Britain's Wartime Evacuees by Gillian Mawson

Author:Gillian Mawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Frontline Books
Published: 2016-04-08T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

‘She Was Supposed to be Sent to Safety’

Out of the Frying Pan

The aim of evacuation was to send children and adults to safety until the war was over, But the war took many forms, and few places in the UK were completely free from danger. Air raids, unexploded bombs, military vehicles, guns and minefields posed risks to the children, wherever they were posted.

Some did not even reach their destinations, the most notable and tragic instance being the sinking of the SS City of Benares in September 1940 which, amongst other passengers, had been transporting ninety British evacuees to Canada.

After the fall of France, the British Government had developed plans for evacuating one million children to the United States, Canada and other overseas Dominions. The scheme was administered primarily by the Children’s Overseas Reception Board (CORB), a British government sponsored organisation. It began its work on 17 June 1940, when Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs Geoffrey Shakespeare was tasked with implementing this evacuation programme. The same day, negotiations opened with the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son for the new organisation to be housed in its Head Office at 45 Berkeley Street, London.

Speaking in the House of Commons on 2 July 1940, Shakespeare outlined to MPs the ‘main elements of the scheme which we are charged to administer’:

In the case of all children who have reached the age of five but have not reached the age of 16, parents can make application for their children to be sent overseas, to the Dominion of their choice. The benefits of the scheme are open to school children within those ages, wherever the children are now situated, or whatever the circumstances of the parents. For easier administration, we have divided all children into two categories, namely, those who attend State grant-aided schools such as elementary and secondary schools, and those who attend other schools.

No mother is eligible to accompany her child overseas, but an exception may be made in the case of the widow of a man who has lost his life in active service in the present war. If parents are excluded, it is clearly necessary to organise a system of escorts or helpers, to look after the children on the journey.

No charge will be made for the railway journeys or voyages, to the parents of children from grant-aided schools but they will be asked to contribute, week by week, the same amount as they are now contributing, or as they would contribute under the United Kingdom evacuation scheme …

As regards the quota, we have decided on a fair quota in respect of the two kinds of schools. In England and Wales, 75 per cent. of the children will come from grant-aided schools, and 25 per cent. from other schools. In Scotland, 49 out of 50 children will come from what are termed local education authority schools, and one out of 50 children from other schools. These quotas follow roughly the proportions of children existing to-day in the respective kinds of schools.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.