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Jean was 6 years old when the war started. Things at the Benenden C of E school changed quickly. There were two large shelters built in each of the play areas. Every person had to be fitted with a gas mask. We had to take them to school with us each day. I remember the teacher making me walk round the tables with mine on, to see how I could manage without my glasses as they could not be worn with the gas mask.
When the air raid siren went all the children and teachers had to go into the shelters, we sat on benches round the edges to do class work until the all clear siren sounded. We were to spend many hours doing this before the war was over.
By the age of seven I had caught the usual childhood complaints of those days, chicken pox, mumps and measles. This was a great worry to my parents as it was said that the illnesses could damage my eyes. So I was kept in a darkened room until the worst was over. The first time I was allowed out, Mum wrapped me in a blanket and she and Dad took me to the back of the house to watch the planes. Unfortunately there was a dogfight with British and German pilots firing at each other. I will always remember that one of the British planes was hit and as the pilot baled out and came down by parachute the german pilots circled round and shot him. Not a happy memory for my first outing.
The war quickly imposed many changes, food and clothing rationing were put in place. We were luckier than some as we had our our eggs and milk from the farm and could make our own butter. The eggs no longer went to the local hatchery as they were sold locally and also used to make dried egg powder. The milk and egg powder that was produced could be bought with the ration coupons and kept a lot longer than fresh milk and eggs.
All the school children collected wild rose hips and haws from the hedgerows and hawthorn trees. These we took to school and they were then sent off to be processed into baby drink. We also picked up all the acorns, which were sent off to be made into pig food from our farm collection point.

My parents made arrangements for me to travel to America to live with Dad's relatives while the war was on. A lot of families did this with their children but two weeks before I was due to sail the Germans bombed a ship and all the children were lost. Consequently all the sailings were cancelled.
I have often wondered where I would have been or what I would be doing if that journey had not been stopped.

There were things that everyone had to do during the war. All windows had to be blacked out, car lights were filtered so that they did not give assistance to German pilots flying at night. All the village and town place names were taken down. Iron railings were removed to be made into bombs, all old aluminium saucepans etc were collected to go to make new planes for the RAF. In fact anything that could be used to help the war effort was saved and collected.
The Army took over all the big houses in the area. Hole Park house and its grounds were used by soldiers who came with all their lorries and tanks. In the park there were soldiers under canvas. I remember standing on the farm gate watching them arrive.
In Rolvenden Great Maytham was also taken over and Chesenden not far from us was used by the Military Police. Benenden Girls School was used as a military hospital. The army took over two of our fields. The ones furthest from our house down Green Lane.
There was always a lot of activity in the sky with planes dropping bombs and firing of shells as the German pilots tried to make their way to London. Our pilots were forever trying to stop them. One day as Dad and I walked across a field we had five or six bullets fired into the ground by the side of us. That was frightening. We also had two bombs land in our fields.
I remember going to Welling with Aunty May and Uncle Fred ( they had an Austin 7 car ),
and seeing all the barrage balloons up to stop low flying enemy planes reaching London.
Of course many did get through and Londoners suffered greatly during the Blitz.
Later in the war there was a new menace, the flying bomb or Doodlebug as it became known. They were pilot less and made the most dreadful noise, when the engine stopped you knew they were going to come down so you had to take cover immediately to avoid the blast and flying shrapnel. Benenden was one of the villages most hit by Doodlebugs. One landed on the house just along the road from ours, it killed a lady there and a very large piece of it landed in our front garden. I was the only one still in our house as Mum, Dad and Joy ( who was staying ) had already gone off to see if they could help the neighbours. I was just carrying a tray of tea things to the kitchen. I quickly knelt on the floor and saw the bedroom ceilings come down. My parents did not know we had damage until I caught up with them.

In 1943 I was sent to Averton Gifford in South Devon as an evacuee. I lived with Mr +Mrs Moore and their three children, Margaret, Mervyn and Cynthia. They were very nice people but I was quite a shy girl when I was with strangers. I had to share Cynthia's bed, but we got on well. I went to Kingsbridge school by bus ( what a treat ). It was bigger than I was used to but I did enjoy it there. A new Headmaster started while I was there ( Mr Green). He came from Kent. I sat next to a girl called Mary Cock. Her parents had a farm so we had something in common. We became great friends and still keep in touch some 62 years on. She is now Mrs Maunder.
The river that flows through Averton Gifford flooded twice whilst I was there. I had never seen anything like it before. Only buildings, trees and tall objects could be seen. We could not go to school as the bus could not get through. In the village there was a little hall where each Saturday they had a film show for the children. They were mostly cartoons and cowboy films. I could not understand why I had been sent there as the Church had been bombed earlier in the war. Of course living in the village meant we had a very sociable life and I thoroughly enjoyed myself with my many friends.
To return home I was sent on what was called an evacuee train. All the children had name labels on them. We carried our bags or cases and of course the gas mask. We were given biscuits to eat on the train, they were very plain and hard and reminded me of the ones we gave to our dog. Our journey was broken at Reading where we all spent the night in local schools, sleeping on the floor. The next morning we were lined up on the platform of Reading station and town names were called out. When your station was called you had to step out of the line. When Ashford was called I stepped forward. ( Lucky it was Ashford, Kent and not Ashford, Middlesex ). Once at my destination I was collected and quickly taken home. I have lost contact with Mr + Mrs Moore although initially the letters that I sent were answered.
Life settled back into a routine that involved rationing, doing without and being careful with things. I went back to school at Benenden and settled in once again. I passed the exam for the Technical School but never went there as it was at that time that Dad had to have his leg amputated. I was needed on the farm and my parents could not afford for me to go to the school.

Jean married in August 1955. Her husband Raymond Dennis Baker was a very lucky Bombardier in the Royal Artillery. His story is told on a separate page entitled Life of a Gunner 1942 to 1946.

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