A closer look at the life of a child growing up in Britain

Created by: Tristan Lilley, Logan Isola and Jurie Visagie

In the first weeks of the war nearly 4 million people, including mothers of

pre-school children, pregnant women and disabled people, as well as children

moved from evacuation areas to reception areas. After the “phoney war” of the

first year many children returned home, only to be evacuated again when the Blitz

began.

The country was divided in zones, classified as either “evacuation”, “neutral”, or

“reception”. Official evacuation was declared on August 31, but began on

September, 2 days before the declaration of war. 1.5 million people were moved,

827, 000 children of school-age.

Evacuees were only allowed one of their favourite toys when they left their home.

All evacuees wore labels indicating their precise destinations. Around the world,

the war separated man and youngsters from their families. During the Blitz,

thousands of British children went to live with foster families in the countryside,

or even o v e r -

s e a s . M o s t

children w e r e

h o m e - s i c k

w h i l e others

The blackout began two days before the war began. Under blackout rules,

everyone had to cover up their windows at night with black materials. This

was to make it difficult for German Bombers to find their target in the

dark.

The street lamps were turned off and often people bumped into one

another. Traffic accidents were common because car headlights had to be

blacked out, and deaths from drowning increased as people fell of bridges

or walked into ponds.

People were constantly afraid of air raids. Some children spent their nights

sleeping in air raid shelters because they were frightened that German

planes would bomb their houses. Over 40 000 civilians died in these

bombings.

Children who remained in areas that were more likely to be bombed

had to be protected and still go to school. Each school had its own air

raid shelter facilities or a sandbagged trench to shelter them in the

event of an air raid.

Every child had to bring their own gas masks to school incase of an

air raid attack. Air raid practice drill was the most popular activity at

school.

During air raids children read comics and sang songs with their

teachers in the school shelters. This made time past by quickly and it

took their mind off the situation for a while.

Children found gas drills hard to take seriously, especially when they

discovered blowing through the rubber made “rude” noises.

Rationing had a great effect on peoples lives. It meant that children had

a very different diet because sweets, meat, flower, butter, and many other

important foods were rationed to limited amounts for each family.

People learned to make meals which used the food they had available.

For example, although there was less sugar there were still lots of

carrots. So people made a lot of carrot cakes during the war!

Food which had to be imported in large quantities was rationed. Food

was rationed and candy, chocolate and fresh fruit were difficult to

obtain. Bananas were not again seen in Britain until well into the 1950’s.

Children had small rations of milk and orange juice. Cod liver oil was

given to children, but it was not well liked.