I’ll Take That One: An Evacuee’s Childhood

Kitty Baxter was born in London in 1930, the daughter of a road sweeper and a cleaner and one of five children. War broke out just as Kitty turned nine and she became one of thousands of children evacuated to the countryside. This would be the first of three times that she was rehoused far from home over the course of the war.

Sometimes treated more like a servant than a small child, Kitty endured gruelling years cut off from her parents rather than a safe haven from war. She recalls her experiences living with strangers’ families in environments radically different to working-class London and how she navigated joyful moments and times of struggle and loss.

One of the last generation of women from this era, Kitty’s voice remains as whip-smart as her irrepressible nine-year-old self who triumphed over the adversity of a most unusual childhood.