Meet the Evacuees

We have interviewed over 90 people for the Children on the Move project. These include not only former evacuees, but also members of host families and local people who remember evacuees coming to their areas and filling their schools. Many still live in Staffordshire and the Midlands and were interviewed in their homes or at local libraries. Others now live as far away as Kent, Bournemouth and Wales, and were interviewed over the telephone about their experiences of evacuation.

To find out more about a particular person’s memories of evacuation and hear clips from their interview, simply use your mouse to click on their name or the Read more link and you will be taken to a separate page with information including photographs and audio clips from their original interview. Once you have selected a story, you can come back to this page or read all of the stories using the ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ links at the top of that page.

This page only shows twenty stories at a time, so if you can’t find a story you want to read simply refresh this page to see a different selection. Or, if you know the name of the person’s story you would like to read about, type their name into the search box at the top right of this page.

Edna Upton

Edna Upton lived in Weoley Castle as a young girl before getting the opportunity to be evacuated to Pipewood. She jumped at the chance.

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Elizabeth Barker

Elizabeth Barker was evacuated with her two younger sisters first to Norfolk and then Dilhorne, Staffordshire. The cousin of her two friends in Dilhorne was to be her future husband...

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Jean Wilks

Jean Wilks was evacuated to Leek where she stayed with the Keaseys and helped in their sweet shop on Stockwell Street.

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Ann Ridout

Before being evacuated, Ann can remember sitting with her granny in their home during the air raids in London. Plaster was falling around them and their neighbours were bombed.

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Ivy Wilson

Ivy Wilson was billeted in Hints, a tiny hamlet with just six houses and six other children. All of these were boys, so she often got into mischief!

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Margaret Hancock

Margaret was evacuated to Stockton Brook from the East End of London. She was taken in by all those living in the village and became 'one of them'.

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Nev & Alma James

Alma and Neville James were growing up in Staffordshire at the same time and can remember evacuees coming to Rugeley and Colton respectively.

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Betty Allen

Betty Allen is still friends with the boy her parents took in during the Second World War. The family were very sad when he left.

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Jeffrey Goodwin

Jeffrey Goodwin was evacuated at the young age of 3 to live with the Goodwin family on the Keele estate. He was later adopted by the Goodwins, after his birth mother realised he had a better life in Staffordshire.

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Beryl Alderson

Beryl's parents took on two evacuees during the Second World War. One of these girls, Muriel, was a very lovable character, who spent an age getting ready for school in the morning.

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Tony Atkinson (Towner)

Tony was evacuated from his grandparents' home in Westgate-on-Sea to Colton where he lived with the Norman family. Here he nearly drowned in the pond at Colton...

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Robert Prett

Robert Prett's brother had been evacuated to Stafford, and he begged his mother to let him go too. He ended up living next door to his mother in Fazeley Road before being moved to several billets in Stafford.

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Daphne Slade

Before being evacuated to Norton Canes, Daphne's parents nearly put her on a steam passenger ship sailing to Canada with 90 other evacuees. The ship was torpedoed and 77 children died.

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Jean Dowd

Jean moved up to Kidsgrove from South East London with her family when her father moved with work. Although not an official 'evacuee', she received the same sort of attention at school for speaking funny...

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Michael Whitebrook

Michael's parents were told they had room for 1 evacuee in their two-roomed cottage. Little did he know he would soon be sharing his home with 4 evacuees and extra lodgers!

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Peter Haynes

Peter's father was appointed Billeting Officer for Stoke-on-Trent and he remembers the pressures associated with the sudden arrivals.

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Bert Bugden

Bert lived in Ramsgate before being evacuated to Stafford where he stayed with three different families, some pet rabbits and a dog called Elysium.

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Jim Homer

Jim was evacuated to Shooting Butts, a boarding camp for boys near Cannock Chase. He loved it, and was free to roam...

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‘Tommy’ Thomas

'Tommy' Thomas was billeted with a number of families in Stafford after first living with relatives in Hednesford and South Wales during WWII.

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June Cowper

June was evacuated to Uttoxeter with her classmates from Withington Girls' School. Her hosts treated her like part of the family, and she wasn't homesick at all.

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