Adapted from the Daily Telegraph of Friday 7th July 1944:
It ws announced by Mr Churchill in the House of Commons yesterday that the evacuation from London of vulnerable people has begun. Notices were served to schools on Saturday (1st July) and the first parties began leaving on Monday (3rd July).
The Ministry of Health announced yesterday that the scheme was being extended to those other areas most vulnerable to attack (Kent, Surrey, Sussex, etc)
As well as schoolchildren the scheme applies to children under five and their mothers, expectant mothers, and the aged and infirm. The facilities available are being made known through information centres, schools and official posters. Most of the evacuees are going to the North Midlands and the North, with extra trains being run where necessary.
Registration and a medical examination are required for schoolchildren, as in the early days of the war, and evacuated children who have seeped back home since then must re-register and pass another medical.
Facilities for mothers and children in London who wish to go to friends or relatives in safer areas have been available since the start of the flying-bomb attacks, and facilites are now being extended to the new areas.
I was never evacuated, so cannot comment from first hand experience, but this is the first I remember of hearing of the need for a medical. My wife, who was evacuated in 1940, can’t remember having one. Has anyone any further details? - PC