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Evacuation St Marks/St Johns

O

Objd1

Guest
Hi everyone, when talking to mom I asked her why she wasnt evacuated in war, she was born in 1933. She said she has always wondered that herself !! :shocked: Her first day at school was Saint Marks she went in the morning and couldnt go back in the afternoon because it was bombed. Apparently she then went to Saint Johns. She said that my dad apparently lived a few streets away and he was evacuated. Does anyone know why it might be that she wasnt ? ......
 
Probably her Mother didn't want her to be evacuated,it wasn't compulsory to go, I remember being issued with a bag and labels ready to go,but my Mother had a change of mind, and I remained at home through the bombing.
 
brummie nick said:
Probably her Mother didn't want her to be evacuated,it wasn't compulsory to go, I remember being issued with a bag and labels ready to go,but my Mother had a change of mind, and I remained at home through the bombing.
Click to expand...


My dad didnt go.

For anyones interest, notes i made for history of the council's Air Raid Precautions Committee, whilst listing the committee minutes.....

After the Munich crisis in September 1938, preparations for distributing gas masks, the digging of trenches and the establishment of first-aid posts was not only underway, but indeed authorised by the Home Office. Further, auxiliary nurses, firemen and ARW’s were enlisted, other Council department, such as Health and Public Assistance began to stock up on blankets, sheets and pillows and the Committee were looking at schemes for emergency water to be fed from Bartley Reservoir into the canal system for fire fighting. In February 1939 the Committee gave the go-ahead for the first bomb-proof shelters to be constructed and in March, not only were the boundaries for evacuation zones planned, but an Emergency Committee was established to oversee the ARP/Civil Defence logistical measures operated by the City Council.

By May 1939, a list of school children to be evacuated was complete. In June, the Civil Defence Act made any civil defence equipment that had been issued by the Government free of charge, but still Government property by law. This included all respirators and shelters (also required to be provided under the Act), even those issued before the Act and fine could be imposed upon anyone not taking proper care of a mask whilst it was in their care. The Committee and its plans were fully mobilised in September 1939, when war broke out, thousands of children were evacuated
 
My Sister and Myself were not evacuated, and were in our house when a bomb dropped on it - only a little bomb ! Never got round to asking my parents why we were not evacuated, but it was the parent's decision - no Health & Safety then.
I remember seeing many buses at the school to take the evacuees away. Many came back after a few months away. Some time later the bombing became very heavy, but most remained.
 
Neither was I evacuated,still have all my papers including the label for my overcoat.
It could have been having a contagious disease,then you were not allowed to go.
 
Thank you for comments. Glad to see mom wasnt the only one. I still cant imagine what it would have been like as a small child to see the school you have just started disappear.
 
From what I remember as a young child, it just seemed like a normal thing. Probably different for the adults. Some people I knew of my age group had very good experiences of evacuation, usually to rural locations, and kept in touch with their 'proxy' parents for years. Others had very bad experiences.
 
There is a thread I started...evacuation papers...and I have posted copies of my evacuation paper's.If anyone wants to know what they look like.
 
I am sorry but the memory of the mother of OBJD1 seems to have let her down. If born in 1933 she was 6 at the start of the war and, in normal circumstances, would have been at school for the past year. If so she could not have started school in the morning but find it bombed in the afternoon.

Furthermore there were no daylight raids on Birmingham so the school would not have been bombed during the lunch hour as is suggested. I admit that very occasionally single enemy aircraft flew over Brum during daylight hours but they were ususally reconnaisance aircraft.

Perhaps I am being too pedantic but this story seems too far fetched to be true. I imagine that OBJD1s mother simply did not wish her daughter to be evacuated. I, myself, was evacuated to Evesham from Small Heath on September 1st 1939 but returned home during October as I was homesick. The family who looked after me in Evesham were very good and I had no complaint against them.

Old Boy
 
There are quite a few comments from forum members about enemy aircraft over Brum during daylight in the thread below. Objd1 may be interested in it if she hasn't already seen it. The one I saw was very low over the school but I didn't see it firing because we were rushing into shelters. I could hear something, maybe from our side in Perry Barr park. I later found out it was an ME110.
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=21044&highlight=german
 
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