World War 2

Background - civil defence – the homefront

The Civil Defence Committee of the county council was set up before WW2 to help prepare civilian areas for air and possible land attacks. The committee helped set up an Air Raid Precaution authority, helped with evacuation, constructed air raid shelters, set up fire watches and undertook other related activities.

What records are there and what information will they contain?

The Civil Defence Committee records are held under the reference C/CDa and contain the following records:

• Minutes of the Civil Defence & ARP (Air Raid Precaution) Committees
• Maps and Plans: Showing ARP areas and organisation, distribution of evacuees etc.
• General Correspondence
• Press Cuttings
• ARP Personnel: Includes pamphlets, correspondence and some lists of personnel.
• Records relating to the 1945 Defence Medal: Including applications and correspondence
• Evacuation: These generally relate to the overall arrangements for evacuation within the county. However some records may relate to individuals, such as correspondence. For more information see Research Mini Guide: Evacuees.

Records such as minutes, correspondence and reports are not usually indexed by place, name or event. To find out if a particular event or person is mentioned you will need to search through any relevant records.

It may also be worth looking in district council (Ref: DA) or parish council (P…a) records, as the Civil Defence Committee often worked with these bodies to set up local arrangements.

How to find the records

To view a list of records in these collections please use our online catalogue, which can be found on our website: www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives. Use the collection references given above as your search term. You can then refine your search, for example by place or date.

For more guidance on how to use the online catalogue, please see the Help page and FAQs. Or you can watch our YouTube tutorial.

Background - Evacuees during World War 2

During the beginning of September 1939 around 3 million people were moved out of Britain’s cities to the countryside. This was known as Operation Pied Piper. The majority of these people were children. Children were placed with families in the countryside and then attended the local school. Some evacuations were arranged privately, and so may not appear in the official records.

What records are there and what information will they contain?

Lists of Evacuated Pupils

The county council’s education department kept lists of evacuated children who attended schools in Gloucestershire. They are held under the reference  C/AE/V1/4

There is a list for each school and they are sorted alphabetically by place.

The lists give dates of when the pupil started at the school and when they moved on. Once the school of attendance is known, you can look at the general records of the school to see if you can find more information.

There is a card index to these lists, which is sorted by the surname of the pupil. Please ask a member of staff about this or contact us on archives@gloucestershire.gov.uk.

These records are not comprehensive as before 1941 records were not always made by the county council, but by the local educational authority. Also children who were too young to attend school were not listed.

Civil Defence Committee

There are some records that relate to the general evacuation plans and procedures in the county. These are held under the reference C/CDa/V/5. This includes files of correspondence, which are sorted by district council area. There is no guarantee there will be records relating to a particular individual, but it may be worth looking at.

Other Records

If you know where in the county a child was billeted, you may wish to try looking at the records of the local school, or the parish records. They may make general references to the arrival of evacuated children and other local events at the time. Individuals may be listed. For more information see the Research Mini Guides: School Records or: Parish Records.

How to find the records

To view a list of records in these collections please use our online catalogue, which can be found on our website: www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/archives. Click on the link which says “online catalogue”. Select “Search the Archives Only” and type the reference given above into the Finding Ref field. Click on “search” and then “overview of records” to view the list of items under that reference. Click on the blue number on the left hand side to view more information about each item.