Story of Gibraltar evacuees sent to Wandsworth to be documented (From Your Local Guardian)

Story of Gibraltar evacuees sent to Wandsworth during World War Two to be documented

2:00pm Sunday 6th June 2010 in Wandsworth By Paul Cahalan

After Italy joined the war on the German side in 1940 it became clear that Gibraltar, strategically placed near the bottom of Europe, was to play a major role in World War Two.

What was not clear, as the British Government turned Gibraltar into a fortress, was what would happen to the 15,000 women, children, the elderly who had to be quickly evacuated from the island.

After a trip via Morocco, 13,000 evacuees arrived in London and some 1,000 ended up in Wandsworth - 500 were accommodated at Highlands Heath and another 500 at the Whitelands Training College.

That evacuation is now being documented in a new book, the author of which wants readers’ photographs of Wandsworth during the war to help illustrate the story.

Joe Ginnell is writing the book in aid of cancer charities and said the evacuees arrived in a number of ships to French Morocco, but after France was invaded plans changed and a new destination had to be found.

The evacuee ships were sent back to Gibraltar but not allowed disembark, as it was already coming under fire. They then made a journey across the Atlantic with the final destination kept top secret.

“By then both the Italian and Vichy French forces were already bombing Gibraltar. Eventually attempts were made to make the ships holds habitable, but the facilities provided were extremely rudimentary with no medical facilities at all and with hardly any life saving equipment,” Joe said, adding the ships had to avoid U-boats, and after six days sailing discovered that all the provisions were inedible, due to poor storage conditions.

Joe said: “Some babies were born assisted by the evacuees themselves. Also some of the elderly people died in the journey and had to be buried at sea. To avoid the menace of the German U-boats, the ships had to circumnavigate across the Atlantic taking 16 days to reach the UK.”

While 1,500 evacuees were taken to Jamaica and 2,000 to Madeira, thousands of evacuees arrived in London as the Battle of Britain was becoming intense, Joe said.

Some 4,000 civilians, mainly men, who worked in the naval base and other military places, stayed behind in Gibraltar.

If you have any photographs of Wandsworth during the Second World War which could be used in the charitable project please send them to the Wandsworth Guardian and we will forward them on.

Post to; Wandsworth Guardian, Unecol House, 819 London Road, Sutton, SM3 9BN.