A GROUP of wartime friends have reunited - more than 70 years after they met as evacuees in a South Lakeland town.
Jean Royle, of Rampside, travelled to Bowness last Monday to be reunited with Joy Bridges, Sheila Sproat and Jeanie Lund.
The group met at the start of the Second World War when Mrs Royle was sent to live in the town with Mrs Bridges, who is originally from Newcastle.
Barrow came under intense bombing as the Germans tried to wipe out the shipyards, destroying neighbourhoods and surrounding villages in what later became known as the Barrow Blitz.
During the 86-year-old's stay with a couple she remembers only as "Mr and Mrs Holmes", she also became good friends with Mrs Lund and Mrs Sproat, originally from Bowness.
The grandmother said: "It looks a lot different now, we used to bath in the shed outside, can you imagine?
"I remember they made us clean the brass everywhere in the house and we hated it, and they didn't believe in radio or newspapers.
"I was about 10 when I was sent away but I didn't really think about it."
Mrs Royle described the bombing of Newland Street, Barrow, and remembers having to move house several times.
"The Germans were determined to get her," joked husband Ernie.
The evacuee friends have kept in touch as often as they can.
Mrs Royle's brother George, who was 12 years older, was sent to fight in France where he was captured on the beaches at Dunkirk and sent to a POW camp.
Mrs Royle kept in touch with her American pen-pal Bobbie Naughten from Texas, who she first wrote to on the orders of her school teacher at the beginning of the war.
"The first time we met it was just like meeting a friend", said Mrs Royle, who has fond memories of taking Bobbie and her late husband Howard around the area.
She added: "When they came they couldn't believe what we had been through in the war."
The Royles have visited the USA about four times and the pair have met each other's children and grandchildren.
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