Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2018 | Page 33

L
Interview
‘Vackie Hero’
Tells All
Retired headmaster and former Ryde Church organist John
Lea has become a published author in his mid-80s, with
two adventure stories for children that are based on his own
experience as a schoolboy evacuee in the 1940s. Jackie
McCarrick has been finding out more about his eventful life.
There’s nothing quite like
learning about historical
events from somebody who
was actually there, which is
why John Lea’s books about
so-called “Vackies” hold such
appeal for children who find
themselves studying the
Second World War as part of
the National Curriculum – as
well as adult readers with a
fascination for the past.
Having previously been invited many
times into Island schools to give first-
hand talks about being a wartime
evacuee, John decided to put down
his experiences in a more entertaining
form by penning his books “The Vackie
Heroes” in 2016 and then “Vackies in
Trouble” last year.
With distinct echoes of The Famous
Five, the adventure stories – using a bit
of artistic licence – are based on the
18-month period that John, along with
his older sister and three other children,
were boarded with a family at a seaside
guest house in lfracombe, Devon.
Now aged 86 and living at a retirement
“It was very
frightening for us, of
course. I remember
our parents being told
to stand back from
the train as we were
herded aboard by the
lady we called ‘The
Commander’.”
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