Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Evacuees – and a teddy – ready to leave
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Canterbury and Whitstable rapidly became reception areas for children being evacuated from London and the Medway towns.
My own mother and grandmother were evacuated from Chatham to Tankerton on the second day of the war. However, the ever increasing threat of invasion in early 1940 brought about a rapid re-evaluation of this policy.
In fact, as a result of the fall of France, it was decided that children should be evacuated away from Canterbury, including those who had only been moved here a few months before.
The first of the above photos, from September 1940, shows beret and cap-wearing children, together with some surprisingly cheerful-looking mothers and teachers, waiting for the evacuation trains on the down platform of Canterbury East station. However, what seems to have attracted the photographer’s attention more is the poignant sight of a teddy bear atop a small suitcase.
The destination for many Canterbury children would be South Wales. My father was evacuated there from the Payne Smith School.
Other destinations were Reading, where half of the Simon Langton Girls were evacuated too, and also Wantage in Oxfordshire, where half of the Boys’ School ended up.
The second picture shows an evacuation train departing Canterbury East, seemingly in the wrong direction, on the same September day. Once again, the air of cheerfulness appears to be the prevailing mood. Note the ice cream, or toffee-apple man on the platform. I wonder how much business he did on the day!