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evacuated children WW2

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  • #21
    Jason,

    Rootsweb has a searchable database/archived messages http://news.rootsweb.com/th/index/BRITISHHOMECHILDREN where you may glean some information by entering some details into the search box.
    http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/search South Africa messages
    Edna
    Last edited by clematised; 20-01-11, 01:21.

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    • #22
      http://fairbridge-worldwide.com/ you may like to contact this site a colledge for Home Children Rodesia

      Edna

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      • #23
        I would like to thank everyone for their info & stories, I will try some of these links & see what I find.

        Your spot on with the Riff Raff for my family. lol

        I have too found out that not many went to South Africa & have questioned my Mother on this but that's the only piece of information she remembers. Obviously her parents could've been hiding another story to protect her no one will know but I'm thinking now my search is just going to cover a wider area.

        More comments welcome.

        Thank you

        Jason

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        • #24
          I've just realised how young he was and that makes it even less likely that he was EVACUATED to SA.

          Do you think there is any possibility that he was actually put into a Home over here and was sent out to SA as a British Home Child (see Edna's links posts 21 and 22 above), although even that does seem unlikely, given that they only took the cream!

          OC

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          • #25
            The main dates for evacuation were 1939 to 1942 maybe 1943 but not many evacuated after that date and most children under age 5 stayed with their mothers. Leaving the country for somewhere like South Africa would most probably have been a private arrangement as was those who went to Canada and USA. There might have been relatives or friends who would have taken these children. The following is a resume of the procedure which you can see broke down in Sept 1940 after the sinking of the Benares. At age 2 it is unlikely your relative would have been considered for the CORB scheme unless it was a private arrangement.


            "Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) was a British organisation that between July and September 1940[1] evacuated British children from that country in order to escape the Blitz (and World War II more generally). The children were sent to mainly to Canada, but also to Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In the first few months over 210,000 children were registered with the scheme.
            After the SS City of Benares was sunk by a German torpedo on 17 September 1940, killing at least 70[1][2] of the 90 children on board, the overseas evacuation programme was brought to a halt. By this time the Children's Overseas Reception Board had evacuated 2,664 children, who became known as "Seaevacuees", over a period of three months. Canada received the bulk of them – 1,532 in nine parties. Three parties sailed for Australia, with a total of 577 children, while 353 went to South Africa in two parties and 202 to New Zealand, again in two parties. A further 24,000 children had been approved for sailing in that time and over 1,000 escorts, including doctors and nurses, enrolled. At its height, CORB employed some 620 staff.[1]However wealthy parents continued to send their children to safe countries. It is estimated that during the first two years of the war around 14,000 children were sent privately to the CORB countries."


            Janet
            Last edited by Janet; 20-01-11, 23:40.

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            • #26
              Been searching every where still not a trace, ordered a copy of the birth certificate that's all I have will continue to search.. May try the Salvation Army....

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              • #27
                Jason is it possible that he may have died as a child through illness or the war and not sent abroad.

                Edna

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                • #28
                  Yes Edna this is possible but through current searches nothing matches John's details

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                  • #29
                    Unfortunately many evacuees died at the places to which they were evacuated and were often buried in those places. Some died through accidents and some died in air raids and some through natural causes or illness, so a death may only come up for the place that the person was evacuated and not in the place you may be thinking. For example if a child had been evacuated from London to Exeter and had died in the Exeter blitz then that child would be registered as having died in Exeter and not London and compound that with a most probable burial in Exeter rather than London you will begin to appreciate the problem of searching for evacuees if the place to which they were evacuated is unknown.

                    Janet
                    Last edited by Janet; 04-02-11, 13:17.

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                    • #30
                      Thanks to everyone who has posted...I got some interesting pointers....am I wrong in thinking that the government at the time should have kept better records ?....the thought of a man going to war - finding out his wife had been killed - and then finding out his children are in a workhouse when he returns - must have been devastating...it obviously happened to some soldiers / sailors/ airman....I wonder if any children were "lost" never to be reunited with their parents.....allan
                      Allan ......... researching oakes/anyon/standish/collins/hartley/barker/collins-cheshire
                      oakes/tipping/ellis/jones/schacht/...garston, liverpool
                      adams-shropshire/roberts-welshpool
                      merrick/lewis/stringham/nicolls-herefordshire
                      coxon/williamson/kay/weaver-glossop/stockport/walker-gorton

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                      • #31
                        Allan

                        I think some sort of records were kept at the time at a very local level.

