Ann Farina was a school girl in Gosforth when the Second World War broke out. She attended Newcastle Central High School for Girls and was evacuated to Keswick along with the rest of the school.

In this diary she describes how she found out about being evacuated while returning from her family holiday in Scotland. The family rushed home to get Ann and her sister Margaret back to school on 1 September to be evacuated (pages 1-8). She comments on the fact that there are lots of soldiers travelling by train and describes some of the soldiers on her train singing in the corridors. (Pages 7-8).  

Ann describes how the girls are organised when they get to school (pages 14-17), the train journey (page 17-21) and arriving in Keswick (21-25).  Despite being very tired and hungry, the children have to sit through a long speech (page 23).

She goes into detail about the boarding house (the “billets” – she uses the army term, here) where she and her sister have been placed (page 25-onwards). She is not impressed with the lack of electricity and inside bathroom (page 25-27). Ann is also unimpressed with her hosts. On page 29 she records that she wrote a letter to her mother, once they arrived. She tells her mother that they are happy – “which I was not!”

Throughout, she talks about the food that she was given and often talks about “rashions” (rations), even though rationing was not introduced until 1940.

Diary of Ann Helena Farina, 1941 – NRO/07896/2.