EVACUATION

After fathers, husbands and brothers had left Britain to fight, many families had to cope with further separations, when around three million people (mainly children) were evacuated from Britain’s towns and cities to the countryside, away from the dangers of aerial attacks.

Some had family and friends they could stay with, but the majority of those evacuated went through the official government scheme, a monumental feat of organisation and logistics known as Operation Pied Piper. Evacuation was voluntary, but many – though certainly not all – families were persuaded to send their children to live with strangers, rather than risk them