Evacuees

[Olde Crone]

I broadly knew about the WW2 evacuation scheme of course, but I am reading a fascinating book which deals with what happened when the evacuees returned home.

Many children never managed to re integrate with their families, having formed wonderful loving relationships with their foster families. One lad, from a very rough working class background was evacuated to a rather posh academic family who encouraged his education and he passed an entrance exam to a public school. His mother, on hearing the news, called him a bloody big head and dragged him home. He never forgave her.

Another aspect I hadn't known about, was the hostels that were built to accommodate "difficult to place" evacuees. They were intended to be used as holiday camps after the war ( were they?). One woman said the hostel changed her life. She was dragged up in appalling poverty and neglect by very reluctant grandparents and evacuated at the first opportunity, to a billet that was as bad as home. The village schoolmistress was so distressed by her skeletal and filthy condition that she reported it to the authorities and she was taken to a hostel in Scotland run by three spinster ladies on the Girl Guide principles. She loved it and thrived and said it was the luckiest day of her life when she went there.

A really interesting read.



When the Children Came Home, by Julie Summers.


OC

[maggie_4_7]

It is interesting I suppose it all depended on what type of life they had at home.

My mum loved being on war work in Coventry first time she ever had a bed to herself at aged 19 :) and was allowed to go out and about on her own.

My grandmother wouldn't let her two youngest be evacuated, my mum's youngest sister was 9 and her youngest brother was 4 in 1939.

The authorities kept harassing my Nan about it but she refused, she said they stay with me, where I go they go, where they go I go. If anything happens we'll all go together.

Then promptly took them hopping to Kent just her the two youngest and her older disabled son, and left her husband and the older ones who hadn't been called up in London working.

[Olde Crone]

Maggie

Your Gran must have been a very strong woman to withstand the official pressure, they even had sinister posters of Hitler whispering in mothers' ears to take their children back to the cities and danger.

It seems beyond incredible now that in living memory, officialdom thought it was a very good idea to send small children to an unspecified destination to live with complete strangers who had not had even the most basic vetting for suitability.

OC

[Margaret in Burton]

Thank you for the recommendation OC. I’ve just ordered the book from Amazon.

[maggie_4_7]

Maggie

Your Gran must have been a very strong woman to withstand the official pressure, they even had sinister posters of Hitler whispering in mothers' ears to take their children back to the cities and danger.

It seems beyond incredible now that in living memory, officialdom thought it was a very good idea to send small children to an unspecified destination to live with complete strangers who had not had even the most basic vetting for suitability.

OC

Oh she was definitely strong but yes they did harass her a lot for about 2 years and then they gave up. It wasn't mandatory.

Well yes bad idea they should have accommodated the mothers too then it might have been a bit more successful for a lot of children.

My OH was born in Northamptonshire in 1944 because his mum was evacuated because she was pregnant. Before that she was a spitfire 'engineer'. :)

My aunt went with her baby but he was very tiny and in fact the woman she stayed with became a life long member of our family so much so it wasn't until I was about 18 I realised she wasn't actually a great aunt but that's what they referred to her as and I met her when I was very young.

I expect there are a lot of traumatic stories from children of that age, I know of some who were sent to farms and the farm owner just used them as farm hands and made them sleep in the barn.

[Phoenix]

I wouldn't have thought of my grandmother as a strong woman - though she may have been an obstinate one. She wouldn't let my aunt be evacuated from Portsmouth. Everyone else went, so aunt had no schooling from the age of 9, I assume until she started work at 14.

[Lynn the Forest Fan]

My mum was evacuated from Mitcham with her mum at the beginning of the war, but later went home and spent most of the war there. she told me that a house at the end of their street was bombed