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.

Dorothy Jarvis

When Dorothy Jarvis was evacuated to Alton from Longsight, Manchester, she was awestruck by the beauty of the buildings and thought she was in 'fairy land'.

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Margaret Thurman

Margaret Thurman was a child local to Burton upon Trent when families of evacuees arrived. She made good friends with many of them.

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Max Reynolds

Max and his mother took in a number of evacuees and lodgers from the nearby RAF base during World War II. He enjoyed sharing his home with this wide range of different people.

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Nora Landon

At the outbreak of war Nora was 20 years old and a volunteer at the Congregational Church in Hanley.

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Vera Jenkins

On the way to their evacuation in Staffordshire, Vera's sister June decided to go against their mother's wishes and be billeted with her friend. That was until their mother found out...

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Douglas Wood

Douglas Wood was billeted with two extremely kind ladies in Rolleston-on-Dove. He didn't want to return to his family home in Birmingham, and was ridiculed by his peers for having lost his Birmingham accent.

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George Nye

George was evacuated from a children's home to Staffordshire. It was only on the day of his evacuation that he found out he had a brother and two sisters.

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Brian Howard

Brian Howard was separated from his siblings when he was evacuated from Margate to Gentleshaw. He can remember sitting on the school bank singing them 'Cockney' songs.

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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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Sydney Cox

Sydney Cox was moved to Swythamley from his first evacuation in Norfolk. He was very happy to live in the countryside and only returned home because his grandfather found him a job.

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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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Ken Maple

Ken was orphaned as a very young child. At the orphanage he was wrapped in a blanket and thrown down a shoot during an air raid. He was then evacuated to Admaston.

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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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Lily Wilson

Lily was one of the teachers at Pipewood boarding camp, and remembers how excited the girls were when her husband came to visit dressed in his uniform.

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Doreen Foreman

Doreen was biletted with the Bentley family in Rugeley after being evacuated from Margate. Before long, her mother and father had joined her in the Bentley's home.

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Esther Carpenter

Esther Carpenter didn't enjoy her billet in Betley, and could not get on with her host who drank and smoke. She was ecstatic to be reunited with her family.

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Peter Mirams

Peter Mirams was evacuated from Ramsgate to Uttoxeter. He did not have a happy billet, and was made to get ready for bed in his host's garage.

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Gordon Ellis

Gordon shared his family home with an evacuee from Manchester. He can remember seeing him for the first time, clutching onto a bar of Cadbury's Fruit & Nut!

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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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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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