Yeovil at war

evacuation plans

How Yeovil coped with over 4,400 evacuees

 

At the beginning of the Second World War the evacuation of Britain's cities was the biggest and most concentrated mass movement of people in Britain's history. It was expected that cities would be bombed, as the enemy tried to destroy factories. However it was realised that homes and schools too, would be in danger. The government tried at the start of the war to 'empty the cities' of children and mothers, the process of 'evacuation', to protect them from air raids.

In the first four days of September 1939, nearly 3,000,000 people were transported from towns and cities in danger from enemy bombers to places of safety in the countryside. Most were schoolchildren, who had been labelled like pieces of luggage, separated from their parents and accompanied instead by a small army of guardians - 100,000 teachers. By any measure it was an astonishing event, a logistical nightmare of co-ordination and control. The mass evacuation began on Thursday, 31 August 1939 but very few realised that within a week, a quarter of the population of Britain would have a new address.

It was planned that Yeovil would receive 4,410 evacuees from London, made up of 2,207 unaccompanied children and 2,207 teachers, helpers and others, including mothers with children under school age.

 

 


From my collection

A humorous postcard of 1940 hinting at the lack of accommodation available in Yeovil for the influx of the 4,410 evacuees.

 

Evacuees remember...

"My mother, my sister and I were evacuated to Yeovil from Brixton at the start of the war. My father stayed in London expecting to be called up, having been a regular soldier before his discharge in 1926 from the Tank Corps. However, he was a bricklayer and worked under directed labour in that for the duration of the war. My mother, sister and I were evacuated as a group as I was not of school age being born in 1935. We arrived in Yeovil by train and were taken around to various houses and finally Mr and Mrs Winter of 8 Park Street took us in, she had a daughter Doreen a bit older than me but younger than my sister, June. After some months we found accommodation in South Street and stayed there until VE day in 1945, returning to London then. My sister went to Charles Edward Brooke School while I went to an infant school and then to Reckleford Junior. The families kept in touch after the war visiting each other and only the other week June went down to see Doreen who still lives in Yeovil (but not Park Street which is, of course, now demolished as is our house in South Street.) My memories are very happy of that time particularly roaming the country with the little gang I was a member of!"

Memories of Derek Duchemin.

 

"My sister was evacuated to Edinburgh and my brother and I were evacuated to Yeovil in Somerset. We went to a stately home called Brimpton Dervesey. We were both urban children and arrived at this large stately manor and we lived and slept in a large dormitory. Life went on fairly normally and we had classes during the day.

It was then that we really began to learn about the countryside. It was here that I found my first rabbit caught in a snare, which was really sad. Of course this was meat to the farmer and local people and it supplemented their meagre rations. I was there for 3 years - I went when I was 7 years old and came back when I was 10."

Memories of Colin Manvell, London
Reproduced from the BBC's "WW2 People's War" under the 'fair dealing' terms.

 

In 1939 I was 10 years old and was at Scarsdale Road School Camberwell. On the 1st September myself and my 3 brothers Reginald (12), Harry (9) and Eric (7) were taken to a railway station in London and put on a train to Yeovil. It was the first time we had seen fields with cows in!

When we got to Yeovil we were taken to a big hall where we were nearly the last to be taken so we were put in a lorry and taken round the streets while the helpers knocked on doors to see if anyone could take us. Eventually one woman said she would take 2 boys but would stretch to 3 so the boys went there and I was billeted 3 doors down the road with Mr and Mrs Hillard (an elderly couple). I was there for 3 years. I was very happy as it was a much freer life than in London and Mr and Mrs Hillard were very kind. We had part time school; locals in the morning and us in the afternoon as there weren’t enough teachers. This went on for about nine months, then more teachers came and we went full time.

Memories of Queenie Prieto
Reproduced from the BBC's "WW2 People's War" under the 'fair dealing' terms.

 

 

gallery

 

An initial report of evacuees expected to be housed in Yeovil from the 1 July 1939 edition of the Express & Echo.

 


Courtesy of Richard Venus

This is Richard, ready to be evacuated to Yeovil from London, in his school cap and an overcoat with a label on its collar saying who he was. Photographed in 1939.

For Richard's memories of his time as an evacuee in Yeovil - click here.

 

London kids in a rural setting - this snippet is from the 7 September 1939 edition of the Bristol Evening Post.

 

Notice of special cheap return fares for parents to visit their evacuee children in the Western Morning News of 30 November 1939.

 

Evacuee children were treated to occasional film shows by the Odeon Cinema chain, as reported here in the 17 January 1940 edition of the Western Morning News.

 


Courtesy of Richard Venus

Richard (front row, third from left) and his evacuee classmates in Yeovil. Photographed in 1940.

 

Housing evacuees was an ongoing problem during the war - especially during the Blitz between September 1940 and May 1941. This Ministry of Health notice placed in the Wells Journal edition of 25 April 1941 was still seeking people to house evacuees.

 


Courtesy of Roger McElliott

This is the letter of thanks sent by HM the Queen to all those who took in evacuees. This particular letter was sent to Mrs Norris of Westland Road (Roger's grandmother).

 

Yeovil's Evacuation plans

 

How would they cope? Where would everybody stay? Who would feed them? The problems initially seemed insurmountable - however with careful planning and forethought Yeovil came up with a plan. This scheme was so thorough and so complex that it is reproduced in whole below. The tables at the end, showing who was to stay where, are particularly interesting. The original document is held in Yeovil library and is reproduced here with permission.

In practice however one does wonder about this careful planning - Richard Venus, evacuated to Yeovil between 1939 and 1942 remembers "There seemed to be no plan as to where we were to stay and I can remember walking the streets of Yeovil in the dark with grown-ups knocking at doors asking people if they would take an evacuee."