Evacuation armband

Within a week of the war being announced in September 1939, Liverpool Corporation moved 85,000 children, teachers and vulnerable adults out of the city to rural areas in anticipation of bombing raids. Nine year old Reggie Hart was one of these children. He was sent from his home at 60 Cawdor Street, Liverpool 8 to rural Herefordshire with his school, Tiber Street Junior School. He wore this evacuation armband, labelled with his code, party number, name, home address and school. After initially staying in the Castle Hotel for a few days, Reggie and his friend Stanley Beckett went to live with young married couple Coralie (Doreen) and Alan Lund at 1 Park Avenue, Kington. In his letters home to his parents he describes his new life which must have seemed very different to the terraced streets of L8. “I go out in Mr Lund’s father’s motor-car. Today I saw the sheep-sale, there are over 25,000 sheep there, and then we went up the hills. Mr Lund is captain of the Kington Football Club, he is also a golfer. In the house it is all electric.” When initially no bombs fell, many Liverpool parents brought their children back, and by January 1940 nearly 40% had returned. However, after heavy bombing in December 1940, the Corporation began a second programme of evacuation.