Second World War: 1939-1945

Second World War: 1939-1945

When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, around 20,000 Ilford school children were evacuated to escape bombing.

When this failed to materialise after several months, some returned home, only to be evacuated again in June 1940 when a German invasion was expected.

Cleveland Road School pupils were evacuated to St. Austell in Cornwall, Taunton in Devon, and Monmouth in Wales. Gwynith Edwards-Smith was a 10-year-old pupil at Cleveland Road School when she was evacuated in June 1940. She told Redbridge Museum in 2001:

“I remember it was a long train journey to Wales. I was determined to stay with my friend, so we were the last to be billeted. We weren’t treated badly, ate well, and the room was clean. But when I was 12, my mum died. My host didn’t really comfort me, so I simply went to my room to cry. I felt lonely and homesick but like most of the evacuees, I simply had to get on with it.
We had fun with a Woman’s Land Army girl who was billeted with us and I learned to milk a cow at a local farm. But with no mum, I was one of the last to return to Ilford in January 1945.”

Uphall School pupils were evacuated to Tiverton in Devon.

Loxford School on Eton Road were sent to a ‘camp school’ in Surrey in February 1940. This was a scheme whereby a whole school stayed together in a camp, rather than the children being billeted with local families.

Hampton Road, showing the devastation after a landmine had exploded on 19 March 1941

Redbridge Heritage Centre p10564

The Ilford Lane area was heavily bombed during the war, particularly during ‘the Blitz’ of 1940-1941. One of the worst incidents occurred on the night of 19 March 1941 when two parachute land mines exploded on Hampton Road and Eton Road, killing 31 people. The church was eventually repaired after the war and reopened in 1954.

St. Luke’s Church, Baxter Road, was severely damaged by an incendiary bomb on 3 October 1940

Redbridge Heritage Centre p10500

The Howards chemical factory and Ilford Limited photographic company were key to Britain’s war effort and were targeted by German bombers. Although they largely escaped serious damage, Ilford Limited was damaged by a V2 rocket on 20 February 1945.

Redbridge Museum made this film about the local impacts of the Second World War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmy0kOTTHA4