Welcome to Hawkley -Evacuees 1939

This site is aimed at 1939 war evacuees who at the outset of hostilities in 1939 were evacuated from Battersea Central School in London to the depths of Hampshire.

And later a contingent from the Portsmouth district once this area became a prime target for the German bombers.

And later still local boys started to fill the places of the Battersea boys who returned home after the Blitz but before the Doodle bugs , V1 and V2 became another problem.

It is available to all those involved and to any others who may be interested in this small segment of wartime Britain.

Any additions or corrections of facts are most welcome, please via the webmaster below.

Comments by Sidney Dark a Hawkley villager in 1945

With an intimate daily contact with the life of Hawkley during the war years, I have learned what a valuable asset the masters and boys of the Battersea Central School have been to the village. I regard it as a singular honour to be asked to write a few words about the impact of this event on the life of Hawkley and the surrounding district.

The entire change of environment from a great city to a tiny hamlet must have had a genuine educational value. The boys must have taken back to London a knowledge of England that they never could have acquired from short summer holidays. With the consequent appreciation of the character of country-folk and of their outstanding value to the whole community. On the other hand, by their courtesy and good humour, the boys have given their new friends a truer idea of cockney qualities (it should be pointed out that Battersea is not within the sound of the Bow Bells and do not qualify as real cockneys!) The difference between the rural and the urban is much less than it used to be and will inevitably grow smaller, but all and everything that makes for the realisation of kinship has a national value.

Evacuees Come to Hawkley........more

The photograph above of St Peter & St Paul Church, Hawkley by kind permission of Bruce Bellini from New Zealand

St. Peter and St. Paul Church. Built in 1865 on the site of a 12th Century church. Neo-Norman style, with Rhenish Helm type tower. Gabled rose window with tracery. The church contains 12th Century Purbeck marble font and a 15th Century alabaster panel depicting Christ's betrayal. Some of the bells date from 15th Century.

More about the Church

CLICK here.

Architect Samuel Sanders Teulon (1812-1873)

An important Victorian architect working in the Gothic style. He was born in Greenwich, of French ancestry. He set up his architectural practice in about 1840, and it became large and successful with commissions for high Victorian Gothic churches and restorations. Good examples are Christchurch in Croydon (1851-2), Holy Trinity in Hastings (1851-9) and St Mary in Ealing (1866-73). He designed and built the whole village of Hunstanworth, Co Durham (1863). A particularly successful small example of his work is the Buxton Memorial Fountain in Victoria Tower Gardens, London.

Also Teulon was the architect of Hawkley Hurst.

Background to the Evacuation Strategy

Evacuation was introduced at the start of World War Two so those young children were safe from the cities that were considered to be in danger of Nazi bombing.

In the lead up to World War Two, governments throughout Europe had been terrified of bombing. The destruction of innocent civilians at Guernica in Spain during the Spanish Civil War had been the proof that governments needed that bombing was the new horror of warfare.

With this in mind, the British government introduced evacuation. Young children were sent with their 'minders' - either mothers or teachers - to what were considered safe areas that would be free from Nazi bombing.

In the first few weeks of the start of the war (September 1939), nearly two million children were evacuated. The government, which controlled all aspects of the media, wanted to give the public the impression that evacuation was popular among those affected and put out propaganda pictures and film to this effect.

However, many mothers were very unsure as to the usefulness of evacuation. Many children were evacuated but not with huge enthusiasm and when it became apparent that war was not going to lead to cities being bombed (this was pre-the Blitz of London during the "Phoney War"), many children returned to the cities from which they had only recently left.

The official government story was that all young children had been evacuated and that the whole process had been efficiently organised and executed with precision. However, this was not the whole story.

Evacuated children found that their hosts were not always welcoming and that their two lifestyles clashed. Host mothers complained of inner city children urinating wherever they felt like it in a house; locals in rural areas complained of an increase of petty crime - theft from shops and the like. Much of this was never proved though the difference in lifestyles for inner city children must have come as a shock.

One of the most important issues to come out of evacuation was the chronic health observed by host families in the countryside. Many evacuated children were much lighter and shorter than children of the same age in rural areas. Body infections were common. All these signs were symptomatic of lack of nutrition, decent housing etc and gave an incentive for the government to do something that was to lead to the Welfare State after the war ended.

Much of our food is imported from other countries. During the war it became difficult to bring food into this country by ship. The German Navy used submarines to sink any ships coming towards Britain. Because of this, many foodstuffs were in short supply. So that everyone would get a fair share, the Government gave each person a Ration Book. They had to register with a grocer and a butcher and then they always had to go there to buy their food. When they went to shop, they had to hand over the ration book. The shopkeeper sold them their food, took their money, and cut the coupons out of their book to show they had had their share of food for that week.

During the war the government tried to encourage people to grow their own vegetables.

Posters were seen everywhere starring Potato Pete and Doctor Carrot!

World War II came upon the United Kingdom in a slow and deliberate manner. It was declared on September 1, 1939, the day that Hitler invaded Poland. It was referred to as the "War of Nerves" or the "Phoney War" during the following six months as that's how long it took for Hitler to make his next move - the invasion of Denmark and Norway on April 9, 1940. It was during this uncertain time that King George VI delivered his moving Christmas Broadcast. I feel that we may all find a message of encouragement in the lines which, in my closing words, I should like to say to you:

I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, "Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown." And he replied, "Go out into the darkness, and put your hand in the Hand of God. That shall be better than light, and safer than a known way." May that Almighty Hand guide and uphold us all."