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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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