Evacuees of the Second World War | Operation Pied Piper

Evacuation in Britain during the Second World War amounted to the biggest mass movement of people in British history, with around 4 million people leaving their homes to escape the air raids of the Blitz. Many children didn't know where they would end up, who they would live with or when they would see their parents again. How did it feel to be an evacuee, a parent or a volunteer host? And how did the government organise the mammoth task of Operation Pied Piper? IWM Curator Alan Jeffreys tells us more.

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[SteveMorton]

My late mother was evacuated with her younger brother to the Mid-Wales town of Llanidloes from Birkenhead. I don't know the precise details of when she left and came back. Her father died in a bombing raid, so the risk was very real.
In about 1969/1970 we went back to the town to see if we could rediscover the family my Mum was billeted with. The mother of the family had passed away a few months before, but we did find the father and the daughter they had lived with.
It was the start of a long on-going friendship for a number of years until they passed away.
Different times to our modern day crisis in 2020.
I realise that the war was disturbing and disruptive to the education of young people, but evacuation at least broadened their outlooks outside of the towns and cities.
Thank you for sharing.

[rockabyebaby]

Around 1960 my mother was evicted from our home in London and me and my 3 brothers were separated from my mother and sent to Foster parents in Hastings Sussex, I remember having labels on our coats like the kids in this film... fantastic foster parents.. never forget them.. hated returning to London. They probably cared for children during the London Blitz.

[telemachus]

The footage doesn't show much of the anguish of the parents but shows a cheerful lot of kids on their way to a holiday in the country. In my mum's case it was quite different. She was evacuated to Cwmtillery at the age of 12 with her sister and wrote to her mum of the problems she met. Amongst these was the food. She wrote of "bread and dripping" every day and no main meals. Of a tyrannous man of the house who left early every morning to go down to the mines and the kids in school who didn't accept them. In the end my granny rushed down to Cwmtillery and took them home.

[Grayman]

My dad was sent to Scotland as a young boy
He told me it was the worst time of his life he was always getting in fights with other Scottish boys.
In the end his parents got him sent back to London their theory was if the London house got bombed at least we can die together

[electricmanist]

First evacuated at age 4 and a bit (1940), then again (somewhere else) in 1942/3. Still going strong at 88, but with lots of memories of that time. Some good, but some not so ! That's life though.

[JoMarieM]

I can fully understand the good intentions behind this movement, to help keep children safe from the air raids that did materialize not long after children were evacuated to the countryside. But I can also understand how traumatizing this could be for the kids, and how agonizing it could be for the parents, with neither of them knowing exactly where they were going, who they were going to live with, or if they would be chosen by nice people (the families taking care of the kids were allowed to pick the kids who were going to stay with them). The evacuation proved to be a mixed blessing for the kids. For some who ended up with caring families, it was a pleasant time in spite of the uncertainty of the era, and they bonded with their foster families and in some cases, even returned to the towns to finish their education, especially if they had no remaining family members to care for them. For other children, it was a traumatizing experience, if they didn't have kind foster families to care for them. Some kids were rejected because they weren't physically capable of doing farm chores, wore glasses, or just appeared to be "slow" mentally, and had trouble being placed. Probably one of the most terrifying aspects of the evacuation movement was the potential for kids to be sexually abused, in an era where such a concept was swept under the rug as much as possible. This would have been a pedophile's dream, since the only checks done on prospective foster families were to see how much room they had, not if they had any crimes against children in their past, and the unfortunate children in these situations probably wouldn't have had a trusted adult to confide in, and thus could easily be taken advantage of. Some unhappy children decided to take their chances of enduring, and perhaps getting killed in air raids, to a miserable existence with a host family, so they ended up running back to London on their own. However, if there were children who were orphans who were taken in by kind people who eventually adopted them, the evacuation DID prove to be a blessing for them!

[lucydilts]

Thank you. My neice just got a project to talk about this topic. I so wish those narrating could be part of it . It is so very important ❤

[kingcooki]

Honestly, the war was quite saddening...

[cjstubejackofalltrade]

Some think Covid 19 pandemic lockdown destroy their kids life😂

[melware]

Well - I was an evacuee - Southampton to Dorset aged two -A beautiful calm experience ! Rather like Cider with Rosie -No dramas ! Back to Southampton and bomb ruins to play in- and discover I had a big family -A safer, happier life for five years than it is now ! My Mum served in the Wrens during this time - I have recordrd it for posterity !

[richbutler]

My father was evacuated from East London, to north Weald in Essex, where there was a RAF airfield, which was heavily bombed, so he didn’t stay long there

[vivaladan]

Lovely video, you've set a good tone there. It's easier to imagine this as happening or having happened, rather than something from a history book.

[chocolatebar]

This is a great piece of information for children to get educated on. I learned about this in primary school, in year 4.
I went on a school trip to learn about it too, and it was great.

I really think all primary schools should be teaching this to students, years 3 and 4, ages 7-9 is the right age, I say, to be learning about this.
I hope, when I have kids of my own, they will be learning about this in primary school, in lower key stage 2 too.

[AnnetteMurphyger]

My husband's grandmother is in this short film

[AnnetteMurphyger]

My husband's mother was evacuated during the 2nd World War to Wales, which she hated.

[hixiegirl]

My mother lived in Liverpool during WWII. She told me she was sent to Wales during the blitz.

[PLuMUK]

My mother was evacuated to a family member's farm at Alfrick in Worcestershire. My grandma took her. They began early morning with a tram ride into Birmingham, a train trip to Worcester, and finally, a bus to the farm.

My grandma stayed the night, and the next day returned home. She got home just after midday to find worried neighbours waiting for her. A telegram had arrived, and that was always bad news.

It was from Alfrick. Apparently, my mum had screamed constantly after my grandma boarded the bus at the end of the lane by the farm. The family said that they were unable to keep her.

Without even taking off her coat, my grandma had to leave home and go and collect mum. Mum was away from home for two and a half days!

My dad was not evacuated. His mother refused to let him go, though his brother went. My dad was not allowed to go as he was treated as a servant and had to stay home in order to clean the house, work in the garden, and do the shopping. (His former neighbours told my mum when they knew she was marrying into the family. Even on his wedding day, he had to do the shopping! He was in his 70s before we discovered that he had also been abused, mentally and sexually!)

[gmtegirl]

My father told me that several children were evacuated to Canada during the war. Did those children find their way back to Britain and their families?

[robwalker]

My dad was 4 y.old, moved to the north, he wrote to the couple twice a year until they passed.

[alisterbennett]

I understand that some were evacuated to Australia - or was that a social 'experiment' or intervention not related to the war? Could you please see if that can be covered?