Carrying a can of pineapple slices and a jam jar containing two goldfish that had survived the bombing, we moved into a room in Keresley. The rent was far above normal as a few profited from the misfortune of others. Nine days after the blitz on Coventry I climbed aboard a train with 296 other Bablake boys excited at the prospect of new adventure- evacuation to Lincoln. Memories fade, cameras were in short supply during the war and memorabilia get lost so images of that time are rare but ex-Bablake pupils have supplied some. As in Coventry, we were to wear our school uniforms at all times both in and out of school; regulation grey suit, grey shirts, school tie and plain woollen socks. Only my school cap size 6 7/8"survives.
Sixty two years have passed since I wore this cap in Lincoln. The cap still looks good! The new cap with big peak (to stop the wearing of it on the back of the head?), new and regular tie were kindly supplied by Mike Godwin 1962 and 1964. John Lawrence who later joined the Bablake staff is shown in 1948 in his back garden in Coventry. Great efforts were made to alter the official outfits from wearing the cap on the back of the head, collars undone and suits restyled but beware the wrath of Seaborne if you were caught, even in Lincoln where the school rules were enforced 24 hours.
 
I am grateful to Fred Hurt for this account from "Lincoln during the war"

The first provincial Blitz of the War was on Coventry on November 14th 1940. Among the many buildings damaged was the Bablake School where the library was completely burnt out. The air-raid shelter suffered a direct hit and several members of the public were killed. The School was closed for a few days until plans were made for the future. One of the teachers, Horace Curt, came home to Lincoln where he happened to meet the Lincoln Director of Education who offered them the use of the old school on South Park which had eight classrooms available.
On November 23rd, 297 boys and the Staff arrived in Lincoln by train and were welcomed by the Mayor and the Director of Education. Buses took the boys to the City School where billets were allocated to them throughout Lincoln. The furniture arrived on December 3rd and school work was started six days later. A maximum of 558 pupils attended.
Tony Averns was one of a group of Bablake ex-pupils who visited Lincoln in 1990 on the 50th anniversary of the evacuation. He told me that he really enjoyed his war-time stay in Lincoln. He was billetted in Rookery Lane for a year or so, and then on Skellingthorpe Road at Swanpool.
The Bablake boys used the facilities (including the pool) at South Park Girls High School and the laboratories at the City School on Monks Road and the Grammar School on Wragby Road. He remembers the Westwick Estate bombing in May 1941 and a British plane being shot down near Lincoln. Many of the Coventry boys had bicycles and visited local aerodromes to see the aircraft being prepared for flights. Usually they went to R.A.F. Skellingthorpe (Birchwood), but also went as far as Waddington and Swinderby..
 
From a thesis on evacuees in Lincoln by Sarah Caitlin

The Bablake School from Coventry reports that the billeting of their children ran smoothly. The school reported: "Undoubtedly the placing of 297 boys and staff would have presented enormous difficulties, but such was the sympathy and solicitude of the citizens of Lincoln that all were accommodated, and the appropriate gratitude of all pupils to their hosts and hostesses is a matter of record."
Two boys from the school recount that as far as they can remember "the people of Lincoln accepted us" and they had good relations with their foster parents in the beginning. One boy (Charles Cook) recalls being taken around Lincoln in threes where the masters knocked on doors and asked people to take in an evacuee, but does not report being traumatised by this. One host's daughter, Susanne Humphries who recalls evacuees turning up on their doorstep, supports this. The Bablake School reports:

"The Lincoln authorities responsible for the arrangements deserve the greatest praise and our sincerest thanks for their admirable ordering of the reception and dispersal of so large a number of boys."

Bablake School was given their own school premises on South Park, which meant they were not overcrowded and timetabling problems did not occur which made the experience enjoyable. School boarding houses were set up which meant there were no billeting problems when new pupils arrived from Coventry. The main problem the school reports was that many of the boys were gripped with nostalgia that made Coventry seem very far off and very desirable. According to the school, Lincoln made them very welcome with The Lincoln Grammar School providing them with swimming facilities. This co-operation of Lincoln officials suggests that they were willing to help as much as possible. Mackay (1999) states that:

"Where schools were kept together in reception areas the mutual support of people from home was a major factor in mental survival.". The mutual support that the Bablake children offered each other would have contributed to their enjoyable experience.

Two evacuees were spoken to and they support the views given by the school and report a very enjoyable experience. Geoff Clamp however, recalls that they generally mixed with people form the same school and of the same age. He does report that during the summer months he played tennis with the Powell family, but mixture with local people was limited. Charles Cook states that the local people responded to him kindly. He does however, recall that he went to a Fundamentalist Church where he was presented as needing 'saving'. This gives the impression that hosts expected their evacuees to adapt to their lifestyle and were not always sympathetic to the individual evacuees, needs. Charles Cook's comment: "Perhaps after all I was in need of salvation".
Sarah reminds me of another embarrassing incident involving my hosts. While swimming at the Lincoln Grammar School pool, I dived in and landed my groin on the head of a boy in the water below. After a painful journey home I called my damaged parts to the attention of the man of the house who pulled back the bed sheets and exclaimed," Wow! Mother. Come and look at this." But I was saved from further embarrassment by his not inviting their teenage daughter in to take a peek.
Bill Cowling, now a fellow Canadian, had an old Vest Pocket Kodak and a 2 1/2 X 3 !/2 plate camera - fun, but technically not wonderful he says.

