Introduction

In late April 1940 my father Robin Eades, his sister Sheila, and their parents Jack and Guli left Burma to visit the eldest child of the family, Barbara, who was at boarding school in England. They arrived to find that France had surrendered to Nazi Germany and Britain herself now faced invasion. Rather than leave Barbara alone in England the whole family departed for Canada, braving the U-Boat menace to cross the North Atlantic. Guli and the children stayed in Stanstead, Quebec while Jack returned to his job in Burma. After a year Guli decided to rejoin Jack, so they crossed North America by rail and sailed from San Francisco to Sydney, arriving just two days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. They remained stranded in Australia while the Japanese over-ran the Far East, Jack being one of the last to walk out of Burma by the northernmost Hukawng Valley route. When Jack rejoined the British Army in India in 1944 the rest of the family travelled to India to join him. They remained in India until VE Day after which they returned "home" to England where their wartime travels ended.

Between 1940 and 1945 they travelled more than 40,000 miles, visiting the continents of Africa, Europe, North America, Australia, and Asia, and passing through every major territory of the British Empire - South Africa, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and India.