Evacuees

[seasider66]

Morning all,
Can anyone tell me if any records were kept of all the children who were evacuated during WWII please?
There seem to be records for everything but I haven't come across anything for evacuees as yet
Lil

[northmeols]

I cannot be absolutley certain of these but gran told me that the redcross had been incharge of children evacuated from liverpool they had a list of the children their age ********** and parents names. she had a couple of children stay with her in southport on the farm. hope this helps

[seasider66]

Thank you Susan That's a start at least, and more than I expected as there doesn't seem to be anything in the 'normal' records we all search constantly
Lil

[Hilary]

Hi

I think you will find that there are actually very few records in existence of child evacuees. What exists is most likely to be in Record Offices.

Where children were evacuated with their school this might be recorded in the school log book. Again log books could still be at the school, in record offcies or lost. Where children wnt and attended the local school they may be recorded in the admissions register of that school. I know a school I worked at in Northants had in their admissions registers for the 1940s 2 pagews one headed Natives, one headed Immingrants. The immingrants had come for Coventry about 15 miles away!!

Again there might be some mention of the evacuees in the local newspapers but not necessarily lists.

Try googling evacuees and the area you want. there are some very active child evacuees' groups.

Ed officer

Ed officer

[seasider66]

Thanks Ed. Another very interesting reply for me to think about
I think I'll contact the RO and see if they do have any records. It's just curiosity...or nosiness more like
Lil

[jan44]

Hi Lil,

Liverpool Records Office website is having a server change over, so the archive catalogue is unsearchable at the moment.

I think your best bet as Ed Officer has said, looking at school records.

I found this website which may help a bit.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ev ... on_WW2.htm

I also looked at the National Archives Website, and there seem to be records there for some Liverpool Schools (Evacuees) and I think Cheshire/Chester records office have some records there.

Jan

[jan44]

Lil,

LRO website is working now, and I found this.

RefNo 352 EDU/1/85/4
Title 'Government Evacuation Scheme: Liverpool', tie on label
Date n.d. [1940s]
Description gives code number; party number; name [of head mistress]; home address of same; name of school.
Extent 1 item
AccessConditions Open to any accredited reader

RefNo 940 EVA
Title Essays written by evacuees sent to Carmel School, North Wales
Date c1940
Description The essays describe the experiences of evacuees from Liverpool in Carmel, North Wales. This includes details relating to attending chapel, the Welsh people, their accommodation and the countryside.
AdminHistory The Government's Evacuation Scheme commenced on 1 Sep 1939. The majority of evacuees from Liverpool were sent to North Wales. One group were sent to Carmel, near Caernarfon, where they attended the local school. They took the train from Liverpool on the morning of 3 Sep 1939 and arrived in Pen-y-groes Railway Station in the afternoon.
Extent 7 items
RelatedMaterial For details of evacuees in North Wales see 'North Wales Receives - An Account of the First Government Scheme, 1939-1940' reprinted from the Journal of the Flintshire Historical Society, Volume 32 (1989) (ref: H 940.53161 WAL). For details of evacuation from Liverpool see 'Evacuation of Liverpool Schools Under the Government Scheme Report' in Borough of Liverpool, Proceedings of the Council (1938-39), pp.2007-2013 (ref: H 352 COU).

Jan

[seasider66]

Hi Jan,
Many thanks for that information. I am very grateful for all the detail you've supplied and will certainly contact the Record Office to see what they can offer.
I must sort out a date for visit to Liverpool very soon
Lil

[jan44]

Hi Lil,

I was editing the above post when your message came through.

Jan

[seasider66]

That's brilliant Jan Thank you very much for taking the trouble to look it up for me
I hadn't realised there was so much available online, but I will still try and sort out a weekend in Liverpool a.s.a.p.
Lil

[jan44]

It has also answered a question for me too Lil, my mum was evacuated to Wales in the war, she went to Abersoch, I asked her if she knew where the records would be, and she told me she didn't know, but the evacuations were organised by the school, mum went to Windsor Street in Toxteth.

