Chapter One

Arrivals and Departures: Embarking on Evacuation

These stories focus on evacuees’ poignant accounts of leaving their homes and arriving in evacuation reception areas. Some of the evacuees I interviewed still possess the evacuation instructions that they were given by their teachers. On the outbreak of war, parents were told to refer to the evacuation instructions and prepare a bag or rucksack containing the listed items that their child would need, should the call for evacuation arise.

Every day children would set off for school with their rucksack and a sandwich, in readiness for evacuation. Many children did not know if they would return home that day, whilst others had no real understanding of what evacuation actually meant. As they waved goodbye to their children each morning, parents had no idea whether they would return home from school that afternoon.