MORE than 60 years ago, they were young girls saying goodbye to their loved ones in war-torn Southampton.

As the bombs of Hitler's Luftwaffe rained down on the city - hundreds of pupils from Southampton Girls Grammar School were evacuated to Bournemouth to escape the worst of the Blitz.

They were billeted away from their families among strangers - some staying for almost the entire duration of the war.

But this week, those girls were all smiles as they took part in a joyful reunion in the city from where they were sent packing with their gas masks and a few possessions at the outbreak of the Second World War.

About 80 former pupils from the school - the youngest in their early 70s - gathered at The Avenue Hall in The Avenue to take part in an emotional reunion.

Some of the women, who came to the lunch from all over the country, had not met since their schooldays.

But in spite of the passing of the years, there were still shouts of recognition that echoed across the hall.

The reunion was organised by evacuee Maureen Scurlock - now in her 70s- of Brookvale Road in Southampton.

The former teacher was evacuated with her older sister Marjorie Awcock to a hotel in Bournemouth at the outbreak of war in 1939.

She recalled: "In the first year, our mother was with us as a helper but it was a very temporary business.

"We were billeted in a hotel which had no visitors because of the war conditions."

Later, the then head teacher of Southampton Grammar School for Girls told the girls they were to be sent away from the school, which had been open for only three years.

They all met at Southampton railway station. Each girl was issued with a gas mask and an identification label tied to their uniform.

Marjoire said: "One took it for granted at the time."

The sisters were taken in by a hotel in Bournemouth where they stayed with their mother and 12 other children.

Maureen said: "It was exciting and fun at the time at the hotel.

"Our mother was then sent back and things went downhill after that.

"We were sent to another house and were not really welcome."

Maureen eventually left Bournemouth in Easter, 1945 just before VE Day in May that year.

Both women had an interest in science with Maureen going on to become a teacher after taking a degree in biology and Marjorie working in the laboratory for aircraft manufacturers, Vickers Armstrong.

Southampton Girls Grammar School is now Taunton's College in Shirley.

Maureen still has a copy of the letter sent to pupils by the then head teacher Alice Platt welcoming pupils back after the long war years.

She said: "It is a rather sad letter saying how we would soon be back in our lovely building but how it had been torn up by trucks."