Posted on May 15, 2025
Ruth Hughes was one of hundreds of children rescued from Hamburg in the winter of 1938, after her parents managed to arrange for her and her brother to be put on one of the last trains out of the city.
With only a small number of belongings from home, she waved goodbye to her parents from the train, not knowing she would never see them again as war broke out only a few months later.
Arriving in England, she was put in a Billy Butlins holiday camp in October, which Ruth remembers being “bitterly cold”.
She was picked out by visiting a visiting family and was bounced around to another before landing at the Williams family in Bath with four sisters who she remained close to for the rest of their lives.
When Ruth turned 18 in 1943, she immediately signed up to serve in the Auxiliary Territorial Service – “I wanted to do my bit to beat Hitler, he didn’t do me any favours”.