Operation Pied Piper

The evacuation of civilians in the United Kingdom, during the Second World War, was arranged by the government and private individuals. It was intended to protect vulnerable groups of people, mainly children and mothers of young children, from the dangers of aerial bombing. The idea of evacuation in the event of war had been considered throughout the interwar period. In the late 1930s, the government had begun planning for a state-organised evacuation programme. The groups eligible for government evacuation were children under the age of fourteen, mothers of children under five and pregnant women. Evacuation was organised by the Ministry of Health in England and Wales and the Scottish Office. Evacuation took place throughout the Second World War and the numbers of evacuees varied depending on levels of concern about air raids. Most evacuees were billeted in private homes; some were placed in institutions. Many remembered evacuation favourably but some were mistreated. Evacuation in Northern Ireland was controlled by the Parliament of Northern Ireland, few evacuees participated in the government scheme there. Other people privately evacuated themselves, often following air raids; mothers with children sometimes received government subsidies to help with this. Around 13,000 children were privately evacuated abroad to British dominions, the United States or the Republic of Ireland. A short lived public evacuation scheme to the British dominions removed more than 2,000 children in 1940 until it was cancelled after the sinking of SS City of Benares killed most of the evacuees on board. The media and government propaganda promoted evacuation. Evacuation has remained prominent in British collective memory and some historians have argued that it contributed to the development of the postwar welfare state.