Jamie Smith

Quick Facts

• Role: Ada’s younger brother and the spark for her escape from London
• First appearance: Early London chapters, before the evacuation to Kent
• Key relationships: Ada Smith (sister), Susan Smith (guardian), Mam (mother)
• Defining features: “a mop of dirt-brown hair, the eyes of an angel, and the soul of an imp”; “awfully small for six” due to neglect
• Arc: From anxious, dependent child to secure, curious boy with his own attachments and interests

Who They Are

At heart, Jamie Smith embodies all the childhood Ada was denied—tender, impulsive, easily wounded, and quick to delight. His needs propel Ada to risk everything, and his openhearted reactions to their new life in Kent expose the emotional landscape Ada struggles to name. Jamie is both Ada’s responsibility and her mirror: the scared child she once was, and the hopeful child she might still learn to be. As he discovers safety with Susan and agency through small acts of care, Jamie becomes living proof that a loving home can remake a self.

Personality & Traits

Jamie’s temperament is unguarded. Where Ada numbs herself, Jamie feels out loud. That vulnerability makes him volatile at first—tantrums, tears, bedwetting—but it also becomes the gateway to healing as consistent care teaches his body and mind that he is safe. His “impish” curiosity pushes boundaries, yet his loyalty to Ada and his quick bond with Susan show that mischief and love can coexist.

• Innocent, even naive: He misses home and Mam, not yet recognizing their flat as a prison. His insistence that Mam “misses them” reflects a child’s reflex to cling to the familiar, however harmful.
• Emotionally expressive: Jamie cries when frightened, rages when overwhelmed, and wets the bed under stress—physical signs of chronic anxiety that gradually subside with safety and routine.
• Impulsive and mischievous: With the “soul of an imp,” he steals a pear and a tomato in London and sneaks to the airfield to watch planes, disobeying rules out of curiosity and thrill-seeking.
• Loving and loyal: His first allegiance is to Ada. Caught stealing a chop, he tells the butcher, “Ada’s hungry,” and shares stolen food with her, instinctively protecting the person who protected him.
• Physically neglected but resilient: On arrival, Susan and the doctor remark he’s “awfully small for six,” a stark index of deprivation; under Susan’s care he quickly grows cleaner, healthier, and sturdier.
• Quick to attach—and heal: He accepts comfort from Susan earlier than Ada does, adopts Bovril the cat, and reframes disaster through stories, revealing a mind learning to metabolize fear into play.

Character Journey

Jamie begins as Ada’s shadow—hungry, undergrown, and terrified by change—his world bounded by her arms and the walls of their flat. The evacuation tears him from the only “home” he knows, prompting meltdowns and a persistent wish to return to London. School worsens his fear when a teacher ties his left hand to the chair; Susan’s furious defense becomes a pivot, teaching him that adults can protect rather than punish. Caring for the cat he names Bovril gives Jamie a role beyond “Ada’s little brother”: caretaker, companion, pilot-in-training watching planes with bright-eyed fascination. As routines take root, his bedwetting eases, tantrums subside, and his curiosity expands into identity. By the Blitz’s end, when he chirps, “We’ve been shipwrecked,” Jamie isn’t minimizing danger; he’s narrating it the way Susan taught him—turning terror into a story he can survive. His journey traces trauma’s imprint and the way consistent love rewrites it.

Key Relationships

• Ada Smith: For years Ada is mother, sister, and shield. Jamie’s dependence on her—food, comfort, even moral compass—defines his earliest self. In Kent, as he bonds with Susan and gains confidence, their relationship recalibrates to siblings who choose one another rather than survive through one another.
• Susan Smith: Jamie reaches for Susan quickly, instinctively trusting her lap, her books, her righteous anger in his defense. She becomes his model of safety—someone who both comforts and sets limits—and he’s the first to voice what Ada can’t: that Susan loves them.
• Mam: Favored and less overtly abused, Jamie longs for Mam and the “home” he knows, which deepens his conflict with Ada. His eventual recognition of Mam’s cruelty is a wrenching rite of passage, the moment his loyalty shifts from blood to the people who actually keep him safe.

Defining Moments

Jamie’s growth shows up in small, charged scenes where fear meets care and begins to soften.

• Wanting to go home: After Billy White returns to London, Jamie unravels—screaming to go back. Why it matters: It captures the trauma of displacement and a child’s impulse to choose the known harm over unknown safety.
• Tied at school: A teacher ties his left hand to force right-handed writing; Susan storms in to stop it. Why it matters: Jamie learns that adults can be allies, a lesson that accelerates his trust and reduces his anxiety.
• Adopting Bovril: He claims, feeds, and sleeps with the stray cat he names Bovril; soon, the bedwetting eases. Why it matters: Caring for Bovril gives him agency and a regulating rhythm—key to the arc of Trauma, Abuse, and Healing.
• The final scene: After the Blitz destroys their Kent home, he grins, “We’ve been shipwrecked.” Why it matters: He reframes catastrophe through story, signaling his secure bond with Susan and the stabilizing power of The Meaning of Found Family.

Essential Quotes

“Ada’s hungry,” Jamie sobbed.
Jamie’s instinct is protective, not self-serving; even while in trouble for stealing, he centers Ada’s hunger. The line reveals his moral axis—loyalty over rules—and shows how survival has trained him to prioritize Ada’s needs above his own.

“I hate it here too,” Jamie said. He turned to Miss Smith. “Can I go home? Will you take us home?”
His plea exposes the disorienting pull of familiarity. Addressing Susan directly also marks a turning point: he recognizes her as someone with the power—and perhaps the willingness—to change his world.

“I hate you!” Jamie sobbed, flailing his arms and legs. “I hate you, I hate you! I want to go home!”
This tantrum isn’t cruelty but terror voiced aloud. The rawness of the moment underlines how trauma surfaces as rage in children—and how consistent, calm care must meet it before reason can.

“Susan loves you,” Jamie said.
Jamie articulates what Ada can’t admit: that love is present and reliable. His simple statement pushes Ada toward acceptance and shows his own readiness to bond without shame.

“We’ve been shipwrecked,” he said.
After devastation, Jamie chooses a story of survival. The playful metaphor reframes loss as adventure, proving he has internalized safety well enough to imagine the future, not only fear it.