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St Johns School in Wartime (1939 to 1945)

On August 2^nd 1939, the school closed for the Summer Holidays expecting to re-open on September 4^th.  However, School re-opened on August 30^th and 31^st, owing to the impending war.  A message was relayed on the wireless recalling all teachers, who were to return to their school districts and to be prepared for whatever was required of them.  On Friday, September 1^st, the children were evacuated.  The Infant School was evacuated to North Boarhunt and the juniors to Wickham.

The mothers brought their children to school with their packed cases and gas-masks.  They went to Gosport Station and from there by train to Wickham.  They were met by a farmer who was the Billeting Officer.  He wore an arm-band with B.O. on it.  He sorted the children into groups for different billets.  Nine teachers, some with their wives, went to the Colonel’s house.  Next morning the teachers went back to school and took some adults, including mothers with babies and expectant mothers to Wickham.On arrival at Wickham, each evacuee was issued with “iron rations”, - a tin of corned beef, ½ lb slab of chocolate and a packet of water biscuits

On September 3^rd, 1939, it was announced on the wireless, that our Government had declared war on Germany.

The evacuated children shared the Wickham Mixed Junior and Infant School. The whole school, - boys, girls and infants – attended school from 9.45 a.m. to 12.45 p.m.  They went home to lunch and St. John’s School staff were responsible for all the children in the afternoon.  Mr. Williams was Head of the Boys’ School.  The teachers took the children for walks.  Sometimes teachers were needed in the evening to console the children who were homesick. After six weeks’ evacuation, some children went back home with their parents and some trickled back later.

It was the period of the “phoney” war, when separation from parents hardly seemed necessary.  Some children stayed on at Wickham.  Some teachers came back to Gosport and dealt with the ration books at the Grammar School. Seven months later on April 1^st 1940, the Infant School was reopened for the 6 and 7 year olds.  For the first week a temporary register was kept on paper.  After the first week, school was organised in 3 classes for the usual full day.  There were 103 children on the books.One teacher had been teaching five year olds in their homes.  She brought her children into the school and four classes were formed.

Early in May a Savings Group was started. The school closed for Whitsun “unless anything intervened”, and by the first day of the holiday, the school had resumed as usual!  The school nurse examined prospective evacuees.  On the Friday of the same week, the nurse examined the whole school in preparation for evacuation. Conditions were very uncertain.  Saturday morning school was started and discontinued after two Saturdays.  Evening air raid warnings made the children very tired, so that some slept on and attendance was poor. Sometimes less than half the children came to school in the mornings. School closed on June 28^th and the teachers went to help with the evacuees. The teachers attended school each day of the week for further registration.

School reopened on July 10^th with three teachers who worked in double shifts of children accommodated in the air-raid shelter. Work was difficult for the rest of July.  Children slept on some mornings because of raids at night and sirens were sounding and guns firing loudly during the day, sometimes with two warnings a day.  The worst day, there were two raids, one of fifty minutes and the other, one hour! The school stayed open during August 1940, for recreational work for the children.  Teachers took turns to have a fortnight’s holiday and to be in charge of children during the rest of the holiday.