Home › Our Memoirists › People’s War memories › Bevin’s Babes
Last modified: 17 October 2026
In 2004 a group of old friends met again at a reunion in London. They had first met as five-year-olds in the late 1940s, waiting in the hallway of “a shabby, Victorian house, in a leafy road on Wandsworth Common”: Upper Tooting High School, a girls’ school. Almost all of them had been born during the war, while Ernest Bevin was Minister of Labour, calling women out of their kitchens and into the factories. So they called themselves “Bevin’s Babes”.
After the reunion they decided to write a book together, “mainly as a record for our children and grandchildren”. One of them, Heather Noble, posted the first part of it to the BBC’s WW2 People’s War website in twelve chapters between July 2004 and April 2005. The book was to have gone on to their post-war schooldays, the eleven-plus, the Festival of Britain, the Lynmouth flood of 1952 and the Sixties, but as far as I can discover it was never published, and only the wartime stories were ever posted.
They were too young to remember much of the war themselves. What they set down are their earliest memories, and the stories their mothers and grandmothers told them: of factory work and fire-watching, of being bombed out, of evacuation to Tyneside, Bath and the Faroe Islands, of fathers away for years, and of ration books, pre-fabs and bomb sites. Many of them lived on or near Wandsworth, Clapham and Tooting Bec Commons, and their stories are full of places that are still familiar.
The BBC site has been archived, but it is now very hard to read or find anything on it. These pages are an attempt to give the stories a better home.
About the texts. The stories are given as they were posted, in the group’s own order and with the summaries they wrote for each one. I have added the headings and the paragraph breaks, and a few notes in square brackets where a date or fact has gone astray. Liz’s story was posted twice; the revised version of April 2005 is used, with the differences shown at the end. About 24,000 words in all.
Every word you type must appear in the story. Put “quotes” round an exact phrase; end a word with * to match its beginning (evacu* finds evacuee, evacuated and evacuation). Very common words are ignored unless they are inside quotes.
IntroductionThe plan of the book, Ernest Bevin’s call for women to leave the kitchen for the factories, the doodlebugs, and VE Day.
Liz’s Story (story 1)Her Jewish parents’ escape from Vienna, her father’s internment on the Isle of Man, and a first home in Seymour House on the Albion Estate, Wandsworth Road, overlooking Battersea Power Station.
Christine’s Story (story 3)Bombed out of a flat in Battersea, evacuated to South Shields, then a pre-fab on a bomb site and ration books renewed at Clapham Junction.
Jill’s Story (story 3)Christine’s older cousin: a German plane brought down on Wandsworth Common, a troop train from Dunkirk at Clapham Junction, and a father fighting in Greece and Malaya.
Ollie’s Story (story 4)The war years on the Faroe Islands with her grandparents, and a first Christmas on the island of Sandoy.
Gillie’s Story (story 5)A whirlwind wartime romance, baby clothes made from War Office plans, Bath, and Tooting Bec under the flight path to Battersea Power Station.
Diane’s Story (story 6)Her parents buried alive under their Anderson shelter in Mitcham; growing up with her grandparents at Tooting Bec; London in ruins from the Monument.
Marlene’s Story (story 7)Shelters and tube stations, barrage balloons on the Common, her fireman father at the Balham tube disaster, and Fords sweet shop.
Susan’s Story (story 8)Her parents’ radio work at Marconi’s, Hackbridge; 114A Swaby Road; funeral teas in Earlsfield; and a grandfather traced to New Zealand.
Judy’s Story (story 9)From Bath to a freezing pre-fab in Bellevue Road, pig bins and British Restaurants, and her mother’s Ash School of Dancing in Wiseton Hall.
Frances’s Story (story 10)A villa on Wandsworth Common, the “Maurice Loader” salon in Upper Tooting, the undertaker next door, the Granada and the Locarno, and the doodlebugs.
Heather’s Story (story 11)Born in an air raid in Mitcham; a boat-builder father in the docks, a mother who helped the Kindertransport, and a pacifist grandmother on Clapham Common.
Sally’s Story (story 12)A wartime childhood beside the mill at Temple, near Marlow, gliders overhead in 1944, fish by post, and then Wandsworth Common.
Carol and Vivienne’s StoryTwins whose father was killed at Anzio three weeks after they were born; growing up on Clapham and Wandsworth Commons, and their mother’s pilgrimage to his grave.
