The government’s idea was that if the children were to stay in the cities the air raid would kill and maim them. They believed it to be far safer and beneficial to send children away as soon a possible. They believed the householders would be happy to volunteer and would welcome the child into there home. The government did nothing to safeguard the welfare of these children and this is why most of the social mismatching happened. Many problems could have been avoided had the children been placed in homes according to class.
Instead, the children would be taken to a large hall or school and selected by potential foster families. Always it would be the cleanest healthiest looking child that would be chosen first. Often those families who got ‘second pick’ would resent there evacuee.
A child’s happiness was solely dependant on where he or she was placed and the attitudes and ideas of the foster family. The children were in various condition that reflected there social economic and social standings. Many children came from the squalor and poverty of the East end of London – from areas such as Bethnal Green. They came from households which didn’t even have an indoor lavatory, let alone a bath. They often came with few or no clothes at all – often been sewed into the ones they were wearing – almost always these were already in a deplorable condition. Repeatedly, the children would have skin diseases and body lice. They would be used to a very poor minimal diet. One source claimed that after a group of such children were in the town hall the hall had to be ‘fumigated afterwards’ Often these children would be placed in a family of complete contrast to themselves and would experience a total culture shock. These children would find it very hard to cope with such different standards of behaviour. They would find the new clean atmosphere odd and scary. Many found the contrast tremendously traumatic.
Many children experienced a whole new experience they could have only ever dreamt of. Many were showered in love and affection and after the initial shock; a mutual affection and lasting relationship were formed with the new family. Many families gave the children opportunities to experience activities they would never have even heard from in the cities- they would play in the woods and eat fresh food and see real live animals. Some families even took there children to the cinema! These children modified themselves and adapted with ease to there new surroundings.
Other children were not so lucky. The absence of a government body to safeguard the welfare of the children meant that some suffered physical and sexual abuse. Many middle class people were extremely prejudiced against the lower classes and would beat them subsequent to this. Many foster families saw the evacuees as free workers. Many evacuees were forced to do hard labour and girls treated as unpaid maids. This had extreme bad effects on teenage girls of such an impressionable age. Some evacuees found this so miserable they attempted to run away. Many children were so homesick they travelled between the city and country over half a dozen times. Often these abusive foster parents only took in the children for the money. Some foster parents, including abusive ones, would complain to the evacuee that the governments allowance was not enough to keep them and would demand more money from the evacuee. Did the evacuee not get the extra money; he or she would experience dismal consequences – such as different meals away from the family or worse still, no meals at all.
Many foster families acted this way as they did not want to take in children! Many complained sternly to the authorities when they low the grime and nastiness of the children and didn’t want the ‘dirty cockneys’. Many formed protests and found the system inadequate. They didn’t want such dirty children coming into there homes and using there facilities and were appalled by there behaviour. Others were genuinely shocked at concerned at the lowliness of the children. These families were so used to cleanliness and hygienic living that the shock of the state of these evacuees caused some parents to worry that the evacuee could give there own children diseases.
Others avoided taking in evacuee’s altogether. Many head masters and mistresses heard about this and passed it off as ‘skirting there responsibilities’. Others questioned the point and effectiveness of evacuations and believed it better for a family to stick together during war time. This view was kept by many city families also, and a reason why many chose not to evacuate there children.
In rare cases, children from upper class families would be sent to families of a lower class to themselves. These children were shocked at the way of life. They found the way of life in the countryside very primitive to what they were used to in the city. One evacuee said how ‘having come from a modern house it was like going back in time. The toilet was half way up the garden!’
The children in the families could be equally unwelcoming as the parents, or equally welcoming. In most cases unfortunately the children didn’t want to see evacuees in there houses. Taking the attentions of there parents and schoolteachers. Many children were horrible to the evacuee and made there lives even worse. Others just ignored the evacuees entirely.
The school teachers were prejudiced from the start. They were unwelcoming to the evacuees and sat them in the coldest seat in the classroom.
Some priests and holy men insisted to parents the evacuees should return home claiming ‘any physical dangers they might incur thereby was trifling compared with he spiritual dangers they ran by remaining’.
Ideas and attitudes varied so much it is hard to give any conclusion. But many former evacuees claim evacuation has had a profound effect on there later lives. Many say for the good one man says how he turned from ‘a city slicker to a country lover’ to which he is to this day. Many were adopted by there foster families and moved perpetually. Others are left with haunting memories and see there evacuation as wasted and lost years of there childhood and memories of rejection.
http://www.johndclare.net/wwii4.htm
