Lydney kids in the 1940s including an evacuee.
Lydney schoolgirls in 1947 and Frankie Ballard an evacuee from Essex in 1940.
Left photo, Joyce wrote (Aug 2007): "A photo taken in 1947 of myself
and friends all from Tutnalls, Lydney in Lydney Grammar School uniform.
We
we all
in
the same
class,
L-R Beryl Kear, Janet Windsor, Shirley Ellis, Joyce Cowles".
Right photo, Jo wrote (Aug 2007): "This
is a photo of my parent's evacuee, Frankie Ballard age 12, taken in 1940.
We think the photo was taken in Oxford St, Lydney. Frankie lived in Burnham-on-Crouch,
and
attended
a
naval
training
school, TS Exmouth situated in Grays in Essex. He was handed over to
my parents who lived in Oxford Street, Lydney at the time. They were
only required to provide Frankie with a bed for the night, as the government
had requisitioned the old stables at the Feathers Hotel, and converted
it into a kitchen and mess where he and the rest of the boys were given
their meals. They went to school at the Church School in Church Road.
Frankie stayed with my parents for two years before returning home.
Frankie could have joined the Merchant Navy at the age of 14, but the
main objective
was that the boys would join the Royal Navy at the age of 16, and be
posted to HMS Ganges in Felixstowe".
A tragic accident befell two of Frankie's fellow cadets in Aylburton on 14th April 1944. Both were killed in a road traffic accident with an American transport vehicle. They were cadets at the London Nautical Training School - TS Exmouth - in Lydney Harbour. The boys were buried in St Mary's churchyard, Lydney and have a headstone erected by the officers and boys of the L.N.T.S. and the townspeople of Lydney and Aylburton.. They are still remembered in a service at St Mary's each year. (source - 'The Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Review' - 15th June 2007).
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