Gordon Rickwood moved to Eresby Hall in Spilsby earlier this year, and here he shares his recollections of World War II as part of the 80^th anniversary celebrations of VE Day.  He was aged just 7 years old when the war started in Europe.

“When I was a child, I went to an infant school in Paddington in London. When the war started, we were put on a train and evacuated. Me and my friend were sent to a farm in Devonshire, in a little village called Ashwell. We were there for two years. The farm was run by Mr and Mrs Salter, a lovely elderly couple who didn’t have any children of their own but suddenly had me and my friend to look after. 

"We helped on the farm when we weren’t at school. I had several accidents while there. The farmer was told to plough up all his fields to grow crops to support the war effort. We had dairy cattle and in the middle of the fields there were big tree trunks for them to scratch up against, instead of them pushing the fences over. We were asked to dig up all the tree stumps so the fields could be used for the crops. We had pitch forks to get them out with and one night I put my fork down into what I thought was the ground, when it was my foot. It went straight through but I didn’t swear, in those days we didn’t know about that sort of thing, but I can tell you it hurt a lot. The farmer took me to hospital on the back of one of his trucks, I can’t remember how far it was, but I wasn’t really thinking about that at the time. I remember I still had to go to school the next morning, which was about a mile away, and I had to walk, even with my bad foot. Anyway, it healed up after a few months.

“The next thing was an incident with the cows. We still had some dairy cattle and the one time we were bringing them in for milking. We had to do all of this by hand, no machines in those days, so it was very hard work and took a while to do. We had about 8 – 10 cows in one barn all chained to the fence. There was one big black cow with great big straight horns that was in the group. The chains were all locked by a simple hoop with a bar going across which kept it locked. My finger must have slipped on the crossbar and as I turned to go out, the cow turned and caught me in the face with its horn. It speared me straight between my eyeball and my socket, right at the side of my nose. It was a bit like a scene out of a horror film and it put me out of action for a few weeks. I hate to think what the next thing might have been if I had stayed there. 

“In the old farmhouse there was no electricity or gas. We had big old oil lamps to see by and a log fire to heat the water for baths and to cook on. We had an old tin bath that took a while to fill. We all got on well and because we were children, we thought it was great fun.

“Two of my brothers were in the Navy at that time. One was a ‘charioteer’ which means he used to have to sit on the torpedo, put his gear on and then manoeuvre the torpedo. He did two or three jobs like that, then came back home. He was then supposed to be going on a special mission to Italy where they were testing out a new type of submarine. Unfortunately, he never made it because they hit a mine and were all killed. I didn’t meet him very many times because he joined the Navy at 16. 

“Bob, my other brother, also joined the Navy and he was out fighting in India. 

“My other brother Ernie was sent down the mines for a while to be a ‘belly boy’ or ‘Bevin Boy’. His job was to assist in the filling of the coal tubs underground, before they were sent up to the top for transportation. Ernie had a poorly chest and so they dismissed him from this job after only a few months.  He was recruited to the Royal Artillery where he served two terms until the war ended. When he left, he started a job as a lorry driver for Wilson Green.”