Figure 1.--Here we see the evacuee children arriving in Lancaster. They are going from the reception centre to the homes of the people who will look after them. This was photographed in September 1939. |
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The Government planned to evaccuate 3 million, but only 1.5 million were actually evavuated. It was up to the parents and parents decided to keep about half of the children. In the end about 1.5 million were evacuated. About 0.6 million were evacuted from London alone. Another source reports 0.4 million school children were evacuated from London. War historians often docus on London, but even more children were evscuated from provincial cities. One report estimates that 0.8 million school children were evscuated from provincial cities. I'm nor sure as to the descrepancy, it could be due to date differences or who was counted. These numbers may just be for England. Also there were more evacuees than just school childrem.In addition to London, school children were also evacuated from Clydeside, Tyneside, Merseyside, the Midlands, Portsmouth, and Southampton. The evacuess came primarily from the central city area. The suburbs were for the most part not evacuated. There were also 0.2 million Scottish school children evacuated to the Lowlands. Plymouth, Bristol, and Cardiff were not evacuated. We are not sure at this time why these cities were not evacuated.
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