11am September 3 1939, Britain and France declare war on Germany. Air raid sirens sound.

Then nothing: it was nearly a year before enemy planes arrived to blitz Britain.

The Government had tried to evacuate large numbers of mothers and children from the cities. Many did not turn up, so far billets were needed than country districts had been told to expect, and by Christmas two-thirds of the evacuees had gone home again.

Evacuation took place again from the summer of 1940 when the worst bombing of the war started.

Many children were orphaned and 3000 came into the care of the Minister of Pensions, Sir Walter Wormesley. About 200 of these children had lost their parents in Southampton, Portsmouth Weymouth, the Isle of Wight, and other places, on active service or by death from other causes.

The Ministry went to great trouble to find them homes, either in institutions or with relatives. Sir Walter said, “We try to dispense love and affection.” When did we last hear a government minister speak in such human terms?

Hampshire Chronicle: Schoolboys from Leesland School, Gosport, with their teachers outside Awbridge village hall,

In August 1943, a report to Hampshire County Council stated that most of the children evacuated in the previous year, had been evacuated ‘to free parents from domestic ties, or in cases where the home has been broken up through illness or for other reasons.’ The latter were often difficult children and although some were fostered, often successfully, others went to Council Homes.

The county council reckoned that at the end of the war there would be a hard core of unwanted and neglected children left in the county.

Both Romsey Borough and Romsey and Stockbridge Rural District had evacuated children to care for. Apart from finding them places to live, they kept an eye on the health of these children who mostly came from Portsmouth and Gosport, visiting them and arranging regular health examinations.

By December 1945, four months after the end of the war, all but ten evacuated children had gone home, leaving eight in the Rural District and two in the town. No explanation was given about the reasons for these ten children having been unable to return home, nor what became of them. Does anyone know?