Evacuee shares her stories (From Messenger Newspapers)

Sale resident Ruth Elliot shares her evacuee tales

12:00pm Thursday 2nd August 2012 in News

A FORMER evacuee, who now lives in Sale, shared her experiences of life in Canada and America at a talk at the Imperial War Museum North (IWM North) this morning (August 2).

Ruth Elliot, 76, of Park Road, has volunteered at IWM North for the past ten years and gave the talk as part of the museum’s ‘Once Upon a Wartime Exhibition’ which aims to educate children about war and is running all this month.

“I very much enjoy giving my talks to the children at the museum and they’re always very interested,” said Ruth.

“I think it’s important for everyone to know about war because we want to stop it happening and one of the main aims of the museum is to show people how war effects and devastates lives.”

Ruth is originally from Macclesfield, Cheshire, and was evacuated to Canada in 1940 when she was just four-years-old, along with her mother and sister Helen, who was nine.

“A lot of Commonwealth countries were taking in evacuees and my mother and father decided it would be the safest thing, although I know it must have been a hard decision,” said Ruth.

“I know my grandmother was very against the idea.”

Ruth said she has no happy memories of her first foster home in Ottawa, Canada, but was very happy at her second placement with a family in New Jersey.

When Ruth and her family eventually returned to England four years later, she said she found it difficult to adapt to rationing at first.

“I remember having a weep over my first breakfast which was scrambled egg made with powdered milk,” said Ruth. “But I got used to it after that.”

*For more information on the ‘Once Upon A Wartime’ exhibition, please visit www.iwm.org.uk.