We kept in touch with Aunty and Uncle Chips and they came to our weddings although poor Uncle Chips went blind. They are all gone now but we shall never forget them. ”
But however, for most evacuees life was not so sweet. As time elapsed some started to hate it because they were becoming home sick and also due to there no action happening at home then this made them want to return home to the place they knew and loved. Some children were very poorly treated. Their foster parents saw them as slaves and many were made to do chores and even beaten. This was due to the fact that some foster parents looked down upon children from poorer backgrounds than themselves and so felt it was necessary to treat them like vermin, as they saw them.
“The experience of being evacuated leaves permanent memories, mostly bad. In Totten I nearly died due to being left alone in an attic with untreated whooping cough.I was lucky in that my father had a weekend pass from the army and came down to visit me,when he saw the state I was in he telegrammed my mother to take me away. When in Devon the second time,my mother came down and whilst there,she contracted Typhoid fever. I still remember her beside me in her nightdress with her hair all coming out and onto the pillow, she was taken away by ambulance, I have tried to find out what then happened to me, my mind having blanked out some of the bad feelings, I believe I was taken to be cared for in a childrens home for a short while and then to my Grandmothers in New Cross.
I am now nearly 69 years old and still some of the bad memories return from time to time, it might be a picture, a radio programme, a sound; all sorts of things may suddenly recall recollections of experiences better forgotten.”
Some of the children hated being evacuated and began to return home, an added reason for returning was bombing at home was non-existent and felt that there was no reason to stay. In May 1940 another evacuation was arranged due to the events in France. This meant that the people who returned on the first evacuation had to be evacuated again. The children who returned may have now had a better time of evacuation because they may have been designated a caring family who doesn’t give them chores and now got to experience some of the pleasant sides of evacuation. But for some children who liked it at the start, their attitudes began to change because when they first got evacuated they enjoyed their new, different life because there may have been better facilities than at their current home and they were in a nicer environment, and their whole lifestyle improved due to the way in which they lived and were treated, but for some it did not stay so rosy. Some started to get bullied and hated the curfew’s put on them, and this caused them to drift back. Now the people who hated it at the beginning because at the start they didn’t like the change of lifestyle at first but it grew on them and they started to like the food and the lifestyle etc.
In July 1940 the Germans started to bomb military targets and the children in areas around these targets were evacuated due to the risks of these bombs landing on the city by mistake.
On 7th September 1940 the Luftwaffe began bombing economic targets and this made the government launch another evacuation, and this time the children’s views on evacuation really changed. They suddenly became aware of why and how important it was for them to be evacuated this made them think how grateful they were for being evacuated and staying put, because if they had returned then they may not have seen another day.
When the evacuees returned some were worried because they thought that they might have lost all their family members in the intense bombs that had been landing on the city. But some didn’t want to return home because they loved the place where they had been staying for the past few months and wanted to stay there forever and wanted the foster parents to adopt them.
Throughout the war the evacuee’s views on evacuation constantly changed this was mainly due to the family’s they were assigned to. If they were put with a family who cared for them then the children tended to like evacuation, but if they were put with a family who constantly treated poorly them then it would be very different and they would hate evacuation.
But overall the thoughts of the children and the families they stayed with was always over ruled by the fact that they were away from the war and the constant bombings and air raids. This truly showed the reason why evacuation was put into action and the children also appreciated that they were safe and had been given this great opportunity to survive.
The parent’s reactions and attitudes towards evacuation throughout the Second World War changed significantly. When the first evacuation took place many mothers didn’t want their children to be evacuated because they thought there was no need to split up families.
“At the end of August 1939, we were told to pack suitcases for the children and prepare for their evacuation from London. I had five children. Joan (13) and John (11) the two oldest reported to their schools for the trip into the unknown. I took the younger ones, Eileen (9), Leslie (7) and Margaret (5), to their school. They had name tickets pinned to their coats and carried their boxed gas masks on a string around their necks. There was a long line of buses ready to take them away and the police on duty, told us to turn our backs, so as not to upset the children if we could not hold back the tears. We had no idea where they were to be taken and it was a most dreadful feeling, losing my five children in one day. I had no idea where they were going, or what they were going to do. I felt as if this may be the last time I was going to see them… as if we were going to be separated for life…”
This source taken from a Mother, Lillian Roberts, demonstrates the stress and torture the parents were put through in evacuating their children. So many of them decided to keep their children at home under their supervision rather than under a stranger. As the news spread that Germany had defeated France, some parents thought that Britain could be next in line for vicious attacks so decided to evacuate their children. However not all thought this was the case, and some decided to keep their children at home.
