A closer look at the life of a child growing up in Britain

during World War 2...

Created by: Luke JJ Siyabonga Malachi and Lee

The children were evacuated by train or by road vehicle.

The government did this for the children’s safety. They were

evacuated to smaller towns and villages in the country.

Some children were evacuated to live with relatives. Some

children were sent to complete strangers. The reason they

were evacuated to the countryside is because it was unlikely

that the enemy would bomb the countryside. The enemy

usually bombed cities.

Life changed for everyone, especially children. Parents going away to

fight, homes being bombed, spending nights in air-raid shelters, ration-

ing for sweets and being sent away from home to live in the countryside

- all these things happened to children during the Second World War.

During the day the kids went to school and did bomb drills and they

also learned to knit. When they came home they had supper and had a

bath.

At the school they learnt how to help people who got hurt and

how to knit things. Even the boys had to learn how to learn to

knit. They also always carried gas masks in case of an unex-

pected gas attack . They had air-raid shelters made. They also

told them what to do if they got bombed. They had space for the

air-raid. They made their own cards and came up with games.

There were no supermarkets. You went to different shops for different

items. For fruit and vegetables, you went to the greengrocer. For meat, to

the butcher. For fish, to the fishmonger. For bread and cakes, to the baker.

For groceries such as jam, tea, biscuits and cheese you went to the grocer.

Other shops sold clothes, shoes, medicines, newspapers and all the other

things people needed to buy.

In most shops, the shopkeeper or shop assistants served customers from

behind a counter. Many shops were small family businesses. Most big

towns had department stores.