Children's Overseas Reception Board facts for kids

Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) group bound for New Zealand, 1940

The Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) was a special British government group. It helped move 2,664 British children out of England. This was done to protect them from German attacks and bombings during World War II. This happened between July and September 1940. At that time, the Battle of Britain was happening, and Germany was getting ready to invade.

The children mostly went to four countries that were part of the British Commonwealth:

• Canada (1,532 children)
• Australia (577 children)
• New Zealand (202 children)
• South Africa (353 children)

Another 838 children went to the USA through a program called the United States Committee for the Care of European Children. Over 211,000 children signed up for the plan in the first few months. More than 24,000 children were approved to sail. Over 1,000 volunteers, including doctors and nurses, helped out. The plan was for the children to return home when it was safe.

Why were children sent overseas?

Even before World War II started in September 1939, the British government had a plan. They wanted to move over a million people, mostly children, from cities to safer countryside areas. This was to protect them from enemy bombs. Many people thought that millions could die from attacks on British cities.

When the war began, the idea of sending British children to Commonwealth countries came up in Parliament. At first, it was rejected. Some worried it would cause panic. Instead, the government decided to keep moving children to safer places within Britain.

However, by the end of 1941, about 14,000 British children had gone overseas on their own. Over 6,000 went to Canada and about 5,000 to the United States. They went to family or friends. Some went through private plans run by companies like Hoover and Kodak. These companies helped evacuate children of their British workers.

At the start of the war, America was neutral. It had strict immigration rules. This made it hard for the U.S.A. to accept many British refugees. These early evacuations to America were private. They were not supported by the British government at first.

Later, the "U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children" (USCOM) was formed in June 1940. This group aimed to help mainly Jewish refugee children from Europe. They wanted to get them to America. News of German bombings and refugees in Europe greatly affected American public opinion. This grew stronger when Germany started bombing the UK. America was neutral until December 1941. This meant USCOM could still work in Vichy France after May 1940. The Quaker American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) helped choose children in France. Hundreds of children made it to the United States. However, the Nazi occupation of southern France stopped many more rescues.

The United States Committee for the Care of European Children was strongly supported by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She was its honorary president. This program helped move more than 838 children to America. Other groups also worked to save Jewish children and send them to the United States.

In 1941, Geoffrey Shakespeare, a British government official, announced the success of this joint effort.

How was the CORB scheme set up?

Before CORB started

The first British civilians died in World War II when a German U-boat sank the ship SS Athenia (1922). This happened on September 3, 1939, the day Britain entered the war. The ship was carrying people leaving Liverpool for Canada. It was sunk without warning. 118 passengers died, including 28 Americans. Survivors were rescued by other ships.

On May 10, 1940, Germany began a new attack. They quickly took over the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. They also threatened France. Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister, resigned. Winston Churchill became the new leader. Soon after, Germany attacked France. They quickly took over northern France. This led to the evacuation of British and French troops from Dunkirk in late May and early June.

With France about to fall, the idea of evacuating children was brought up again in the British Parliament. This time, it was approved.

Using Thomas Cook's help

On June 17, Churchill's new government put Geoffrey Shakespeare in charge of the evacuation plan. On the same day, they started talking with the travel company Thomas Cook & Son. The new CORB office would be in their London headquarters. The British government would pay for the trips. Parents would pay a small amount based on what they could afford.

Even though the British government was now involved, Churchill and some others were not fully in favor of the idea. Queen Elizabeth, King George VI's wife, had made her feelings clear. Some suggested the Queen and her daughters should go to North America or Canada. The Queen replied in a letter: "The children will not leave unless I do. I shall not leave unless their father does, and the king will not leave the country in any circumstances, whatever." The Queen and her children stayed in Britain throughout the war.

The new CORB group and its staff were quickly put together. Children could apply through their schools. They would travel alone. Teachers or escorts would go with them, about one adult for every 15 children. Nurses and doctors also joined. Children would go to the port and stay in a hostel. There, they had final medical checks. To leave quickly, they did not need passports. Each child got a luggage tag and an identity disc with their CORB number.

At its busiest, CORB had about 620 staff members.

Ship sinkings: Volendam and City of Benares

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Anthony rescues survivors from a lifeboat from City of Benares which had been adrift for nine days after the ship was sunk on 17 September 1940.

Within two weeks, two ships carrying CORB children were attacked by German U-boats. These children were known as 'Sea Evacuees'.