The stories give only first names. The maiden surnames here are worked out from what the girls wrote about their parents; most of them will have married and changed their names since. Everything else is taken from the stories themselves.
| Name | Maiden surname | Born | Where the war found her | Family |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liz | — | May 1942, Paddington Hospital | Seymour House, Albion Estate, Wandsworth Road | Daughter of Jewish refugees from Vienna, Hans and Gutta; brother Ronnie. |
| Christine | — | South London; father in the Army | A flat in Battersea (bombed); South Shields; a pre-fab near Clapham Junction | Cousin of Jill. Later lived in America. |
| Jill | — | Before the war (the eldest: she remembers Dunkirk) | Fulham; her grandparents’ house on Wandsworth Common (bombed); South Shields | Cousin of Christine. Father in the 8th Army, then behind the lines in Greece and Malaya. |
| Ollie (Olwyn Christine) | — (her mother’s family were Olsen) | Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire | The island of Sandoy, Faroe Islands; Clapham Common from 1946 | Parents Bruce and Anne. Trained at the Royal Ballet School. |
| Gillie (Gillian) | Atkins | April 1943 | Her grandparents’ house near Tooting Bec Common; Bath | Parents Thomas Atkins and Sylvia. Later lived in South Africa. |
| Diane | — | August 1942, south-west London | Her grandparents’ house at Tooting Bec | Parents Steve, a photographer, and May, a hair stylist. |
| Marlene | — | 1942, south-west London | A maisonette in Tooting Bec | Father a fireman in the London Fire Service. Became a Tiller Girl. |
| Susan | Black (probably) | South-west London, about 1939 | 114A Swaby Road, Earlsfield; school in Trinity Road | Parents Gordon and Frances, both at Marconi’s, Hackbridge. Later a musician on the Isle of Man. |
| Judy | Ash | Bath | Bath; a pre-fab in Bellevue Road, Wandsworth Common, from December 1946 | Parents Harold Ash and Audrie May Ford; her mother ran the Ash School of Dancing. |
| Frances | — (the salon traded as “Maurice Loader”; her mother’s father was Thomas Bell) | Late in the war, a nursing home in Wimbledon | A villa on Wandsworth Common; Wallasey | Parents Jack and Janet, hairdressers (“Maurice Loader”, Upper Tooting). |
| Heather (Christina) | — (she posted as Heather Noble, probably her married name) | A May morning, in an air raid, at home in Mitcham | Mitcham; Witley, Surrey; Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire | Parents William, a boat-builder, and Irene. Heather Noble posted the stories to the BBC. |
| Sally | — | A nursing home in Maidenhead | Weir Cottage, Temple, near Marlow; Petts Wood; near Wandsworth Common | Her father managed the mill at Temple. |
| Carol and Vivienne | Budd | 18 March 1944, St Albans (twins) | Clapham Common; grandparents on Wandsworth Common | Father William Budd, Sherwood Foresters, killed at Anzio, April 1944; mother Rose (Collins). |
The book was also to have included Marcia, Yvonne and Elaine, whose stories were never posted. Elaine, who studied at the Italia Conti Stage School, danced with the London Festival Ballet and married the actor Christopher Plummer, is almost certainly the actress Elaine Taylor. The story numbered 2 is missing too.
Nothing seems to survive about the school in the war years, but its later history can be pieced together from the memories of former pupils.
From at least the early 1950s until about 1969 it was Upper Tooting High School, a small girls’ school, with boys taken only in the kindergarten. Its head and owner was Mrs G. E. Sanford, whose sister Mrs Stammers ran elocution classes as an optional extra. Teachers remembered from the 1950s and 60s include Miss Rickard, who died while still at the school in the late 1960s, and Miss Tedrake, already “tall with grey hair, quite old” in 1953. Classes were tiny (one girl remembered nine in her form), the girls walked round to a nearby hall for lunch, and in winter the kindergarten’s milk was warmed in front of the gas fire.
The uniform was dark green and gold, with a Panama hat in summer and a black velour hat in winter. It was bought from a shop in Balham, but the summer dresses were made to measure by one of the mothers.
Mrs Sanford sold the school in about 1969. Under its new owners, the Abbott family, it became Upper Tooting Independent High School, took boys throughout, and changed to a blue uniform. Pupils of that time remember a strict regime and the cane, walks to Balham baths for swimming and football on Wandsworth Common. The school closed in 1998, and its buildings on Trinity Road are now part of Finton House School.
[Whether the school was already in the same building when the Bevin’s Babes started there, in about 1947–49, is not yet known. Source: recollections posted by former pupils in the Upper Tooting Independent High School group on Facebook, read October 2026.]
Each link goes to the first mention in that story; the number in brackets is how many paragraphs mention it.
