MORE than 100 Scottish children (50 from Glasgow) joined 400 English and Welsh youngsters to sail to Canada in August 1940, on a voyage organised under the wartime evacuation scheme of the Children’s Overseas Reception Board.
The youngsters were bound for new homes all over Canada, some even as far west as Vancouver.
The board’s chairman, Geoffrey Shakespeare MP, pictured, chatted with some of the children before they sailed.
One seven-year-old Glasgow boy said: “I wouldn’t mind joining the Mounties.” Another boy, who was bound for Ontario, said that he was anxious to learn "real ice-skating".
A third boy surely spoke for many when he declared: "I'm glad to go to Canada but, believe me, I'll be glad go get back home when the war's over".
To while away the long days at sea, escorts appointed by the Board in charge of the party did their best to keep the children diverted - and to stop them moping about their enforced separation from family, friends and school.
A programme of physical training, entertainments, ahd cheerful lectures about the history and conditions of Canada kept them busy.
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