At this period evacuees were being received into the district from the Medway towns. Nurse Golding coped with sixty in the old Schoolhouse at Swalecliffe. After a good bath the children were passed on to the householders who had volunteered to billet them. Up to 4000 children, accompanied by teachers, were allocated to the Whitstable district. In the event only about a third arrived and when the anticipated heavy bombing of the Medway did not materialise many of them returned home. The voluntary nature of the scheme allowed the flow back home to go unchecked. It may have been that the six shillings per week charged to parents for board and lodging encouraged this trend.
As the German Army made its swift approach to the coast of Belgium and France the evacuation scheme was put in reverse. Sunday May 19th saw all the children billeted in Whitstable packed off to Wales. With the distinct possibility of invasion Kent no longer seemed a safe haven. There was no compulsory evacuation of residents but, alarmed at the turn of events, many took matters into their own hands and quit the town to stay with relations elsewhere. So much so that Sidney Surman, whose Butchers business had flourished before the war, was obliged to supplement his income by making wooden toys on a lathe in his garden shed.
