Figure 1.-- Many of the evacuarion noages show the children. There was of course another side.Here mums and little brithers and sister see off the evacuee school children at an unidenytified London rail station (September 1939). Some of the mums are smiling, but we suspect that wa just so their children wouldn't see them crying. Other have their true felings all too apparent.

The children evacuated were mostly school children. The evacuations were organized through the schools this alone meant that the children would primarily school age. This meant children 6-uears old and up. We are not sure if there were ctual age limitations. The images mostly show school-age children. At the time mamy British children did not attend secondary school. Working-class children geberally left school at 13-14 years of age. WE arenot sure how teenagers out of school were handled/ Many had jobs. We are also not sure if younger children were permitted. Perhaps some younger brothers and sisters, but we do not see any really young children. They stayed at home with their parents. They required more care tha schoo-age children. And parents would have been more hesitant to part with the little ones. Letting go of the older children was difficult enough. This may have changed with the subsequent evacutions when the bombs actually began falling. And because if the carnage there were orphans of all ages. This of course was not the case in h 1939 evacuation. We are looking for actual regulations, but have not yet been able to find them. Hopefully our readers will know more.

Created: 8:52 AM 4/19/2015
Last updated: 8:52 AM 4/19/2015