Leighton Buzzard teacher's voyage into life of war evacuee father (2024)

Published

1 September 2024

A teacher has begun a voyage into the childhood of her late father after discovering letters written when he was a World War Two evacuee in the United States.

Sandy Bennett, 60, of Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, is trawling through a mass of cuttings and correspondence generated after Roger Bennett left his home in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, at the age of eight.

Mr Bennett, a computer programmer who worked for ICL, external and died in 2021 aged 89, left behind hundreds of documents detailing his life with an American couple in Auburn, external, near Worcester, Massachusetts, between 1940 and 1944.

Documentation shows that Miss Bennett's father was one of a number of pupils from Sherrardswood School , externalin Welwyn who sailed across the Atlantic, and away from Nazi bombing raids, on steamship the duch*ess of Atholl, external in late August 1940.

Fears that German bombing would cause civilian deaths prompted the government to evacuate children from British towns and cities during World War Two, which began in 1939 and ended in 1945, according to an Imperial War Museum Article., external

The Nazis began a bombing campaign, The Blitz, centred on London in early September 1940.

Evacuation took place in several waves.

"The first came on 1 September 1939 - the day Germany invaded Poland and two days before the British declaration of war," says the article.

"Over the course of three days, 1.5 million evacuees were sent to rural locations considered to be safe."

Thousands of children were evacuated abroad, mainly to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, according to information on the National Archives website, external.

On 18 September 1940, a ship carrying evacuee children was sunk by a German torpedo in the Atlantic.

The SS City of Benares had sailed from Liverpool.

It was destined for Canada.

The tragedy claimed the lives of 87 children and 175 adults - and ended the policy of overseas evacuation.

Miss Bennett has found one letter her father, who was born on 21 September 1931, wrote to his parents while he was crossing the Atantic on 21 August 1940 - less than a month before the City of Benares sank.

He said he hoped he would "see you at Easter".

"Dear Mummy and Daddy," the youngster wrote.

"I have only been home-sick once..."

He added: "About a quarter of an hour ago I was looking at an ice-berg, yes, really."

The youngster tells his parents how "last night I had a bath" and "another" a "few days ago".

He explained: "The water is salt water and last night I ducked my head and I got a mouth full."

Miss Bennett said she had only read a fraction of the documents and letters and was trying to put them into order.

She said she thought that her father had travelled to London with his parents, Carl and Amie Bennett who lived in Parkway Close, Welwyn, and other children.

Families gathered in the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, external - where parents had said goodbye, she said.

Children had travelled with chaperones and her father had stayed with Bob and Emma Chafitz in Auburn for four years - returning to England in 1944, when he was 12.

By then his family had moved to Southcourt Avenue, Linslade, Leighton Buzzard.

Miss Bennett said she knew her father had been an evacuee, before he died.

She said the family had visited his "foster" parents in Massachusetts in the 1970s when she was a child.

Her father had also visited the couple on his own.

But she said she was learning much more.

"It's been very emotional," said Miss Bennett.

"The letter he wrote from the ship about seeing the iceberg, for exmple, is very moving.

"And I suspect there's a lot more I'm going to find out.

"I think there's close to 1,000 pieces of paper."

She added: "I did know that he'd been an evacuee.

"We went to America to see his foster parents when I was a child.

"And it isn't as if I'm discovering a different person but I am discovering things I didn't know.

"I'm discovering some of the whys about him."

Miss Bennett said her father had enjoyed his time in the USA - and had wanted to stay.

"The family in America wanted him to stay," she added.

"They were worried about him coming back because the war was still going on in 1944.

"The child he was wasn't the same child who came home.

"He had to go through the trauma of going away and then the trauma of coming back."

The children's evacuation made news in the United States.

Miss Bennett's father was photographed lying in bed shortly after arriving in America.

A five-year-old boy named Richard Elliott was standing nearby.

The photograph's caption said the two boys were among "77 British refugee children" on their way to new homes.

One local newspaper photograph showed children, including Miss Bennett's father, gathered in a group.

A caption said the "English children" had been photographed before "they separated for their new homes".

On Thurday 4 November 1948, The Evening Gazette, a newspaper based in Worcester, Massachusetts, reported that Sherrardswood School was giving a "gift of books valued at 100 pounds" as a token of parents' gratitude to Americans who had cared for their children.

An article gave a list of names of chidren and their "sponsors" in the USA.

The front page of the 1948 newspaper featured an article about then United States' president Harry S. Truman, external, who became president on 12 April 12 1945 - before the end of the war, following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, external.

Miss Bennett has found a card on which her father jotted a rough timetable of his trip.

The card tells how he left London on 15 August 1940 and left Liverpool the next day on the duch*ess of Atholl.

Mr Bennett says he got to Montreal, Canada, on either 23 or 24 August, and arrived in the Bronx, New York City, on 25 August.

The card indicates that he got to Worcester, Massachusetts, on 27 August then travelled to Auburn.

Mr Bennett had also given details of his return to England in 1944.

The card indicates that he left New York on HMS Smiter, external ,in a convoy to Scotland in July 1944, before meeting "dad" in London and travelling to the new family home in Leighton Buzzard on 13 July 1944.

He had also noted the sinking of the City of Benares.

Documents found by Miss Bennett indicate that an organisation called the United States Committee for the Care of European Children Inc. was involved in Mr Bennett's evacuation to America.

Miss Bennett said she had found a letter written by the committee's acting director to her father's parents in early July 1944 - shortly before her father returned to Britain.

The letter shows that Eleanor Roosevelt, external, President's Roosevelt's wife, was the committee's honorary president.

It warns Mr Bennett's parents that his return must be kept secret.

"We are asked to write to again to caution you of the need for absolute secrecy in connection with the arrangements made for the children returning to England," says the letter.

"Even after Roger's safe return return, it is requested that these arrangements be not discussed with in public or with anyone not directly connected with him."

Miss Bennett has also found a certificate of thanks she thinks was written by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, external.

She thinks the certificate, signed Elizabeth R, was sent to Mr and Mrs Chafitz.

"I wish to mark, by this personal message, my gratitude for the help and kindness you have shown to the children who crossed from the United Kingdon many months ago," says the certificate.

"For all the goodwill towards the children of Great Britain, I send you my warmest and most grateful thanks."

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