A closer look at the life of a child growing up in Britain during World War 2...

Created by: Jesse Donn, Julia Picco, Manuela Peyer, Julen Rojo– Roos

Most teachers took the children and

transported them to reception areas. The

trips could be as long as 12 hours. This

caused many children to come out of the

journey exhausted, upset by leaving their

parents and fearful of the war to come.

Children of different cultures and different

degrees of money were sent to different

places. In the first weeks of war almost four

million people were evacuated to reception

areas. Reception areas were usually in or

near the countryside. Children of school age

were not evacuated with their parents.

They were required to report to their school

with only a change of a clothes, basic toilet

essentials, a packed lunched and of course a

gas mask. While host families were quite

frightened, they were very understanding

and accepting.

With many parents away or at work,

children were often left to look after

themselves. They played in fields or in

the street. Street games were safer than

they would be today, because there

were so few cars.

Almost every home had a radio or

'wireless'. Most radios came in a case

made of Bakelite, a kind of plastic. In

Britain, all the programmes came from

the BBC. People listened to the radio

news, and read newspapers, to find out

what was happening in the war.

Not every home had a phone (and there

were no mobile phones). Pay-phones in

red 'telephone boxes' did not always

work after air raids, because of bombs.

To keep in touch, people wrote letters.

Most teachers took the children and transported them to reception areas. The

trips could be as long as 12 hours. This caused many children to come out of the

journey exhausted, upset of leaving their parents and fearful of the war to come.

Children of different cultures and different degrees of money were sent to

different places. Children were torn between two feelings, being devastated

because of the war, and happy because their summer holiday had been extended

by 2 weeks because of the evacuation. A lot of schools had been squeezed into

one for safety purposes. Most of the male teachers had been sent into the Armed

forces. Some of the things that they learnt during the war was how to put on a

gas mask and how to plant vegetables.

During the World War it was important

for house wives to use the few supplies

and resources that they had. Diet was

largely laid upon the wives to take care

of as husbands were at the war. To assist

wives in keeping children healthy, the

ministry of food issued a leaflet about

healthy food. It showed them how to

make food for their muscles, food to

give energy and food for general

upkeep. Sugar was hard to find and

people had their own vegetable gardens