Figure 1.--These Manchester children, probably brother and sister, we think on August 28 are on their way to the school assembly points for evacuation. We know they are evacuees because they would not have taken back packs like that to school, especially such full back packs. Mum is presumably allowing them to choose 1-2 pennys worth of sweets for the occassion--a real treat.

The children living in London and other major cities were immediately tagged liked parcels and shipped out by special evacuation trains. The evacuations were mostly conducted through the schools with the children accopanied by their teachers. I am not precisely sure how this worked. I think married men teachers may have been accompanied by their wives. Many women teachers were unmarried. Many of the men were eventually called up, but the ones that were not I believed stay in the country communities to help supervise the children and work in the local schools. Despite the imense number of children involved, the actual evacuation went fairly smoothly, despite the chaos in the stations as tearful mums waived good-bye to their nippers. The children sang songs like "The Lambert Walk" and "Wish Me Luck as You Wave Goodbye". There was also a song about the "Bogy Man" that the children liked. Other children said good-bye to their mums at their schools. Often schools marched en masse to the stations with their teachers. Many movies such as "Hope and Glory" show parents bring their children to the train station. This appears to be a misrepresentation. Of course such representations do not affect historians--they do affect the public image.

Walk to School

The evacuation began for most children by a walk to school. One school required the children to be there by 9 am. I assume that was fairly standard. The parents or a least one surely would have accompanied their children to school to provide emotional support. The younger children particularly could not fully comprehend wht was happening to them. Some mums might have let the children stop in the local sweet shop. The candy would help distract the little ones from what was happeing to them.The severe rationing whichbwas to come had not yet been implemented and sweets (candy) were still available. The photograph here seems to show one of those morning walks to school. A British reader writes, "This is a particularly heart rending scene. I wonder if they are brother and sister? They are on their way to their school in Manchester to be evacuated. Just look at their back packs - it must contain their clothing and toys which they want to take with them to their "new" temporary home. Can you imagine modern kids going anywhere with such a small bundle? Whenever I see families nowadays going to the seaside, even for one day, they appear to be taking half their household contents with them just in case! The 2 in the image appear to be looking longily in the window of their local sweet shop, perhaps they are wondering when or if they will ever see it again -- we can only imagine the trepidation felt by such young children at that time."

Assembly Points

The evacuations were mostly conducted through the schools with the children accopanied by their teachers. I am not precisely sure how this worked. I think married men teachers may have been accompanied by their wives. Many women teachers were unmarried. Many of the men were eventually called up, but the ones that were not I believed stay in the country communities to help supervise the children and work in the local schools. Using the schools as an assembly point mean that they could get the children in good order so they could move swiftly through the train statins. Emotions varies. For some it was a great adventure. Some were terrified. Younger children had a poor conception of time. Some probably thought they would be back home in a few days. Using the schools as assembly points meant that the tearful mums waiving good-bye to their nippers could be handled without disrupting the stations. I am not sure all of the children said good-bye to their mums at their schools, but I believe that this was the general pattern.

Tagging

The children living in London and other major cities were immediately tagged liked parcels. All the children were tagged--regardless of age or even if accompaied by their parents as was the case of the youngest children. You can see this in the photographs. We believe the tagging took place at the assembly points--mostly schools. As a result all the children regardless of age could be accounted for and delivered to the correct reception point. The tags varries because they appeared to have been printed locally. And there were several different evacuations. The top indicated the city council from which the children were evacuated, such as 'London City Council'. Some said 'Goverment Evacuation'. Orthe top might read Governmnt Evacuatiin ad the nme of the council. Some had numbers representing the school attended. The tags typically had the child's name, home address, date of birth, and school. The school was important because the evacuations were commonly organized around school groups with teachers going with them. The school groups were placed in the same community where their teacher could help look after them. Some of the tags had a code number. We are not sure what that was. They might also have a party number.

March to the Train Station

Often schools marched en masse to the stations with their teachers. This was if there was a train station reasonably close to the school. The children sang songs like "The Lambert Walk" and "Wish Me Luck as You Wave Goodbye". There was also a song about the "Bogy Man" that the children liked. I think this singing took place more on the march to the train station than on the trains where they were smaller groups in the cars. Many schools were located withib walking distances of train stations.

Busses and Trams

Britain at the time had large number of busses, but they were primarily city busses used for inter-city travel. There were also some busses used travel in rural areas. Traveling any distance uin a bus was virtually unheard of at the time. City busses were an important part of the evacuation plan. Many of the children were not close enough to march to the train station, especially with the younger primary children involved. Some groups may have had to use the Underground/Tube (subway) or specially arranged city busses. We have seen photographs of the busses being used. We are less sure about the Tube. We have not seen photographs of this. We do see many images of children getting on to city busses. We believe the busses were primarily used to get from the school to the train stations. There were no motorways at the time and large numbers of busses tryiong to move any number of children out of London would have cause traffic jams on the British highway system at the time. There may have been siome instabnces of this, but we believe most of the busses we see being used were to take the children to the train stations. Some private schools may have contracted for relocation to a safer country location. If not too far from London, busses might have been used. Perhaps readers will have more information on this.

Trains

Rail transport were the principal way of traveling any distance in Britain at the time of World War II. Most British families did not have cars like American families. The same was true throughout Europe. Only the well-to-do and affluent middle-class had cars. In addition, goods were also mostly moved by rail. Trucks were mostly for local transport. And the road system mostly fanned out from the cities. The motorways (interstate highways) did not exist, except in Germany which was building the futuristic Autobahns. Britain like other countries had an extensive and extremely efficient rail system. The children were thus primarily transported out of the cities by special evacuation trains. Buses may have been used in some areas to a limited extent, but we believe the great majority of children were evacuated by train. The photographic record and news reels mostly show scenes at trainl stantions and boarding trains. This had to be the case if the children were to be evacuated any distance. Despite the immense number of children involved, the actual evacuation transports went amazingly smoothly. It was at the reception point that problems developed. The same scenes were repeated in 1940. There wre no similar evacuatiins at the time in Germany. Reich Marshall G�ring assured Hitler and the German people that his Luftwaffe would prevent enemy bombers from reaching German cities. He was right in 1939, but tragically the Germans would eventually experience the the same sad partings as theGerman rail system would also disperse children to the countryside.

Ships

Britain and other European countries had large highly effint rail systems and Britain had one o the best. But even Britains rail system was hard put to move more thamn a million school children and other protected classess out of the cities in a few days. In additgioin to busses, some ships were also used. This may strike some as strannge necause thetrains are generally seen as moving north, but this was not always the case. The idea was to get the children out of the city. For London this generally meant north and west, but the industial Midlands in cities such as Manchester and Birmingham , this could be small towns and villages in all directions. Cut we nottice ships going south to the Osle of Wright. e believe this was mostly evacuees from Portsmouth. There may have been other ships used, but this is the one we are familiar with at this time. And as far as we know this was mostly ferries with short routes because they did not want to expose the children to U-boats.

Movie Depictions

Many movies such as "Hope and Glory" show parents bring their children to the train station. This appears to be a misrepresentation. Of course such representations do not affect historians--they do affect the public image. This is probably done because film images with greater impact can be achieved at train stations with the trains in the background.

Created: March 12, 2003
Last updated: 9:25 AM 7/18/2017