Courtesy of Jack Binns' book 'History of Scarborough'
In September 1938 Scarborough received 60,000 gas masks. A year later 5000 children and teachers from Hull arrived in Scarborough. That was followed by a further 1879 including mothers and elderly, that was followed by another 7150 schoolchildren from Middlesborough and Hartlepool. Although Scarborough seemed a safe town, a German air raid on 18th March saw 100 German bombers drop their bombs on the town, killing 23 residents and injuring hundreds.
More evacuees arrived from London in 1944 but residents were unhappy as many of the children came from poor and deprived homes and were dirty, infested and incontinent. They had to be cleaned at a special reception centre, some were rebellious and violent. Local families were paid a weekely allowance of three shillings per child. Local constables sometimes had to force families to accept the evacuees.
For the duration of the war Scarborough ceased to be a seaside resort and also welcomed sevicemen and women. Virtually every hotel in town was taken over, the RAF occupied the Grand Hotel with service personnel in The Pavilion, Balmoral, Crown, Cambridge and St Nicholas. The Royal had convent girls from Hull.
Scarborough took on the appearance of a besieged citadel with the beaches declared prohibited areas with barbed wire and the undercliffs sown with anti-personnel mines. Scalby Mills became an outpost for the Home Guard. Over 1500 air raid shelters were built in town along with 50 static water tanks to extinguish fires.
Considering the large gathering of young healthy servicemen and the number of girls whose fathers and husbands were away it was not suprising that the town's birth rate rose, escpecially illegitimate ones, up 15%.
On Remembrance Sunday 1950, 12 new plaques with 353 names were added to the Olivers Mount war memorial, 216 RAF, 22 Merchant Seamen, 70 Civilians in Service, 42 dying in air raids. 706 Scarborians lost their lives in total.
Two sisters who were evacuated to Scarborough during WW2 have returned for the first time in 59 years. Shelagh Durourf and Pauline Cullen were only ten years old when they were evacuated from London in 1943. They said ‘It was not as daunting as the first time’ as they were lined up in a church hall. Local families would walk along the line and choose which children they wanted. It was frightening but they soon settled down and had some great times here. Their host family’s mother worked in a cinema so they were treated to films and could listen to a gramophone player. After their recent visit they said ‘Scarborough is still as warm and friendly as they remembered’.
