by Michael Stevens  

It started when May Watts, who now lives in Australia but regularly looks at the Kingswear website, sent me a short story about an incident when she was a pupil at Kingswear Primary School during the Second World War.  Other ex-pats soon added their own accounts and it grew like Topsy.  The contributors’ email addresses are included and they would be pleased to hear from anyone who used to know them.  • Peter and May Watts (nee Crisp) (insane2@bigpond.net.au) are now living in Brisbane, Australia. Miss Hayward was the school headmistress during the war and sent May and Margaret Rowe (now Fabian) out to collect books for the Red Cross.  After visiting various homes in ‘Lighthouse Beach Road’ (Beacon Road) they called at one house ‘Yarrow Bank’ which had an excellent view of the river.  It seems that the owners were two missionaries, a brother and sister recently returned from Africa because of the war and ‘wanting to do their bit back in England’.  The girls were invited indoors to tell the occupants the reason why they wanted the books. 

They were given many books but before they were handed over, the ex-missionaries insisted that all four of them kneel down and say (somewhat lengthy) prayers for the eventual recipients of the books.  In all, the school collected 430 books for the Red Cross.   

• Jim Austin (gentleman_jim34@yahoo.com.au) used to walk his pet dogs to the missionaries’ house with its fabulous view of the river (now lost through later development). 

He used to stand there and watch the boom ship by the castle admitting shipping into the river. 

Whilst there, he once saw a sea battle on the horizon and another time saw a large American ship towed into the harbour with half its side missing. Jim attended the school from approximately 1943 to 1945.  He lived at the Steam Packet Inn in Fore Street during and immediately after the war and for the last 30 years has lived in Sydney.  

• Barry Westcott (B.Westcott@kpnplanet,nl) was born in Paignton but moved to Kingswear when a baby.  His father and mother lived in Grange Cottage, working for Mr and Mrs Jones of The Grange, and every day Barry had to walk from there to school.  When the high road was closed by the army when the AA guns were being used, he had to go via Millbay Cove where there was a small minefield. He used to like playing near Millbay Cove until his mother found out. Sometimes he had to go with an army escort from the White House to the Post Office.  Later he stayed with his grandmother Mrs Gunning or his aunt Mrs Bovey.  In the war the young boys spent more time thinking about the army, air force and aircraft than they did about reading and could tell every type of warship.  Miss Heywood (sic) used to remonstrate with them but ‘it did not help very much’.  Barry is now living in the town of Nijmegen, Holland with his Dutch wife Gerdie.    

• Michael Short (m.short@mypostoffice.co.uk) lived in Kingswear with his grandmother at 3 Jubilee Terrace until about 1946.  He can remember the ARP Wardens coming to the school to show how to use a stirrup pump to put out a fire and the Morrison shelters in the school hall.  He and May Crisp were appointed ‘Emergency Children’ by Miss Hayward and instructed what to do in times of emergency, i.e. air raids.  Their instructions were quite simple. 

Miss Hayward would simply shout ‘EMERGENCY!!!’, whereupon all the children would leap to their feet and May and Michael would then lead them down the path to the air raid shelter in Lower Contour Road.  

During the war a large number of evacuees arrived in Kingswear, many of them with their mothers.  They also had a couple of their own teachers.  One was quite eccentric.  It seems that one day this teacher started to attack Miss Hayward with a pen, the old type with a sharp nib.  She grabbed Miss Hayward and threatened to stab her in the neck. Miss Hayward shouted ‘EMERGENCY and get Mr Wedlake’ (The  previous Head Teacher who lived opposite on the May Crisp (right) at VE Day celebrations in the three-same side of the road as Mr Fairweather’s garage legged race and was then a School Governor.  He died in 1946 aged 77).  May immediately escorted all the girls and Michael all the boys down to the shelter and fetched Mr Wedlake. The poor old boy rushed up to the school still in his pyjama trousers to deal with the matter.  May Crisp remembers seeing the assistant teacher going berserk in the playground, walking around with her arms outstretched.  She was not seen again