A Very Different War: The Story of an Evacuee Sent to America During WWII - Softcover

Milbourn, Joan Louise

9780954703202: A Very Different War: The Story of an Evacuee Sent to America During WWII

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0954703200 ISBN 13: 9780954703202

Publisher: Louise Milbourn, 2004

Louise Milbourn tells how the fear of German invasion in August 1940 forced her Quaker parents to make the agonizing decision to send their two daughters away to safety.

The separation was to last five long years during which time Louise and her sister, Blanche enjoyed a happy childhood with an American Quaker family where they experienced a very different war to that of their family back in England.

These differences became apparent when they returned to austerity Britain in 1945. The years spent away cast a lasting shadow on the girl’s relationship with their mother. With the help of letters written at the time, Louise has written a compelling account of the impact this war had on the personalities involved.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Author:

This is the story of a transatlantic evacuation of two little girls (myself) Louise, aged 8 and my elder sister, Blanche, aged 10, sent from Plymouth across the dangerous and U Boat infested waters of the Atlantic in 1940 to live in New Jersey, U.S.A.

At the time, Plymouth was being bombed; Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, where my father’s relations lived, was already occupied by the German Army so there was a feeling of imminent invasion. Further, my parents had helped escaping refugees from the Continent prior to the outbreak of war so for this reason the family felt particularly vulnerable had there been an invasion by Germany.

My parents, who were Quakers, were pleased to be able to send their daughters to another though unknown Quaker family who had three children of their own. The standards and values they hoped would be similar.

When I was clearing my mother’s home after her death in 1995 my sister and I made the exciting discovery of all the correspondence from our American foster mother and ourselves to England during this time. They are such good letters from that wise and caring woman, my foster mother, that I feel they should be given a wider audience describing what was a very positive experience.

On our arrival she wrote: "Your little girls seem as well and as happy as can be. To me they seem almost a miracle, they have fitted into our scheme of life so easily. There have been no tears at all, not once, and the house is full of laughter all day long - as a house should be with children in it."
The book tells of the happy times and adventures that we had with our American family: the day to day life of school and Quaker Meeting on Sundays; long summer vacations with Summer Camp, skating and tobogganing in winter with a lot of freedom; and for myself, under the auspices of a kindly uncle, an introduction to natural sciences and archaeology.

After V.E. Day, marking the end of the War in Europe, our mother managed to get to the U.S.A. from England to collect her daughters now 13 and 15 and see the home we had lived in for 5 long years. I hardly recognised this small strange woman when she arrived.

Other letters found were those from my mother to my father back in England telling of the household she found. Something of a perfectionist with fairly rigid views she found a happy-go-lucky family where housekeeping was not a high priority and dogs were all over the place.

She writes of her feelings at this time. "I’m dreading the last days here, they will be at fever heat. Blanche is feeling dreadfully torn. Our biggest task is to gain their love and respect and, oh, it’s going to be hard. They have received me as an unpleasant necessity poor darlings and quite frankly and uncompromisingly prefer Aunt Nancy (the foster mother). It is hard to keep a festering jealousy from rising up inside me. Perhaps it is not jealousy but just a new sort of heartbreak that has gone with this whole business over these five years. But it is not only our heartbreak but theirs as well. Theirs that I do not come up to expectations, that I do not identify myself here and that modes and manners here are so obviously not ours at home."

This sums up the problems of readjustment to England for everyone concerned. Not only were my sister and I returning to austerity Britain but within two weeks we were in English boarding schools. Once back our mother found she had to share her husband with her two attractive daughters. Not surprisingly re-establishing relationships was difficult.

From the Back Cover:

Louise Milbourn first told her story on Radio 4 when interviewed by John Peel on Home Truths. She told how the fear of German invasion in Au
gust 1940 forced her Quaker parents to make the agonising decision to send their two young daughters away for safety.
The seperation was to last five long years during which time Louise and her sister, Blanche, enjoyed a happy childhood with an American Quaker family where they experienced a very different war to that of their family back in England.
These differences became apparent when they returned to the austerity of Britain in 1945. The years spent away cast a lasting shadow on the girl's relationship with their mother.
With the help of letters written at the time, Louise has written a compelling account of the impact this war had on their personalities.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.