During the “Phoney War” period, parents who hadn’t evacuated their children seemed to have made the right decision, and parents who had evacuated their children were calling them back. So the attitude of parents who had sent their children away changed once they realised that no attacks were imminent and their children would be just as safe at home. Although the minds of parents near military areas changed in July 1940, as military targets were being bombed, and parents living around these areas suddenly became for evacuation as they realised it was getting unsafe for their children. But not all parents began doing this, as some who did not live around these areas still decided to keep their children at home with them. However some parents who were also not living in these areas, decided to think ahead and sent their children off cleverly thinking that their cities would be soon to follow.
As it so happened on the 7th September 1940, the major cities were targeted and bombed, and the country suddenly realised that evacuation was the best and only option for the parents of these cities to save their children’s lives. The vast majority of parents were now all for evacuation and were just happy to see their children set off safe and well. As some children were sending back letters to their parents informing them of how much they were enjoying the experience and how well they were being treated by their foster parents, some parents began to worry, wondering if they would want to stay there and never return home, and so some beckoned them to come back as soon as possible. Some then became against evacuation saying that it was trying to separate children from their families permanently rather than just for a few months. Not all parents had this opinion however, as some were just genuinely happy that their children were having a good time and were not worried about them. But not all children enjoyed evacuation as I established, so some parents were receiving letters from their children informing them of how unpleasantly they were being treated and again the parents of these children beckoned them to come home as they couldn’t bare the thought of them being away from home, in a strangers home who was not treating them correctly as well as the stress of them being in a different environment to what they were used to.
As fewer bombs were falling on major cities parents decided to call back their children in the thought that the war was over, but as evacuees were being called back another series of air raids occurred. This immediately made the parents of the children who had been sent back desperate to evacuate them again. So the government launched a final evacuation mission to take all the evacuees who had returned back to rural areas again.
The parent’s reaction to evacuation differed throughout the Second World War due to a number of reasons. At the start of the war some felt there wasn’t a need to evacuate, as they would be sending away their children needlessly because they felt there wasn’t even going to be a war. But as the bombs and raids began, they realised that evacuation was necessary. This shows their attitudes towards evacuation changing as they recognized that their children were in danger and they needed to be safe in order to survive such an ordeal. As well as this some parents needed their children at home for economic reasons, as they needed them to help out at home and work in order to keep a stable household and income. Also due to the letters that parents were receiving throughout the evacuation differed their attitudes as some were writing back expressing their love of the countryside and their foster families, as others were informing their parents of how they were hating it, and were being mistreated. So many parents began to plead for them children to be brought back to them. Overall the parents of the evacuees were very grateful that their children could be in a safe area throughout the war so they would survive and not have to suffer the affects that the war would bring.
The Foster Parents attitudes and reactions towards evacuation in the Second World War depended on the children that they received. The government decided to evacuate the children from the major cities of Britain into the rural areas, and the people that lived here would then take them in. These were the foster parents of the evacuees. Not everyone living in the rural areas on Britain was happy about this and did not agree with the government, as they believed that they were not paying them enough money and clothe and feed the children, but there was nothing they could do, the government informed them they had no choice.
From the negative attitudes that some Foster Parents displayed towards evacuation some evacuees were not greeted with a smiling face at this stressful time in their lives. Some Foster Parents looked down on the children seeing them as nothing but dirty creatures and treated them just like this. They felt they were being forced to take the children in and so were not so happy about this, but had to or else they would be fined.