The Volendam

The first ship was the Holland America Line's Volendam. It had 320 children going to Halifax and New York. It left Liverpool on August 29, 1940. On August 30, a German submarine, U-60, attacked the ship. Two torpedoes hit it, causing damage and flooding.

Passengers and crew left the ship. Other ships in the convoy rescued them. All 321 children were saved. Only the ship's purser (a crew member) drowned. The Volendam did not sink. It was towed to Scotland for repairs. An unexploded torpedo was found in its front part. If it had exploded, the ship likely would have sunk.

Most of the children returned to their families. However, two children, Patricia Allen (12) and Michael Brooker (10), found their homes badly damaged. Their families were living in shelters. They were sent back into the program to wait for another ship.

The City of Benares

The second incident happened on September 17, 1940. The City of Benares, carrying 90 children for Canada, was sunk by a torpedo. Patricia Allen and Michael Brooker were on board. The ship had left Liverpool on September 13. It was part of a convoy of 19 ships.

A German submarine, U-48, attacked the ship. A torpedo hit the back of the ship. The Benares sank in 31 minutes. Dozens of people died, many of them children. The first lifeboat to be lowered was hit by a wave. Over thirty people, including 18 CORB girls, fell into the cold sea and died. Three lifeboats capsized. Only two lifeboats were lowered correctly.

Hundreds more people died during the night. By the time a British destroyer arrived, only 105 people had survived. This included 13 children (7 CORB children and 6 private children). 46 survivors were in a lifeboat for eight days. They were finally rescued by another British ship.

The ship's captain, 120 crew members, and 134 passengers were lost. 77 of the 90 CORB children died in the sinking. This included Patricia Allen and Michael Brooker. In total, 258 people out of 406 on board died. This terrible event stopped the evacuation program.

Reactions to the sinking

The sinking of the Benares caused great anger when it was reported on September 23, 1940. The British government said children should not be victims of war. Americans called it a "terrible act." The Germans defended the attack. They said the ship was a military target. They blamed the British government for letting children travel on such ships in a war zone.

The sinking was a public relations disaster for both the CORB program and the British navy. The British public seemed more angry at their own navy than at the Germans. There was no official investigation into why the ship was left without escorts.

End of the scheme

After the City of Benares disaster, British people did not want overseas evacuations to continue. They feared more tragedies. Winston Churchill had not been keen on the plan. So, the government announced that the CORB program was cancelled. However, private evacuations continued until late 1941. By September 1940, the Royal Air Force had won the Battle of Britain. The threat of a German invasion (Operation Sea Lion) had lessened.

Even though the main evacuation stopped in September 1940, CORB remained active. It was not officially closed until 1944, when the German military threat was much smaller.

The German captain of U-48, Heinrich Bleichrodt, survived the war. He was tried by the Allies for war crimes related to the sinking of the City of Benares. He was accused of sinking the ship knowing it had children. He said he and his crew could not have known who was on board. He was found not guilty. However, Bleichrodt refused to apologize to the survivors. Some of his crew members expressed their shock and regret when they learned the facts.

Ships used for the CORB scheme

Liverpool was the main port for trips to Canada and America. Gourock and Greenock in Scotland were also used. Between July 21 and September 20, 1940, 16 trips carried 2,664 CORB children. There were also private trips. The program itself was quite small. Nineteen ships sailed with 3,127 children. Most of them made it to their temporary homes in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

See also

• Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II
• National Museums Liverpool
• The National Archives: Evacuation to Canada
• BBC MEMORIES OF A C.O.R.B. (CHILDREN'S OVERSEAS RECEPTION BOARD) EVACUEE 1940 - 1944:
• IWM THE STORY OF CHILD EVACUEE BERYL MYATT AND THE SINKING OF THE SS CITY OF BENARES:
• Keep Calm and Carry On?: Examining WWII Great Britain through the Lens of Overseas Evacuation:
• Oceans Apart: the stories of overseas evacuees in World War Two, Penny Starns, The History press, 2014, ISBN: 978-0-7524-9011-3
• Thomas Cook Archive: *Thomas Cook's Archives, Westpoint, Peterborough Business Park, Lynch Wood, Peterborough, PE2 6FZ, Archivist: Paul Smith The company ceased trading in September 2019, and the archived moved to, Company archive: The Thomas Cook Archive has been transferred to the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland in Long Street, Wigston Magna, Leicestershire, LE18 2AH as of January 2020