Evacuation in Britain during the Second World War

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History Coursework - Evacuation

1) Study sources B and C.

Which Source is the more useful as evidence about the start of the children's evacuation journey?

Source B is a photograph depicting evacuees walking to the station. Obviously, as it is a photograph, it is at least useful in part, as it is definitive evidence showing children at the start of the evacuation journey. It also shows many children and some adults, who are probably teachers. This fits with what was happening at the time: 827,000 children and 103,000 teachers were evacuated in September 1939. The date also fits, as the photograph was taken in September 1939, and evacuation began on 1st September 1939. There are also lots of evacuees, which is accurate as the first evacuation was the largest in the war.

However, the source has many limitations as well. The key limitation is related to the provenance of the source. It is unknown who took the photograph, which raises the possibility that it could have been taken for government propaganda. There is much more evidence that supports this theory: the photograph looks very posed as all the children are looking in