Of course when war broke out Mr. Gobini had to go because he was Italian.
I was with the A.R.P. in the evenings in the Town Hall, taking telephone messages with Eileen Smith. We had to phone in to Newport when there was an air raid.
It was so dark at night with no lights, I hated it.
Then in the morning the bus came for us at a quarter to 7 so we didn’t always get much sleep.
I was sent to Cowes to work in the shipyard, riveting. It was horrible!  My face used to be black when I got home. Some of the other girls weren’t very nice, their language….
Once I was put with a man who was on piece work. We had to work so fast! Another time a man came to see us to ask us to rivet a flag pole. We said ‘We cant do it!’ but we did, over 700 rivets , and you had to be so careful otherwise it bent.
My aunt had some evacuees to stay with her.  Poor little mites. They must have been so unhappy away from home. Effie Pitman b 1920

‘Unofficial’  and ‘Official’ Evacuee numbers at Yarmouth School