evacuation

[sutton1]

I am currently writing a thesis on evacuation from East London during the blitz and how typical it was. I have come to a dead end with my local research. Any suggestions where to look next?

[Robert Rogers]

You could try contacting `Age Exchange` which is based at Greenwich. They Produced a Book `Goodnight Children Everywhere` (ISBN0-947860-14-2) memories of Evacuation in World War II.

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

Why not ask the people who went on those nightmare journeys ? like my-self.
(There are a few of us left I am sure who would only be too pleased to
help you )

Start by asking what you actualy want to know, re transport, organisation, length
of journeys, were we assisted in any way? age of children left to fend for
themselves for 12 hour journey, all this and more. .

After the journey the arrival !!!!!!!!!!

Regards Louise
From Hermit Road School on 7/8th Sept 1939.

[nelliesgirl]

Hi Louise!

What was it like for you, ? where were you sent ?.

I was born after the war ended, lucky for me. Stories that I have heard from my older brothers, is that they spent most of the time trying to get back home to Mum, in West Ham. My brother Gerald age 4 years alone was sent to Cornwall, the family had no children of their own, they wrote to my mother to ask if she would allow them to adopted him. My mother was on the next train to Cornwall, after borrowing the money from a Jewish lady living next door to her, and brought Gerald home again, she then had all her children back with her for the remainder of the war! it was tough but they got through it.

My husbands grandfather, with his wife and two children, left West Ham when war broke out in 1939 they went to Cornwall, where he got involved in helping with the children from the East End of London, having been a Freemason in Manor Park at the Blake Hall Lodge.  He helped to find them suitable homes, which he did. He and his wife could not take children as grandmother had advance Breast Cancer, Grandfather, had a bad heart.They both died young.

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

Nelliesgirl sorry! having trouble this afternoon posting have been
here an hour trying to answer your Post on Evacuation.
(I am waiting an Engineer to call and put me to rights) as you can see
even my fonts are too large.
Will post you when able.

Regards Louise.

[ed styles]

Born near the end of the War, Iwas not evacuated, but upsetting as it must have been Iv,e been sparing a thought for those 90 children , who were evacuated to Canada in Sept 1940 on the City of Benares.
Their Ship was hit by a Torpedo in the Nth Atlantic, and some of them were adrift for 8 days before being rescued .
Of the 90 children only 13 survived, and in total 206 perished out of a compliment of 407. This evacuating scheme to the Commonwealth was immediately scrapped.

  ED

[Bert]

Somewhat off the trend of the topic, perhaps, but whenever evacuation is mentioned I reflect on one memory.

I served in the RAF during the war. When I came home on leave or returned from leave, there, at one of the London rail termini, would sometimes be the line of children on their way to evacuation. There they would be, clean, smart and lined up in a disciplined manner, with their gas masks and litle bits of hand luggage, waiting to board their trains. Caring for them would be adults, presumably their teachers.

I, myself, was only a youngster but they made me feel proud to be British and to serve for them. They were great children.

Bert.

[Gwen]

Evacuation had an enormous effect on my mum and her family. She was just six when she was evacuated, alone, to live with a family in Worcester (who were very kind to her). After some months she returned to Forestgate to live with her family, close to St Stephen's church. She used to spend her free time reading books in the church library until she was evacuated for a second time. This time her mother and siblings went with her. It was an enforced evacuation because the house next door took a direct hit from a UXB. They were taken in the night, dressed only in nightwear and with no luggage or other belongings, put on a train and taken to South Wales. When her dad was sent home from the war, suffering with TB, he lived with the family for a while, in Swansea but was soon admitted to hospital for further treatment. During the time he was in hospital, her mother took up with another man and left my mother and her three younger siblings to hand their father a letter telling him she had left him on the day he was released from hospital. Her father couldn't cope, he was too ill and it was too much to expect such a sick man to raise four children alone. The children were taken into care and my grandfather gassed himself. My grandmother was charged with desertion and my mother was forced to give evidence against her in court. She grew up in a series of children's homes.

