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The evacuation of Britain's cities at the start of World War Two was the biggest and most concentrated mass movement of people in Britain's history. In the first four days of September 1939, nearly 3,000,000 people were transported from towns and cities in danger from enemy bombers to places of safety in the countryside. During the Second World War, many children living in big cities and towns were moved temporarily from their homes to places considered safer, usually out in the countryside. For some children, the end of the war brought an end to a prolonged period of fear, confusion and separation. For others, it brought considerable upheaval as they returned to cities and families they barely remembered.
There were explosions in several reactors and a blanket of radioactive particles settled over the region like an invisible cloak. Browse our online shop for products inspired by people's experiences of war. How did it feel to be an evacuee, a parent or a volunteer host? And how did the government organise the mammoth task of Operation Pied Piper? Schoolchildren who had assembled for evacuation at Myrdle School in Stepney at 5am on 1 September 1939.
What did they drink in World War 2?
His rations were stolen by his host family, who enjoyed good food whilst John was given a diet of nothing more than mashed potatoes. However, contrasting experiences have stayed with the evacuees and what is left can only be described as the best of times and the worst of times. As a result of the mismatches, selection was made according to rudimentary principles. Billeting officers simply lined the children up against a wall or on a stage in the village hall, and invited potential hosts to take their pick.
Over the course of three days 1.5 million evacuees were sent to rural locations considered to be safe. After a journey which was often long and tiring, evacuees had to line up and wait for a ‘host family’ to choose them. They were paid by taking a form to the local post office. After all, the piper leads the children of Hamelin away from the town, never to return. Over the six years of the war, more than two million children were sent away from their family homes. Most returned, but how they had changed and how the separation affected their relationships with their families is seldom considered.
What was it like for a child to be evacuated in ww2?
However, it was possible to plant rice again this year and the head of the farmers' committee Kazuo Watanabe is relieved. "Finally, the younger farmers have a reason to return," he says. The fact that the government has agreed to buy up the whole harvest allays fears that nobody will buy rice from this region."
The WVS provided practical assistance, looking after tired and apprehensive evacuees at railway stations and providing refreshments in reception areas and billeting halls. Sometimes children observed their parents afresh and found their way of life different from what they had grown used to with foster parents. John Mare, who had been evacuated to Canada aged seven, was horrified, as only a child can be, by what he found on his return to Bath. Fear that German bombing would cause civilian deaths prompted the government to evacuate children, mothers with infants and the infirm from British towns and cities during the Second World War.
How were children’s lives affected by ww2?
One in five schools was damaged by bombing, and air raids frequently stopped lessons for hours, leading to a decline in attendance. So Endo wants to create a new infrastructure to attract other evacuees to Kawauchi. He rejects the straightforward solution which would be for operations to resume at the Fukushima Daini plant 12 kilometers south of the Daiichi reactors. "If we produce nuclear energy here again the whole world will laugh at us," he says. "We have to learn a lesson from this disaster otherwise it won't have meant a thing." The Second World War was a time of major upheaval for children in Britain.
The process of being evacuated was humiliating for the children. "There is fear of radiation, the broken reactors are still not under control and on top of that, Kawauchi doesn't have the comforts of a big city," Endo names as the reasons. A quarter of Kawauchi's 2,800 inhabitants refuse to come back for now. Some 500 have returned and 700 come here to work everyday. Two years ago, an earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, 20 kilometers away.
Nigel and Michael's hosts were small farmers at Golden Grove near Llandeilo, in Carmarthenshire. They had 20 cows, all of which had to be milked by hand, and the only aid was a horse. Of course, it would be wrong to suppose that evacuation under the government scheme was one long misery for most of those involved. Clearly it was only a minority that were ill-treated, but it did happen. Naturally, and sadly, deep scars lie just below the surface for that minority. Most evacuees have a vivid recall of events on the day of their evacuation.
Kawauchi is located in a valley amid a sea of rice fields on hilltops still covered in snow at this time of year. Sign up to receive thousands of fascinating stories about individuals who lived through conflict straight to your inbox. Be the first to hear about the latest exhibitions, events and offers tailored to your interests.
A majority of nations, including most of the world’s great powers, fought on two sides consisting of military alliances. With 3 million military deaths, the most affected country in our data was Germany. The universities were open throughout the Second World War.
School in Kettering presented a problem with a huge influx of extra children into the town. We had to share schools with the local children and it was arranged that the locals should go to school from 8.30 to 1.30 and the evacuee’s (we never got rid of that name!) should have the afternoons. It seemed to work quite well, after a year or two the local council requisitioned various church halls etc, so we were all able to have full-time schooling.
The children in this photograph are evacuees from Bristol, who have arrived at Brent railway station near Kingsbridge in Devon, 1940. Parents were issued with a list detailing what their children should take with them when evacuated. These items included a gas mask in case, a change of underclothes, night clothes, plimsolls , spare stockings or socks, toothbrush, comb, towel, soap, face cloth, handkerchiefs and a warm coat. The children pictured here seem well-equipped for their journey, but many families struggled to provide their children with all of the items listed. 1.5 Million children, pregnant women and other vulnerable people such as the disabled, evacuated to safer countryside locations in just two days.
I did think about it in after years and realised what an exceptional couple they were. The people in charge of housing the children were called billeting officers and they had lists of families who were willing to take a child or children. Later, when the town was full of evacuees it was compulsory for anyone who had a spare bedroom to take an evacuee. Radiation forced tens of thousands to evacuate, turning towns and villages into no-go zones.
Travel back to Britain in 1940 as Eric finds out what life was like for children during WWII. The dexterity with which the children were shepherded through crowds of morning workers at Waterloo Station was a perfect piece of organisation. Police wearing armlets and LCC school officials saw that an avenue to their platform was kept entirely free for the children. Waiting rooms, turned into first-aid posts at various stations for the children, were rarely if ever used. For the newspapers the evacuation represented an irresistible human story.
Officials used these forms to decide how many evacuees could be billeted in each area. Many of them went to the rural parts of south and north Wales. Sometimes carrots were used instead of sugar to sweeten dishes.
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