There were two main periods of evacuation in Liverpool, firstly at the start of the War in September 1939, then at the start of the German bombing campaign known as the ‘Christmas raids’ in December 1940.
Some parents, of course, did not want their children to leave and would not allow their child to be evacuated. A lot of parents did not find out where their children were going until after they had arrived at their new temporary homes!
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| Evacuation of St. Peter's R.C. Schools |
For most children themselves, evacuation was initially a frightening experience. Some evacuees were sent to stay with relatives outside the city, but some children were sent to live with complete strangers in the nearby countryside of north Wales and Cheshire. Brothers and sisters could be split up from each other, and children did not know when they would see their families again.
In Liverpool, 95,000 children were evacuated from the city as War broke out in September 1939. 57,000 of these were school children, and 31,000 were mothers and children under five years of age. However, as it appeared that the city was in no immediate danger from German bombing attacks, around 40% of the children were returned home by January 1940.
51,000 evacuees from Liverpool were sent to Lancashire, Cheshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire in England. Another 44,000 evacuees were sent to live in Wales.
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| Bomb damage in Bootle | Heavy bombing of Merseyside began, however, in August 1940, and became more frequent throughout the year. The second programme of evacuation began following the ‘Christmas raids’ of 1940. Between 20-22 December 1940, 1,399 children were rushed out of Liverpool. Thousands more children were evacuated during the ‘May Blitz’ of 1941. As the bombing threat to Merseyside lessened after the summer of 1941, more and more evacuated children began returning home, particularly in late 1944. Many of the children who had been sent to Wales returned home speaking fluent Welsh, and some were so young when they were evacuated that they had forgotten most of their native English!
Some of the evacuated children did not stay in Merseyside when they were returned. There were cases of some children returning with their foster parents after they had come back to Liverpool and been inspected by medical staff; perhaps family bonds had been irrepairably broken, or parents felt their child would have better prospects if they grew up with their foster parents. There were also cases of foster parents, once they had returned their evacuees, paying for a child’s continuing secondary education.
By the time of the last bombing of the area, in January 1942, Liverpool had taken in more evacuees from other parts of the country than it had children staying elsewhere. |