My mum joined the army when she was old enough, that's where she met my father. They had six children and raised them all in a small council house in Swansea. My mother never really recovered from the effects of evacuation. She was never able to be close to her children and always appeared cold and unfeeling (whilst in reality, she was anything but, she just didn't know how to show her feelings) and she never discussed her family history. The majority of what I know about my mother was gleaned in the last six months of her life. When she knew she was dieing she kept telling me things, horrible things about her life that she had kept secret for almost all her life. She told me where to find my grandfather's grave in Manor Park cemetry, she had looked for it herself once but ended up leaving the place in tears when she failed to find it. With the help of the wonderful staff there, I was shown the communal grave where he was buried and was able to lay flowers there this March, just three days after my mother's death. I promised her I would always visit the place whilst the grave still exists (it's to to be removed within the next 10 years) and I know that gave her comfort during her last hours.

There's no way of knowing how my mum's life would have turned out if she had not been evacuated but there's no getting away from the fact that evacuation had a devestating effect on her life and the lives of her children.

I came to this site whilst I was researching things for my mum during her last months and I still visit because it gives me a connection with the life that my mother lived for a short time, it makes me feel closer to her because it helps me to learn more about the mother I never really knew even though she was with me for over 50 years. I'm weeping as I type this because it breaks my heart that I have missed out on such a wonderful part of my heritage, but not as much as my mum lost.

Thank you for reading.

[Rennay]

Bless you Gwen. Our lives are shaped by our childhood experiences and you have shown great understanding of your mum's problems. What a desperately hard life she must have had.
Thank you for sharing your story and good luck in your future endeavours.
Sincerely,
Rennay

[nelliesgirl]

Hi Gwen.

Reading your very sad story.  It tells of how many young lives where torn apart by events that took place as a child.  Your story, is very moving and very similar to my own mother's life.  At the age of 8 years old, my mother was placed in the care of Dr Barnardo's children's home, at Barkingside.  Her parents had died from T.B. her father in 1914 then her mother soon after the first World War, leaving the three children. The three children never saw each other again, as in those days, the children's home's did not encourage contact with family, they were taught that the home was their only family.   My mother had a very hard start in life, once  she had left the children's home, at the age of 16, completely unprepared for the out side world, in so many ways, although they did teach her to cook and sew.
Mum went on to have 11 children of her own, from two marriages, her first husband died in 1942. Mum also took on other children, in hopes they would never have to go through the system. She was a very good mother, we all had our jobs to do, set to a time table, so we knew what was expected from us. Mum was compassionate, and dedicated to her role as a mother.
It was not until I started my ancestry after Mum had passed away, did I find her lost family.  I wrote to Dr Barnardo's for my mother details, under the freedom of information act, I found them to be very helpful. To cut a very long sad story short I made contact with her siblings family, also found photographs of my grandmother, and my mother as a child, Priceless!!.  I just wished Mum could have known what I had discovered. Mum's life end well, having married my father, who came from Canning Town West Ham.

I wish you and your family, health and happiness, in 2012

Merry Christmas Gwen

[Gwen]

Thank you both so much for your replies. I'm so happy for you that you found your Mum's family. I'm sure that she would have been very proud of what you have discovered. When I started searching for my Mum, I showed her photos of members of her family that she had never known but they looked so much like my gran and my Mum!

In so many ways, evacuation was great for me. I have a great family who would never have existed if my mum hadn't come to Wales but I know that my mum paid a great price. I'm not sure that such a mobilisation would/could happen again.

Best wishes to you both x

[Alf still]

           
        Gwen.
                        What a sad sad story, i can understand why you were weeping as you were typeing the story,thank you for letting us read it,I wonder if modern women would be able to stand the hard times that your Mum went through.
                  I wish you and your family a very Happy Christmas,and a contented New Year
                   
                                  Regards.     ALF.

[Gwen]

Thanks Alf x

[Barry N]

Would there be a way of finding out where family member were evacuated to from Schools in West Ham . Barry

[EX CUSTOM HOUSE]

Hi Barry, don't think there is much chance of finding out where children were sent to from anywhere.

Simple reason most of the schools we were Evacuated from have been bombed, changed, or lost in some way
from there former selves and the Records with them. It was only the Organisers and  the Official Offices, that kept the information for Security reasons.  (Although what organisers were on our train I do not know in a 12 hour journey we 3 never saw a soul) only at official stops which was usualy a shool.) and received our Brown paper bag with Tin of Bully Beef,1 Orange, and Hard Tack Biscuit

Did hear once that after we in a train a mile long it seemed left (Plaistow?, Leytonstone, ) have never realy known which,
travelled all the way to Ealing Broadway on the Sidings for protection against Aircraft?
Before being transferred to a larger train for the West Country. DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE,RHYME or REASON TO ANY POSTER?

Louise.