                        For instance, the parents of evacuees were supposed to pay something towards the keep of their child and I expect if the usual five bob didn't turn up one week, the foster parents would complain to whoever was in charge in their area, and a rough and ready attempt would be made to find out what had happened to the parents.

                        But yes, some slipped through the net. I worked with a woman many years ago, who had ben evacuated to somewhere near Bristol and just left there. She never heard from her parents again. She wasn't bothered as she had bad memories of her parents and adored her foster parents.

                        OC

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                        • #32
                          Alan,

                          The government got the whole of the West of England totally wrong. Liverpool, Bristol and Plymouth were all reclassified in 1939 as Neutral Zones, in other words nobody was to be evacuated to or from those areas, come what may! This was a policy that was changed from 1938 where all these cities were to be evacuated. However the Intelligence at the time decided that German bombs were not capable of reaching the West of England hence the reclassification of 1939. This was true in part, but the powers that be had not reckoned on the fall of France which the Germans took over, and that brought the Western Part of England into the bombing zones, so when first Bristol and then Plymouth were bombed to destruction in the spring of 1941 evacuation from those areas was a hurried event without any of the orderly events that had taken place in London in 1939. Also remember that the orderly 1939 evacuation of London was a phoney evacuation as most evacuees went back home after a few days or weeks and it was not until later in 1940 that the real evacuation of children tok pace when London was systematically blitzed.

                          I can personally remember the fire that devastated Plymouth and the panic that overtook the population of this small city during those dark days of March and April 1941. The propaganda at the time was to keep the devastation quiet.

                          Can you imagine today what would happen if any city of a quarter of a million people was bombed to the point where people were taking to the roads in their cars, thousands at a time. Thirty thousand houses destroyed, 46 schools bombed enough to make them unusable as well as a whole city centre alight from end to end with no official buildings still standing. The chaos was and would be today catastrophic. Getting the children away from the terrible events would be the main priority, not the recording of everything.


                          PS Another point to remember was that so many evacuees were private and not official so payment to a foster parent would be down to the agreement between the parent/s and the foster mother. I think, though I cannot be sure, that my own fostering ran into trouble when my mother lent a piece of jewellry to my foster mother who promptly pawned it and my mother never saw that piece again. I suspect it was lent to her whilst waiting for money to come through from my father who was in the navy. I am sure she was not the only one to be behind with the money.

                          Bank accounts were NOT the norm back in 1941 and if people had cash fine, but if not they were borrowing money more often than not to get by during the next week. Wages were paid in cash, usually in small brown envelopes each Friday. Credit cards are a very modern invention but debt is NOT!!!

                          This may have been a period in history of only 70 years ago, but it was a VERY different world from today and I would suggest trying to immerse yourself into this period to get your head around it. We still had gas lighting in the streets, milk delivered by horse and cart from a big churn and poured out into your own jug , coal delivered in sacks to the basement or coal shed and so m any other things alien to us now.

                          If an evacuation was through the school then there is a just a CHANCE that something may be available in a local library somewhere, but do not expect too much. My own school evacuated from Plymouth to Teignmouth has no records of this era despite my plea for them to do something about it. Now it is too late. I have scoured the records of Exeter and Plymouth for records of evacuees in Devon and have found very very little. But there is a lot more at Truro for the Cornish records of those evacuated to Cornwall or is that Redruth now? I have trawled through those in the past, but unless they can get more people who were evacuated to tell their stories, much will be lost forever. And that time is getting perilously close to being too late!!

                          Janet
                          Last edited by Janet; 04-02-11, 17:12.

