Children's Overseas Reception Board

The Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) was a British organisation that between July and September 1940^[1] evacuated British children from that country in order to escape the Blitz (and World War II more generally). The children were sent to mainly to Canada, but also to Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In the first few months over 210,000 children were registered with the scheme.

After the SS City of Benares was sunk by a German torpedo on 17 September 1940, killing at least 70^[1][2] of the 90 children on board, the overseas evacuation programme was brought to a halt. By this time the Children's Overseas Reception Board had evacuated 2,664 children, who became known as "Seaevacuees", over a period of three months. Canada received the bulk of them – 1,532 in nine parties. Three parties sailed for Australia, with a total of 577 children, while 353 went to South Africa in two parties and 202 to New Zealand, again in two parties. A further 24,000 children had been approved for sailing in that time and over 1,000 escorts, including doctors and nurses, enrolled. At its height, CORB employed some 620 staff.^[1]

Wealthy parents continued to send their children to safe countries. It is estimated that during the first two years of the war around 14,000 children were sent privately to the CORB countries.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Children's Overseas Reception Board
2. ^ Various secondary sources say "70" ([1]), "73", or "77" ([2]); all agree that 90 children were aboard in total.

External links

• Children's Overseas Reception Board

See also

• Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II