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This project formed part of the VE and VJ Day 80 commemorations

English (UK)
English (UK)
Cymraeg
VE & VJ Day 80

Letters to Loved Ones

Tag: Evacuee

Letter from host

Letters from families hosting evacuated children in Pendeen

"I wish you all the best & trust that you will be safe & may the war end soon so that you may all be reunited"

Sent from: Pendeen, Cornwall

Joe's letter

Evacuee Joe to his mother

"We have creem and pastry every day and we live on creems and pastry"

Sent from: Pendeen, Cornwall

Page one of Nellie's letters

Evacuee Nellie to her mother

"We are having a nice time here now, we go to the beach nearly everyday."

Sent from: Pendeen, Cornwall

Mum-Letter-home-from-evacuation-in-Mere-WW2.-2
Mum-Letter-home-from-evacuation-in-Mere-WW2

Evacuee Renee Holt to her parents Lilian and Sidney

"We are happy and dear mum we have got a big orchard"

Sent from: Mere, Somerset

Walter Smith to his son Michael

"On his birthday, while evacuated to Scotland during the second great European War (6th year) from London who is being attacked with flying or stratospheric rocket bombs"

Sent from: London

Date of letter: 18 December 1944

IMG_2707
Woman smiling with two children

Evacuee Edith Hall to her mother Maud

"Dear Mummy and Daddy. We was sorry that you had the air raid buzzer and had to go to the shelter."

Sent from: Hereford

Crawley
Crawley family

Catherine Crawley to her evacuated daughter Jean

"I am so glad you could come to the station to see us off, I saw you waving on the embankment for a long time, I wanted to get out and join you there, so much."

Sent from: Herne Hill, London

Schumm p3
Barry and Pam Schumm

Barry Schumm to his parents Fred and Hilda

"I hope you have made preparations for Air-Raids & Black Outs and I hope you are not frightened"

Sent from: Howick near Preston, Lancashire

Date of letter: 3 September 1939

Frank-4-April-1941-20230828_15151881

Evacuee Frank to his mother

"I would like you to send some more stamps and try and send the bikes down"

Sent from: Pendeen, Cornwall

Mann letter
Stowell typed letter from school

Ivy Harris to Ada Mann

"WRITE SOON"

Sent from: Newby Bridge, Cumbria.

Conroy letter

A woman whose children were sent to my great grandmother during the war

"I expect it is almost as hard for you to have strange children put on to you as it is for them having to leave us"

Sent from: Walton on the Naze?

Date of letter: 8 September 1939

Doreen Doe memories
Doreen Doe memories

Mrs Doreen Doe’s VE day and evacuation recollections

"We left London in 1939 and we never went back to London again, not that we had a home to go back to: it had been bombed to the ground."

Sent from: East London

Imperial War Museums and Department for Culture, Media and Sport

A note on language

The items published here have been contributed by members of the public and have not been edited by DCMS or Imperial War Museums except to obscure personal data potentially still sensitive today. The letters contain language and assumptions that represent the views and attitudes of the time, some of which may be considered outdated, prejudiced or discriminatory today.

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