The evacuation of British children before and during World War II transformed the country forever and vastly altered the lives of thousands of English children and their families. The government geared up as early as 1938 for the war it strongly suspected was ahead, organizing the monumental task of emigrating more than four million people - mostly children - first to the relative ‘safety’ of the British countryside and then to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and several British dominions or former dominions.A revised edition of a book published in 1985 as
Who Will Take Our Children: The Story of the Evacuations in Britain, 1939-1945 , this history incorporates substantial new information and first-person accounts from former evacuees and others involved in the wartime relocation effort. The book provides an in-depth look at the logistics and planning of the British evacuation program, the experiences of child evacuees aboard transatlantic and other overseas ships (including the ill-fated City of Benares, which sank following a torpedo attack and resulted in the casualties of 84 children and several caretakers), and the role of the evacuations in helping to bring about the National Health Service.