Sussex's Wartime Evacuations

Once again, my gratitude goes out to the Chittenden family for the trove of information and images that they've provided for us here at Who Is George Mills? This week, we'll take a look at an very interesting document entitled "Evacuation," written recently by Ann, a daughter of Hugh and Barbara Chittenden of Newlands School in Seaford, Sussex. It's a delightful and personal recollection of a five year long event that had the potential to be a nightmare, and one hopes that most of the children who had been evacuated at the onset of the Second World War were able to, like Ann, keep many of the joys of childhood intact—at least to some degree.


Thenford

At the beginning of the war, Newlands School was evacuated for a period of five years, firstly to Thenford House situated in a small hamlet approximately five miles from Banbury in Oxfordshire. It was a lovely Georgian mansion although I remember it being extremely cold in winter, the only heating being provided by open fires. I think Thenford House had approximately 80 acres of land. I started off as the only girl in a school comprising of about 60 boys. Two other girls joined the school later on during the evacuation although for a shorter period.

We had a very carefree childhood. The worry of keeping the school going and the safety of the children must have been an absolute nightmare for my parents, but we were unaware of this at the time and I recall a very happy childhood with a lot of freedom.

Below is a list of some of my extremely random childhood memories of my time at Thenford!

Our classrooms were over the stables.

The owner of Thenford House had left his horses behind and the groom who remained there taught me to ride.

Fire practise involved putting a rope around one's middle and being lowered over the side of the house from the parapet. I doubt modern Health and Safety officials would approve!

There was a large lake on which we skated – highly dangerous! I also learnt to chop firewood with an axe at the age of 8, as did the boys at the school. Again, highly dangerous!

There was a rogue gardener who had locked the kitchen garden and was selling the fruit and vegetables, which were supposed to be for the use of the school. I recall my father, with the school doctor, climbing over the walls in the middle of the night to raid the garden for his own vegetables!

The farm was just beyond the stable yard and, after milking, I used to drive the cattle back to the fields for the farmer at the age of 8.

One night at Thenford we were all taken down to the cellars as Coventry was being bombed. I recall there was a red glow in the sky, although Coventry was a long way away.

I remember going for a walk through the woods with our gas masks on for practise. They used to steam up and I used to lift the sides up to let the air in which would have defeated the object.

My father joined the Home Guard at Thenford [above, left], which was a little bit like Dad's Army!


Wardington

After three years we moved to Wardington House in the village of Wardington near Banbury. My memories of my time at Wardington include:

There was a farm next door to the house with a herd of jersey cows and my mother used to make bowls of clotted cream for us. Delicious!

There were Italian prisoners of war working on the farm. I recall that they used to wait every evening by the front of Wardington House to be picked up and returned to their camp.

I used to ride the butcher's pony for sixpence an hour.

My mother used to provide food for midnight feasts for the school, unbeknown to anyone else!

I remember the Home Guard at Wardington also. The overriding memory is of the Home Guard marching up the village street, with their Commanding Officer shouting “Halt” and they completely ignored him and kept on marching. He kept on shouting “Halt” until he finally gave up and yelled “Oh, for gawd's sake halt!”


Seaford

During the evacuation the school buildings in Seaford were taken over by the French Canadians. They used the weather vane for target practise and shot off the North, South, East and West which were later found after the war in the flower beds in the garden.

All very light hearted memories, of no importance but I hope they are of some interest to you!


Wonderful! I do believe these memories are important, though. The numbers—how many children were relocated, what transportation, average distance travelled, destinations, costs, etc. —are, I'm sure, readily available on-line and in dusty books. The facts and the figures, however, don't really tell the human part of the story.

These recollections help me—and all of us—envision a time and a way of life that's disappearing all too quickly, no matter on which side of the Atlantic one resides. Memories of things like the fire drills, the rogue gardener, the clotted cream, and the Italian prisoners help re-create it all in a way that makes television programmes like Foyle's War so popular—at least here in the States.