I had looked on the LRO site before today and couldn't find anything, maybe I was using the wrong keywords in the search hehe.

Jan

[seasider66]

That's great Jan Just shows how much can be discovered from one question
I don't know whether I was evacuated or not, but I do know my brother and I spent some time in what I've always thought was a children's home. I've exhausted all the possibilities down that road, so I thought I'd try and see if we were evacuated. It's not that important, just another bit of info for the family history....and me being curious (or maybe nosey)
Lil

[Marie]

This is really nothing to do with the post. I was sent to a children's home in June 1945. I do not have a clue where it was. I was sent there because my Mum gave birth to my brother in May and she had to stay in hospital for a few weeks afterwards. There were no family to care for me.

I know it was an old large Victorian House with lots of rooms a lovely stretch of grass across the road, where we used to play, it seemed to be sunny all the time. There were also lots of fuschias growing. I went on the train, could have been Southport or Wales. A couple of adults and 4 of us children. I was there 5 weeks. I have to add that the carers were not nice to the children and I had nightmares about it for years afterwards. My brother spent that period in Olive Mount. Possibly where I went was a Social Services home.

[seasider66]

That's very interesting Marie. The children's home I remember so well was a very large house with either very big windows or bay windows at the front and steps up to the front door.. It was set in large grounds with what was probably an orchard because we were given fruit from the trees every day...a luxury in those far-off days (1940's) There were a lot of beds in a very large room and even some bunk beds and my brother and I shared a bunk bed, me on the top and him on the bottom. All the bedlinen was white and starched I had always had the name Earl's Cote in my mind, but there are no records of a children's home of that name in or around Liverpool, so I may be wrong or it could have been somewhere outside Liverpool altogether.
Social services have no records about either of us being in a children's home anywhere in or around Liverpool, so I've pretty much given up on that now. Not really important, I'm just curious to know why we were there in the first place. My mum had the sad task of burying my sister in 1946 (at the age of 11 months) and my youngest brother was born just a couple of months later, so I wonder if that was the reason we were sent away.

[Marie]

It definately had large bay windows and steps going up! I do not remember the grounds as we crossed a private quiet road to play on the wide grass verge. I recall cubicle type toilets in one room, I don't actually remember where I slept. I also recall coming down stairs every morning in a line with our hands together in a prayer like manner. We were given a drink which I did not recognise, at breakfast, but I many years later realised it was tea without milk. It must have been fairly near and Southport, near where they hold the flower show remindes me of it. As my Nan and her sister came to see me one day but they would not let her in.

The reason my Nan could not look after me was because she had a disabled son to look after. He would have been left on his own while she came so it could not have been too far. I was 5 and a bit then. I do not remember any boys being there.

[northmeols]

this was the Barnardo home in Birkdale it was on Trafalger Rd

http://www.goldonian.org/photos/photo_a ... r_road.htm


this one was in Sephton Park

http://www.barnardos.org.uk/who_we_are/ ... xandra.htm

[Marie]

Although the houses are similar the steps actually came down onto the sidewalk and people could walk directly past the steps. As I say, I went on a train.

Marie

[seasider66]

It's amazing that we both have such similar memories
I don't expect to find out any information really, but I'm still wondering why we sent there. My last remaining uncle doesn't have any clues because he served in the Royal Navy during WWII and was abroad for the duration.
Lil

[seasider66]

this was the Barnardo home in Birkdale it was on Trafalger Rd

http://www.goldonian.org/photos/photo_a ... r_road.htm


this one was in Sephton Park

http://www.barnardos.org.uk/who_we_are/ ... xandra.htm

Thank you for these photos northmeols.
The first one - Birkdale - looks exactly as I remember the place I went to I wonder if it was that one? Do you know if there are any other photos of this building anywhere? Or perhaps a description of it and the grounds? I find it astonishing a photo can send my mind racing backwards to when I was a small child
I just wish I'd asked my parents about it beofre they died
Thanks again
Lil

[Tina]

Just to say Lil and Marie, I'm so pleased you have "found" each other.
It's heartwarming.

Tina
Long Live the Forum!!