War with Germany was near. Orders were given to evacuate all school children in densely populated cities like London. William J. “Bill” Thompson, six years old, was among them as he and his family lived 15 miles east of London in Dagenham, Essex.
The evacuation began on Sept. 1, 1939, and the UK declared war on Germany on Sept. 3, 1939.
Over the course of three days, 1.5 million evacuees were sent to rural locations like Kent. Young Bill’s two older sisters, Joan and Joyce, were evacuated also.
They traveled on a ferry along the River Thames, then up the east coast to their destination ant Cromer, Norfolk. They were separated at this point.
Knowing air raids would be frequent and deadly, parents were faced with the gut-wrenching decision whether to keep the children with them in the city, or send them to live with strangers in the country. Host home sites were know as billets.
Finding homes for the children was often traumatic. Billeting officials would line the children up against a wall or on a stage in the village hall and the hosts were asked to take a pick. The phrase, “I’ll take that one,” was indelibly etched in countless children’s memories.
The elderly couple that chose Bill was kind to him, but it was lonely for him as they did not have any children.
Bill came to the USA in May 1967 and lived with his sister, Joan Plunk, in Tulsa. She had been a war bride coming to the USA in 1945 with her G.I. husband, Gene. Their family of five children quickly tried to indoctrinate Bill into the ways of American living, but failed to succeed.
Bill was employed at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa where he met his future wife, Ann McDonough-Parker, initially from Bryan County. Bill and Ann married in November 1971. Ann’s son, Rock Parker, joined the union and they lived in Jenks near ORU.
In 1986, they moved to the Durant/ Caddo/Cobb area where Ann grew up. They built a home on the McDonough estate on Blue River and have lived there these 38 years.
In 1941, at the conclusion of a 12-month study, it was found that “separating the children from their parents was a worse shock than the bombing.”
