DICK Horn won’t forget his first night in Oxford as a wartime evacuee.

There was no warm, comfortable bed for him and many other children – they slept on the cold, hard floor of Oxford Town Hall.

Dick, who describes his experiences in his book, Huckleberry Hawn, was one of dozens of children who left Ashford in Kent by train for safer parts of the country when war broke out in September 1939.

He writes: “The platform was packed with parents, the children were all on the train, the whistle blew and the train pulled away.

“Every window had two or three heads sticking out, with hands waving like mad. A hundred voices shouted “Bye, mum”. It was an awful time for the mums.

“We thought the bed we had left at home would be replaced by one at Oxford, but this was far from the case.

“We were taken to the Town Hall and filed into the huge doorway with our possessions, but there was not a bed in sight.

“We were told to find ourselves a position on the floor, or on the balcony above.

“The whole floor was covered with children’s bodies, with a noise like feeding time at the zoo. Mum seemed a thousand miles away.

“Of course, we were very tired and soon most were asleep. There were a few tears, but not for long, then the enormous building was silent.

“What an awful sight – all these children uprooted from their parents, sleeping on a hard, cold floor. The only good thing was their mums could not see them.“

  • Huckleberry Hawn, published by AuthorHouse Books, priced £10.99, is available from most large bookshops and online at amazon.co.uk
  • More memories from the book soon.