Operation Pied Piper - A Remembrance Day Tribute

This charcoal drawing was inspired by pictures I have seen and stories I have heard from my mother and uncle. They lived in Dartford, very near to London.

During WWII Dartford in Kent was the most heavily bombed city, after London, because the German Luftwaffe would misjudge their targets and after flying over the English Channel they would mistakingly drop their bombs too early, just short of London and its shipyards. Consequently neighbouring Dartford was constantly under blackout darkness, long nights in air raid shelters and the threat of constant devastation.

At the start of the war it was decided to evacuate many children from the South East of England and send them to live in Wales to escape the bombs for the duration of the war.

Babies and young children like my uncle (four years old) and my mum (eight years old) were taken from their families and sent by train across the country to live with new families.

This drawing depicts young children waiting for the train.  They all have their names and destinations on the labels you can see pinned to their coats.  Some children have light coloured armbands that determine the groups they were in.  

The little rectangular boxes with string at either end contained child-size gas masks issued to every child, even babies.  The children could only take a few belongings and these are seen wrapped in paper and string and woven baskets.

It must have been a very unhappy parting for parents and children as the trains laden with children departed the platforms.  They were to be parted from one another for four years.