull schools returned to Hull. I expect that the precise arrangements varied from year to year in the light of experience, but my memory is that we started at about 8.15 and the Hull pupils arrived when we were still in class. Their classes started as we went into lunch about 12.00 noon for about 1 hour. We then did a further two periods while they had lunch, and then we went home about 2.30 while they continued until 6.00pm. But the upshot was that contact with the Hull pupils was impossible on TGS premises.
ReplyDeleteBut I had Hull friends who had joined us in the Junior School in 1939, at least one of then (Eric Limback) entering Mallet Lambert when I entered TGS. So from Sept 1942 we shared the same school premises but never met at school. But the friendship continued off school premises (Saturday and Sunday) for a further year until he returned to Hull with his school in the Summer of 1943. I also have a vague memory that some of them stayed in the district when their schools departed, and joined us in TGS wearing their old school uniforms until they had outgrown them and/or sufficient clothing coupons had been accumulated to replace them. George Hunt and Cyril (Dido) Leedham come to mind.
K
As I started TGS at the same time as Keith, my memories are much the same as his, although he remembers some details more than I do. I used to take a packed dinner (not lunch in those days to miner's kids!), and have a hot meal with my dad when he finished his morning shift at about 2.30pm. My brothers and our two evacuees had theirs at the normal time of 12 o'clock. That first year was a strange year for us, but it must have been awful for the Hull boys.
ReplyDeleteI do remember Cyril Leedham, mainly because he was evacuated to Moorends, and he didn't return to Hull after the war. He lived and worked locally, and was a popular man, with a ready smile. I remembered that he had died some time ago. I have been out today with old friends of his, and they said although people still remembered him as Dido, he became known as Cas Leedham. They shared a few anecdotes about him and obviously thought highly of him.
I have transferred Ron's message as he requested.
ReplyDeleteronmalta wrote today at 2:17 PM
The exodus from Hull was a non-event for us,though it may have been a traumatic upheaval for those affected, and it seems that the reception they received from TGS didn't help much.
At TGS we were on the sidelines,though many of our relatives and friends were not, and the only thing that affected us personally,for the moment was the call to join the ATC. As far as I remember we all volunteered enthusiastically, though at the back of our minds some of us thought "anything but the trenches...."
The First World War was not so far back in time and there were signs of rejection of the Old Order that culminated in the landslide election of 1945.Things were beginning to move,people were starting to think for themselves and that is perhaps why the Wars of 1960 and 1980 and 2000 didn't happen.But old dogs don't learn easily, as illustrated by this event in the life of TGS in 1940.
It was decreed that weekly debates on current events, for sixth ( and perhaps 5th) formers should be held. I believe the idea was to express gung-ho patriotic support for the war effort.But after a couple of cheerleader speeches, some awkward characters,(including one who was later killed in action) started asking questions like "why did we guarantee the frontiers of Poland - what did that have to do with us? The headmaster was present and he was not pleased. That was the end of the one and only debate.
Another memory: one afternoon we all heard that the French army had capitulated, after enormous casualties.Shock and contempt for France and all things French,they had let us down. In France, they heard that the English army had abandoned its guns and was racing for Dunkirk. Shock and contempt for all things English.
Years later, the French and Germans got together,(while UK was still dithering), and so, once again, the wars of 1960,1980,2000 didn't happen.
Ron