British World War II Evacuees: Montreal Train Station (July 1940)


Figure 1.--This is group of English overseas evacuees from Oxford, the children of Oxford university professors. They havejust landed in Montreal and are boarding a train to New Haven, Connecuticut where they will be taken in by Yale Unversity professors. The press caption read, "Children from Oxford to be guess at Yale: Children of Oxford University, England, professors arriving in a Montreal railroad station. The youngsters are enroute to New Haven, Conn. where they will be guests of professors at Yale Univrsity for the duration of the war. They were in charge of Mrs. H. Duthie, Mrs. A.R. Clapham and Mrs. Hume Rothery." The photograph was dated July 21, 1940.

The British evacuated children from the cities when World war II broke out (September 1939). When the Luftwaffe did not come, most of the Children returned home. The fall of France changed everything (June 1940). ThecLuftwaffe now had French bases just accross the Channel. The children were reevacuated and now there was an interest in overseas evacuations. Many thought Britain would also fall to the NAZIs within weeks. Within weeks, the Germans launched the Battle of Britain. Here we see some of the evauess in Canada, headed to America where they will be taken in by Yale University families.

Evacuee Group

This is group of English overseas evacuees from Oxford, the children of Oxford professors. They have just landed in Montreal and are boarding a train to New Haven, Connecuticut where they will be taken in by Yale Unversity professors. The press caption read, "Children from Oxford to be guess at Yale: Children of Oxford University, England, professors arriving in a Montreal railroad station. The youngsters are enroute to New Haven, Conn. where they will be guests of professors at Yale Univrsity for the duration of the war. They were in charge of Mrs. H. Duthie, Mrs. A.R. Clapham and Mrs. Hume Rothery." The photograph was dated July 21, 1940.

Canada

A reader asked why the children were in Canada. In fact all the evacuees to America went through Canada. America was not yet in the War ir ven participating in the convoy escorting. And the British convoyb ships were not allowed into American ports. It was only at this time that public opinion was beginning to shift because of the fall of France. This of course began to force President Roosevelt's hand. He had to get aid to Britain despite the strenous opposition of the Isolationists. It came at a very bad time, the 1940 presidential campaign in which he broke the two term tradition. Fortunately the Republicans turned away from isolationism and nominated Wilkie. This allowed the President begin a series of moves to aid Britain. Eventually the U.S. Navy would escort the western leg of the convoys. But by that time, Churchill, who never liked the idea, had ended the overseas evacuations. A U-boat attack on the City of Benares, a British ship carrying evacuees, resulted in the tragic loss of mahy children (Sptember 1940). The tragedy gave Churchill the excuse fior ending the overseas evacuations abnd by that time the threat of invasion had passed.

Montreal Train Station

You can see Canadaian National on the rail car. A reader writes, "The photograph was taken in the old Canadian National Railroad station in downtown Montreal. Around that time they started to build a new station in same area I think, to expand the size and have extra tracks to enter the station. The newer one was in service in 1943. While the track area has had some modernization over the years they had remodeled the concourse many times since then and the Queen Elizabeth hotel was built on top of station and opened in 1958."







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Created: 11:06 PM 7/13/2013
Last updated: 11:06 PM 7/13/2013