Evacuees

The government evacuation scheme ‘Operation Piedpiper’ was developed during the summer of 1938. The evacuation order was given on the morning of August 31st 1939 , the evacuees were split into four groups.

1.School age children.

2. The infirm.

3.Pregnant women.

4. Mothers with babies.

In Fincham, when school reopened on September 11th 1939, 31 evacuated children with two teachers attended. The teachers were a Mr Harkavy and Mr Glennie but the latter went to Crimplesham. The children came from Bethnal Green ,one of the schools being Stormont House. A year later in September 1940 the number of evacuees had gone down to 10 with 5 more arriving in October .For the last two years of the war the number was 12.

The school’s name was Stormont House Open Air School which specialised in children with tuberculosis. An article on the school’s history says the School continued in operation until the outbreak of WW2 when the pupils were evacuated to Norfolk-the boys to Fincham and the girls to Shouldham. Although archive records extend to 1945, it appears the site was heavily bombed, so the school did not reopen after the war. Perhaps the TB issue was the reason for the incident detailed in the log book (see below) when a mother berated a teacher for not allowing the child to wear a jacket in a PE lesson! Perhaps some of the children were from another school.

Mr Harkavy was accompanied by his wife and two children .They were billeted with Josiah Hunter at Fairswell Manor. Billeting of the school children was organised by the W.V.S and Mrs Mason. Two of the children that we have information of were Evelyn and Leslie Carpenter. They stayed with the Dane and Howlett families . Derek Dane kept in regular touch with Evelyn and in 2010 he and Brenda Lynskey (nee Howlett) spent the day with Evelyn reminiscing about their time together and their wartime memories.

Another family who had evacuees was the family of Eva Harrison . They had two girls ,Joyce and Lilian . However when Mrs Harrison became pregnant the girls went elsewhere. Eva named her baby Joyce after one of the girls .