It was The Women’s Voluntary Services (WVS) that welcomed all the new arrivals and handed out drinks and emergency rations, which consisted of a tin of meat, sweetened and unsweetened milk, a pound of biscuits and half a pound of chocolate.
The children were also allowed to write a postcard to their parents.
The Billeting officers then took the children out to meet the families that they would be staying with. Each house on the list was visited, and one or two children would be dropped off until every child had been allocated a place to stay.
Because of such hurried arrangements, householders did not know in advance who they would be asked to take in. It was those hurried plans that cause most of the problems later on.
My granddad’s brother pat, who was fifteen at the time can vividly recall how hard it was for him to get a place to stay because of his age:
“I ended up sleeping in the street for the first two nights as everyone had favoured the younger kids and there was nowhere else to go. But a young lady saw me on the street felt sorry for me and agreed to take me in. I was up all night, angry with the billeting officers for being split up from my brother. He was only five and I was promised that we would be placed together.”
Here are two statements from people who do not see evacuation in such a positive light. Joan Stanley, of Welton, near Lincoln, was a teenager when her family received a four-year-old evacuee:
“It was a horrendous experience being evacuated for both children and their parents, when they left on the trains they did not know whether they would see their parents ever again. The poor things were just parcels to a family waiting to take them – it was like being called up to the forces, you were just a number, not a human being any more.”
And Evacuee Reunion Association general secretary James Roffey, who belies that the effect of being taken away from your home at such a young age has scarred some for life:
“You were suddenly uprooted, your mother wasn’t there, strangers are all around you and yet you are being told big boys don’t cry and you have to be grown up. The big problem was homesickness, which becomes a debilitating disease. And yet you weren’t allowed to show it, you created a big shell around you. The whole process of evacuation had a psychological effect on the evacuees. Some children were left until last and were thinking to themselves ‘why wasn’t I picked?’ “
But although the evacuation had a bad effect on many people it left most of those who took part untouched. For some it was the time when they acquired a sense of self-reliance and independence that has stayed with them their whole lives. Coventry evacuee Philip Hodgkinson, said:
“I was less dependent on my parents and became more open-minded. I have achieved things in life that I would have never of been able to have achieved if I hadn’t been evacuated. It’s had that much of a positive effect on my life.”
After getting quite negative views on evacuation, I decided to do an interview with my Nan to see if she had different views to my Granddad, as she was much older when she was evacuated.
What did it feel like to leave your parents? I don’t recall any anxiety about it. It seemed quite an adventure, and although I was only eleven I was well aware that people had to make some sacrifices.
What did you take with you? Nothing special. I think we had given up carrying gas masks everywhere by then.
Did you go in-groups or by yourself? I went with the new school that I was joining.
In what sort of an environment did you end up? I ended up in a School Hostel, which was great fun. Our Master-in-Charge was Captain Shackel (Indian Army Cavalry – Retired) who was a bit strict but a great favourite with the boys. He would roar at us to get our homework done and get up to the dorms, but it was all a bit of a show. And he actually had a car and let us ride in it. Imagine – an Austin Seven about the size of a shoebox, with the back seat packed full of whooping, shrieking children! Brilliant!!
Could you hear the bombing? Not from Exeter – no. Plenty of it in London though except in June/July/August it wasn’t bombers, it was doodlebugs. (Which we heard rather than saw. They were very loud and had a very distinctive sound).
Were you afraid? If you mean afraid of being evacuated, then no, definitely not. I found being away from London a bit dull.
Did you travel with your brothers and sisters? No, just the school.
Who took you to your new home? Various billeting officers. If you want a side-splittingly funny description of evacuees and billeting officers, ask your teachers to read a couple of chapters of Evelyn Waugh’s 2Put Out More Flags2. A very funny book, and very accurate. I remember one lady I was billeted with – very sad – both her husband and her son had died in action. I didn’t like her very much, she was kind enough but insisted on putting lots of newspapers under my bed-sheet in case I was a bed-wetter. I was very irritated by the crackling noises every time I turned over in the night.
What did you do to comfort yourself? Nothing, I was quite calm, in fact boredom was the main problem.
As you can see, my Nan had quite different view on evacuation than my Granddad. My conclusion is that she was calmer because she was older and was used to staying away from her parents. Also she was told what was happening to her and knew that she would return home once the fighting had stopped.
