The Dominion Monarch joined a convoy going across the Atlantic. Fortunately, it arrived safely in Liverpool on 19 April 1945.
The conditions on board were very cramped, the sisters shared a bunk in the same cabin as their mother and another family. They had lessons on board; Anne was just five but tall and remembers being put in a class of seven-year olds and being very upset when she knew she had spelt her name incorrectly but couldn’t figure out the right way! Anne was placed in the correct age group afterwards. There was lifeboat drill on what seemed to be enormous decks with two huge funnels and there was barbed wire rolled up all the gang ways to the upper decks. The ship is the one depicted towering above the rooftops in the introduction to Call The Midwife!
Later Anne’s mother said how exhausted everyone looked when they arrived in the UK. It was shortly before peace was declared in Europe.
Anne’s father was repatriated in early 1946. Anne can still remember his arrival at a rented house in Lauder Road, Edinburgh.