During late 1939 the government once again began an evacuation program because there were fears that Britain was going to be attacked by Germany. When evacuated children arrived at their destination some were fostered without being forced to, whereas others children were just left on their doorstep and foster parents were forced to look after them. As time passed with no action happening many evacuees drifted back to home and this pleased some foster parents because some children they had inherited were as mentioned, not toilet trained, constantly wet the bed and just relieved themselves on the carpet. This is due to the living conditions in the city being very different to the countryside. In the city they have toilets that are shared between a street rather than just one family home. The hygiene of children in cities was poor because many could not afford hot water or couldn’t access it, which meant children were constantly dirty and didn’t know how to clean themselves properly or understand the importance of knowing how to clean yourself properly. Also due to some evacuee’s parents being so poor, they hardly had any clothes. Instead they had one outfit that they wore 365 days a year and instead of being blue were black with dirt because they had no facilities to clean them.
“ I fostered a number of five children. Except for just one the children were filthy, and in this district we have never seen so many children lacking any knowledge of clean and hygienic habits. Furthermore, it appeared they were unbathed for months. One child I fostered was suffering from scabies and had it all in her hair and another small boy had dirty septic sores all over his body…. Two out of the five suffered from wetting the bed. They were both very emotional and this was a lot to deal with…"
As you can see the above source displays the reason why some of the foster parents did not agree with fostering, as they would be taking in unwanted children. Many were shocked by the conditions in which the children were in and felt it was not upon them to deal with the emotional turbulence the children were going through at such a time. These factors changed foster parents attitudes towards evacuation, due to many not wanting there houses ruined by immature un trained children from a completely different environment and lifestyle.
Some foster parents however inherited children with good, clean manners and obviously came from middle class areas in the city as they were trained and had learnt basic hygiene skills as they had the facilities to learn these. Many foster parents enjoyed the evacuation experience; this was due to a number of reasons. For the foster parents who could not have children, this gave them the opportunity to experience parenthood and so evacuation to some was a blessing and a miracle that they could spend time with children they longed to have and look after them. Also for the foster parents who’s children had grown up and left home, this gave them a chance to look after a child again, remembering their pleasant memories of bringing up their own children.
As time passed and many evacuees had drifted back when the Germans started to bomb major cities on 7th September 1940, the government decided to do another evacuation expedition. Now, many Foster parents decided to take children in because they felt that they were doing nothing to help Britain win the war, and they thought that in taking in the children they would be being patriotic. So as they did many foster parents found out how little hygiene standards the children had and this put many foster parents off. As well as this the money they were given to help raise the children was not enough to feed and clothe them, so yet again many people were put off. However, some foster parents had yet again inherited well-mannered, clean children and so enjoyed their time fostering the children.
As well as this, some foster parents found it very beneficial to inherit evacuees, such as farmers, because they could help out on the farm, resulting in fewer jobs for the farmer to do. For reasons such as this, when the war ended, some foster parents decided that they wanted to adopt their evacuee, whereas others were glad to see the back of the children they had fostered because they had destroyed their homes with their bad habits and poor manners.
The reactions and attitudes of the Foster Parents during the Second World War therefore depended purely on the child they fostered. If they received a child with poor hygiene, bad manners and from a poorer lifestyle, evacuation was not always a pleasant experience for them, and they frowned upon it. Whereas the foster parents who inherited nice, clean, well mannered children, enjoyed their experience and even ended up gaining a new family member, after adopting them, resulting in them believing evacuation was a good idea.
Out of every possible category involved in the evacuation process throughout the Second World War, there is only one that supported the whole idea all the way, and this was the organizer of evacuation, the government. This is due to they knew what was best for the country and for morale which was vital in boosting the chances of winning the war, also they knew it was best by it would reduce death count which was also vital. The groups I discussed all had very different reactions to evacuation throughout the war, swaying their opinions.
The government rather rashly announced the end of official evacuation on 7th September 1944, the day before the first V.2 rocket fell on London, but even these new attacks failed to halt the steady return to the cities, which reached its peak during the autumn of 1944’ One after another from September onwards the former danger districts were proclaimed ‘go home’ areas, until by the end of the year only Hull and London were not yet considered safe. Their turn finally came on 2nd May 1945, six days before the European war ended, but it was to be nearly another year before the evacuation scheme was officially wound up. Few, it must be acknowledged, mourned its end.