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Children preparing to leave Dover, June 1940.
On 26 May 1940, following the German invasion
of Holland, Belgium and France, the Ministry of Health wrote
to the Town Clerk declaring Dover an evacuation area and advising
the early removal of school children. That same evening the
Admiralty signalled the start of Operation Dynamo - the evacuation
of the troops stranded on the beaches at Dunkirk.
At the height of the Dunkirk operation the evacuation of the
children commenced. At 7:45 am on Sunday 1st June the first
train carrying 707 children to safety in South Wales pulled
out of the Priory
Station. By the end of the day 2899 children along with
235 teachers and helpers had left the town.
In the days and weeks that followed many mothers with babies
and people who had no need to remain in the town left for
safer parts of the country. Although 600 infants and 624 children
between the ages of 8 and 14 remained in Dover at the insistence
of their parents, the population of the town was reduced from
40,000 to 15,000 within a few weeks.
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