Ailsa’s Blog: Valerie Yeo
When I was seven, my infant school was evacuated to Deighton, Huddersfield. We were there until the war ended. We were housed in a hall and early the next morning people arrived to pick who they wanted. My mother told my older sister that on no account were we to be separated.
The first house we went to I wasn’t happy so they moved us to a place that had one daughter who didn’t take to us. We would walk to school and back and on arriving home would be given a bag to collect dandelions for the rabbits. They also had a goat which the husband would milk and give us a cup each with a digestive biscuit……then bed. We never had a hot bath. My sister contacted my parents who arrived one weekend with our nine month old brother to find us. They stood in the road and asked if anyone could put them up. A lady came out and took them in. They were happy there and when they were due to leave, asked her to take us on. At first she said no as she had just lost her husband but after assuring her we would be no trouble, she did. Best thing ever. We shared a bed, no bathroom and an outside toilet halfway down the garden. My father collected us as soon as the war ended. We moved to a new requisitioned property because our house was bombed the day after we left.
I was then nine years old and had to stay at home because I had scabies on both heels. I used to go to Saturday morning pictures and one Saturday the manager made an announcement. They were forming choirs for a competition and anyone interested could audition at the Salvation Army rooms in Penge. I hotfooted it there and our prize was a trip to London to see Coppelia. Wonderful. I went to a bogstandard secondary school and got selected to sing in French with four other girls.
I left school at fifteen. My mother collected me and took me to the Post Office in Penge for an interview. I got the job which I hated. I had to get the shopping on rations for them. The only highlight was sending off telegrams on the phone. I went to evening classes for shorthand, typing and compulsory English, saw an advert for a job near London Bridge and got it.
I was happy there and met my husband. We had to work Saturday mornings and he came down from the firm above us with a cup of tea and asked me to go to the pictures and that was it! I had to deal with any reps that came and one day one came in selling carbon paper. I felt sorry I couldn’t buy any but we chatted for a while. He said he sang in an amateur operatic club and proceeded to sing to me. I have never forgotten him. You should have heard the titters from the staff.
Life went on. We had a son and moved to Seaford where I joined a local Saturday choir at Bishopstone Hall run by Gordon Bull. When I arrived he gave me the music book and I started singing. A lady said “Stop!” She asked me what I was doing. I said I was singing. “Well, you’re singing every part.” I’ve always sung every part, I replied. “Well, just sing the sops part.” I learned very quickly and the good thing was we learned madrigals and I loved them. I heard about Seaford Choral and I joined you. An amazing twenty years later, I am still here, enjoying it and making friends.
Sadly my husband died this year after sixty eight happy years. But I still have you so thank you.
