| When the Second World War broke out in September | | | | In all, 3.7 million people were moved, and it has been |
| 1939, the British government had already given | | | | estimated that one in three of the entire British |
| considerable thought to evacuating civilians from the | | | | population was directly affected in some way by the |
| big cities. The lessons from the Spanish civil war were | | | | evacuations. In the first three days of the official |
| there for all to see, and the authorities had a detailed | | | | evacuation a staggering one and a half million people |
| evacuation plan already in place. | | | | were transported from their homes to the countryside, |
| In fact, the first evacuations began in June 1939, | | | | the biggest mass migration of British people ever in |
| although the first official movement of civilians did not | | | | such a short period of time. |
| start until September 1st 1939, just two days before | | | | Of these, approximately 800,000 were children of |
| the declaration of war. | | | | school age, 500,000 were mothers with young children, |
| From London and the other main cities such as | | | | plus 12,000 pregnant women and 7,000 disabled |
| Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow and | | | | persons. To help look after them, over 100,000 |
| Birmingham, priority class persons (children, pregnant | | | | teachers and other helpers were also required to |
| women, mothers with infants, and the disabled), | | | | relocate. |
| boarded trains and were duly transported to rural | | | | Beyond that, a further two million people, mainly the |
| towns and villages throughout England, Scotland and | | | | more well to do, arranged a private evacuation of their |
| Wales. | | | | families, settling in rural and remote hotels for the |
| My mother was an evacuee. She was fourteen at the | | | | duration of the war, while several thousand took |
| time and was moved from the Liverpool suburbs out | | | | themselves further away from any possible bombing |
| to Anglesey, a remote (it certainly was then) island off | | | | raids by moving to the United States, Canada, |
| the coast of North Wales. The family she stayed with | | | | Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the |
| spoke Welsh as their first language, and indeed only | | | | Caribbean. |
| ever spoke Welsh unless they were speaking to the | | | | Some, such as the unfortunate passengers on the S.S. |
| evacuees, and though they treated my mother well, | | | | City of Benares did not reach their destination. (Keep |
| she always said it was a very lonely time for her. | | | | an eye out for my article: The Children of The City of |
| Evacuees were gathered into groups at the main | | | | Benares), and the merits of sending children overseas |
| railway stations and were often put on the first | | | | during wartime has been debated ever since. |
| available trains, almost regardless of destination, which | | | | Today there is a flourishing Association for the |
| must have made the housing of them at the other end | | | | Evacuees, and in recent years they have taken to |
| immensely difficult. Some went by sea too, paddle | | | | marching in the remembrance parades, and who could |
| steamers took many children from the London area to | | | | deny them the right so to do? |
| East Anglia. | | | | |