In May 2008 when I discovered that over 17,000 Guernsey evacuees had arrived in England in June 1940, just before the Nazis invaded their island, I was astounded!  I knew that the Channel Islands had been occupied but had no idea that almost half the population had come to mainland Britain. I was equally amazed that the majority had been sent to industrial towns in northern England from which local children had been evacuated 9 months earlier.

As I began to interview  Guernsey evacuees, most said they had never been asked to share their story before. I now realised that their experiences in England during the Second World War had not been fully captured. I discovered that the evacuees had integrated into their local communities, but also set up around 100 Channel Island societies. In addition, they had contributed to the British war effort by joining the forces, working in ammunition factories and building aircraft. Others had joined the Home Guard, the ATS and the Fire Service. Hundreds of young Guernsey mothers had arrived with their infants, whilst their husbands joined the forces or remained in Guernsey to protect their property. These mothers had arrived in England with practically nothing, and although some adults, as well as children, had unhappy experiences, the majority described the kindness of their English neighbours. Eva Le Page told me “I left Guernsey with my baby, and a bag containing feeding bottles and nappies. I will never forget the kindness of my neighbours when I moved into an empty house in Bolton. When they helped you, they did it with good hearts.”  One Lancashire resident, John Fletcher, collected money throughout the war so that the Guernsey children in his area could receive a Christmas gift. They received nothing from their own parents as there was no postal service between Guernsey and England during the war except for the occasional 25 word Red Cross letter.

5,000 Guernsey school children had arrived in England with their teachers,  and some teachers received permission to re-establish ‘Guernsey schools’ in England for the duration of the war. One Guernsey school in Cheshire was financially supported by the ‘Foster Parent Plan for War Children’ where Americans sponsored a child. The children received letters and parcels from their sponsors, to show that someone cared about them. One of the children, Paulette Le Mescam, was sponsored by Eleanor Roosevelt and I provided the research for the BBC to make a documentary about the wartime correspondence between Paulette and Mrs Roosevelt.

The Channel Island were liberated from Nazi occupation by the British on 9 May 1945, and at last the evacuees were able to make plans for their return home. However, their return had to be staggered as Guernsey had been badly damaged during the occupation. Most evacuees did not receive permission to return before August 1945. However, not all the evacuees returned home, as they felt that England could provide them with a better future. Some had become engaged to local people, or had found promising employment.

I asked those who did return home in 1945 about their experiences.  Many had difficulty picking up the pieces of their pre war lives, or faced problems as a result of five years of separation from their families. Many of the children missed the English families who had cared for them for five years, and are still in touch with them. Some evacuees actually returned to England again in 1945, because they could not settle down in Guernsey.  Irene Moss returned to live with the Cheshire farming family who had made her so welcome, and married a local boy a few years later.

It became clear to me that this research was not just a contribution to Guernsey’s history, but also a missing part of the story of Britain’s Home Front. When I began my research, many of the evacuees had already passed away, but I was given access to their wartime diaries and correspondence, as well as hundreds of previously unpublished photographs. Local archives in the northern towns in which the evacuees had spent the war also provided me with a wealth of information.

To find out more about the lives of the Guernsey evacuees in England, read my blog at: http://guernseyevacuees.wordpress.com/writing-my-book-blog/

My book Guernsey Evacuees: The Forgotten Evacuees of the Second World War is available from Amazon or the History Press.

Gillian Mawson

My book 'Guernsey Evacuees: The Forgotten Evacuees of the Second World War' is available from Amazon or the History Press.

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