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                          • #33
                            Thank you very much Janet....that post gave me a different picture of Evacuation than I had in my head...and yes, you are spot on when you say they wouldn`t have had time to sit an write records...Liverpool was pounded night after night by bombers and my own father and his little brother and sister were sent to Aughton about 22 miles away...I didn`t give it a thought that the parents were responsible for their childs upkeep...I presumed this was taken care of by the Government...so I am a little puzzled....how did a woman get her wages off her husband if he was in Europe fighting for a year or so ???....I am intrigued ....thanks again , that was an interesting post....allan;)
                            Allan ......... researching oakes/anyon/standish/collins/hartley/barker/collins-cheshire
                            oakes/tipping/ellis/jones/schacht/...garston, liverpool
                            adams-shropshire/roberts-welshpool
                            merrick/lewis/stringham/nicolls-herefordshire
                            coxon/williamson/kay/weaver-glossop/stockport/walker-gorton

                            Comment


                            • #34
                              Allan

                              Married women got a Half Pay Note, which they could cash for money in a local post office I think, but that was only the lower ranks. I think the higher ranks made their own arrangements.

                              It was indeed a very different world. Can you imagine today putting a label round your child's neck and putting them on a train to who knows where, to stay with people who hadn't even been chosen until the child got there and someone volunteered to take them. When you look at it like that, it's miraculous that so many placements were successful.

                              My friend and her sister were evacuated to Wales, to two neighbouring families. My friend was very well treated and remains in contact today with her "other sister". Her real sister was not treated very well at all and was finally removed when she almost died of a burst appendix, made worse by malnutrition. The woman she lived with said she wouldn't eat, the sister said she was given nothing to eat other than raw vegetables.

                              It affected the sister for the whole of her adult life and when she died a few years ago, the family found rotting food hidden all over the house.

                              OC

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                              • #35
                                Do you know Allan I have only JUST begun to think about how my mother was paid whilst my father was out in the North Atlantic and elsewhere on his Hospital Ship. My father "disappeared", as far as I was concerned early 1941 and I saw him next in late 1943 so yes how did she manage??

                                Yes OC. So many people were affected in so many different ways. It was an experiment which I hope no other child would ever have to experience again. Many people do carry the scars even today. My own evacuation was a mix of happy and unhappy but writing it down does help.

                                Forums like this make you think of other things, long forgotten or just not appreciated at the time. Even thinking about something like how did people manage to be paid when their husbands were in the services is indeed food for thought. I can only thank other people for making me look even harder at the sorts of issues that Allan has brought up.

                                Janet
                                Last edited by Janet; 05-02-11, 11:34.

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                                • #36
                                  Thanks girls...it is a fascinating Scenario....my father and his siblings were placed with a Doctor in a big detached house, and they had 3 children...my dad said that the Doctor and his wife treated my dad and his brother and sister like they were their children and had nothing but praise for a loving family....so they were very lucky...not so for a lot of kids I fear....allan
                                  Allan ......... researching oakes/anyon/standish/collins/hartley/barker/collins-cheshire
                                  oakes/tipping/ellis/jones/schacht/...garston, liverpool
                                  adams-shropshire/roberts-welshpool
                                  merrick/lewis/stringham/nicolls-herefordshire
                                  coxon/williamson/kay/weaver-glossop/stockport/walker-gorton

                                  Comment


                                  • #37
                                    Alan, you must have seen the old Black and white film http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodnight_Mister_Tom
                                    All before my own birth in 1950 but I can remember the hard times even then
                                    Edna

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                                    • #38
                                      Edna , I was born Jan 1951 so there`s not much difference in our age...obviously Liverpool was a big city and times were hard shortly after the war..I remember (I was the 4th of 5 boys) hand me down clothes / shoes and the thing that probably amazes me most was how my mother fed us all....she was a genious in the kitchen...and all the food seemed to be so nourishing...no junk food at all....we couldn`t afford coffee / cereals / and we often had "Pobs" for breakfast....2 rounds of bread and milk cut into 1" squares and soaked in hot milk and sprinkled with sugar......or porridge for breakfast in the winter..if any stews or soups were too thin, a tablespoon of porridge oats was added to thicken it up.....something I still do now, and it adds to the flavour..no fancy foods for us- we couldn`t afford it........allan
                                      Allan ......... researching oakes/anyon/standish/collins/hartley/barker/collins-cheshire
                                      oakes/tipping/ellis/jones/schacht/...garston, liverpool
                                      adams-shropshire/roberts-welshpool
                                      merrick/lewis/stringham/nicolls-herefordshire
                                      coxon/williamson/kay/weaver-glossop/stockport/walker-gorton

                                      Comment

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