Reading the Child’s World: The Overseas Evacuation of British Children to the Dominions, 1939-1945

At the beginning of the Second World War, Britain implemented a controversial program to move children out of its cities, and into the countryside, with the hopes that this distance would protect the vulnerable from the devastation of bombings and of a potential landed invasion. However, for some families, the British countryside was not far enough away. The desire to keep children safe led to the evacuation of upwards of 20,000 young people to the Dominion countries of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa in the period from 1939-1945. Although children were evacuated through the auspices of many different groups, including the British government, schools, and corporations, all these young evacuees had the freedom of movement to seek refuge in these British Dominions; their status as white British subjects granted them protection and aid. Although overseas evacuation was envisioned as being only ‘for the duration’, many children elected to remain in the Dominion countries after the war ended, making a life for themselves there, and participating in the ongoing project of settler colonialism happening overseas. This dissertation examines the experience of British evacuee children as recorded in their own words, eschewing, where possible, the use of adult-produced sources, to prioritize the perspective of young people. Children kept various forms of records during their evacuation: they wrote letters home to families, kept diaries, drew pictures, and took photographs. The documents they produced reveal the multiplicity of experiences, positions, and interests of the young evacuees: they considered the state of the British Empire and the potential outcome of the war effort, they assumed the role of the expert in explaining new cultural mores to their parents back home, and they formed communities that were bound together by ritual, myth, and secrets. Through an examination of these child-produced documents, this dissertation places children at the center of their own history, and uses the child’s world as the vantage point through which to understand this unique historical moment. Positioning adult interests as peripheral, this project assumes the centrality of children and their thoughts and actions as the main driving forces in this history.

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