Wartime evacuee Pam makes emotional return
It was a dream come true for Pam when she arrived in a wheelchair, with her three daughters, at the front door of a large house in Broadhempston.
Pam lived there for three years when her school was evacuated from London during the war and it was the happiest time of her life. For 65 years she has never stopped talking about it, her family say, and she vowed one day she would return.
So, as a special treat, her daughters drove her to Devon, booked into a guest house in Broadhempston and set about tracking down the house of memories.
After one or two false clues they found it: a handsome six roomed dwelling just outside the village centre.
They were made welcome by the present owners, Chris and Ann Zealley and as they talked a poignant story emerged of a life which, but for a quirk of fate, could have been so different for the Cockney schoolgirl.
The Burberry family, with whom she was billeted, became so fond of Pam they wanted to adopt her. But she was whisked back to London and they never saw her again.
"It is a story with a sad ending," says Ann Zealley. "Pam had practically no contact with her own mother throughout the three years she was in Broadhempston, but as soon as the adoption idea was suggested she was immediately taken back to London. There she rapidly had to unlearn her posh table manners and cease to 'talk proper' to avoid being bullied at school."
Pam, now in her late 70s, lived in a poor area of south east London as a child. She has vivid memories of arriving in the village hall at Broadhempston wearing a red blazer and lining up with her school friends in front of the vicar who had the job of distributing the children.
She was allocated to the Burberrys, who had a live-in maid and was given a bedroom with marvellous views of Dartmoor. Mr Burberry was a somewhat distant figure but his wife was warmhearted and welcoming.
On the day Pam arrived Mrs Burberry asked her if she liked strawberries and cream. Pam's reply — in broad Cockney — was 'not 'alf Missus'.
Upon which she was sent to have all her meals in the kitchen with Myrtle the maid until she learned table manners and how to speak correctly. Only then was she permitted to eat with the family in the dining room.
As time went on, however, Mrs Burberry became increasingly fond of Pam who was encouraged to call her Auntie May. She became like a sister to the Burberrys' daughter, who was being taught at home by a governess while Pam went to the village school.
She also came to realise how lucky she was because it was obvious that many of the village families resented the evacuees and did not like having them in Broadhempston.
Mrs Heaton returned to London with memories refreshed of the halcyon three years she spent in Devon.
She left behind this photograph which will now have a special place in the Broadhempston History Society archive. A happy snap of a smiling little girl holding a bunch of flowers.
