A 1940s evacuee wants to make contact with others who were displaced from Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft during the last war.Wherry Probus Club member Clive Capps was spurred on after author Chris Brooks gave a talk on east coast evacuees to the group.

A 1940s evacuee wants to make contact with others who were displaced from Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft during the last war.

Wherry Probus Club member Clive Capps was spurred on after author Chris Brooks gave a talk on east coast evacuees to the group.

On June 2, 1940 thousands of children were evacuated from the east coast towns at short notice and were taken by train to the Midlands. There were 3,000 alone from Yarmouth and Gorleston.

Mr Brooks runs the Lowestoft Evacuees Reunion Group which has 200 members who meet for events and an annual reunion.

There is also a national Evacuees Reunion Group (ERA), which is organising a special service for 2,000 evacuees at St Paul's Cathedral in London in September next year to mark the 70th anniversary of the start of the war.

Mr Capps said: “I understand from ERA that a group of Yarmouth evacuees did return to Retford in Nottinghamshire in 2000 but I am unable to trace any further activities. I was an evacuee myself - at the age of five I was sent to Creswell near Worksop.”

Mr Brooks has written a number of books on the subject.

He said: “What followed the outbreak of war turned out to be the biggest upheaval and dislocation of family life ever experienced in British history with around three million children and their teachers and helpers involved.”

Recently, the Lowestoft group has encouraged the setting up of satellite groups in Norfolk and other parts of Suffolk, and it hoped to get a group going in Yarmouth.

Were you evacuated during the war? If so, we would like to hear from you. Contact Alan Thompson, Memories, Great Yarmouth Mercury, 25 Regent Street, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk NR30 1RJ or e-mail: alan.thompson2@archant.co.uk. You can also contact Clive Capps on 01603 782175.

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