Hosts were sometimes shocked by the behaviour and the obvious poverty of some of their charges.įor many children, living with a strange temporary family in a rural location was a great adventure and most were well cared for. Children were of every age and background. Children were given a stamped postcard to let their parents know where they were billeted © IWM LN6194Įvacuees were allocated to host families who were paid. They carried a small bag containing a number of Ministry of Health specified belongings, along with their gas mask in its box. Every child wore a label written with their name, school and evacuation authority. The overseas scheme was largely abandoned due to public outrage following a U-boat attack on an evacuation ship, the SS City of Benares,17 September 1940, which saw the loss of 260 lives, 77 of them children. Child evacuees and their carers en route to New Zealand, 1940 © The National ArchivesĪ second wave followed after the fall of France summer 1940, including children sent to America, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and Australia. Some better-off parents often made their own private arrangements. It saw a first wave of 1.5 million children, pregnant women, mothers with infants and the frail and disabled, evacuated from urban target areas to safety in the countryside. Two days before the British declaration of war on Germany (3 September 1939) in a huge logistical exercise involving thousands of volunteers, a mass evacuation scheme began – Operation Pied Piper. In the run up to the Second World War, the government feared high civilian casualties as result of German air raids. Mass Evacuation of Children Children from Myrdle School in Hackney, London, walk along the street 1 September 1939 carrying suitcases and gas mask boxes on their way to be evacuated to places of safety © IWM D1939A It was a time framed by fear and bewilderment, but also often one of freedom, excitement and new experiences.
Evacuation, air raids, deaths of family members, playmates and neighbours, the destruction of homes and familiar landscapes, disruption to schooling, fear of gas attacks, shortages, fathers away fighting and mothers working, homelessness and emergency accommodation – 34 million changes of address took place during the six years of the war – affected their lives.Ĭhildren were as much in the front line as adults.
Seven children from the O’Rourke family sleeping with their mother in an air raid shelter under the railway arches in Bermondsey, London, November 1940 © IWM D1614ĭuring the war years, their lives were turned upside-down. In 1939, in England and Wales, the majority were very young – nearly 6 million were under 10 years old. The facepiece was red and the breathing section blue and green in an attempt to make them more friendly © IWM D5894 A young boy wears a ‘Mickey Mouse’ gas mask produced for children aged between two and five. The experience of children in Britain – forced to interact with the adult realities of the Second World War (September 1939 -September 1945) – is a largely untold story.
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