ResCUE History and Future

In 2005, ResCEW was present at St. James' Park in London from the 4th to the 10th of July. Working with the Evacuees Reunion Association, a team led by Dr Martin Parsons took their part in the Commemorations to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

During the week the exhibition stand was visited by thousands of visitors, many of them evacuees. A team of history students from the University of Reading invited evacuees to take part in the Home Front Recall project. The information given in the form of answers to a Questionnaire is currently being processed to form a part of the Home Front Recall Project database. ResCEW is proud to have been a part of this national event, in partnership with the Evacuees Reunion Association and to have had the opportunity to raise the profile of evacuees and their experiences in wartime. Over 1,500 individuals took part in the Questionnaire.

Representatives of the ResCEW and ERA were invited to Buckingham Palace for a reception to acknowledge the work of the Research Centre and of the Association.

Since 1992 Dr Martin Parsons has carried out a great deal of research into the area of World War Two civilian evacuation. As a result of his investigations in the UK he has been invited to give a number of key-note addresses at International conferences in Europe and the USA and in 2000 was elected Chairman of the Evacuee Reunion Association. In 2002 he was appointed President of the International Federation of Evacuees and War Children. He is now working with groups of ex-War Children in Finland (Sotolapsi), Sweden (Krigsbarn), Netherlands, Spain, Germany (Kriegskinder) as well as Jewish groups, children of Dutch collaborators, British evacuees from Singapore etc.

In 1998 Dr. Parsons established an evacuee archive in the Bulmershe Library at The University of Reading. This contains research notes and letters (c 1000) and other material associated with evacuation in the UK. However, it became apparent that there was no centre specifically for this area of research anywhere in the world and many of the groups named above are looking for somewhere to deposit their materials and create an international research base that would encompass all present and future cross-discipline research.