Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Brits in the US during WWII?

My fiancée is preparing to write a fiction story about two girls who are evacuated to the US from England during World War II. Though she's familiar enough with the period to do the research herself, it would be really useful if we could put her in touch with someone who has lived a similar scenario.

Given the significant UK contingent here, I'm wondering if any of you might have older relatives or friends who came to the US around that time? Preferably as children or young adults, but any British perspective on the US of the early 1940s would be useful.

Thanks so much!

My mother was evacuated during the war, but it was to Wales, not the US! I'm actually a bit surprised, not to say skeptical, that any children would have been evacuated all the way to the US. That said, I'm no expert, so perhaps it's just something I've never come across.

Yvonne

My late grandparents had a visitor stay with them in Ontario, Canada. From what I understand, the 'upper-crust' sent their children off to North America as it was safer than keeping them in the UK.

Irene

Could be more than just the 'upper-crust', Irene. I just looked up the Imperial War Museum website and found this :

Looks like children were indeed sent further afield during the second wave of evacuations. My mother, incidentally, was one of those children who came back after the first wave and stayed there - 'there' being London. My father, who lived in Manchester, wasn't evacuated. Both of them talk incredibly casually about air raids and houses being bombed 'just down the road'.

Yvonne