A tale of two lads sent far from home (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

A tale of two lads sent far from home

12:19pm Thursday 5th February 2009 in

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Two former childhood friends evacuated from South Woodford during the Second World War were recently reunited after 68 years when one of their stories appeared in the Guardian. DANIEL BINNS discovers the other side of their extraordinary tale.

DURING Britain’s war with Nazi Germany, thousands of young Londoners were whisked away from the loving embrace of their families into the arms of strangers in the countryside, as bombs rained down on the capital.

Peter Clarke, 74, and Michael Wetton, 76, two schoolboys from South Woodford at the time, were thrust together by the experience, but lost contact and never expected to see each other again after the war.

But years later, Mr Wetton decided to write a book about his emotional and amazing experiences, which the Guardian reported on.

By chance, relatives of Mr Clarke living in Loughton realised he was the same person that Peter had known all those years ago.

Now they have been reunited, giving the pair an opportunity to swap their memories after so long apart.

Mr Clarke’s story begins as a boy growing up in a house in Pulteney Road, South Woodford, in the days when steam trains used to thunder through Redbridge, before the track was converted into the Central Line.

“My first introduction to the war was when a speaker van toured our local area telling people to have their children ready for evacuation in the coming weeks,” recalls Mr Clarke.

“Of course it meant nothing to me until I was put on a coach with my humble belongings in a paper carrier bag.”

The experience was traumatic for many, especially for Mr Clarke, who was just five years old at the time. He was even labelled by the authorities as a bed-wetter.

At first, the children of Woodford were taken to homes in Essex. But, as fears of a Nazi invasion of British soil grew, many evacuees – who by this point were beginning to settle in to their new surroundings – were uprooted again and moved west.

It is here that the stories of Mr Clarke and Mr Wetton intertwine. They both found themselves lumped together at the home of an elderly couple in a small village in Worcestershire. The boys enjoyed their time, but it was not to last.

One day, the mischievous youngsters managed to get hold of a box of matches, which they played with in the family’s back garden.

Within minutes they had accidentally set fire to a huge haystack.

“There was pandemonium,” recalls Mr Clarke.

“Some locals came and tried to put it out but it was hopeless, the stack burnt out.

“The old man chased me down the lane belting me with his thick leather belt. If it had not been for the old lady he would have killed me.”

Within a week the pair were split up and moved to new homes.

Mr Clarke lived through the remainder of the war at his new home, and returned to London after the war.

Following an RAF stint, he worked as an engineer before settling down in Chingford.

He retired to Stockton-on-Tees, in the north east, where he now lives.