During WW2, people were concerned about German air raids killing innocent civilians (particularly children). In order to prevent this from happening, mass evacuations, of predominantly children living in cities, began on the 1st of September, 1939 and was named Operation Pied Piper.
The evacuees were taken to areas that were unlikely to be bombed, such as Devon (as it is a rural area), the children were often taken by their teachers and were transported on trains where their tags would be read to find out their information (for example name, address, school etc.).
On arrival, they would mostly be taken to a town/village hall or the local school where they were collected by residents of that place to live with them until it was safe to return to their homes.
Lucky evacuees got to stay with relatives, but in most cases, siblings were split up and they had to live with total strangers- there are unfortunate accounts where the “temporary parents” forced the evacuees to work long, hard days and did not send them to school. Some evacuees did not see their parents for the entire war, 6 years in total! However, operation Pied Piper was a success as the government relocated more than 3.5 million civilians to a safer location.
The children who had lived in cities all their lives were often very confused and worried about their new environment- some of the children didn’t know what farm animals were or had never seen a tree in their life.
Before WW2, there was very little communication between rural areas, like Devon, and the big cities, like London, so the people living in the city would just not have been educated about farm animals or trees because they couldn’t have communicated with people who actually knew about farming.
“Operation Pied Piper” was the code name for the evacuation of vulnerable civilians, including children, from the threat of German bombing raids to safer, rural areas, in Britain. The first wave beginning on 1st September 1939 two days before Britain declared war on Germany.
This was an enormous logistical task, and it is reported that within the first three days of the evacuation, over 1.5 million people, including 800,000 children, were moved from urban areas to rural locations. The government had left arrangements for the children’s arrival and care to local authorities. There were many challenges in accommodating the large numbers of evacuees, and not all reception areas were prepared. This first wave of evacuations was subsequent followed by others, including after the fall of France in 1940 and during the Blitz in 1940. Some evacuees were even being sent to other parts of the British Empire. While the evacuation was a massive undertaking, with the prime objective of saving lives, it also presented challenges, including separation from families, difficulties in finding accommodation, and in some cases, mistreatment or abuse of evacuees. It is difficult to generalise but there were example of the accommodation available in rural areas being of a poor standard and certainly not to the quality of and facilities available at the properties and living environments some evacuees were leaving, which did create disquiet by some families, refusing to send or demanding the return of their children back to their own homes.
On the other hand, there were example of the displacement of children unearthing health and education issues. The evacuees, often from poorer city and town areas when placed with families in other living environments exposed heath issues like poor nutrition, lack of clean-living conditions, and limited access to healthcare. Evacuees were sometimes perceived as “dirty” due to their living conditions, and issues like head lice (pediculosis) and skin infections were common. Some evacuees suffered from developmental illnesses such as polio, which spread in areas of poor sanitation. Mental health became a key factor due to separation from families, loss of homes, and the uncertainty of the war years. Some children experienced bedwetting, which was sometimes seen as a sign of poor upbringing or a reflection of their stress and anxiety. In respect of education there were examples of some children coming from some environments having poor literacy standards and were generally educational disadvantaged. This was exposed primarily when children from these environments were billeted with well-educated families and when they attended the local schools in the villages and towns they were placed.
However, there were aspects of the evacuation initiative that were seen as positive and beneficial. For example:
- some children enjoyed the adventure of living in rural communities and forming new relationships.
- the evacuation led to greater changes in the administration of social services.
- the evacuation led to increased interest in childhood mental health.