Re: Birmingham History
THE CODE.
Kingstanding ( 1940 ). Mom's and Dad's gathered to make the decision regarding whether to allow their children to be evacuated or not. The decision in General was made to accept the evacuation.
My Dad suggested to me that when I sent any letter home that I use a simple ( me to him ) code. I think he was concerned that letters sent home by evacuees might be subjected to some sort of censorship. The simple code we agreed on was to draw a picture on the letter as follows : (1) An ' Anti-air craft gun if everything was OK or (2) A ' Spitfire ' if their was any problems.
The story then ran ( from my younger brothers and my own point of view )
Excitement at school on the evacuation day whilst we all waited for the Buses and Train to take us on this adventure.
We eventually arrived at our evacuation destination late in the afternoon and then we sat through to late evening in this strange school hall awaiting ' Selection '. After a very lengthy period my brother and I were eventually put with a local couple and taken to their home.
Things didn't go we'll right from the start. We were transferred to another couples house within the first eight days of the evacuation ( this was a nice couple but this overall situation was not going to be for us ).
I sent a letter home at this time which included the ' Spitfire' drawing code.
Mom and Dad arrived within a few days and brought us both back home. On arriving back in Brum there was a full scale
Air Raid in progress . No problem. Just glad to be back. No place like home.
Yet another successful mission accomplished by the old ' Spitfire '.