EVACUATION
With the impending decent into the Second World War came a growing fear that many civilians would be killed or injured as Britain’s major cities came under attack from German bombs. Such was the concern, that as early as the summer of 1938 Sir John Anderson was asked, by Prime minister Neville Chamberlain, to convene a committee to discuss plans for mass evacuations of the civilian population. Submissions were taken from experts from the Railway companies, the police and teachers who would be instrumental in implementing any plan. The Anderson Committee released its recommendations in July the same year. It was clear that some civilian workers would have to remain at considerable risk, to staff the factories essential for War production and would be a target for enemy raids. However people in nonessential jobs should be moved to safer locations. Evacuation although heavily encouraged was never made compulsory. Children when not evacuated with their mothers would be sent away in school parties accompanied by a teacher. The displaced were to be taken to designated reception areas where the host communities would be obliged to receive them or face a fine.
Children were evacuated as early as 1938, however the official start of Operation Pied Piper, the code name given to the main evacuation of juveniles, was the 1st of September 1939. Earlier the same year an accommodation census was conducted throughout designated reception areas to determine how many billets were available in each district. Despite this mistakes were made and it wasn’t uncommon for the billeting officer to have to go door to door to try and squeeze in a few extra evacuees into limited accommodation. Although host families received payment for their new guests, 10 shillings and 6 pence for a child over 10 and 8 shillings and 6 pence for a younger child, they weren’t always given a happy reception, as this brief account by Lillian Evans from Liverpool suggests.
Evacuee (dad) Wigan 1940
During the initial phase of evacuations in 1939 many children missed their medical assessment due to a shortage of medical officers, by 1940 however enough Doctors were available to examine all evacuated children, and the statistics they recorded suggests that the health of these young refugees was not significantly different from that of the host communities to which they were sent. Many of the country kids were excluded from school for harbouring impetigo, ringworm, scabies and lice; the same conditions the evacuees were accused of transmitting!
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As the first Christmas approached and in the absence of expected heavy bombing raids the fear grew that many evacuees might start returning home. To combat this the Government encouraged entertainment, Christmas parties and pantomimes were organised in reception areas often with dignitaries from their home communities in attendance. So popular were these events that many continued up until Christmas 1944. No special trains were laid on over Christmas that might aid the return of evacuees and propaganda posters appeared on billboards throughout Britain’s cities urging parents to leave their children in the safety of the countryside.
In April 1945 timetables and arrangements were being made for the return of the evacuees. Nearly 3,000,000 had been displaced and by August 76,000 remained in reception areas. Many did not want to go home and others had no homes left to return to. March 1946 marked the formal end of the civilian evacuation and still over a year after the first people started to return home 5,200 evacuees remained in their wartime billets.