An epic ‘escape’ to the isles
70 years on, brother and sister tell of daring 700-mile adventure to visit gran
IT reads like the plot of an Enid Blyton adventure.
Two penniless children in post-war Britain stow away on a 700-mile journey to visit their grandparents in Scotland – sparking a nationwide police search.
But Millie and Sydney Richardson’s tale was true, stunned the community and made headlines across the country.
Now 70 years on from their epic 1949 journey, the pair have retraced their steps from the village of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, to the Hebrides.
Then aged 13 and nine, they hid among luggage on their ten-hour overnight journey from Euston to Inverness. With nothing but a handkerchief of stale buns, their swimming costumes and spare pennies found around the house, they spent 30 hours dodging train guards during a land and sea journey to the isolated village of Tolsta, on the Isle of Lewis.
The pair had been inspired to brave the journey after falling in love with the Famous Five adventure novels of Enid Blyton during a family holiday to the area the previous summer.
Reliving his journey in a BBC
Alba documentary Mr Richardson, now 80, said: ‘We’d been there before and my big sister Millie was determined we’d go back. She led me astray and I went happily.
‘It was paradise for children, visiting for the first time was a completely new experience. It’s the first time I had actually seen the sea and it was totally fascinating.
‘So it seemed natural somehow to just run away. No money, no food, sheer ingenuity. We wanted more adventure.’
The pair had asked to revisit Tolsta that summer but their parents, Sydney Richardson, a soldier from Motherwell, and former Tolsta ‘herring girl’ Mary, refused.
On Friday August 11, 1949, they gathered pennies from sofa cushions amassing sixpence and three farthings, before hiding their escape kit in the garden.
Next they sneaked on a train to London, leaving a hastily scribbled note behind reading ‘going away camping for a few days’.
They reached London’s Euston Station, and climbed into a carriage heading north, first hiding among baggage and later in a toilet to evade the guards.
Mr Richardson, a former journalist who now lives in Droitwich, Worcestershire, added: ‘We had sussed out everything about it, I don’t recall thinking, “Oh I hope we don’t get caught”. It never occurred to me.
‘Only once did the ticket inspectors say to the assembled passengers, “who is with this lad”.’
The siblings told how they were almost rumbled halfway along.
Miss Richardson, 83, who now lives in Australia, said: ‘I thought if we hid behind the toilet door and didn’t lock the lock he wouldn’t see anyone and carry on down the corridor and that’s exactly what happened’.
Meanwhile, the parents had called the police and a nationwide hunt was launched, but to no avail.
After evading capture, the siblings changed at Inverness then travelled
to Ullapool before sneaking on board a ferry to Stornoway, posing as children alongside other families heading to the island.
They had planned to walk the 13 miles north but upon hearing of their exploits a resident handed the pair cash for the bus fare.
The children arrived unannounced at the home of their grandparents on Saturday evening.
Mr Richardson said: ‘They were completely gobsmacked.’
With no phone in the remote village a telegram was sent to Hitchin and it was agreed the children would stay with their grandparents for three weeks – during which their story made them famous.
Two Go to Tolsta: will be broadcast on Tuesday, December 31 at 8.30pm on BBC ALBA.