'I was lucky to be evacuated with my mother'

When the call came in for Guernsey children to be evacuated from the island during World War Two, Ann Mathers' mother made a split-second decision to go with her.

Ms Mathers was five years old in 1940 when she stood on Guernsey harbour with the rest of her school, about to board an evacuation ship bound for England.

One of the teachers had been taken ill and her mother, Nena Jenkins, decided to take the teacher's place, knowing her husband Arthur "Jay" Jenkins had joined the RAF and left the island.

Reflecting on the decision 85 years later, Ms Mathers said she felt "lucky" to have had her mother with her, who left without packing a bag or having a change of clothes.

Now 90, Ms Mathers has been sharing her story as part of the Island Memories Project, a collaboration between BBC Guernsey and Guernsey Museums.

When her father joined the war efforts, Ms Mathers and her mother had to leave their rented accommodation in Guernsey and moved in with relatives.

"My mother and I moved in with her sister and family and we were all living together at what was the Farmer's Hotel, which is now Harbour Lights," she said.

It was June 1940 and Guernsey's plans to evacuate the island's children to England had begun, days before the Nazi occupation of the island began.

"My mother took me down to the boat in the morning and, when she got there, she was told that they were in a panic because my school had one of the teacher's taken ill," said Ms Mathers.

"They said 'could anybody please take her place', so my mother said, 'well, I haven't got any other children and my husband's already gone, so I could if you send a message back to my sister'.

"So my mother came on the boat with me wearing whatever garment she was wearing that day, didn't have any change of clothing or anything with her.

"I was lucky because I did have my mother stay with me."

Their ship landed in Weymouth before Ms Mathers and her mother boarded a train, not knowing their destination.

"That was very exciting because I'd never seen a train," said Ms Mathers.

"I'd never seen a sheep, there were no sheep in Guernsey in those days, I'd never seen a cow that wasn't brown and white.

"There were black and white things in the fields, I didn't know what they were because they weren't proper cows."

The train took them to Stockport, Greater Manchester, where the evacuees stayed in the town hall.

"They gave us children toys and I was given a drop-side cot," she said.

Ms Mathers still owns the cot she played with, adding her grandchildren play with it today. "I treasure that because it must be over 100 years old now, mustn't it."

Ms Mathers and her mother were eventually offered a place in the home of a local family.

"My mother and I were taken in by a lovely family named Robinson, who lived in Frodsham Avenue in Stockport," she said.

"My friend from Guernsey, Jennifer Till, she didn't have a mother with her, but she was also taken in by a family in Frodsham Avenue, so the two of us could go to school together, which was very nice."

Ms Mathers said they were moved around during the war, living in Cornwall, Poole and eventually settling in Liverpool.

She was 10 years old when she left England after the war, returning to Guernsey on 5 November 1945.

"Of course I wanted to see fireworks but I was told 'no, you've got to go to bed', so I was very upset," she said.

Ms Mathers who now lives in Eastbourne, turned 90 in May and is returning to the island with her two daughters for Liberation Day on Friday.

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