Dorothy Anker Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Dorothy Anker 4 7
immigrants or yourhs, refugee children who came on a youth transfer Into
this Ilkley, Yorkshire. And lIans got to talk to her and she saw that
Peter was much too young for that grouping for her size of hostel. But
she knew of two ladies, Miss Kirby and Hiss Corey, who had this small
school in her town, And they plantled to do somethldg for a rafugee
child and she saw as well that this may be our Peter to do that for him.
And this is how he came To Ilkley. Accidently the couple first was
another couple Xn this youth hosrel hut my own sister-in-law and
brother-in-law were later, in later years the , . .
9. The couple who took care, the custodians.
A. . . . couple who took care of this youth hostel.
Q. So Peter went up to Yorkshire and then you followed him at one
point, didn't you?
A. P followed him after the war broke out because at that the the
little school kind of exploded in size and had all the old graduates who
h d gone ro schools outside of Ilkley, boarding schools or the like,
they cane back to thar school and instead of having only the four grades,
they got about double or triple in she and tvok the older, the graduates
of that school plus a few other girls from that area. And they needed
special help domestically. And it was relatively nice for meb 1 could
work as a domestic there but I also, 02 coarse, with the older girls T
even participated in some of the classes, had some of the literature
with It and had the steady contact where tha little childraa who always
asked me everything in English which I had to come up with answers
naturally because . .
Q. It was the best possi1)le experience there is.
A. That was a good experience and they speak a little slower than
ordinary grown-up. And it gave me a very good practice in my English.
Q.
And did you stay there mtil you were ready to go to America?
A. No, Bans felt very lonely. He came up at Christmastlrne and we were
all together, By that time already my brother and sister-in-law had
been up there and we ha? a real kind of family reunion for the Christmas
up there and could celebrate together which was kind of nice. But then
he felt too lonely and I joined him at a later date because by that time
the teachers were organized again and had enough help and could manage
very easily. And I went back to London.
Q But you left Peter in the school?
A. I left Peter at the school and he came to visit us on each holiday
to stay with us in London.
0. Then at what the did you get the htnformation that your visa had
come through for America?
Dorothy Anker Memoir -- Archives, University of Illinois at Springfield