Lily Nye spent her early years in the Everton area of Liverpool, where her father was a docker and her mother a munitions worker. At the age of 4 she was evacuated to Leek along with her two sisters, although she told her friend that she was going to be ‘evaporated’!
Despite her young age, Mrs Nye cherishes happy memories of evacuation to the Staffordshire Moorlands, where she was shown generous hospitality by the Bidolf family of Mill Street. She talks about her enjoyment of being in the countryside in the audio link below:-
Transcript for Lily Nye’s audio clip
She stayed in Leek until the age of 7 when her eldest sibling had reached working age. The subject of adoption did come up between her mother and host family, but this was never carried out.