Perhaps the most enduring pop-cultural reference to Britain's evacuation of children during World War II comes in the first chapter of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, as described in Wikipedia : "The story begins in 1940 during World War II, when four siblings—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie—are evacuated from London to escape the Blitz. They are sent to live with Professor Digory Kirke, who lives in a country house in the English countryside."

In Lewis's novel there is no reference to where, exactly, the children had been relocated, but it's easy to imagine that, had those Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve not become involved in their adventures beyond the wardrobe, they may have instead explored the area around Professor Kirke's country house and had much less fantastic, but quite meaningful, adventures like Ann's above.

How does any of this truly relate to George Mills? First, George lived in this world, and it was far less idyllic than as was perceived by young Ann. Mills returned to the military in 1940, becoming a second lieutenant army paymaster at the age of 40, assuring us that he was keenly aware of his duty during the conflict as well as the dangers for himself and his nation. Understanding the world in which Mills lived provides context for understand the man himself.

Secondly—and as always seems to happen when we study George Mills—we find there is a Sussex connection.

During George's time as a schoolmaster at Warren Hill School in Meads late in the decade of the 1920s, he must have been acquainted with writers (and sisters-in-law) Kitty Barne and Noel Streatfeild. Mills was not a writer at the time, and would not become a published author until the appearance of his breakthrough novel Meredith and Co.: The Story of a Modern Preparatory School on bookshelves in 1933. George had taught with Kitty's husband, and Noel's brother, musician Eric Streatfeild in Eastbourne.

Meredith and Co. contained vignettes undoubtedly culled for his time at Warren Hill, as well as his stint at Windlesham House, then in Portslade, and made a study of the vernacular used by boys of the era, a first in children's literature. It was a device that many subsequent children's authors have imitated.

Later that decade, as children were being evacuated from Sussex and in the same year that Mills was returning to active duty under the Colours, Kitty Barne published her Carnegie Medal winning book Visitors from London, an early novel about evacuees that was set in Sussex.

By 1945, Noel Streatfeild had authored Saplings, a novel intended for adult readers, set in 1939 and describing the wartime experiences of the Wiltshire family, focusing on the children Laurel, Tony, Kim and Tuesday. Saplings, according to a reviewer called Nymeth , "chronicles the psychological effect these separations, this uncertainly and instability, had on those who had to grow up with them," and "capture[s] a child’s perspective and understanding of the world" as it was for them during the war.

The on-line review continues: "The children are actually very well-off, in the sense that they are physically safe, they never go hungry, and they don't suffer discomforts. And yet my heart still broke for them."

That is very much how one might feel regarding Ann's memories above. It's a tribute to Ann, and the rest of the world's ' greatest generation,' that they survived so much and were able, for the most part, to come away with memories of a positive nature. Families were separated, lives disrupted, and a gnawing feeling of fear must have been prevalent, knowing Nazis were just miles away in occupied France, anticipating overrunning and conquering England in much the same way they'd blitzkrieged most of Europe. It's difficult today to think of those times as having been anything but frightening, a feeling of which we find a hint in Ann's recollection of the bombing of Coventry.

Ann Chittenden, as a child, seems to have lived very much in the moment, and if she harbours any grim or bitter recollections of leaving home and family for five years of her life, she isn't dwelling on them.

Noel Streatfeild, however, was still ruminating over the events of the evacuation some thirty years later when, in 1974, she published When the Sirens Wailed, a text described as being "about three evacuees and cover[ing] issues like rations for evacuees, relationship[s] between evacuees and townspeople, and the problems encountered by those who stayed behind." [You can find more about the book by clicking HERE.]

Many thanks, Ann, for adding your own memories here.


George Mills had passed away in 1972, and there's no indication that he ever discussed his feelings and experiences during the war with anyone who still living today. During the conflict, George dealt with the deaths of friends (Terence Hadow, Egerton Clarke), colleagues (Capt. William Mocatta, Joshua Goodland), and loved ones (his wife, Vera, and his mother, Edith), all between 1939 and 1945.

