From living in railway carriage in Homersfield to reuniting with her childhood best friend 55 years later, the story of a London-born grandmother continues to flourish.
On Saturday, a family from Haverhill made a special journey to the East Anglian Railway Museum in Essex to see a piece of their family history.
Robert Piggott journeyed there with his partner, Lucy, and their three-year-old daughter Lilly-Rose, to see a plaque commemorating Robert’s grandmother and Lilly-Rose’s namesake, Rose Smith, who was evacuated to Suffolk during the Second World War.
In fact, they even had the chance to look around Rose’s former home – a railway carriage dating back to 1890.
Rose Wells, as she was then, was born in north London on March 6, 1928.
When war was declared in 1939, Rose and her siblings were in the first batch of evacuees to be whisked to safety, which was how Rose came to Homersfield, Harleston.
It was a far cry from war-torn London, and it took Rose some time to get used to the stretches of Suffolk countryside, having grown up in a close-knit community, surrounded by neighbours.
Robert grew up hearing Rose’s stories of the Blitz.
“Even down in Suffolk, there were still German planes coming over, and she would have to hide with the people she was with so they didn’t get spotted,” he said.
Rose was fond of telling one story in particular, when she, her sister Eileen and their friend Reggie were playing together in a field when a German plane came flying overhead.
To avoid being seen, the three children leapt into a nearby ditch.
The family who took Rose in owned two converted railway carriages, which was where Rose and Reggie lived.
With no modern heating, the winters were bitterly cold, and Rose and Reggie would shiver through bitterly cold winters, and Rose would remind her children and grandchildren years later how lucky they were to have central heating.
In 1941, Rose and her sister returned to London. Rose went on to marry Cyril Smith, who had been a sniper and been captured as a prisoner of war twice and escaped both times.
The couple welcomed three daughters, Irene, Helen and Doreen. They remained in London for many years, before moving to Debden in Essex in the 1980s.
As a grandmother, Robert said that Rose was “the best”.
“The thing I will most remember is playing cards together in the kitchen, listening to music,” he said. “Nan looked after me and my brother all through the six weeks holidays.
“She made the best apple pies. There was a cooking apple tree in her garden, and the apples would fall down and she’d pick them.”
Meanwhile, Reggie had become a historian for Stansted Airport and developed a keen in terest in trains and locomotives. He had discovered the carriage he and Rose used to live in rotting away during a visit to Suffolk, and set about restoring it.
Down the side of a seat, he discovered a letter Rose had been writing to her mother. Reggie felt compelled to find his childhood best friend, and posted an appeal on the teletext Lost Touch page – which was spotted by Rose’s brother, Terry.
And so, in 1996, Reggie and Rose were reunited at last.
“It was like they were young again,” said Robert, who remembers accompanying his nana to this momentous meeting as a child. “Although many, many years had passed, they were soon talking like they had only been speaking a few weeks ago.”
After his grandmother died, Robert contacted the museum in the hopes of setting up a memorial for Rose – and was amazed to receive a reply from none other than Reggie’s grandson.
As of Saturday, a commemorative plaque is now part of a display sharing Rose and Reggie's story.
Rose died on April 12, 2022, aged 94. Her memory lives on through her daughters, her eight grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren.
To read more tributes to those we have loved and lost in Suffolk, click here
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here