Mary Tout - Born 15th June 1938 Father: Henry (Harry, but known as Dick) Lovell Seyzinger White (HLS White). Photographer, and keen on first aid and gardening. Born 29th Dec 1910. Married my mother on 28th April 1935. Lived in Kent, right on the border of London, Sidcup UDC. When the war came, Dad was in the Civil Defence and went into the army in January 1942, aged 31. I remember him going down the path. I was 3 and a half—it was a dark January morning. We went back into the dining room, and my mother put her arms around my sister and me, and she cried. My first evacuation was to Exeter at age 2, before the cathedral was bombed. I said of the cathedral, "Oh Mummy, isn't this a big welfare" (clinic). The second evacuation was to Rimington, Lancashire. The nearby town was Clitheroe. I was three. Dad was with us for three weeks, then went back to London. He brought me a little truck. I fell into a well, but fortunately, it was covered. "I was soaked through to my vest!" Dad was then called up on 8th January 1942. He was a hairdresser and a stretcher bearer because he was in the Red Cross. I think he went over on D-Day. He was in Holland, France, and Belgium. My father was in the Royal West Kent Regiment, number 6354706. However, that regiment was full, so he was moved to the Royal Wiltshire Regiment but kept the same number. Wives wore the badges of the regiment. The third evacuation was to Halifax, Yorkshire. An official came with us and had an attaché case with chocolate in it! We had to stay at a school for two or three nights and slept on mattresses. It was a Victorian-type school. On a bus, the people were waving and welcoming us. I remember playing in a park. We stayed with Mrs. Southwell. She had a very grown-up daughter, Joyce, who was 17. Mrs. Southwell taught my mother to make sour milk cheese. There was a fish and chip shop around the corner (run by Mr. and Mrs. Craven). My grandmother (father's mother) came with us from Ealing. She originally came from Sheffield. Mum taught her to crochet. I was 4 ...