We certainly don't know if he kept in touch with Barne or Streatfeild after leaving behind a career as a schoolmaster and becoming, like them, an author of children's books. What we do know is that whenever we examine George's life, or the lives of those close to him, the path always seems to lead us to Sussex.

Did George spend time after the war teaching in Sussex—Seaford, specifically—at Newlands School? Right now we have no evidence of that.

But it wouldn't surprise me one bit!

Coniscliffe and Canucks by the Sea

It's been an in-and-out sort of day here in sunny Ocala, Florida. While we were away to the north in much cooler Michigan [left], there must have been a great deal of rain here: The grass in some places is nearly knee deep after just 10 days or so. The heat has me ducking in and out of doors as I do battle with my lawn.

While I'm in right now, let me follow up on some other information related to George Mills that's come in.

Michael Ockenden of the Eastbourne Local History Society has been a friend of the site and provided information that was used in the entry called "22 Meads Street." Our speculation that the "enumerator" of the 1911 census at Coniscliffe had misspelled the name of a Warren Hill School colleague of George Mills, Eric Streatfeild, was apparently incorrect.

Here's word I've received recently setting the record straight:

From: Jane O'Connell
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 2:07 AM
Subject: Eric Streatfield

Hello

I was looking at your site as I am researching a young woman who was also living at 'Coniscliffe'. I just wanted to reassure you that in the 1911 census, it was the occupier who completed the form. The person who misspelled his surname was the person who transcribed the entry into digital form...

Best wishes,

Jane

PS If you would like a copy of the census return, just let me know.

I've asked for a copy, just for my records. Thanks very much, Jane! And, just for the record, the correct spelling is: Eric Streatfeild.

One other item regarding this subject and my holiday up north: While away, I read Ockenden's terrific book, Canucks by the Sea: The Canadian Army in Eastbourne during the Second World War.

In this informative text, he personally relates the story told in "22 Meads Street" on this website in much greater detail, and with background information that makes the events of that day, as well, as the war years in Sussex, fit into a broader and very human context.

Meads was the location of Warren Hill School, an employer of George Mills before it closed in 1936, and anyone interested in learning about the area in the first half of the 20th century is certainly advised to read Canucks by the Sea!

For more information on Eric Streatfeild himself, his wife, novelist, Kitty Barne, their cousin, author and performer Noel Streatfield, and even a link to Arthur Conan Doyle, all somehow fitted into the context of the life and career of George Mills, read the entry from Saturday, 10 April 2010, entitled "Visualizing Warren Hill School and Some Possible Muses."

Finally, once again, I'd like to thank Michael and the Eastbourne Local History Society as a whole for all of their valuable assistance in my research!

Visualizing Warren Hill School and Some Possible Muses

I slept in this morning, a wonderful lie about that's allowed me to really enjoy the cool, sunny morning here in Ocala. The trees were not long ago brown and grey scratches on a sky that was becoming increasingly blue. Now the breeze has trouble making the boughs, heavy with leaves, sway in the breeze. The delicate blossoms are falling gently from the fig tree, and even the birds seem languid as they call this morning.

I couldn't have been more relaxed when I opened my e-mail box, but now my heart has sped and I'm truly excited: I've seen Warren Hill School!

Sometime between 1926 and 1933, George Mills taught in Eastbourne, and along the way, the members of the Eastbourne Local History Society have gone out of their way to help me understand the world he lived in at the time, from the location of the school, to the school's history and staff, right down to the local where Mills likely would have had his pint after a long day in front of the desks.Still, the images I'd seen of the area were from today. Warren Hill as it stood in the time of G. Mills, full of laughing [well sometimes laughing] boys at work and at play, lived only in my imagination. Today, however, we have our first glimpse of what Mills saw [click images to enlarge].

Here's word from Michael of the ELHS:
Hello Sam:

Another Michael of Eastbourne Local History has turned up these two photographs of Warren Hill School. The first is probably from a postcard and shows the view looking up what is now Beachy Head Road with the school on the left. It's hard to date precisely but one can suppose that it is pre 1900. The masters' residence must be the house on the right. The girls walking down the hill are almost level with a group of flint cottages which still stand. One of these was rented during various summers by Arthur Conan Doyle.

