Village remember evacuee teacher 80 years on

In 1943 a young teacher left her home in London to board a train to Somerset. As commemoration events take place to mark the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, the village she was sent to is remembering the children evacuated there for their own safety and the woman sent to help them.

Alice Moody (née Russell), then aged 22, was sent to teach children who had been evacuated to Hardington Mandeville around three years earlier.

From September 1939, Operation Pied Piper saw millions of people, many of them children, evacuated to the countryside from towns and cities at risk of being bombed.

When Mrs Moody arrived in Somerset, she taught both evacuee and local village children together.

"At the start I was a bit of an interloper but we seemed to get on well as time went on," she said.

"I showed the evacuees I was interested in whether they were happy or not. Had they heard from home, was it their mum's birthday?," she added.

The children evacuated to Hardington Mandeville were part of the biggest mass movement of people in Britain's history.

Evacuations, which were voluntary, took place in waves with another 1.25m leaving cities during the Blitz of 1940 and 1941.

Jean Laughlin was around 10 years old when evacuated children started to arrive in the village.

"They spoke rather differently, I don't think they could understand us either because we were Somerset children. We were eyeing one another with a degree of caution.

"They had new experiences they could share with us and their way of life was entirely different to anything we had experienced," she added.

Ms Laughlin also remembers the arrival of Mrs Moody.

She added: "She was very efficient, very neat and tidy. I envied her. She always seemed to know exactly where she was going and what she was doing."

John White's father ran the Royal Oak pub and the farm attached to it in nearby Hardington Moor.

Mr White recalls his father helping bring evacuees to the village.

"Father was one of the few who had a car in the village at the time. He was shuttling the children from Pen Mill station to Hardington," she said.

"I think it must have been a good 20-odd who came to Hardington.

"I can remember Alice. Les Moody lived here in the pub as well and worked for dad on the farm, and he eventually married her [Alice]."

Mrs Moody lived in the village until 1945. She accompanied the children home to London a few weeks after VE Day.

She documented her experiences in a memoir, writing a book about her time during the war.

"I was not allowed to travel with the children on the train and had to travel in a separate carriage," she said.

"Once in London I stayed on the platform to wait, and then along came my little flock.

"All I was able to say to them was do be happy, lovely to know you."

She married Leslie Moody on 7 July 1945. After their wedding, the couple settled in Wiltshire and had a daughter called Pam.

Mrs Moody continued her teaching career before retiring in the 1980s.

She is now 103 and lives in a care home in Trowbridge.

Jean Laughlin, who is 95, said she had lost contact with Mrs Moody and had not realised she was still alive until 2024.

"The news came from the parish magazine last year. Someone asked if anyone remembered and I emailed back. I was so pleased."

She said Mrs Moody's book has triggered many memories from the time.

"The last time I had contact with her I was about 15 years old - so 80 years ago. I am hoping to see her again at some point very soon," said Ms Laughlin.

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