Schoolchildren get Glimpse of Life for Evacuees in D-Day Commemoration Event at South Devon Railway

The South Devon Railway 11.20am steam train from Totnes was today (Thursday, 6th June) used by local schoolchildren ‘Evacuees’ to travel out to the countryside at Buckfastleigh, to experience what life may have been like for them during the 1940s.

As the train departed Totnes the local Women’s Institute were on hand to wave farewell to the children. At Buckfastleigh the children were able to hop aboard a 1940s military ambulance and climb into the Station Master’s air raid shelter.

South Devon played a major part in the preparation for D-Day. Buckfastleigh and Totnes were home to American camps where GIs were staying for their exercises on the South Devon coast and across Dartmoor.

Many of these soldiers became friends with locals and even shared their ration packs with children from the towns and villages.

South Hams District Councillor Anna Presswell had arranged this evocative journey as she has an ex-military background and wanted to personally contribute towards the town’s D-Day commemorations.

“The child evacuee experience was arranged as part of events in Totnes to commemorate 80 years since D-Day,” she said.

“This was an emotional and memorable trip, which also involved the Women’s Institute who, in the 1940s, helped in the dispersal of these evacuee children out of the bombed cities and welcomed them to their new countryside home.

“The children would not have met the host families before going to live with them and would not have seen their own families for several years or more. For some, it was a very traumatic experience,” she added.

The multi-award winning South Devon Railway is one of Devon's and the West Country's best loved tourist attractions and is the longest established steam railway in the south west, celebrating over 50 years in preservation.

The SDR is a seven-mile former Great Western Railway branch line, built in 1872, which runs along the stunning valley of the River Dart between Buckfastleigh and Totnes.

• For more information visitwww.southdevonrailway.co.uk

Issued by Destination Marketing on behalf of South Devon Railway. Contact Tamsyn Thomas at Tamsyn.thomas@wearedestination.com for more details.