The first receiving group were the children who lived in the countryside. They would have felt resentful of the children coming over from the city. This was because they felt that the children were invading and taking away their lives and their schools. It was many of these children that made the evacuees experiences more negative than they needed to be. They would have caused fights and picked on the children for no reason. They would have felt like they were being ignored by their parents and friends and just generally people in the village, because all the focus would be on the evacuees and making them feel welcome. The country children would have had a negative experience because of this, and did not really have any positive experiences, except some of them would have made friends with the evacuees.
The most affected group were Parents who had sent their children off to the country side; because they would have felt maybe like they had failed their children, because they had had to send them away and hadn’t been able to protect them and instead had had to send them away. However parents would have felt a sense of relief, as they knew their child/ren were safe from the falling bombs. They would have probably felt as nervous as the children because they wouldn’t have been away from their children very much. This would have turned it into a negative experience. However some parents would have been happy their children were away as it meant they could focus on the war effort without the children being in the way and risking getting injured. Poorer parents would have also been glad to get the older children away, because although they would miss their children, they would have fewer mouths to feed, and therefore be able to survive in that sense more easily. These are the parents that may have been happiest if their child (ren) wanted to stay in the country side. When parents received letters from their children, it would maybe change their emotions and feelings, because they would have felt a bitter sweet happiness or gladness at the fact their child was happy and safe, whereas if their child sent a letter off to their parents saying their parents that they were miserable and being abused, the parents would have to fight with their emotions telling them to take their children back to the city, and they would have to accept it was probably safer to leave their child their then bring them back. However some parents would have brought their child back despite warnings not to.
The main group of people in the receiving end were parents who were taking children in from the cities. This group of people would have very varying experiences. They would have all had the initial discomfort of having one or more strange children in their houses, children which they had never ever met before. Some parents would have had healthy middle class children, who knew how to do basic things such as wash and brush their teeth. These parents would have had a very positive experience with these children. Other parents who would have had a positive experience would have been the parents whose children settled in well because they wouldn’t have had to put up with screaming and shouting and homelessness. Some parents had very negative experiences as their children were not “house trained” as they were from slum areas. These parents had to put up with children who wet the bed and often did not know how to use a knife and fork. This would have made the parents extremely stressed and unhappy as they had never realised what they were getting into. Some parents had to put up with lice ridden children who had not had a bath or been hosed down in weeks or months. Some of these children thought they were being drowned when they were put in the bath. Some parents had children with no manners that got into fights and made family life very difficult. This would have turned any emotions of the parents into dislike, but worry as they would not know what to do. Most parents however would have felt very mixed emotions towards evacuation.
The last main group of people who were evacuated were teachers. They would have been evacuated to help deal with the sudden rise in the amount of children and to help with the teaching load. Teachers who were travelling with the children would have had a mixed experience, because they would have to look after all the children in their class in the school day, so would be faced with a lot of responsibility. Teachers would have missed their families because they had had to move away from their home town and maybe their children had been evacuated, so they would have had the mixed feelings parents had. This would have turned it into a very negative experience because they would have felt like they ere getting nothing out of the evacuation. However some would have felt glad they were evacuated with the children because, they did not have to put their lives at risk with the war effort but they didn’t have the guilt as they were looking after the children.
In conclusion all of the different groups involved in evacuation felt very different emotions and had very different experiences, ranging from the very positive to the very negative. However whatever the experiences, the majority of people from any of the groups would realise the benefits and needs of evacuation after the war ended, or in the children’s case when they were adults.