The second is a private photograph showing a cricket match on the playing field behind the main building. (See the plan of the school.) The picture clearly shows the spaciousness of the school grounds. The low structure to the left is probably the house which still stands on the site (50 45 22 95 N and 0 15 52 90 E) - the last vestige of Warren Hill School [see image, far below, left].

Brilliant! Thank you, Michael, and the other Michael! It's interesting to see students engaged in one of the sports that Mills obvously loved so much, and that are also an integral part of his novels. And, now that I've discovered how to enter latitude and longitude into Google Earth correctly—What a difference adding a decimal point makes!—we can see that "last vestige" of Warren Hill from above, and not just an anonymous field in France!

It's interesting to think that Mills, besides being from a family that frequented the publishing houses of London, had the opportunity to meet novelist Kitty Barne, wife of Eric Streatfeild who likley taught music at Warren Hill, and their cousin Noel Streatfeild, not to mention the possibility of having an acquaintance with Arthur Conan Doyle, who published 10 books between 1924 and 1930, including The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes in 1927. And all of this was likely happening at, around, or near Warren Hill School, pictured again at right.

Eric and Kitty married in June, 1912. Kitty had studied music at the Royal College of Music, and was listed as living in Eastbourne in the 1911 census. Eric isn't to be found on that census [Correction: We now know Streatfeild was, indeed, listed in the 1911 census—his surname had been misspelled]. There is a household of the Revd. William C. Streatfeild in Eastbourne listed at the time. The reverend is Eric's father.


[Note (6 Oct 2012): From Roger Sharland in a comment recorded below: "William Champion Streatfeild was not Eric Streatfeild's father but rather uncle. William Champion was the father of Noel Streatfeild, but his brother Alexander Edward Champion Streatfeild was Eric's father."]

Information from the 1901 census has Eric L. Streatfeild born in Nutfield, Surrey in 1872, but living in Eastbourne and working as a "schoolmaster's assistant," presumably at Warren Hill. That would make Streatfeild 40 years of age at the time of his marriage to Miss Barne. If he were to have known George Mills in, say, 1926, he'd have been approximately 54 years old. Mr. Streatfeild passed away in Sussex in 1954.

Now, we already know George Mills was clearly interested in the performing arts, as indicated from his time spent at Windlesham House in Brighton just before. He had even written songs, so his involvement with the Streatfeilds is even more likely.At that time, Streatfeild's wife, Kitty was on the verge of becoming a children's book author herself when she must have become acquainted with Mills. However, she had already put herself on the proverbial map: In 1925, she published The Music of Amber Gate: A Pageant Play [J. Curwen & Sons; London, 1925] with a pianoforte score, after having previously published Winds ... A play written by Kitty Barne & D. W. Wheeler. Composed by Kitty Barne. Illustrations by Lucy Barne. (Staff and tonic sol-fa notation.) [J. Curwen & Sons: London, 1912], Timothy's Garden: A Children's Play [J. Curwen & Sons: London, 1912] with a vocal score, and To-morrow. A play written by Kitty Barne and D.W. Wheeler. Composed by Kitty Barne. Illustrated by Lucy Barne, all in the year she was wed [Note: All of those titles appear just as they are catalogued in the British Library]. The last published work that I can find credited to her would be Introducing Mozart in 1957. Wikipedia has her dying on 3 February 1961, "after a long illness."It's presumable that George Mills had also made the acquaintance of Eric and Kitty's cousin, the renowned Noel Streatfeild [pictured, right], who was born in Sussex, trained as a performer at the Academy of Dramatic Art, and learned to write through a correspondence course after spending volunteer time authoring plays to entertain wounded soldiers during the First World War. Noel later published novels for adults, the earliest I can find being in 1931 [The Whitcarts], but before that she had also written children's plays and had a story published thatb had been printed in a children's magazine. Perhaps she was involved in learning to write professionally while George Mills, himself from a family of then-currently popular authors [Arthur Hobart and Lady Dorothy Mills], was in Eastbourne.

