The evacuees were sent to rural towns and villages in designated areas where the Government thought that they would not be in danger. Many children who came from wealthy backgrounds were also sent abroad “privately” to live with relatives or stay in nice hotels. They were sent to places like Canada, the USA, South Africa, Australia, and the Caribbean, almost two million children were sent away like this. London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds, Bradford, Portsmouth, Southampton and Sheffield, these are just come of the cities that the evacuees were sent away from. They were sent away from the industrial cities, ports and production cities because the Government thought they were at risk from being bombed by the Luftwaffe. They were sent away to by train to their new homes, often not knowing where they were going. All evacuees were sent away with a tag containing information about their address, their name and their evacuee number, and also a gas mask in a case. Along with the clothes on their backs this was sometimes all they took with them. The children were taken in by people for many reasons, sometimes the people living in the countryside just wanted to help and sometimes they felt that they had a sense of duty. Other times they were taken in because of the money they got from the government and sometimes because of the work they could get them to do. These varying reasons for the children being taken in contributed to how the children found their ordeal. Some children returned enjoyed their time away from home and returned after the war had finished, whilst others hated it and tried to run back home.
Up until July 1940 there were no attacks on Britain, resulting in lots of the evacuees being bought back to the cities by their parents. This was called the “phoney war” as war was expected but it never came. But in July 1940, France was invaded and the British government started to evacuate more children, re-evacuate in many cases. Most of the children did not then return home until the end of the war.
The British government decided to evacuate the children from Britain’s major cities for many reasons. The first reason was because of the direct threat of them being bombed and killed by the Germans. The British government could not risk the people who were the future of the country. The second reason was worry. Many of the women who worked in the production factories, hospitals, fire service etc. in Britain had children who lived in the cities. Some of them did not want to work as they didn’t want to leave their children if they thought they were in danger. This was especially important because they were the only people who could do all of these jobs as most of the men were fighting in the war. Fathers also experienced worry and did not want to leave their families unless they were evacuated. The final reason for the children being evacuated was to help the farmers in the country. Some of the children wanted to help with the war and decided to go into the country to help the farmers who grew most of the food for the country. There was a food shortage in Britain as most of the farmers were fighting in the war so the public were encouraged to grow their own food. The farmers used the evacuated children to plants seeds for crops, pick the produce and also water them.
In conclusion I think the children were evacuated to stop the worry that surrounded them from being in the cities.