WWII evacuee to return to the town as guest of honour in play about evacuation

As part of preparations for an upcoming local play about a class of schoolchildren being evacuated to Frome from London during World War II, one of the organisers has managed to contact a surviving evacuee, who is aiming to return to the town to see the play. 

Richard Beer, now 96, was evacuated from London to Frome in 1939 for the duration of the war alongside the majority of his schoolmates and teachers, and he hopes to travel from his home in Banbury to watch the play, called Two Thousand Days, as the guest of honour.

The play, which is a new production by Dramakarma, is a coming-of-age story based on the life and times of evacuees who came to Frome from 1939 to 1945 with themes of fun, freedom, drama, and heartbreak.

Kevin Ross from Dramakarma said, “On 1st September 1939, two days before the outbreak of war, an entire school was evacuated to Frome from the East End of London as part of Operation Pied Piper. The school stayed in Somerset for two thousand days. While at first the war is only a distant backdrop, it increasingly intrudes into the lives of the young evacuees and presents them with huge personal challenges, each of them a rite of passage. Based on true stories of mishap and adventure; mostly on bicycles!”

Richard and his brother Jim had previously visited the town in 2017 to visit the churchyard of St John’s Church and to spend time on the Portland stone seat, which bears the inscription, ‘Given in gratitude to the people of Frome who generously opened their homes to the schoolchildren evacuated from London during the war 1939-1945.’ The seat was donated in 1999 by evacuee schoolboys from the Coopers’ Company School, where Jim and Richard went to school.

One of the organisers of the play, Kevin Ross, says he managed to track Richard down after going through the online archives of Frome Times.

Kevin said, “We found an old article in Frome Times that covered the return of two brothers to Frome. Once we had found the name, we were able to discover that Richard had a sister, Joyce, whose last recorded address was in Bradford-on-Avon. A week or so later I received a phone call from Richard himself, and he told me that his family had owned a pub in Poplar in London and that he and his two brothers were evacuated to Frome, while his sister was evacuated to Guildford.

“He had a clear recollection of all the billets he stayed in for the duration of the war and could recall many details of the shops and streets of Frome. One story which stood out concerned the Nissen huts and the grounds of the old county school before it moved across the Bath Road to the current college site. He described how when the air raid siren went off, the boys would jump into the trenches which they had dug nearby.

“Richard also confirmed that soldiers returning from Dunkirk threw their rifles over the town bridge which is a story we feature in the play. Two Thousand Days is a play we devised with 15 young people of Frome, based on a book given to us by historian, David Lassman. The book is edited and written by former evacuees who were members of Coopers’ School from the East End of London, and we have used some of these stories but have created fictional characters to tell them. We have invited Richard to the play as the guest of honour.”

Fond memories of Frome

Richard lived in Bath for a while some years after the war and he went on to play for Bath Rugby. In recent years, he returned to watch a game and was invited to meet the players and staff.

Speaking to Frome Times, Richard says he has fond memories of how accepting the people of Frome were to him and his classmates at the time.

“I was quite astonished really and looking back, I marvel at the fortitude and the grace of people who welcomed us into their community as they did so out of the kindness of their hearts, as they were not being paid a fortune to house us,” said Richard. “We were warmly welcomed given the circumstances, and we were amazed by the tolerance and helpfulness of the people of Frome.

“We were introduced to a new way of living as many people relied on their gardens and my brothers and I kept allotments all the time we were there, to help out with the rationing and we would also go foraging.

“I think perhaps my brothers and I were more accustomed to countryside living than some of my classmates as our grandfather owned a pub with a small farm behind it in Devon, so we were used to spending summer holidays feeding the animals and helping out. But for some people, it must have been quite a culture shock, moving across the country at such a young age.”

Tickets available now

The play, Two Thousand Days, is being performed by Dramakarma in associated with Keyford History Group at Rook Lane Chapel on Tuesday 16th May and Wednesday 17th May as part of Woven in Time, Frome’s first history festival.

Doors open at 7.30pm for an 8pm start. Tickets are £8 and are available from www.dramakarma.co.uk/evacuees

Pictured: The poster for Two Thousand Days.