Smiffys World War II Evacuee Girl Costume, Blue with Dress, Hat & Bag, Girls Fancy Dress, 1940s Dress Up Costumes

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Evacuation on this scale had never been attempted by the government before but it was their task to safely transport millions across the country. So, how was this mammoth task accomplished? Across the country throughout the war and particularly in three separate waves of 1939, 1940 and 1944, children, mothers and vulnerable citizens left their homes, not knowing where they would end up, who with, or for how long. Luggage had to be limited. Parents were issued with a list detailing what their children should take with them when evacuated. Though the list was short for such a journey, in fact many families struggled even to provide their children with all the items listed.

The children who were evacuated to the country were evacuees. Their letters tell us a lot about what life was like for them. Some Saturdays we would go the Whitby on the bus and have a look around the shops. At Christmas I had some nail varnish and I wrote to Santa asking him for a new dress because I

To smaller towns and villages in the countryside. Some children were sent to stay with relatives outside in the countryside, but others were sent to live with complete strangers. My father was kept pretty busy on the farm and was given various jobs to do, having never seen many animals in London he was pretty terrified of cows and pigs; hated working outdoors and would often scarp off with another evacuee and get into all sorts of trouble. We didn’t like it there you had to get in the bath with someone else. Our Olive and me used to get in together, then on Sunday we used to go to the teachers bedroom and have a cocoa and a piece of toast for our supper. At last the train stopped and we all got out and got into coaches, which took us to a big hall, where we shouted our names out then you went to your teacher in the corner of the room. As we were all leaving we were given 2 carriers of food to give to the landlady whose house we were going to live in.

My father John Parker was evacuated to Oxfordshire at the start of the war. Over the years I have heard about his sister (8) and himself then aged 10, clutching a little bag and their gas masks, standing on the station not knowing what was happening. Hundreds of children – after tearful goodbyes with their parents – were hurded into the trains to take them away for “safety”. They stopped at various places along the way, where people could come and choose who they wanted. Fortunately my Dad was taken by a childless couple called Mrs & Mrs Cross who lived and managed “Church Farm” in one of the smaller towns near Middle Barton. Sadly, they did not want any girls and so my Dad and his sister were separated. Being in the care of a farm manager – Mr Cross – my father was not encouraged to play games with the labour’s children, so he was mostly on his own until they enrolled him in the local school. There he came across his old childhood friend from London George Fage, although they were in different years at the school. Evacuation Don’t Do It, Mother, 1939-1945, Central Office of Information, catalogue reference INF 13/171 (3) On a Sunday we used to get a lift to Church in the milk float pulled by horses who used to pass wind all the time and as I sat behind his bum I was nearly like a Chinese lady by time I reached the church. While we were at Sandsend a ship’s mine washed up on the beach and blew the windows out of the hotel and blew two boys out of bed in their house, all had a good laugh. We had to go to bed as soon as the 7.30 train went passed, if the train didn’t go passed we would stop up till 8pm. The children at Compton Primary School in Plymouth have written letters summing up perfectly how evacuees must have felt.On Sunday September 3rd 1939 I was sitting on the settee with my Mam and Dad listening to the radio, the Prime Minister came on to tell us that England was at war with Germany. Now before this I had asked my Mam if I could be evacuated with our Olive who was 6½ years old and she said Yes, because it meant you went on holiday with your school friends and Teacher.

Evacuation tried to ensure the safety of young children from the cities that were considered to be in danger of German bombing - London, Coventry, Birmingham, Portsmouth etc.Mary Whiteman: “Mostly the school children went straight to the training college and then were taken, met by billeting officers who offered to find them homes, and it does credit to the town to say that that first night everybody had somewhere to go. And they just counted up the rooms that was the idea you've in the old days, you count how many rooms and how many people.” A further two million or so more wealthy individuals evacuated 'privately', some settling in hotels for the duration and several thousands travelling to Canada, the United States, South Africa, Australia and the Caribbean. 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 or homes that were no longer there. Despite the huge undertaking that evacuation was and the emotional distress to the citizens, by 1945 the impact of the air raids on cities across the country had been devastating.

Evacuation to Parents Important Notice1939-1945, Central Office of Information, catalogue reference INF 13/171 (4) In some instances, a child's upbringing in urban poverty was misinterpreted as parental neglect. On the other hand, some city dwellers were bored in the countryside or even used for tiring agricultural work. Ronald McGill: “I just couldn't believe it! I just couldn't imagine the Germans in my house, it didn't make sense.”At Christmas we went to a party at Mulgrave Castle that had a real Marchioness living there. She was a very old lady and when she had super, she had 12different foods and after every course there was a little bell rang. Million children, pregnant women and other vulnerable people such as the disabled, evacuated to safer countryside locations in just two days. Alan Jeffreys: “In the interwar period, especially in the 1930s, the great fear was of aerial bombardment. The MP Stanley Baldwin said in 1932 and the bomber will always get through and so this was one of the great fears across the nation in the interwar period.” Alan Jeffreys: “For some people it was the happiest days of their lives their evacuation experience. Whereas for others they missed their family and their home and especially if they were ill-treated by their foster carers. The experiences of the evacuees could really vary to a considerable level.” Alan Jeffreys: “One of the quite important legacies of evacuation and definitely goes on to affect government legislation even during the war but certainly in the Labour government after 1945 was that evacuation drew attention to the economic and social deprivation that really existed in inner cities in the 1930s, and this really came to the fore through evacuation.”