Pat Smythe - War Years

War Years

World War II brought times of awkward separation for the family. As well as the usual wartime activity of evacuation and rationing, in early 1940 her father was sent to Biskra in Algeria in search of a respite from his arthritis. Her mother remained in London working for the Red Cross.

During her father's return from North Africa via France, her mother set out to find him. She eventually found him in the town of Aix-les-Bains. Together they managed to get out of France, under enemy fire, on the very last boat leaving Bordeaux just before the Germans occupied the city and the majority of the rest of France.

Pat herself was sent to the Cotswolds (Ferne) for her safety, along with her pony, Pixie. Her brother had been evacuated to Newquay in Devon, where his school had relocated.

It was during that time, whilst getting into an entanglement with several horses, that Pat met the King in the middle of the road. Unaware of who he was, she said to the driver of the car he was travelling in Shut up! Can't you see I'm trying to get these horses out of the road!

In early 1941, Pat and her parents relocated to a house in the Cotswolds. Her parents still had to work hard, and things were never easy. The house had to serve as a guesthouse, as well as a family home.

In 1949, after her father's death, Pat and her mother moved again, to Miserden in the Cotswolds.