I was 19 years old at the time,  would be 20 in the December of 1953.

  The flooding came about due to the combination of a very high tide and a very strong wind 100 mph I believe, the water from the Thames River could not be released on the out going tide because the wind was blowing the sea into the river.

   The water came over the dykes and totally flooded the town of Tilbury and the surrounding marshland.

Some of the Schools on the higher ground became shelters for the people being evacuated. One was Chadwell Primary School and the other I remember was the College, Palmer’s Boys School.

   Still being in Rangers, and Peter in Rovers (guiding and scouting) we were called in the very early hours of the morning, to help, I worked at the Council Office Telephone Exchange for the morning, then their regular operators came in.

    Mother I remember also volunteered, she was at Palmer’s Boys School, making sandwiches and tea, and managing to match and unite families that had been separated because they had been dropped off at other locations.

    After the Council Offices I was sent to Chadwell. The RAF/US Air Force had a Base at Wethersfield who brought their large Lorries (trucks) to help with the evacuation; unfortunately (or fortunately for me as a teenage girl),  they did not know the area so I was delegated to navigate for them. The driver that I had was American not much older than me. There were people sitting on the roofs of their home, horses tethered that if not released would have drowned, dairy cattle fenced into yards that had to be released. The animals were smarter than the humans, once released they headed for higher ground. From the humans it was “well if it gets any higher then we will evacuate”. Our retort was, if it gets any higher we will not be coming back to get you. It was hard for them to take orders from a couple of kids. Usually after this they came with us.

     I had not slept for thirty-six hours so I went straight to bed, (every time I got home to rest I was called back) this particular afternoon my father was home (his lunch or his half day I don’t know) and he answered the telephone, again they wanted me back in, he politely told them to find someone else as I was sleeping and he was not going to wake me up. Most of the evacuation was done anyway, it was just a case of waiting for the water to recede.

     The Queen Mother came to visit the flood victims. As soon as the news got out about her visit, out come the

“Grays Local Gentry”, you know, the Silver Teapot and Fur Coat Brigade, who I might add had done absolutely nothing to help these poor people, arrived in full force.

    I do not know exactly what happened at Palmers except that mother told me that the victims told them to get lost and to leave the volunteers alone to be able to carry on with their duties. At Chadwell where I was she arrived while all the so called “snobs” were in the Staff Room preparing for her visit to the School. The Queen Mother talked to most people including me.