Figure 1.--A 1939 image shows the children well dressed and hosting other children that had been evacuated from Glasgow when World War II began. The school portrait was taken shortly after the start of World War II (September 3, 1939) after the British conducted a massive evacuation of children from the cities. There is still no school uniform. Many of the boys are still wearing suits. As far as we can tell they are all short pants suits. Many of the girls wear school uniform-style gym tunics. Click on the inmage to see the rest of the class. Image courtesy of the Maybole Community Website.

A 1939 image shows the children well dressed and hosting other children that had been evacuated from Glasgow when World War II began. The school portrait was taken shortly after the start of World War II (September 3, 1939) after the British conducted a massive evacuation of children from the cities. There is still no school uniform. Many of the boys are still wearing suits. As far as we can tell they are all short pants suits. The boys all have shoes which they wear with various colors and styles of kneesocks. Many of the girls wear school uniform-style gym tunics. These look to be some of the older children at the school, perhaps about 12 years old.

School Group

A 1939 image shows the children well dressed and hosting other children that had been evacuated from Glasgow when World War II began. There is still no school uniform. These look to be some of the older children at the school, perhaps about 11-12 years old.

World War II Evacuation

The British Government even before war was declared on Germany in September 1939 sought to safeguard the civilain population, especially children, from aerial bombardment. The Government on August 31, 1939 ordered the evacuations to begin. Within a few weeks, 3 million Britains, mostly children had been evacuated from the cities. It was the most extensive movement of people in British history. Caos insued as the children were tagged liked parcels and shipped out of the cities. The abrupt separtaion of many very young children from their parents was a traumatic experience. The British concern was especially deep because of the Luftwaffe atracks on civilian populations. Even before the Blitz, the British watched in horror as the Luftwaffe in September launched terror attacks on Warsaw and other Polish citids. The vast majority of the children evacuated were sent to the English countryside, usually to live with individual families who volunteered to care for them.

Evacuees at Kirkmichael (September 1939)

The school portrait was taken shortly after the start of World War II (September 3, 1939) after the British conducted a massive evacuation of children from the cities. This image is interesting because it shows some of the evauee children at their new school. Many of the images of the evacuation show the children being evacuated, but not where they wound up. The evacuees were sent from Glasgow which was both an industrial and port city. Glasgow had important shipyyards. Glasgow included areas with desperately poor people. The Glasgow children arrived in Kirkmichael September 4, 1939). Biliting officers allocated the children to local people. The evacuation process was efficently done throughout England. What happened in the relocation centers was often chaotic with people picking over children. This did not happen in Kirkmichael where the billiting officers made the assignments and there was no appeal. The resulting matches were often a lesson in culture shock. Children were, gor example, allocated to Cloncaird Castle where the Dubs family lived. In effect some of the poorest children in the U.K. wound of living in oppulent suroundings. Sometimes the opposite occurred when well-off children found themselves living with relatively poor families. There were other matters sych as children reared pemisively put with strict hosts and visa versa. The city children were also seeing sheep and cows for the first time. There were many tars and home sick children writing their parents to come and get them. As one of the boys writes years later, "... many children were bewildered, miserable and homesick and as the expected bombing did not happen many soon returned to their parents in Govan (Glasgow). Some may well have died when the bombing began in 1940." [Kay] Many children did return home after the Luftwaffe did not come in September 1939. When the Luftwaffe assault on Britain actually began (July 1840), many children weee evacuated again.

The Boys

I don't see any caps here, but I imagine almost all of these boys had school caps and are just not wearing them because they are at schoola nd the photograph is being taken. Many of the boys are still wearing suits. As far as we can tell they are all short pants suits. Some boys wear sweater instead of suit jackets. Only a gew boys wear ties. The boys all have shoes which they wear with various colors and styles of kneesocks. Notice that some are store bough and others have been knitted by mum or gran.

The Girls

Many of the girls wear school uniform-style gym tunics. Some wear sweaters and skirts.

Sources

Kay, Herbert. Old Kirkmichael School 1939. Herbert Kay was one of the evacuation children pictured here. He was taken in by Mrs Agnes Muir of Kirkmichael. After the War, Queen Elizabeth sent Mrs. Muir and the others who hosted evacuee children a certificate to honor their effirts.

Pettit, Rich. Webmaster. Maybole Community Website. The images of Kirtmichael are courtesy of the Maybole Community Website.

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Created: 8:25 PM 9/12/04
Last updated: 8:25 PM 9/12/04