Britain in the Second World War: The Evacuation of British Children

Britain in the Second World War: The Evacuation of British Children

There would be many differing reactions from people in Britain to the

evacuation policy during the Second World War. The first group of

people would be the children who were actually being moved away from

their homes and everything they know to live in the country, away from

there mothers and fathers and family to stay with people they do not

know and have not met. I have two letters from

http://www.eastwood.ngfl.ac.uk/Pages/evacuate.html to explain how

children felt.

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These are actual wartime letters from two different children. It shows

two points of view. The first letter says about seeing all the

farmyard animals and making new friends, it shows the fact that it

would be an adventure for the children. They would learn new skills in

the country and discover new things. Many of the children would be

well looked after and treated just like children of their own, but

others would be beaten and abused, forced to do work on their farms

and houses. Often where the children lived would be nicer then in

London. For example they had running warm water and baths, they had

lots of things that most families did not have in the city. Many of

the children did had never been in clean houses like the ones in the

country before, also they often had clean beds to sleep in, a lot of

them had never even cleaned their teeth before and given tooth brushes

for the first time. There were mixed experiences for the children who

were evacuated. Some were very happy, helping on the farms and eating

better than they had ever done.

This also affects the fosterers in the country whose job it was to

look after the children when they moved to the country. For a lot of

them it was their chance to do something for the war effort and a lot

of them felt honoured for the chance to do something about it. Some of

the fosterers took advantage of the children who they were meant to be