THE LORDSFIELD BOYS Violet Butler was fifteen when she was sent away from Hellfire Corner in Dover to work at Lordsfield Camp in October 1941. It was then home to about 250 boys between seven and thirteen years old with their teachers who had been evacuated from Southampton. Violet laid tables, washed up and did general cleaning. Apart from school work, the boys cared for their own sheep, kept rabbits and bees and tended the vegetable garden. On Saturdays they often walked to the cinema in Whitchurch and football fixtures were arranged against local schools. Some scrumped apples from gardens and poached trout from the river. Others helped with collections of waste paper around the village, lifting potatoes and harvesting. The village organised entertainments for them at Christmas. Between August and December 1941 there were thirty one heavy air raids on Southampton, mainly at night. After dark, the boys could see the glow in the sky and hear the explosions thirty miles away. We would stand out in the field and watch the fires burning in Southampton, each wondering whether our home and mum and dad were OK. Not knowing what had happened to their families, many absconded and tried to get home by walking south to the railway line and then along the tracks. An eight year old and his brother made it by hitch hiking. They were all brought back and caned by the headmaster for causing so much trouble. 53
Photograph: Tony Morris, contributed by Violet Butler. Discipline was strict and the conditions were spartan but, apart from homesickness, those who wrote about their schooldays at Lordsfield in later years remember it as a good school and a good place to have been. 54 Photograph: Tony Morris, contributed by Violet Butler. Violet worked at the camp till September 1943. It closed in December 1944. Overton Primary School later occupied the wooden buildings until the present school was built in 1968. Violet Butler, On a hill above a valley, Buckland Publications, 2001.
OTHER EVACUEES October, 1939 We have some 40 school children refugees amongst us. Let us give them a good welcome. The number of visitors will probably be much greater by the end of the month. Let us do all we can for their comfort and make them welcome in church, in school, at St Mary s Hall and in our homes. Overton was refuge to many people as well as the Lordsfield boys. It is not known how many evacuees there were in Overton but the numbers must have been considerable. The Rector repeated his welcome to all the new refugees in October 1940. Nadine Anderson was a Bank of England employee who wanted to get her elderly aunt out of London during the blitz. She asked Mr and Mrs Chatt who lived at Berrydown to take her in. The old lady died two months later and Nadine wrote this letter to the Chatts. Source: Tony Morris, from Mrs H.E. Chatt and Peter Baker, from Mr Humphrey Chatt. There was a further large influx of evacuees when the V1 flying bombs started falling on London in June 1944. Source: Overton Parish Church Magazine, July 1944. 55
WAR CHARITIES Throughout the war, Overton people gave generously to support war charities through street collections, flag days, whist drives, concerts and dances on top of the usual peace time collections for such things as the Lifeboats, Winchester Hospital, Overton Nursing Association and Poppy Day. In street collections they gave to Mrs Churchill s Aid to Russia, the Russian Red Cross, hospitals in China, Red Cross Parcels to British POW s and the Women s Land Army. Overton United Football Club put on a dance every week and raised 1,167 up to December 1942. Amongst other things, the proceeds went to British Red Cross Smokes and Comforts for the Troops Fund Royal Sailors Society Russian Red Cross R.A.F. Benevolent Fund Prisoners of War Week Lordsfield Boys Camp, Southampton Boys London Air Raid Distress Fund Overton Air Raid Distress Fund Southampton Air Raid Distress Fund Hampshire Regiment Comforts Fund Prisoners of War, Overton Minesweepers and Coastal Craft Fund Overton First Aid Sources: Richard Oram and Brian Langer from Hants & Berks Gazette. 56
WAR WEAPONS WEEK, 1941 War Weapons Week, Michael Ford, 1941. By courtesy of the Imperial War Museum. On the right of the picture in the school playground are ARP Wardens and in front of them some members of the Home Guard. To the left of the speaker are some girl guides and boy scouts. This was a scheme to encourage a people to save their money in War Bonds and Savings Certificates to help pay for the war. It coincided with a week of parades, exhibitions and publicity. In this painting by Michael Ford we can see people gathered in May 1941 to listen to speeches, along with a military parade and a brass band with scouts and guides, members of the home Guard and some ARP wardens in the school yard. Note the military vehicles and the complete absence of private cars. The telephone box has been painted white to make it 57
more conspicuous in the dark. Michael Ford has painted white tank obstacles in Winchester Street but some say they were in London Road. 63,691 was invested, well above the 50,000 target for Overton and Whitchurch combined. A similar scheme in 1942 was called Warship Week which raised another 50,000 and the village adopted H.M. Minesweeper Cypress (T09) till the end of the war. She was part of Minesweeping Group 55 operating out of Portsmouth. Money was raised to buy comforts for the crew. HM Minesweeper Cypress, 1937.Later in the year Overton saved 16,000 to buy a tank. In May 1943, Overton and Whitchurch invested 65,000 in Wings for Victory Week, enough to build 13 Spitfires. At Salute the Soldier Week in June 1944 the opening ceremony was preceded by impressive procession with the band of the Hampshire Regiment, the Home Guard, British Legion, Royal Observer Corps, NFS Civil Defence and First Aid, Civil Defence (Bank of England), Army Cadets and Girl Guides. Sources: Hants & Berks Gazette contributed by Brian Langer. 58
PRISONERS OF WAR Italian prisoners of war working on the Land Michael Ford, 1942. By courtesy of the Imperial War Museum This painting by Michael Ford shows Italian P.O.W. s gathering onions in an Overton field. They wore distinctive brown uniforms with large orange patches. The nearest P.O.W camps were at Whitchurch and Popham. They were not forced to work: this would have been contrary to the Geneva Convention. They were invited to work in return for a small allowance and free cigarettes. It is not known which farm this is. David Denning grew up at Lower Ashe Farm. He remembers the Italians but does not recall that they were 59
ever under armed guard. Later in the war there were Germans and Austrians and he remembers they were always guarded. Even before Italy capitulated in 1943 the Italians were allowed to move around freely within five miles of the P.O.W camp and were a familiar sight in Overton. Some made wooden toys and sold them in the streets. Others offered haircuts. Later, they were allowed to live on the farms where they worked. German and Austrian prisoners wore green uniforms. Paul Holmes recalls seeing them around the village. Only the lowest risk prisoners were housed in the south of England and none of them even wanted to escape. Photograph, Anne Pitcher. A farm in Whitchurch, 1942. On the right are four Italian POW s. They seem to have discarded their uniforms. 60