I was wondering if i could get any of your views on whether you think evacuation was successful during WW2 ?
I'm writing a peice of coursework, and have to consider all views

Interesting topic. My father-in-law was evacuated from Leeds to Lincoln but I think returned home after not very long, which was a fairly typical experience in some parts of the country I think. This might have been because Leeds was not attacked as much as had been feared, or maybe Lincoln was more dangerous than assumed, or it might simply have been that the aerial threat was virtually eliminated after the battle of Britain was won.

You have a great opportntiy here to ask actual evacuees what they made of evacuation. I imagine for some it was traumatic with questionable benefit. Others may have enjoyed the experience perhaps. And then you can weigh this against the overall societal benefit of the policy - did it achieve what it was intended to do. Was it necessary? Was the human cost and possible damage to family life worth it in the long run? And so on. Like I said, an interesting litle topic; refreshing to see a very different angle on WWII studies.

successful in what?
traditional historians like arthur marwick say it was successful in breaking class barriers as social classes mixed together and were united in a common cause.

in actual fact there is evidence that evacuation was divisive in that the middle classes in the countryside resented the working class mums and kids that came from the cities, and helped create a stereotype of the 'feckless' mum and grubby child. however there are also assertions that in highlighting standards of living in urban areas evacuation contributed to the far-reaching social reform introduced by Attlee after the war.

sorry bit of a ramble there! i've just been looking into it myself. dont know if any of that is useful to you

Getting the children out of the cities and into the countyside no doubt saved the lives of many, which I think was the main point, how many can only ever be a matter of conjecture and estimates.

I suppose it must also have reduced the demand on the cities' infrastructure, smaller population means less food, fuel etc has to be brought in.

yes saving lives and safeguarding society was the main point of it.
secret files in the national archives show that the govt was very concerned about bombardment from the air, of course this type of warfare hadnt been seen before and in trying to predict what would happen they believed the civilian population would not be able to cope, and many, many lives would be lost.
see HG Wells- The Shape of Things to Come 1933

The Government used the results of aerial bombing in WW1 to predict the casualties in WW2 and came up with some figures which were way over the top. They reckoned on 600,000 dead and 1,200,000 injured in the first six months; in London alone. They expected the hospitals to be overwhelmed, mass burials of the dead in quicklime and for mental cases to outnumber physical injuries. In the event between September 1940 and May 1941 20,000 were killed and 70,000 injured, 25,000 seriously.

good grief i knew they overestimated it but i didnt know the details.
better safe than sorry i suppose!
out of interest whats your backgrond Fil2? anything else interesting?
i'm quite curious about what else the Ministry of Information and the Home office got up to in the second world war

Background?

Just someone interested in history and whose mother lived in London through the Blitz and the Doodlebugs and the V2s (one of which trashed her house). Several of the younger members of the family were evacuated to the countryside too.

Not sure if this is too late but on the subject of Ministry of Information and the Home office look for information in Hansard (available at main libraries and universities), your local records office and the Public Records Office. Primary resources such as HMSO handbooks printed during the war can show a fascinating amount of information about the Ministry of Information and the Home office. You can sometimes get these on ebay. There are also lots of books out there on the subject.

i think it was successful because it kept children away from the bombing in the united kingdom but it wasnt because it meant they were away from there parents
im doing this piece of coursework soon im doing women and there action in the war at the minute and have just started it good luck

Contact Mass Observation. I think they are housed in Sussex University.
They have records of evacuated children, their effect on their sponsors, how many returned etc.
I remember the war and am amazed that so much was able to be written about it.
Personally I lost my brother for 5 years, went though rationing, our family had primitive ID cards, and if you ever talk to people who had to duffer the indignities ID cards imposed in those days, you would never want tham introduced again.
You have to remember that the 1940s was a different era, with different moral attitudes and opinions. Mass Observation covers all aspects of British life and will be quite revealing.
Good luck.