Sheila Jarvis

Sheila’s earliest memory was of her younger brother, only 10 months old, as a rat jumped into his pram in their Wimbledon back garden. “I remember seeing this thing jumping into Tommy’s pram and screaming.”

Sheila Jarvis, 77 was born in Wimbledon, the fourth of 8 children. She describes great poverty in her home town during the depression, living with her three brothers and four sisters. “Our favourite shop was the sweet shop if we could get enough money for a couple of sweets,” She explains “We were desperately poor. We relied on the church for clothes and handouts.” Evacuated towards the coast at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Sheila arrived in Bournemouth aged only four and has remained there ever since.

Her times in Bournemouth as a child were some of her most cherished, she recalls seeing her first Pantomime at the Pavilions aged 6 as one of her favourite childhood memories.

A few of her brothers and sisters returned to her poverty stricken mother in the London suburb during the war though Sheila decided when war was over to remain in Bournemouth, being fostered locally. She was eventually married and now has two daughters and two granddaughters living in the area.

Sheila has spent most of her life working with children, as a teaching assistant and later a nurse. Today her brothers and sisters, in their retirement have returned to Bournemouth “We’ve all managed to get back together in our old age.”