Moving stories

Published on Saturday 4 November 2006 01:36

Q My father was evacuated in Scotland during the Second World War. Where can I find out more information about this? J Jones (by e-mail)

A In 1938, fearing a war with Germany, the British government started making plans for evacuating children from major urban and industrial areas. A government report from July 1938 estimated having to move 130,000 people from Edinburgh to the Borders, 326,000 from Glasgow to areas of Strathclyde, Dumfries and Galloway and 57,000 from Dundee to Perthshire, Fife and Kinross. The Government Evacuation Scheme aimed to protect school children, children under five and expectant mothers. There were 11 areas in Scotland where people were evacuated from: Clydebank, Dumbarton, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Greenock, Inverkeithing, North Queensferry, Port Glasgow, Rosyth, and South Queensferry.

Special trains and buses were necessary to carry evacuees, as well as the arrangement of suitable billets, supplies of food and fuel and payments for householders willing to take them in. Some people found billets by private arrangement, and those who put up evacuees were entitled to a billeting allowance of five shillings per adult and three shillings per child. There was not enough accommodation in private houses alone, so others ended up on government-run camps, some of which were former holiday camps requisitioned for the purpose. The Scottish Special Housing Association (SSHA) also constructed five new camps for people from Edinburgh (Middleton and Broomlee), Glasgow (Aberfoyle and Glengonnar) and Dundee (Belmont), which each expected to take 350 children. The National Archives of Scotland hold files on the camps. There is little, however, on the evacuees themselves.

The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) hold many Scottish Office files on evacuation in the records of the Home and Health Department (ref HH) and also the Education Department (ref ED). However, these records tend to be administrative and policy files and you are unlikely to find any information about the evacuees themselves. You may have more luck in the local area taking in the evacuees. Some surviving school records may include special evacuation admission registers, listing the new children to the school through evacuation, or you may find them listed among the ordinary admissions. These records tend to be held either by the school themselves or by local authority archives. You may also find some local Education Committees might also have compiled evacuation lists, and you should contact the local archive about these.

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• ScotlandsPeople is a partnership between the General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and the Court of the Lord Lyon.