Streatfeild, born on 24 December 1895, would have been just a year younger than George when he found himself in Eastbourne where Noel was presumably writing those children's plays. She published a collection of them, The Children’s Matinée, in 1934, just a year after Mills had published his successful children's book, Meredith and Co. Streatfeild was soon convinced to write her first children's book, Ballet Shoes, by J.M. Dent & Sons, London, in 1936. Many feel it is still her most enduring work.Contemporary Americans best know Noel Streatfeild as the author of the books higly and very personally recommended by the character played by Meg Ryan in the film You've Got Mail.

After coming from a family of authors of both fiction and non-fiction in many genres, and finding himself at Warren Hill in the midst of the Streatfeilds and Kitty Barne, not to mention the possibility of Arthur Conan Doyle, Mills must have been inspired beyond anything we can imagine. Suddenly, a man who'd left relatively little mark on the world is poised to write unprecedentedly realistic books about the British preparatory schoolboys he found himself among at the time. Imagine the conversations about books, music, drama, and the effect of those on youth that must have filled the air around Meads!

Artistically, Warren Hill must have been the place where the seed of his books was first planted and nurtured. One can see that in the back cover art of the 1950 Oxford University Press edition Meredith and Co. The façade of the master's residence of fictional Leadham House School is depicted with a single, unadorned gable [right, click to enlarge], extremely similar to the building to the right in the first image of the school above. Windlesham has no gables at all, and The Craig has gables that resemble Dutch "crow stepping". This illustration, which substitutes a school bell for chimneys atop the building, much more resembles Warren Hill than either of the other two!

How much of an influence did the Streatfeild family, either en masse or individually, have on George? How much influence did George have on them, as well as on the school and Meads? Did Doyle, who rented a flint cottage at Warren Hill in the summers figure into this community in any way, despite his international renown, or was he simply reclusive? Even if Doyle's presence was not simultaneous with George's, how could the author of Holmes, Watson, Moriarty, and much else not have left some sort of a "legacy" around the campus? How much influence did the community of Eastbourne have on them all, and vice versa?

That is all, at this point, open to conjecture. In Warren Hill and the community of Eastbourne, though, he seemingly had found a place where he felt more free to express himself tha he might have before, and lived and worked among friends and colleagues with whom I suspect he might have felt he truly belonged. To me, it would be simply stunning if a gregarious, creative, arts-oriented chap like Mills had managed to avoid the influence of the Warren Hill of that era, despite Eastbournbe's overall reputation for staid respectability.A final note, according to wikipedia.com: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was found dead, clutching his chest on 7 July, 1930, in the fall of "Windlesham," his home in Crowborough, Sussex. Windlesham...?

Did the onset of the Great Depression hasten George's departure from Warren Hill? If so, what a shame! Anyone with any information about how Mills may have thrived, and why he eventually left, the apparently fertile soil of Meads [left, as seen from above today], please don't hesitate to let me know!

The Eastbourne Local History Society Comes Through!

There's been so much new information found that I'm having trouble keeping up with it all—something that I didn't expect, but that delights me! In the last couple of days, I've spent quite a bit of time in Microsoft Word creating a 21-page time line not only of George Mills himself, but of many people and events in his lifetime, and some from before he was born, that would have influenced him. It's been an undertaking, and I've been neglectful in keeping up with incoming info!

Here's some input from the wonderful members of the Eastbourne Local History Society [who provided the photograph above] regarding my Google-enabled virtual drive around Beachy Head Road outside of Eastbourne near Warren Hill itself. Let me share some...

Society member Maureen [click for her personal website] was the first to respond to my enquiries. Regarding my spotting what seemed to be cricket fields that may have been at Warren Hill School in Eastbourne, she wrote "the sports pitches to which you refer to probably belong to the University of Brighton who have a campus in this area, as does St Andrews School, both of which are still in existence today."

And in reference to some information you simply can't find on Google Maps, "what is now known as Beachy Head Road, has in the past been called Warren Hill Road and New Road."

