by Mark Hopkins

Created on: May 21, 2008

As a Second World War became more probable, the British government made contingency plans to evacuate the most vulnerable people from the major cities at risk of air attack. The destruction of the Basque town of Guernica by the German air force during the Spanish Civil War had brought home the horrors of modern warfare in the most graphic way possible. The added fear that poisonous gas could be dropped as well only added to the sense that evacuation should be available.

Children, women who were pregnant, mothers of young children, invalids and the very elderly were all eligible for assisted evacuation, but it was purely voluntary. In the first 4 days of September 1939 one and a half million people, nearly all children, were evacuated to rural areas where they would be at less risk of attack. Many went with no parent, labeled and clutching a small suitcase or paper packet containing their meager possessions. Boys were supposed to take 1 pair of underpants, 1 vest, 1 pair of trousers, 2 pairs of socks, handkerchiefs and a pullover or jersey. Girls were to take 1 vest, 1 pair of knickers, 1 petticoat, 2 pairs of stockings, handkerchiefs, 1 slip, 1 blouse and 1 cardigan. (Many children were sent by families too poor to provide all these.)Both boys and girls were supposed to take a topcoat, comb, towel, soap, face flannel, tooth brush, boots or shoes and a pair of plimsolls and the vital GAS MASK.

Many parents could not bear to send their children away and despite the dangers kept them at home. Those who did send their children to safer places suffered the heartache of being apart. Everyone agonized over whether they had done the right thing. For the many children parted from their parents, the experience of evacuation varied greatly, as memoirs have revealed. On arrival, some suffered the indignity of 'slave auction' type matching with host families. Pretty little girls and cute little boys were snapped up quickly but the more unkempt or less attractive were made to feel unwanted. Sometimes they had to trail around with a billeting officer as he called at house after house in search of a willing family. This was not the experience of all though. Some were happily sent to relatives in the country.

Host families were paid an allowance by the government to cover the cost of looking after the evacuees. At first it was ten shillings and sixpence for the first and eight shillings and sixpence for subsequent children. Some evacuated children found new freedom in the countryside

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