Schoolboy comfort in films, fags and strippers!

From the Lincoln Echo February February 1998

Geoff Morris
Evacuees arriving in the city from Coventry had already experienced the realities of bombing, having fled a scene of virtual annihilation. Bablake pupils lived through the worst night of bombing on November 14, 1940. The Bablake School was badly damaged and its pupils evacuated to Lincoln to escape further raids and to continue their schooling.
The pupils finally returned to Coventry In July 1943 by which time city billeting chiefs were able to boast of a long and successful evacuation scheme. Former evacuees said they made the best of the situation. But it was hard to live with the knowledge that parents and relatives were left behind in the firing line. All the evacuees had first-hand knowledge of the hell of the blitz. Lincolnshire man Roy Dredge remembers the morning after the worst bombing of Coventry when he was on his way to school. "I was going down one of the main roads into the city on my bike when I came across a block of terraced houses on fire," he recalls. Nobody seemed to be taking the slightest interest in these houses and I just stood there with my bike looking at them. "I remember it as if it were yesterday, thinking shouldn't someone be taking some interest.
In less than two weeks evacuation had been arranged and most of the 357 evacuees made there way to Foleshill station to begin the Lincoln chapter.
As the years pass, former Bablake evacuees can put the memories of war aside and remember the good times in Lincoln. School life is a favourite topic among them.
They were housed at South Park Girls High. The buildings were run down and the roof leaked, but some former pupils say this actually worked to their advantage. Ronald Ronald Baber said "In the early days, we used to pray for rain. "The roof leaked in so many places that we were given an extra holiday or taken en masse to the cinema if a suit able film was showing. "I remember going to the Savoy cinema between the Stonebow and Lindum Hill to see Elizabeth and Essex on one such occasion." Philip Hodgkinson said he remembered seeing unsuitable films for schoolboys, such as Howard Hawk's violent gangster movies, Scarface.
"After this had happened a few times, we had to become more hardy and moved away from the many drips, dribbles and cascades, some of which were caught in strategically placed buckets."
With sports facilities lacking on South Common, pupils had to substitute rugby which was popular among them but virtually unknown in Lincoln. Mr. Baber said some on the sixth formers enjoyed their own personal interpretation of the word "sports" - taking a short walk across the common to meet girls at their new South Park School.
Howard Skinner remembers being one of the senior boys on firewatching duty at the school looking out for incendiary bombs landing on the city. This duty was carried out all over Lincoln. "We tried hot to visualize the effect of a stick of Incendiary bombs on the timber and corrugated iron structure." He said. We used to listen to the radio in the staff room, stay awake all night if we wanted to and smoke cigarettes - usually either American army surplus or some frightful Turkish brand from the slot machine on the High Street. Some boys also were led astray during the school certificate exams, they went out one evening claiming they were going to the library to study. Mr. Baber said they did study but not at the library. They headed instead to the theatre Royal where Phyllis Dixie the famous stripper was appearing.
With rationing making sweets almost impossible to buy, many of the pupils remember being able to get a bag broken crisps. The Smith's Crips factory sold them for half a penny or a penny.

Keith Bailey wrote this account of the Lincoln period.

Bill Cowling, a fellow Canadian, tells of his time in Lincoln.

Bernard Raftery puts the gloves on with Len Hutton in Lincoln.
Stan Harris spent time in Lincoln and now living in the US he is proud to tell the world that he went to Bablake School.

Witham View was taken over as a hostel for evacuees from Bablake. It was supervised by Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson. (2nd row each end)

Front L/R Charles Bostock 40-44, John Starley 40-42, Ted Gale 40-43, Jimmy Underwood 40-46, Leonard Potter 40-44, Edward Weston 40-45, Derek Hewitt 40-45 Middle Roy Ghandi Hunt 37-42, Jeff Cheesy Collins 37-42, Peter Cantrill 37-43, Eggy Overton 35-43, Mr.A.T Duffield Chris Skelton 36-43, Roger Knocker West 36-43,Geoffrey Turner 37-41, Eric Jones 36-41, Back Gerald Hood 40-36, John Tupper West 39-47, Malcolm Hagger 39-42, Stanley R.Harris 38-43, Nymsh Wheat 38-43, John Godsell 38-42, Paul Skelton 38-42, Leon Tomlinson 40-45
Below Stan Harris, Roy Hunt, Nymsh Wheat, John Godsell, Paul Skelton
In the year 2000 the Lincoln boys held a reunion which sadly I missed. From the left it's Stan Harris, Beaufoy, Williams, Peter Cantell
During the winter of 1940-41 I enjoyed tobogganing down the slopes at South Park and fell through the ice on the River Witham near where my younger brother was billeted privately. He and I used to go to the roller skating rink and share a milk shake. By August of 1941 my family had moved to Earl Shilton in Leicestershire and I transferred to my fifth and final secondary school, Hinckley Grammar. When a bomb fell in a nearby field killing a pig, I stand, hands in pockets on the front edge of the crater with that 'been there, seen it' look. In 1943 I finally obtained a School Certificate, albeit shaky due to my peripatetic schooling, but the Very Good in handicraft set me on a path back to Bablake twelve years later.
   
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