We’ll Meet Again - An Evacuee's Story 1940 - 1945
The German Occupation of the Channel Islands between 1940 and 1945 played a huge part in shaping the landscape and people of Guernsey. This is particularly true for the 4000 school children who were evacuated to the UK at that time. At very short notice, they had to leave their families and familiar surroundings and travel to towns and environments far removed from their peaceful island home. There they were welcomed by strangers, who themselves were suffering as the country moved onto a war-footing, and provided with food, shelter and much needed friendship.
As the German Blitzkrieg sped through France in 1940, the people of Guernsey began to realise that the battle could arrive on their shores. It was hoped that the axis forces would ignore the island in their efforts to invade England, but this was not to be the case and their halcyon days of sea, sun and freedom were about to come to an abrupt end.
Evacuation
On 19th June the Channel Islands were officially demilitarized and abandoned to the enemy by the British Government. As black smoke issued from the coast of France, the front-page headline of the Evening Press on that Wednesday, read “Evacuation of Children”. Parents were informed that they had to register that evening and report to the harbour at 8am the following morning with their children packed and ready to leave. Mothers of infants under-five were allowed to accompany their children but all those of school age were to travel within their school groups, with only some mothers invited to act as helpers.
The evacuation of children was in fact voluntary but this was not initially made clear and many parents believed it to be compulsory. In the hours of scaremongering and mayhem that ensued, families had to make heart-wrenching decisions about who should be uprooted from their island home and who should be left to the mercy of the German army.
It fell upon the Heads and teachers of the island’s schools to let parents know what was happening and what they were allowed to pack for their children. Although they did not know it at the time, it would fall upon them to keep their young charges in their care for five long years of exile.
In the logbooks of Notre Dame du Rosaire, one of Guernsey’s primary schools, Headmistress Miss M Gautier recorded the following in the days and hours up to the evacuation:
June 17th 1940
War is coming closer. Guns were heard near Cherbourg yesterday and today. Children kept calm.
June 18th
Possible evacuation of schools discussed. Told to make full lists of all children. If evacuation is decided it will not be before the weekend.
June 19th
Evacuation to take place immediately. Notice put in the paper. Registration of children in the evening. Our school to be at White Rock by 9am. Details about clothes and food given with the notice.”
9.30pm
Just told to let children know we are to leave from Vauvert at 4am tomorrow.
In all, 17,000 islanders left Guernsey – almost half the population - and made the crossing to Weymouth. For many, this was the first time they had ever left the island and there was naturally a certain amount of excitement along with the tears.
Young children in particular believed that they were on an outing and did not understand that it could be years before they returned home.
On arrival in England and after a cursory medical, the refugees were loaded onto trains and taken north. Once again there was great excitement amongst the youngsters, who had only seen steam engines in books and who never imagined that a cow could be anything other than brown or that the sea would not come into view over the next hill.
Culture shock
The trains made their way slowly up through Bath, Worcester, Stockport, Burnley, all the way to Glasgow, dropping off groups along the way. After the vibrancy and rural tranquility of Guernsey, the grey industrial north would have been a huge culture shock for these weary travellers. Amongst them was seven-year-old Joyce Grut, who had made the journey with her mother, who was one of the helpers. Their small group of refugees disembarked at Stockport and were taken to a large hall where they stayed en masse until they were billeted with local families. The next few years were to take Joyce from one extreme to another and create a fragmented childhood that mirrored many of her contemporary’s.
Shortly after their arrival in Stockport, Mrs Grut was offered a job as housekeeper for a local schoolteacher, but the invitation did not extend to Joyce who was eventually billeted with a wonderful couple called Harry and Jesse Shuttleworth. For the next four years, she lived in relative comfort and was looked after with great care and love by her surrogate parents.
Mrs Grut, however, was determined that her daughter would be a Guernsey girl first and foremost and so, by the time she was 11, Joyce was shipped off to a Grammar School in Rochdale to be educated with the small Guernsey contingent there. The following months proved to be the most deprived she would ever experience, as she was billeted with a barmaid and her child in one of the worst slum areas of the town.
VE Day
Sharing a bed with the little girl she had been brought in to look after, Joyce recalls water pouring down the bedroom walls onto them. Supper was bread and jam every evening and before long she had fallen into very bad health. When her mother eventually discovered her plight, she nursed her back to health over several months. Towards the end of the War, Joyce was billeted at a baker’s shop on Rochdale Road where despite having to work in the kitchens and shop, she was treated kindly by the family. It was here that she would hear Churchill’s momentous speech: “And our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed today.”
In the weeks and months that followed VE day, most of Guernsey’s evacuees returned home. The vision of St Peter Port harbour bathed in the morning sunlight must have been a sight for sore eyes, but after establishing new lives in England, there were also very mixed feelings about coming home. Children were reunited with parents and siblings despite being virtually unrecognizable - not just because they had grown up but also because of their new mannerisms, language and northern accents. Many of the older generation spoke only Dgernésiais (Guernsey French), which must have made repatriation even more difficult.
Sadly some families did not manage to rebuild their past relationships, and life for everyone would never be the same as it had been before. Joyce’s family was eventually reunited and she remembers her parents enjoying a second honeymoon period as they re-embarked on their married life. School started again, this time as a secondary student, and life slowly got back onto an even keel.
Notre Dame Primary School opened up for a new school year in September 1945 and Headmistress EM Meagher recorded the following in the School Logbook:
17th September 1945
School re-opened today under very different circumstances from those existing at the last session in June 1940… From June 1940 until July 1945 the School continued to function as a unit in Tottington, near Bury, Lancashire.
In spite of difficulties resulting from the War, from shortage of materials, limited space and equipment, Miss Gautier succeeded in keeping up the work of her pupils to a high standard.
She kept her charges together; their health and general welfare were her constant care. She was able to return to Guernsey with all her charges in very good health and without the loss of a single child.