The train journey there would have been very tiring as it would make a lot of stops to pick up other evacuees and it was a long way to the reception areas. Most would be on the train all day with so many people on the train together it would have been cramped, hot and uncomfortable and often there were no corridors or toilets so accidents were inevitable. * “On that day hundreds of children from Birmingham area assembled at Tyseley station carrying luggage with a label attached to their clothing giving their name and address. It was very long and slow. I remember the train going up the Rhondda valley stopping at each station to allow evacuees to alight.” For some children it was a chance to discuss their situation with each other and make new friends. “My travelling companions on the journey had been my friend Margaret Gardner and her brother Michael.” This source is probably reliable as it is a first hand account, although it was intended for a television broadcast so details may have been dramatised.
Arriving at the safe destination would have been very strange because some of those who had been evacuated had never even seen cows and sheep before and breathed such clean air. They would be taken by billeting officers to a local hall to be chosen by foster families. This would not have been a nice experience as with their labels on and having strangers pick or not pick them mostly because of the way they looked, would have made them feel like animals or objects being bought at auction. “The first night we slept on the floor of the church hall “, “Unfortunately no one seemed to have room for three evacuees and I think we were almost the last to find a home”. This source seems reliable as it is a primary source for the sake of a history based website. “There were not many of us left by then, I would guess about 20-28”, This source is probably reliable as it is a first hand account, although it was intended for a television broadcast so details may have been dramatised. Also siblings and close friends would usually be separated because most foster homes didn’t want more than two children. “In the end I went to the Bound family at 11Vicarage Terrace and Margaret and Mike stayed with the Evans at number 13”, This source seems reliable as it is a primary source for the sake of a history based website. “I was separated from my close school friends and was billeted in a house with a girl I didn’t get on with”, this source is probably reliable as it is an historical account based on a diary of someone in the war written from their own experience.
Living with their foster family could have either been positive or negative and would have had the lasting affect they would remember of their experience. Some foster families resented the fact that they had to look after city children and mothers who were usually poorly clothed, educated and had bad personal hygiene and manners. Some would treat their lodgers as servants and make them wash and cook for them. Some evacuees were abused physically and mentally by their carers, “Some evacuees were lucky to have a positive and pleasant experience, while others less fortunate suffered physically and emotionally” this source was written by a historian writing a book about the war so it is fairly reliable as they would have done a lot of research although it would not be written from first hand experience and just what the writer had read from other people’s accounts. Because some children were so overwhelmed and frightened by their experience they started bed wetting and some foster parents found it unacceptable and beat the children or locked them in cupboards. This obviously didn’t help the bed wetting or allow good relationships to form between the evacuees and foster families. “The wife had been a domestic servant and regarded evacuees as domestic help”, a first hand account .
Some were evacuated to places like Wales were they couldn’t understand their language which made communication very difficult. “I could not understand a word that was said to me”, a primary source. The evacuees also deal with the different beliefs of their foster families. For instance, in some cases the host families wouldn’t even allow children from Jewish families to live in their homes. “We were also very cold and as they believed in low powered bulbs we lived in a sort of twilight”, I don’t like the man’s face. I don’t like the lady’s face much, Perhaps it will look better in daylight.” This is a primary source and shows how scared and confused a young child could feel in that situation.
Some evacuees did have pleasant experiences and enjoyed living with their foster family. They were given the chance to experience things they never had before like having fresh air, seeing farm animals, large fields to run and play in and fresh food. “I seem to remember having my favourite tinned fruit (a luxury at that time) for tea.”, “Everything was so clean in the room. We were given flannels and toothbrushes. We’d never cleaned our teeth up till then. And hot water came from the tap. And carpets and something called an eiderdown. This was all very odd. And rather scaring”. This shows that the difference between city life and country life could be quite shocking and frightening for an evacuee child.
Some foster families got on so well with the children they took care of that some even tried to adopt them, “After we went home Mr Reece came to London and asked my mother if he could adopt us.”
Even if the children liked living with their foster parents they would have been homesick. Most evacuees would live years with their foster parents before they saw their real ones again. “My sister and I got on well with Mr. and Mrs Reece. There were upsets sometimes, we followed the railway truck. We thought it would take us back to London but after following it for about a mile we discovered it was a railway line used by the local mines.” From a first hand account so fairly reliable.
Children under the age of five were evacuated with their mothers. This would have made their experience less scary as they wouldn’t have been alone. However, because of their drastic differences not all evacuated mothers fitted in well with country people.
