Facts

About

Evacuees                            

Some British children were evacuated to families as far away as Australia, Canada or the USA.

While many children grew to love their new life and were treated with kindness, many others were unwelcome or treated poorly.

During the Second World War, around 3.5 million people were evacuated to keep them safe.

It was an epic logistical challenge requiring thousands of volunteer helpers. London alone had 1,589 assembly points and although most children boarded evacuation trains at their local stations, trains ran out of the capital’s main stations every nine minutes for nine hours.

The evacuation of children started two days before war was even declared and all evacuees were given a gas mask to carry with them.

Evacuees themselves were split into four categories, focused on specific social groups deemed non-essential to war work: 1) school-age children; 2) the infirm; 3) pregnant women and 4) mothers with babies or pre-school children (who would be evacuated together). 

The Government Evacuation Scheme had been developed during the summer of 1938 by the so-called Anderson Committee, chaired by Sir John Anderson and charged with looking at how the country could respond to prolonged, destructive, aerial bombardment.