[15] Earith WW2 and evacuees

In a recent interview with the local British Legion Branch Chairman, John (known to all his mates as Jack) Wales, Dave Brown ¹ received a magnificent insight into what the lives and times were like for firstly a youngster in Earith WW2, at the outbreak of the Second World War, and secondly, as a man doing ‘his bit’ for King and Country.

Some background leading up to WW2

Livestock farming

Although Earith is still a rural community, in those days it relied even more heavily on farming and the livestock business.

Indeed Jack’s father and his father before him were calf dealers, and along with many others in the area, they would keep four or five cows in a small holding on the fen, to supplement their meagre agricultural earnings.

The role of Trotting and Hackney horses

Jack’s father even bred Hackney horses, and regularly they would both go to all the local markets, to buy and sell their animals.

(Here’s what Wikipedia says about these magnificent animals):

The Hackney Horse breed was developed in the 14th century in Norfolk when the King of England required powerful but attractive horses with an excellent trot, to be used for general purpose riding horses.
Since roads were rudimentary in those times, Hackneys were a primary riding horse, riding being the common mode of equine transportation.
The trotting horses were more suitable as war horses than amblers with their pacing gaits.”

Hackney horse, Wikipedia ²

Horses were common, not only in the fields, but as the only form of transport, and for Jack along with all the local lads, it was second nature how to handle and look after them.

His affinity with horses has remained with him all his life.

Born, bred and educated in Earith, Jack fully expected to follow the family traditions, but when War broke out he was just 14, and by that time he had progressed to Huntingdon Grammar School.

Here is John’s school report for 28th July 1939.

War preparations and Soldiers from Dunkirk

Helping the war effort in Earith WW2

I am Jack Wales and what I remember about Earith during the war was that, at the beginning of the war, there was a great spirit in the whole of the village and the community all worked together, everybody joined something.

My father belonged to the fire service, which was run by Mr. Gunnel who was the manager of Jewsons, with people like Lou Barns and George Barns.

Other men joined the special constables which included George Boughton and Owen Hadder.

Others were air-raid wardens, my mother was with the WVS and lots of the other ladies joined the Red Cross, people like Miss Edwards and Mrs Gunnell.

The first thing we had to do was blackout the houses.

Exploding bomb in Earith WW2

We did have a couple of bombs dropped on the village.
I can remember, I was doing my homework from school on a heavy dining room table, similar to the one we are sitting at now, when, all of a sudden, my mother was sitting in the armchair and there was a crump outside and the table tilted up, mother’s chair lifted up.

I ran outside and my father and Uncle who had been standing by the front gate were just picking themselves up from the ground.

Bomber aerodromes around Earith in WW2

The other thing I remember is that we were surrounded by aerodromes.
Close by was Wyton, Warboys, Sutton and the other side of the county Kimbolton and at night the sky used to be literally black with all the bombers forming up.

You could see them going up in their half squadrons, or whatever it was, in threes and the threes would make up into nines and they all just kept circling around until they were all lined up and then off they’d go.

Returning bombers

And then next morning when we were going to work on the farm, you would see them come limping back, some of them with only three engines, one just feathering and not going at all.

On our way to school one morning we got to Wood Farm along the Needingworth Road and a Stirling bomber had crashed there — he didn’t quite make it back to Oakington, so we had to divert to get around it.

Soldiers from Dunkirk come to Earith

You perhaps remember that at the time of Dunkirk, when the soldiers came back, the King’s Own Scottish Borderers suddenly turned up in Earith one evening.

And I can see them now, the ladies and Mother was up at the hut with the WVS making tea and they were being processed as they had just come straight across the channel and they stood up against Albert Maile’s garden wall, opposite our house.

They were standing up asleep, these Scotsmen, some had got axes, some had got great coats and some hadn’t, and they kept moving up and, eventually, went into the hut to be processed and to see who had returned and so on.

That’s when two or three of the local girls chatted with these soldiers and eventually married them!

(Extracts from ‘Keeping Time by the Crows’ University of Cambridge.
John Wales retains copyright on original contributions)

Earith WW2, evacuees from London

During the war, a whole London school was evacuated to Earith including the teachers. ³

Local residents took in these children and separate classrooms were set up in the village hall, classes being divided by a curtain.
It was hard to concentrate and the class going on behind the curtain was sometimes a lot more interesting.

The standard of schooling was lower as there were hardly any facilities and pupils found they missed London.
Some children did not stay for long and returned to London quite early in the war years, others stayed after the war and eventually married into local families.

A few people looked on those evacuation years with affection and returned to the area later in their lives.

Plane crash in 1942 on Little Fen, Earith

Here we can see John Wales in January 1985 skating near where he was in 1942 as a teenager who was also skating there.

The skaters are out in the flooded area known as Little Fen, Earith which lies close to the Bury Fen famous for claiming to be where Ice Hockey originated from.

Jack Wales seen here, used to skate on this fen.

At this very spot way back on the 17th January 1942 a Stirling bomber and a Hurricane were manoeuvring above their heads in Earith WW2.

Suddenly there was a loud bang and looking upwards they saw some of the crew bale out and both planes fell to the ground.
Unfortunately, there was not sufficient height for the parachutes to open.

John, a member of the Home-guard, quickly pulled off his skates, put on some wellies and headed off to the crash site which was about a mile or so away.

The Memorial to the crew can be found next to Earith Sluice near the side of the road.

Joining the local Earith Home Guard

Even at this early age, he and all his mates wanted to get into the action.
So at 16, in 1941, he joined the local Earith Home Guard, which at that time had about 40 members, with a great mix of First World War veterans and keen local lads.

Within a year he was a corporal, and his intense training proved to be invaluable later on as a regular.

He was also a member of the local Commando unit, set up to counteract any airborne invasion, but when he was the regulation 17 and a quarter, he only wanted to join his heroes – The Black Watch, because they were the toughest!

However, because he was a farm worker, he was rejected as it was a reserved occupation.

So he left farming, to become a coalman in a desperate bid to get into the army.
Jack eventually had to appear in front of 12 people of the War Agriculture Committee in Huntingdon, before he got his wish and signed up for Seven and Five, (7 years regular, 5 years reserve).

He was straight up to Glasgow, and into the Maryhill Barracks, for his preliminary training with the Black Watch, it was now 1943.

Many people still can’t understand why an Englishman with the name of Wales, would want to join a Scottish Regiment!

(Extract from ‘One Man’s Story: John Wales’ by Dave Brown)

See the first article in this series: [1] 1930s Earith National Fishing attraction

References – open in new tabs:

1. Extract from ‘One Man’s Story: John Wales’ by Dave Brown ↩

2. ‘Hackney Horse’ Wikipedia ↩

3. Extracts from ‘Keeping Time by the Crows’ University of Cambridge John Wales retains copyright on original contributions. ↩