Having witnessed the invasion of other European countries the British Government was well aware of the damage that would be wrought on a city in the event of an air raid and the danger that this put civilians in. Predictions were made that there would be 4,000,000 civilian casualties in London alone. The Government stockpiled an enormous number of coffins in cities, constructed thousands of barrage balloons to help fend off any attack and laid plans for mass civilian evacuation.

It was decided that, to keep children, the aged and the infirm safe, a mass evacuation would be held from the major cities to the countryside.

Over the first 4 days of September 1939 over 3 million people were evacuated from areas that were thought to be especially vulnerable to air attack. The abrupt order to “Evacuate forthwith” was issued at 11.07am on Thursday 31st August 1939 and, just one week later, a quarter of the population had a new address!