Also: "The Beachy Head Countryside Centre, based on the A259 coast road, is nothing whatsoever to do with Warren Hill school. this building was formerly a farm and now a conservation centre, at the entrance to the Seven Sisters Country Park."

Thank you so much, Maureen! Okay, so I missed all of that completely...

She closes, "the Compton Estate office may have some info on this site as the Duke of Devonshire owned most of the land in this area."

Thanks so much, everyone! I feel silly now, thinking I could somehow use computer technology and a "spy satellite" to propel myself back into the past…

Also from the Michael in the Society:

"Warren Hill was a well known preparatory school in the town and I'm sure there must be references to it in our various index volumes. I have only a partial index here but see that the school was mentioned in Number 104 (pages 8 and 9). It may well have been referred to in other issues of our quarterly newsletter (Eastbourne Local Historian) and perhaps one of the members can provide details.

The school and its occupants (it was a boarding school) will be on the 1901 and 1911 census returns but unfortunately the 1911 census was conducted during the Easter holidays. The census returns are available on line, as you probably know.

I know of one master at the school ... Eric Streatfeild, who almost certainly taught music. He married the novelist, Kitty Barne, and I am currently researching both of the above. I don't know when the school ceased to exist but can confirm that it is listed in my 1914 directory for Eastbourne. The address is given as Beachy Head Road and the headmaster is A. Max Wilkinson MA. It is described as a 'gentlemen's school'."

I'm actually becoming quite adept at perusing vintage British census reports, and I'll admit some are making for fascinating reading, even if one has no interest in Mills at all. There are two, for example, from Killerton, Devon, that are pertinent to G.M.'s history and that I simply savored.

Now, Windlesham School's belief is that George Mills left Portslade and went immediately moved down the coast to Warren Hill School. If so, we know Warren Hill was open in 1914, and that he could have begun teaching there as early as 1926. Even if that specualtion is incorrect, it appears Mills was definitely in Oxford in 1921 although we can't be sure at this point how long he actually stayed.

Michael has further managed to acquire even more nuggets of information, some of which he reveals in this subsequent message:

Just a little taster ... the location of Warren Hill School is not as you suspect. Beachy Head Road is quite a long road. The school (which no longer stands ... apart from the former hall or gym) was situated on the left-hand side of Beachy Head Road, between Coltstocks Road and Darley Road. [Update: The school was, indeed, located behind the gate in the wall at the right!] The playing field was elsewhere and I will give you more details in due course.

So pse bear with me for now ...

One of our senior members has just e-mailed to say:-

> I remember Warren Hill School as a regular opponent on our fixture lists during the 1930s. Their football field was at the top end of Carlisle Road. But I seem to recall that it was dropped from our fixtures well before 1939, so maybe it had closed by then. It does not appear in my 1939 street directory.

Well done! We now have a location for Warren Hill School—and I've now seen how long a road that Beachy Head is!

I've just now virtually "driven" it both ways: To the east and to the west. I'm not certain, however, which way I'd be traveling for the school's site to be on my left. Would that be the north side of the road or the south? I snapped a couple of photos along the way that I thought [hoped] might have been at least near the school's site. Warning: I do have serious doubts, however, regarding most of my newly-formed geographical notions of Sussex!

We've also narrowed the window around Warren Hill's disppearance. Although the school was no longer in existence by 1939, Mills seems to have referred to the school's "staff and boys" in the same present tense he does Windlesham in his dedication to 1933's Meredith and Co.

With Warren Hill off of the local football fixtures seemingly well before 1939, it's conceivable that, as opposed to Mills leaving Warren Hill for teaching positions in Windermere and Glion, Warren Hill may well have "left" him!

I'll certainly be looking forward to any and all information forthcoming from the Eastbourne Local History Society about Warren Hill School. I'd also be interested in anything else deemed important or distinctive about the era between, say, 1920 and 1933 in Sussex. Somewhere within it all anothrer clue to Mills may be hiding!

Thank you all so much for the help you've given a stranger. I can't even begin to express my appreciation!