When Germany threatened to invade England in the summer of 1940, the British government created the Children’s Overseas Reception Board that sent children to safety in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and the United States.
Seven-year-old Jura MacLean Sherwood, born in London, and her two sisters went to South Africa. They traveled by ship without their parents and stayed in their new home for more than five years.
After the war, at age 18, MacLean enlisted in the Women’s Royal Air Force. She later married her American-born husband and they moved about the United States and lived for four years in Saudi Arabia.
While raising her four children, MacLean earned a professional certificate in genealogical research from Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City. They later settled in Phoenix, Ore., where she taught genealogy, writing and became the founder of the Southern Oregon Book and Author Fair.
Her first book, “Wave Me Goodbye,” is a historical fiction novel about her wartime experience. Another of her books is appropriately titled “Gosh, You’ve Had an Interesting Life.”
Sources: Sherwood, Jura M. Wave Me Goodbye. Baltimore, Publish America, 2002; Sherwood, Jura M. "All About Jura." Home of Author Jura Mclean Sherwood, Tripod, 31 Jan. 2008, jurasherwood.tripod.com. Accessed 23 Mar. 2017; "Children's Overseas Reception Board." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 22 Nov. 2016, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_Overseas. . Accessed 24 Mar. 2017.