Overall there is no way to determine whether the experience of evacuation for the people who were rehabilitated was good or bad because everyone’s experience was different. It mostly depended on who the evacuees foster family was and how they treated them. Some evacuees had a positive others had a negative one. But either way nearly all of them would have felt homesick, scared and lonely at some point. “a shared sense of isolation and loneliness at a dangerous time of war.”
The experience of the host families
The host families who took in the evacuees would have had a different experience depending on who they took in and their initial views on having to share their homes. Some families would have had a positive experience, some a negative one or both, but they would all have been different. The foster families received money in order to support and feed the extra mouths. “For unaccompanied children getting full board and lodging. 10 shillings and sixpence (52p) per week for one child 8 shillings and sixpence (42p) for each additional child.” From an official government document so it is reliable.
The foster families had to go to the village hall and choose which child they wanted to come and live with them. The children who wore glasses or had spots were normally picked last or not at all. Those who were not chosen would be taken from house to house and the families would be asked to take them in for at least the night. This normally meant it was permanent so the hosts would probably feel that it was unfair that they would have to take in a strange city child.
There would have been differences between the host families and the evacuees. Many came from slums so they had bad manners and no knowledge of hygiene. Some had never worn night clothes or slept in a proper bed and some had never even bathed before. Many claims of thieving and swearing were made against children and mothers who came from poor parts of London. “Who came in disproportionate numbers from the slums and backgrounds of Britain’s big cities”, “Except for a small number the children were filthy, and in this district we had never seen so many children lacking any knowledge of clean and hygienic habits”, “Complaints of thieving ,swearing, bed wetting and general smelliness were made”. This is a primary source written at the time when evacuation took place so it can be seen a s reliable however it could be biased as it was written by the National Federation of Women’s Institutes who would have had to share their homes with the evacuees.
Despite the many cases of poor behaviour there were also many evacuees from good homes. It was estimated in some places that as many as half of the children were full of disease. Many of the children were infested with head lice as evacuation took place at the end of the summer holiday so the schools had not carried out their de-lousing parades. “The state of the children was such that the school had to be fumigated“, “One child was suffering from scabies and the majority had it in their hair and the others had dirty sores all over their bodies” “Many of the mothers and Children were bed wetter’s.” Some of the evacuees arrived in appalling condition with ragged, dirty clothes and sometimes not even a whole pair of shoes. “Their clothing was in deplorable condition”, “There was hardly a child with a whole pair of shoes.”
Children under five were evacuated with their mothers. Some host families got on very well with the evacuated mothers and would enjoy sharing their household duties together. Some formed long term relationships with one another and kept in touch after the war. However there were tensions in some households due to town and country divisions. Many of the mothers from the country found it hard to be sympathetic to the city mothers who couldn’t all sew or cook and whose idea of enjoyment was to visit the local pub. Some of the host families were horrified at having to share their homes. “Many middle class people who had lived in villages most of their lives were totally shocked at the dirty, deprived and badly clothed children who arrived from places like London.”
Overall the host families would have had either a positive experiences or negative ones or a mixture of both. It depended on what kind of evacuees they took in. If they were dirty and rude then their experience may not have been pleasant. But if they were from good homes then they could have got on well. Also it depended on the host’s initial views on having to share their homes. If they didn’t want to share their homes they might not have had a good experience, but if they were happy to help the evacuees then their experience may have been pleasant.
There is no way to determine whether or not the host families experiences were all positive or negative as each family had a different one.
Evacuation sparked a huge change for Britain after the war. It helped people to see the cultural difference between people from the large cities and the countryside and made the government see that changes had to be made for the well being of the country. The foster families would have either a good or bad experience and sometimes a mixture of both. They had to share their homes with strangers from large cities who would have been very different to them and they may not have wanted to let them stay. The country families would have been able to see how different city people were from them. Some were shocked at how different they were not only by the way they looked but their manners and knowledge of hygiene. The host families had no choice but to take the evacuees in so they may have felt bitter towards them from the start . The foster families may have got on well with the evacuees and mothers and have a positive experience. The evacuees would have had a positive or negative experiences or both. They would have felt scared about leaving their parents to go to live with strangers in a place they had never been. Sometimes they couldn’t even understand their foster parents. If they were nervous they would wet their beds and some foster parents would beat and abuse them. But they may have had good experiences by staying with nice people who treated them well. They also would have been able to eat fresh food and more of it and clean and healthy lifestyles. One thing most of the evacuees would have had in common would be that they would have felt afraid, lonely and confused about their change of life because of the many differences and being away from their families.
It is hard to make a clear definition to whether or not evacuation had a positive impact or not because everyone involved would have had different experiences and there are so many different sources given as evidence. But evacuation did help to make Britain better for the future of Britain after people realised how bad life for some living in the large cities was.
