When Adolf Hitler decided in 1944 that he was going to finish off the London area, at least, with doodlebugs and/or rockets, my parents decided after a couple of months that I should be evacuated.

With many other children from this area, I was sent through the governments scheme from Tiffin Boys School in Kingston-On-Thames to a somewhat safer area - Birmingham. Our group of evacuees finished up at Billesley where my cousin and my friend were billeted with a gas department meter reader and his family. That was in late July and, in September my friend and I were allotted to King's Norton Grammar School (as it then was).

With much fear and trembling, never having been away from home, we nervously entered the School at the beginning of the Autumn term. We needn't have worried. We were treated with great friendliness and soon settled down to life in strange surroundings. After a few weeks, I was picked for the School's football team and spent several happy afternoons traveling around the Birmingham area visiting other grammar schools in the area.

Having passed the School Certificate examination in June,1944, I was placed in the 6th Form where I was treated with great kindness by the teachers and my classmates. Unfortunately, I can only remember the first name of one teacher, "Ned"____ who taught French. Thank you, King's Norton, for a very happy experience at a school far from home.