Oceans Apart: Stories of Overseas Evacuees in World War Two

From May 1940 the Children’s Overseas Reception Board began to move children to safety abroad to Australia, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand. The scheme was extremely popular, and over 200,000 applications were made within just four months. In addition, thousands of children were privately evacuated overseas. The ‘sea-vacs’, as they became known, had a variety of experiences.After weeks at sea they began a new life thousands of miles away. Letters home took up to twelve weeks to reach t...