Mr Stone, now, 94, is the former general manager of Leeds City Transport and in 1937 was the man charged with drawing up plans to evacuate thousands of schoolchildren in case war broke out.

Two days before war was officially declared on Germany in 1939, those plans were realised.

Mr Stone has never spoken at length about his involvement in the evacuation scheme, which affected thousands of people and saw mothers and fathers separated from their children.

Speaking from his home in Rawdon, where he lives with wife, Gladys, 96, he said: "I was very much involved in the evacuation of schoolchildren. It was one of the first big jobs I did for Leeds City Tramways. We had about 600 trams and when I started we only had about 70 buses. Gradually, that position changed until we had about 600 buses.

"In the middle of the 1930s, the Government decided they should make sound plans for the evacuation of schoolchildren from towns and cities if war broke out. The starting-off point for that was appealing to parents to see which ones wanted their children to be evacuated.

"We then compiled a list of people who were happy about that. You have to understand the transport system was very different to what it is today. Most people used trams. We had to get the bulk of children to train stations so they could be dispersed into the countryside villages.

"In 1937, I was asked to develop the programme. I had to draw up a comprehensive schedule showing, for example, there were six trams ready at Compton Road terminus that would be able to leave at 10am to bring children to City Square, or four buses to bring children from a school in Kirkstall or Bramley. It was very theoretical and people were doubtful it would happen but in 1939 it did happen."

Mr Stone, who has a daughter, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, went on: "I remember in August of 1939, as soon as people knew the balloon was going up, the Government ordered the evacuation of children. My boss simply turned round and said, 'you drew up the plans, you carry them out.' It was a bit of a surprise but you just took things in your stride because we were involved in so many other things. I went to Torre Road tram terminus and I implemented the programme.

"When it came to the actual evacuation, many parents who had said they would want their kids evacuated were reluctant to be separated from them and of course the children didn't want to go. I can still visualise children stood with labels and suitcases.

"Our position was made more difficult by the fact that a lot of our drivers were in the Territorial Army, because in those days that entitled them to an extra two weeks holiday per year, and at the same time we had to organise the evacuation, the Government called them all up. We were losing drivers at a considerable rate, sometimes 20 at a time.

"However, we got through it and completed the evacuation in two days, on Friday and Saturday September 1 and 2 and then war was declared on September 3."

Mr Stone's involvement with the transport department didn't end there. He was called up and joined the RAF in September 1940 but then Leeds City Transport obtained his release, which kept him out of the armed forces for another 15 months, until he re-joined and by chance found himself based in Leeds.

After being commissioned as an officer, he was attached to the Army and served under General Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey.

Mr Stone helped to organise the mass movement of troops across Northern Europe and went as far as Shleswig Holstein in Germany.

He remained in the RAF until January 1946, when he returned to Leeds City Transport, where he rose to district manager in 1974, retiring two years later.

He noted: "The war brought about the end of trams, which had been run into the ground through lack of investment. One thing which hampered them was the 1870 Trams Act, which meant we had to secure the permission of Parliament to extend routes and that was complicated. At the time new estates were being built in Gipton and Seacroft and obviously one couldn't hold back, which is why the buses built up."

Mr and Mrs Stone will have been married 70 years in July next year.


When Germans dropped in

Dennis Lemon, who happens to be the Yorkshire Evening Post's fishing correspondent, was evacuated from his Leeds home when war broke out.

Putting aside the anguish of being parted from his family as a seven-year-old boy, he was saved from the austerity of rationing as he went to live on a farm about ten miles outside Doncaster.

Said Dennis, 77: "We didn't have the shortages other people had. There were always eggs about and plenty of meat. I loved being on the farm. I got good school holidays too, as come harvest time everyone was expected to muck in and help.

"There was no running water and no electricity."

The farm in question was at Wilsic Arches and it was run by Arthur Constantine and wife Agnes, who had three grown-up children. Dennis went to the farm with another boy, Peter Wallis, and stayed there for five years.

Dennis said: "One day, we got up and looked out of the window and there was a German plane in the back field. It had crash landed in the night, the pilot had gone. I sat in it and had my picture taken."

He also recalls watching Sheffield get bombed, houses lit with paraffin lamps and it being daylight until 11pm thanks to 'double-summertime'


Cinemas, pubs and good memories

Your Letters...

I was born at 34 Kenealy Street, Leeds 7 on August 24, 1929. I went to St Matthews C of E school in Meanwood. I used to go to the Carlton pictures in Carlton Hill and the Carlton pub was just higher up.

I remember my dad saying if someone asked directions you always went by pubs and, like picture houses, most of them are gone. The Windsor Castle pub was at the bottom of Lofthouse Place, Carlton Hill.

On Camp Road I remember the Victory cinema and the Alexander pub, the Oaklands and The George and Alfred House. The Royal picture house was on Meanwood Road along with three pubs that I remember, the Globe, Kings Arms and the Golden Cross.

I was evacuated from St Matthews School on Friday September 1, 1939. I was billeted with a lovely couple at Calder Grove at the other side of Wakefield. I was ten years old and stayed there three years and four months.

My mum worked at the Hope Inn at the top of what was then New York Road, and the Ritz cinema was next door. The Assembly Rooms was in Upper Briggate, the Scala was in a side street off Briggate and the Tattler was on Boar Lane. I also remember dance halls like the Capital, the 101 and the very popular Mark Altmans.

My mam and dad were married at St Matthews in 1918 and had their Golden Wedding. I was married there in 1949 and also had my Golden Wedding with a wonderful family.

With tears in my eyes these are just a few things I remember and many more hold wonderful memories. Those were the days for me. I am almost 80.

Mrs Florence Norman (nee Rix), Johnston Street, Leeds



With reference to cinema memories, I remember well the Rex Cinema on Gypsy Lane. I worked as a projectionist as a second job round the time of 1964/65. There was also the Gainsbrough and Top Moor Side, where my father-in-law was a fireman/projectionist and my mother-in-law was a part-time usherette.

The customers were nearly all regulars visiting on the same evening each week and there was always a Saturday kids programme with half-time entertainment.

It seems a pity that these traditions have been lost over the years.

Stuart Wood, Gildersome, Leeds, email: stuartandlizzie@ talktalk.net



I am researching a book on Nissen huts and would like to ask Yorkshire Diary readers to contact me with stories, memories and pictures regarding these wartime wonders.

Stephen Wade, Leeds, email: stephen.wade @ntlworld.com


Guess the year

A portentous year in which the ice queen (and her king) reigned supreme, the world got a sticking plaster and good conversations were soon to be held in private. What year are we talking about? Answer next week.

Last week's question: The King held court from afar (Elvis Presley's Hawaii concert became the first to be televised and more people watched it than the Apollo Moon landings), spiked wheel heel kickers clinched victory (Tottenham Hotspur, 'Spurs', won the Football League Cup Final at Wembley, beating Norwich City 1-0), and the writing was on the wall for the orchestrator of future stellar battles (novice film director George Lucas, who went on to direct the massively successful Star Wars films, gave the world his first major cinematic offering, in the form of American Graffiti.) The year when all this happened was 1973.

Did you know?

The legacy of the Second World War lives on, not least because old unexploded bombs are still being found to this day. In August of this year, two North Yorkshire villages were evacuated after a 500lb bomb was discovered on farmland at Ebberston, off the A170. Villagers from nearby Allerston were also evacuated as a precaution while Army bomb disposal experts exploded the device.


Appeared in EP 12 Sept 2009