Evacuees

Christmas Eve at the Front

An interesting letter has just been received by Mrs Packer, of Broadclyst, from her husband, Corpl Packer of A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, who is serving with the Expeditionary Force in Northern France. In the course of a letter he describes a remarkable incident which occurred on Christmas Eve between the British and German trenches.

Damaged homes left behind

17th September 1940

From the bombed areas of London and the south-east coast have come in scores of people to seek haven in this part of the Westcountry.

Some have come under the official schemes - such as mothers with young children - others have come because they have relations or friends in these parts, and there are also those who have come quite unofficially.

Offers of shelter should be addressed to the Mayor of Bideford through the Chief Billeting Officer (Mr W J Langford), Town Hall, Bideford.

Mrs R I Smith, of Peckham, has come with her family of five, two of whom were already in Bideford as evacuees under the government scheme. "Its not war-fare, its murder" declares Mrs Deverill, also of Peckham, who is staying at Chircombe, Northam.

From West Ham, Mrs I Jude, staying at 4, Church Walk, Bideford, said just at the back of her house, which had its windows blown out, there was a time bomb. When they left it had not gone off. They had had no real sleep for nearly a fortnight.

Thrill for Youth, Bideford Evacuees keep fit 1st July 1941

Thrill for Youth, Bideford Evacuees keep fit

1st July 1941

"Mens sana in sano corpore" (a sound mind in a sound body) is a motto taken to heart by Peckham Central School, nearly 250 pupils of which were evacuated to Bideford a year ago and have found wartime school premises at Bideford Baptist Schoolrooms.

Photograph above show a practice on the lawn outside the Baptish School buildings, and it will be seen that movement and thrill are inseparable from their exercises.

Happy Plymouth Toddlers at Instow 14th October 1941

Devon 72 Detachment of the British Red Cross Society which is the Instow branch of that organisation, has been busily engaged for some months in assisting with the care of some fifty children whose ages range up to 5 years and whose homes have been bombed in Plymouth. In the charming settings of Tapely Park, the residence of Mr John Christie, these children are receiving care and attention watched over by a matron and trained sisters.

The Instow Red Cross nurses, under the capable supervision of Miss W Dobbs, Commandant, have given valuable assistance, not only in the essentials of nursing but in the less spectacular, but none of the less important, tasks in the kitchen when staff has been depleted.