The plight of Spanish children touched the heart of the British nation when they were left destitute in the civil war. Given refuge in England, some found new homes in Banstead, Beddington and Carshalton. Reporter HEATHER DARLINGTON speaks to the son of one family who opened their doors.

In April 1937, the British public was outraged when German pilots annihilated the Spanish town of Guernica and 4,000 children were left destitute.

Victims of the Spanish Civil War, the children, many of whom had lost their families, were accepted by the Britain Government.

They were to be given lodging all over the country, but some found their way to homes and families in Banstead, Beddington and Carshalton.

In August 1937, a newly formed Carshalton Basque Children's Committee received 22 children whose first home was The Oaks, Banstead, where they remained for three years.

Other Basque children are thought to have lived for a short time in Brandries Hill House, Beddington, while others were sent to the Culvers, Carshalton.

The children lived their safely until the outbreak of Second World War when rumours began to spread that The Oaks was going to be requisitioned for the war.

Immediately, local committees rushed to organise alternative accommodation in people's homes across the borough and the kind hearts of residents did not disappoint.

In particular, two children, called Pelar and Lydia moved to a house in Argon Road, Morden under the care of Bert and Ada Court, aged 33 and 28 respectively.

Seventy years later the couple's son John Court, 63, a supply teacher for Wallington County Grammar recounts their tale.

"I came across the basque children's story when I was looking into our family history, I had vaguely remembered my parents telling me that they took in two Spanish refugees," Mr Court of Furzdown Road, Sutton, said.

"It was before my parents had started their family which meant that they had a spare room in their Morden home so that they took in two girls Lydia and Pelar.

"My mother mentioned going over to Carshalton, which I assume to be the camp at the Culvers.

"The real surprise was that my mother had confided to my wife that they had also taken in a baby for a short time which she found hard to give up."

In total, 3,840 children, each with a cardboard disk with an identification number and the words Expedicion a Inglaterra' arrived in Southampton aboard the Habana on May 23, 1937.

Along with 80 teachers, two doctors and 15 Catholic priests, the evacuees set up camp in three fields in North Stoneham which had been prepared by local volunteers.

Committees to raise money to pay for their upkeep were established nationwide including in Banstead, Epsom, Wallington and Mitcham.

For years, Mr Court assumed it was his left-leaning father's link to the trade union movement that caused them to take in the refugees.

As he looked into the story further however, he realised the refugees seemed to have grabbed the attention of British people across the political spectrum.

"All sorts of people from Communist to Labour Party, trade unions, religious bodies, co-operatives and clubs, all worked together to provide," he said.

"May 1937 really was a red-letter month for the refugee Spanish children."

This sentiment was echoed by former member of the Carshalton Basque Children's Committee, Chas West, who wrote in an article for the Carshalton Basque Home News in 1942: "Valiant work was done by the Sutton Spanish Aid Committee, and speakers toured the whole area."

And this work, it seems, did not go unheeded.

On the 70th anniversary of the evacuation on Saturday, May 26, Herminio Martinez - an evacuee himself - offered his thanks to the British nation on behalf of all the children.

"We are here today, to express our thanks and gratitude to all those wonderful British people who helped in so many ways," he said.

"To all these wonderful people, to all these exceptional people and to many, many others, those of us who are here today, who arrived in Southampton in May 1937, want to say thank you."