Evacuation: Timeline
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change
the world."
Nelson Mandela
Preparation
1914
The first air raids on Britain began
during the First World War. |
1924
(May)
The Air Raid Precaution (ARP) Committee was set up. At the first
meeting, the chairman, Sir John Anderson suggested sections of the
public might be evacuated in the event of a future war. |
1930
|
The ARP Committee thought London
would be the only city likely to be bombed from the air, and Londoners could leave on the Underground. |
1931
|
The ARP Committee was told that, in a future
war, 600 tons of bombs per day could be
dropped on Britain. Evacuation plans had to be made immediately. |
1934
|
The ARP Committee decided London might
not be the only area vulnerable from air attack. Other cities were to be included in evacuation planning. |
1937
|
The government booklet The Householder’s
Handbook stated: ‘If you live in a large town, children,
invalids, elderly members of the household, and pets, should be
sent to relatives or friends in the country if this is possible’. |
1938
26th ‘Committee on Evacuation’ formed. It was decided that it would be most important to evacuate children. |
1st June Definite plans still had not been made, so the Committee decided children would be evacuated school by school, with their parents’ consent, to mainly private houses. The Government should pay the costs of the scheme. |
18th June
The Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) was formed.
The Committee asked them to help with planning the details of the evacuation
scheme. |
|
September The Munich crisis. Germany wanted to take a piece of land in Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. The Czechs seemed prepared to fight for their land and this would have involved Britain and France who had promised to help them fight against invasion. |
|
22nd Sept
A special conference was held at Chelmsford where Essex towns were
asked to take London evacuees. The WVS set up an evacuation committee
and ‘billeting officers’
were appointed. |
|
29th Sept
The Government published its plans for the evacuation of 2 million
people from London, one quarter of them school children. |
|
30th Sept The Government’s plans for evacuation were to start with the
evacuation of 500,000 school children. In Europe, however, the Czechs signed the Munich Agreement, giving Hitler the Sudetenland so the scheme was called off - 4,000 children from nurseries and special schools had already been removed. |
|
6th Oct All children evacuated on the 30th September had returned home. Their
experience was to be vital for future plans. |
Preparation for Evacuation - how much do you know?
Download Activity Sheet 1 (PDF393KB) or try the Online Version.
The Great Trek
1939
January
The Government decided on the
safer areas where evacuees might be sent. These local authorities were asked to visit every household to find out how many spare rooms there were. 4,800,000 rooms were available. |
February
The WVS (Women’s Voluntary
Service) was to help local authorities with their
evacuation plans. |
March
Plans for the wartime evacuation
of children were sent to London schools. 20,000
teachers would be needed to help the children leave London. |
May
Mothers and children in
the evacuation areas who would wish to be evacuated registered
and were given some instructions. Others who registered were blind people and
expectant mothers. |
June
5,000 children took part in an evacuation
rehearsal, held in Chelsea. The children were
taken to bus and train stations. During the next two months other cities also
held
evacuation drills’. |
24th August
Germany was preparing to invade
Poland. Britain was committed to help defend Poland
so War seemed very likely. Teachers were asked to report to their schools, as
the
Government wanted to evacuate everyone who had registered within twelve hours
of
War being declared. |
28th August
A huge evacuation rehearsal took
place. Teachers, inspectors and helpers were on duty as
the children began to arrive at 6 a.m. carrying their masks and bags. Each school
was
given a number and area at which to meet. |
29th August
The situation in Poland became
more serious. Hitler demanded that Poland must agree to
all of his demands. The Government accepted they would have to declare war on
Germany. |
31st August
The Ministry of Health declared
that evacuation was to start the following morning even
though Britain was not actually at war. That night, German armies were ordered
to attack
Poland. |
1st
September
Fourteen hours after the
notice for evacuation had been given, the WVS, teachers,
transport workers and other volunteers started ‘the Great Trek’.
Policemen helped to
organise the masses of children with instructions from loudspeaker vans. Public
transport
had been arranged so that no groups of children should have to wait more than
fifteen
minutes. Buses, trains, the Underground, pleasure steamers were all used and
telegrams
were sent to inform station masters at reception areas once groups of evacuees
were on
their way. Over the week, the evacuations were completed and thought to be a
great
success. The number of children who were evacuated was not quite as high as expected
as some parents preferred to face the war as a family. |
The Great Trek - true or false?
Download Activity Sheet 2 (PDF 456KB) or try the Online Version.
Evacuation Areas
In July 1939, the Government published a leaflet called Evacuation - Why and How? This leaflet contained a list of areas thought to be most at risk from air raid attack. These were called evacuation areas.
Using Activity Sheet 3 (PDF 480KB) map
of Britain, (and perhaps an atlas or road map) can you label the evacuation
areas? You might like to include Croydon, which was later added to the
list. Or try the Online Version
When you have looked at the stories of the four evacuees can you chart their
journeys using Activity
Sheet 15 (PDF 375KB) map
of Britain?
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