Wandsworth Common: Introduction, Jill (2), Susan, Judy (2), Frances (2), Sally, Carol and Vivienne (3)
Clapham Common: Ollie, Heather, Carol and Vivienne (3)
Tooting Bec: Gillie (2), Diane (2), Marlene
Upper Tooting: Frances
Upper Tooting High School: Introduction (2), Judy, Sally
Lower Tooting: Frances (2)
Tooting Broadway (the Granada): Frances
Balham (and the tube disaster): Marlene, Frances, Heather
Battersea: Christine
Battersea Power Station: Liz, Gillie
Wandsworth Road and the Albion Estate: Liz
Clapham Junction: Christine, Jill, Susan
Clapham Park: Heather
Swaby Road: Susan (2)
Garratt Green: Susan (2)
Summerstown: Sally
Trinity Road: Susan
Bellevue Road: Judy
Wiseton Hall: Judy (2)
Du Cane Court: Gillie
St Michael’s Church, Wandsworth Common: Carol and Vivienne
Holy Trinity, Tooting Bec: Gillie
All Saints’, Tooting Bec: Diane
Wandsworth Prison: Frances, Carol and Vivienne
Springfield: Carol and Vivienne
Streatham (the Locarno): Frances
Mitcham: Diane (3), Frances, Heather (2)
Fulham: Jill
Wimbledon: Frances
Hackbridge (Marconi’s): Susan (2)
Bayswater and Paddington: Liz (2)
Vienna: Liz (4)
South Shields: Christine (2), Jill (2)
The Faroe Islands: Ollie (11)
Fraserburgh: Heather
Witley: Heather
Temple and Marlow: Sally (3)
Wallasey: Frances
St Albans: Carol and Vivienne
Anzio: Carol and Vivienne (3)
Greece and Malaya: Jill (2)
New Zealand: Susan (4)
South Africa: Gillie (3), Judy (3)
America: Liz (2), Christine, Jill, Diane, Marlene, Heather (2), Carol and Vivienne (2)
Air raids and shelters: Introduction (3), Jill (3), Gillie, Diane, Marlene (5), Susan, Frances (2), Heather (5), Sally
Anderson shelters: Diane (2), Frances (2), Heather
Under the stairs: Introduction, Gillie, Heather (2)
The tube as shelter: Marlene (3), Frances, Heather
Bombed out: Christine (3), Jill, Gillie, Diane (2), Marlene (2), Judy, Frances (2), Heather
Doodlebugs and rockets: Introduction, Gillie, Susan, Frances (3), Carol and Vivienne
Evacuation: Christine (3), Jill, Frances, Heather
Rationing and queues: Introduction (7), Liz (4), Christine (3), Jill (2), Ollie (2), Gillie (6), Diane (4), Marlene (7), Susan, Judy (2), Frances, Heather (6), Sally (2), Carol and Vivienne (3)
The black market: Introduction, Liz, Frances, Heather (2)
Food parcels: Liz, Jill (2), Susan (2), Heather, Sally
Bomb sites: Christine (2), Carol and Vivienne
Barrage balloons: Marlene
Pig bins and pig clubs: Judy (3)
British Restaurants: Judy
Women’s war work: Introduction (2), Liz (2), Christine (2), Gillie, Susan (3), Judy, Heather, Sally, Carol and Vivienne
Fathers away at war: Jill, Ollie, Diane (4), Judy (2), Frances
Refugees and internment: Introduction, Liz (7), Susan
The Kindertransport: Heather
Conscientious objection and pacifism: Heather (3)
Home Guard: Introduction, Jill, Sally
A.R.P. and the fire service: Marlene, Judy, Frances, Heather (2)
The wireless: Introduction, Ollie, Frances, Carol and Vivienne (2)
The cinema: Frances (2)
Dancing and the stage: Introduction (2), Ollie, Judy (2), Frances
Christmas: Ollie (5), Marlene, Judy (2), Heather (3)
VE Day and the end of the war: Introduction (2), Carol and Vivienne
D-Day: Introduction (2), Frances, Sally
Heather Noble, “The Story of Bevin’s Babes”, Chapters 1–12, BBC WW2 People’s War (contributor U566697):
— Chapter 1: A2872677, contributed 28 July 2004 (Introduction)
— Chapter 2: A2872712, contributed 28 July 2004 (the earlier version of Liz’s story)
— Chapter 3: A2872730, contributed 28 July 2004 (Christine, Jill)
— Chapter 4: A2872758, contributed 28 July 2004 (Ollie)
— Chapter 5: A2872767, contributed 28 July 2004 (Gillie, Diane)
— Chapter 6: A2964611, contributed 1 September 2004 (Marlene, Susan)
— Chapter 7: A2964684, contributed 1 September 2004 (Judy)
— Chapter 8: A3188360, contributed 27 October 2004 (Frances)
— Chapter 9: A3383778, contributed 8 December 2004 (Heather)
— Chapter 10: A3383787, contributed 8 December 2004 (Sally)
— Chapter 11: A3674081, contributed 16 February 2005 (Carol and Vivienne)
— Chapter 12: A3936909, contributed 22 April 2005 (Liz)
See also the Imperial War Museum’s catalogue entry: IWM 1030013385.
WW2 People’s War was an online archive of wartime memories contributed by the public and gathered by the BBC between 2003 and 2006. The copyright in each story stays with its writer.
If you are one of the Bevin’s Babes, or belong to one of their families, I should be very glad to hear from you. Send me an email.