Leaving home…

One of the saddest aspects of life for families during World War 2 must surely have been when little children had to be evacuated to towns and villages far from home. Of course, it was all done with good intention – to protect their lives from the enemy bombing that threatened larger towns and cities.

But such heartbreak must have been endured when mothers had to wave goodbye to a son or daughter, some as young as four or five years old.

At the beginning of the war hundreds of children from London descended on Hastings as it was thought to be safer than being in the city. But then, during 1940, the south coast became the focus of enemy fire. And so thousands of children were sent away from home to the countryside.

But it wasn’t all bad…the families who took in them in were warm and welcoming and often, even when the children finally returned home towards the end of the war, they stayed in touch with their ‘host’ families. Perhaps the ‘happy’ scene shown in the photo below is testament to the success of the evacuation scheme…