During ww2 in the big city's that were being bombed children were being evacuated. Anyone who wasn’t already in school went with their mother and the children who were already in school went alone or with their teachers. They travelled to the country side on trains and the government made lots of posters trying to persuade parents to sent their children to the countryside.
They also advertised it as a big adventure. Quite often siblings would be separated because a family only wanted one child. In many cases of siblings being separated one child would be treated like a king and the other like a slave. Because there weren't as many child protection laws back then some children would be forced to work long hours of farms as well as cooking food and cleaning the house.
