The government also knew that as a consequence of evacuation, women would be free to take on the jobs that men who were fighting could no longer do. Jobs such as munitions, would keep Britain fighting. By the end of the war almost 7 million women were contributing towards the war effort. Many of these were mothers. If children were sent away from danger zones then the mothers’ fears would be allayed, and they would be more supportive towards any other action the Government might take.
Many of the fathers in the armed forces knew what had happened in Guernica and Shanghai from the media and they would be extremely worried about their own children. It was vital that the morale of the soldiers was kept as high as possible and with their children evacuated and safe, they would be able to fight and train better, increasing Britain’s chances of winning the War.
Children did not help the war effort directly and if anything they got in the way of people trying to do their jobs such as air wardens. Children slowed down the clear up process that followed any bombings. Evacuation greatly reduced this problem.
With evacuation in place, people in the countryside had yet another way of helping out with the overall war effort. Evacuation made them feel good about themselves as they took in evacuees which in turn raised their morale.
Keeping children safe was the main reason for evacuation but the morale of troops and people back home as well as filling vacancies in the work force also played a big part in the government’s decision.
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Q2.
When the Government implemented the policy of evacuation people had different reactions depending on how it impacted on them personally.
The evacuees themselves reacted in different ways. For the younger ones, the prospect of travelling on a train for the first time and visiting a new place was exciting. Talking about her experience before going away, one evacuee said ‘I thought it was a Sunday school outing to the seaside.’ Older children had mixed feelings. On one hand they were more wary and even frightened about ‘the adventure ahead’, many realising the implications of what was going on and the possible heavy bombings to come. They were leaving their families, their local communities, their homes and going into the countryside which for most was completely alien. They knew they could be gone for a long time. Conversely they also realised that if they stayed put, their lives were in danger. One child asked her older brother why their mother was crying as they were about to leave the city and he told her to ‘Shut up!’ This shows how confusing the situation was and how reactions varied greatly.
Upon reaching their destinations some evacuees were happy because they had been allocated to good families with healthy food, fresh air and good local schools. This made them less homesick. Others were made to work hard or forced to endure harsh treatment. If they had not been allocated to a specific house, they would have had to endure what became known as the Slave Auction. Farmers selected the strongest children and housewives selected the cleanest. Inevitably there were always children left that nobody wanted. An evacuee explained her experience, ‘Nobody wanted a girl of 11 and such a small boy…we were left until last. The room was almost empty. I sat on my rucksack and cried.’ Another way of getting unallocated children to a home was by being taken from door to door by a billeting officer and asking people if they wanted a child. If they were rejected, the child would be left confused and humiliated, and this would have a lasting psychological effect. Studies made at the time proved that chronic bed-wetting was common place in evacuees, highlighting the lasting psychological effects. Even children who were treated well often reacted negatively because of the major change in lifestyles. A thirteen year old evacuee said ‘Everything was so clean…And there was a lavatory upstairs. And carpets. And clean sheets. This was all very odd. And rather scaring.’
Evacuation meant parents faced a huge dilemma. The perceived bombing threat, along with Government propaganda, pressurised them into sending their children away to protect them. At the same time they were very uneasy about sending their children to someone they had never met and relinquish control over them. In the end, many parents sent their children away so they were not viewed as selfish. One mother said ‘We made up our minds that we must not think of ourselves and our own sacrifices, but of the safety and possible survival of our children.’ Departure was very emotional because parents knew it could be the last time they saw their offspring. After her two children had left for the country, one mother said she had ‘cried all day, and was unable to feed my baby daughter’.
As the war went on and the threat of the bombs did not materialize, mothers’ views on evacuation changed. The ‘Phoney War’ made parents feel cheated, that they had sent their children away for no reason. Parents no longer believed there would be bombings. This would change again when Germany did finally start bombing some of the major cities.
The reaction of hosts to evacuation was also mixed. A lot of hosts were very eager to be involved in the war effort and were interested to see how the children from cities behaved. Others, however, were more apprehensive about taking in a ‘dirty’ city child. Some of these were right to be hesitant. From a book named ‘Mastering Economic and Social History’, ‘….There were reports of children “fouling” gardens’ causing disgust and distress to the people in the country houses who found this inconceivable. Sometimes the hosts were pleasantly surprised at the behavior of some evacuees. One person I spoke to, whose family took in an evacuee said that her mother was expecting ‘terrible things’ from city children because of what she had heard, but their evacuee turned out to be ‘very well mannered’.
Reactions also varied from one Reception Zone to another. The Huntingdonshire Post, in September 1939, had the headline ‘HUNTINGDONSHIRE INVADED BY THOUSANDS OF LONDONERS’. This was an area where the arrival of children was not well received. On the other hand the headline for the Yorkshire Post at the same time was ‘WIDE OPEN DOORS FOR SOUTHERN EVACUEES: 1600 WARMLY WELCOMED BY THE CITIZENS OF LEEDS’.
The reactions of people in Britain to evacuation were varied. I think that the reactions of the parents are most significant as the decision they had to make must have been heart wrenching. They were thrust into the most difficult situation and this was enhanced when there were no bombs at the start of the war. The most lasting effects, however, would have been on the children themselves, many of whom were traumatized by the whole process.
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