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Evacuees: Children's Lives on the WW2 Home Front Kindle Edition

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 40 ratings

This oral history shares firsthand accounts of Britain’s child evacuees who were sent to live away from home at the outbreak of WWII.

On the outbreak of the Second World War, Britain initiated Operation Pied Piper, evacuating more than three million civilians out of areas considered prime targets for bombing. It was the largest ever transportation of people across Britain, and most of those moved to safety in the countryside were schoolchildren.

Social historian Gillian Mawson has spent years collecting the stories of former evacuees. This book includes personal memories from more than 100 child evacuees, as well as their teachers and foster parents. Told in their own words, these accounts reveal what it was like to settle into a new home with strangers, often staying for years. While many enjoyed life in the countryside, some escaping inner-city poverty, others endured ill-treatment and homesickness.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"However different, all the stories in this book underline one thing: there is so much more to the story of evacuation during that horrific Nazi war than the images of children arriving at railway stations, clutching gas masks, and with labels tied to their coats, which have entered the popular imagination."
ARGunners.com

About the Author

Gillian Mawson has made a particular study of the evacuations of the Second World War. She has organised evacuee reunions, provided research to radio and television documentaries on the subject of evacuation and run a community group for evacuees. She is also the author of two other books on the evacuees. Gillian lives in Whalley Bridge, Derbyshire.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00SGC4WOO
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pen & Sword History (October 2, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 2, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 79.0 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 404 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 40 ratings

About the author

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Gillian Mawson
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I am a writer and historian with a passionate interest in the life stories of ordinary people. Between 2008 and July 2016 I interviewed over 600 Second World War evacuees to record and preserve their stories, photographs and documents.

My 3rd book on British Evacuation is published on 30 November 2016 by Frontline Books. It is entitled 'Evacuation in the Second World War Told Through Newspaper Reports, Official Documents and the Accounts of Those Who Were There.' It contains personal testimony, wartime photographs and documents from hundreds of child and adult evacuees who spent the war years in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Testimony is also included from evacuees who were sent to the British mainland from The Channel Islands and Gibraltar. It can be pre-ordered on Amazon now. See my blog for updates at:

https://evacueesofworldwartwo.wordpress.com/

My previous book, 'Evacuees: Children's Lives on the World War Two Home Front' was published by Pen and Sword in Sept. 2014. It contains 100 personal evacuation stories, with wartime family photographs, collected from all over Britain and beyond.

My first book was 'Guernsey Evacuees: The Forgotten Evacuees of the Second World War' (History Press, 2012) When I discovered that 17,000 Guernsey evacuees had fled to England in June 1940, just before Germany occupied their island for 5 years, I was drawn in by this little known story! The evacuees - mostly children, teachers and mothers - received friendship and help from their English neighbours and also from American and Canadian citizens - one girl was financially supported throughout the war by Eleanor Roosevelt. Many evacuees chose not to return to Guernsey after the war. View my book trailer at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR0uXCBCFHc&feature=youtu.be

I have also written a chapter entitled 'Guernsey Mothers: The Forgotten Evacuees' which appears in the book 'The Home Front in Britain:Images, Myths and Forgotten Experiences 1914-2014' (Palgrave MacMillan, November 2014) I have organised evacuee reunions and run a community group in Manchester for Guernsey evacuees, who did not return home in 1945. This enables them to share their wartime stories with people of all ages.

I have also written articles for magazines and newspapers on other historical subjects and am working on a 4th book, with a colleague, which is not evacuee-related.

My Guernsey website and blog can be found at:

http://guernseyevacuees.wordpress.com/evacuation/

My general History blog can be found at:

https://evacueesofworldwartwo.wordpress.com/

Gillian Mawson, August 2016

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
40 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2016
    Some interesting material, but lacked depth. Said very little about each migrant. Also, it seems no one proofed it--I have never seen so many grammatical errors and missing words in a published book.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • byersmarket
    5.0 out of 5 stars Many of the people featured in this excellent book by Gillian Mawson may have repeated these stories ...
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2014
    These are stories that need to be told. Many of the people featured in this excellent book by Gillian Mawson may have repeated these stories to their children and grandchildren for years, others may not have even thought about these events for a long time, but it is the true story of another war, fought at home by the people who were too young to know about what was going on elsewhere in the world. Some of those featured here knew real hardship and poverty, others faced those things for the first time in their lives, all would probably admit that their experiences of evacuation changed them. Read this if you have any interest in social history, it provides the perfect source material for teachers trying to make the events of long ago come to life for their pupils.
  • Fletcher
    5.0 out of 5 stars Life changing experiences
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2015
    I was very impressed with the amount of research required to gather together these fascenating evacuee stories.
    The majority of evacuees enjoyed a life changing experience rewarding many with a happy experience and a love of the countryside.
    I with an evacuee named Harry was billeted in a cottage in a peaceful Worcestershire village. More than fifty other boys and girls from our Bimingham school all under eleven years were evacuated on the 1st September 1939. Harry and I became friends and seventy years later enjoy a very close friendship.
    It is a book I recommend young and old to read it and give thought to an experience unlikely to be repeated. It is worth reflecting on the emotional effect it had on children, parent’s adults and those who provided the accommodation
  • JCD
    4.0 out of 5 stars Easter Present
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 1, 2015
    Recipient loves all related to WW2
  • David O.
    5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a must for all
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2014
    This book is excellently written. There is a photo with each story and the evacuees tell their own short story of what happened at the time of the evacuation and what they went through during that time. Once you start reading the stories it is hard to put down. It is also a very educational book and should be read by all. I have loaned the book to a local school for a project they will be starting after the Xmas holidays. I would highly recommend to all.
    Well done to Gillian on the excellent research and hard work that has gone into this book.
  • L. Somers
    5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating Oral History of the Evacuation.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2014
    A fascinating Oral History of the Evacuation. Stories are told in the Evacuees own words accompanied by photographs of the contributors as children. This book presents a very balanced account of the Evacuation with the testimonies of children who were clearly happy with their Foster Parents alongside the testimonies of those who were badly treated. The stories also include the accounts of children evacuated from the Channel Islands,Gibraltar and the continent to include a really wide range of experiences.
    This is a beautifully published book serving a truly valuable purpose in recording first hand details of a unique experience that is of great historical value.

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