Smiffys World War II Evacuee Girl Costume, Blue with Dress, Hat & Bag, Girls Fancy Dress, 1940s Dress Up Costumes

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A few days after the announcement of war Ronald McGill boarded his own train along with 500 other pupils from his school headed for Reading. The school had been preparing for evacuation for a few weeks and some schools had already started leaving the cities. There were no big bombing raids on Britain in the first months of the war (know as The Phoney War) as a result by early 1940 many children had returned home. Evacuation on this scale had never been attempted by the government before but it was their task to safely transport millions across the country. So, how was this mammoth task accomplished?

Alan Jeffreys: “In the interwar period, especially in the 1930s, the great fear was of aerial bombardment. The MP Stanley Baldwin said in 1932 and the bomber will always get through and so this was one of the great fears across the nation in the interwar period.” At last the train stopped and we all got out and got into coaches, which took us to a big hall, where we shouted our names out then you went to your teacher in the corner of the room. As we were all leaving we were given 2 carriers of food to give to the landlady whose house we were going to live in. These extracts from letters sent by a mum to a girl called Delia, who was evacuated from London to the country.Alan Jeffreys: “One of the quite important legacies of evacuation and definitely goes on to affect government legislation even during the war but certainly in the Labour government after 1945 was that evacuation drew attention to the economic and social deprivation that really existed in inner cities in the 1930s, and this really came to the fore through evacuation.” Interviewer: “There must have been some little children who hadn't even been to the country as much as you had?”

My father was kept pretty busy on the farm and was given various jobs to do, having never seen many animals in London he was pretty terrified of cows and pigs; hated working outdoors and would often scarp off with another evacuee and get into all sorts of trouble. When we lived at the castle it was very cold and we didn’t like it, after about six weeks we came home. The evacuation period officially came to an end in March 1946. On balance, although ‘Operation Pied Piper’ had caused unexpected long-term trauma, without the mass evacuation the death toll in the Second World War would, undoubtedly, have been much higher. For most, it was a happy reunion and brought an end to a prolonged period of fear, confusion and separation. To smaller towns and villages in the countryside. Some children were sent to stay with relatives outside in the countryside, but others were sent to live with complete strangers. Interviewer: “I was going to ask if you had ever thought whether had you children they would be evacuated? You've seen it as a child, what would it be like as a parent?”Billeting officers were responsible for helping to find homes for the evacuees. Householders in the country who billeted (housed) city children were given money by the government. Within the next three days, 1.5 million evacuees were sent from cities and towns into rural areas considered safe, and over the course of the war around 4 million people left their homes. It was a huge logistical exercise that required tens of thousands of volunteer helpers. Our school was 1½ miles away up a steep hill and sometimes this lady who had a three wheeler car used to give 6 of use a lift to school. We all used to wonder how the car got us all up the banks with all our weight. It was just a small village school and we had 2 classes in the hall. One class facing one way and the other facing the other way.

At Christmas we went to a party at Mulgrave Castle that had a real Marchioness living there. She was a very old lady and when she had super, she had 12different foods and after every course there was a little bell rang. We set off for the railway station and met all our school friends and teachers, it was exciting because you had to be rich to go on holiday, so not many people went. Being an evacuee must have been scary and exciting at the same time. The children had to leave their families and homes behind and try to fit in with host families in the country. Alan Jeffreys: “For some people it was the happiest days of their lives their evacuation experience. Whereas for others they missed their family and their home and especially if they were ill-treated by their foster carers. The experiences of the evacuees could really vary to a considerable level.”

Girls' Short Styles

As well as the huge logistical challenge for the government, towns, families, and volunteers, evacuation was an emotional upheaval, distressing for both children and parents. Evacuation was also entirely voluntary, so why did so many thousands so readily sign up before the war had even started? Evacuation to Parents Important Notice1939-1945, Central Office of Information, catalogue reference INF 13/171 (4) My father John Parker was evacuated to Oxfordshire at the start of the war. Over the years I have heard about his sister (8) and himself then aged 10, clutching a little bag and their gas masks, standing on the station not knowing what was happening. Hundreds of children – after tearful goodbyes with their parents – were hurded into the trains to take them away for “safety”. They stopped at various places along the way, where people could come and choose who they wanted. Fortunately my Dad was taken by a childless couple called Mrs & Mrs Cross who lived and managed “Church Farm” in one of the smaller towns near Middle Barton. Sadly, they did not want any girls and so my Dad and his sister were separated. Being in the care of a farm manager – Mr Cross – my father was not encouraged to play games with the labour’s children, so he was mostly on his own until they enrolled him in the local school. There he came across his old childhood friend from London George Fage, although they were in different years at the school. The mass exodus of civilians in Britain during the Second World War was designed to protect people – especially children – from aerial bombing, by moving them to areas thought to be less at risk. In the summer of 1939, more than 3 million children were evacuated from London and other cities in ‘Operation Pied Piper’, while most parents stayed behind to work and help out with the war effort.