Returning Home 1948
Swiss Adventure
For Delicate Children
Update!
A new website is being created by Prof Melanie Tebbutt, who is researching the Swiss adventure and interviewing the ‘kids’ about their childhood experiences – this is part of ‘The Passions of Youth: Histories and Heritage of Childhood and Youth in Manchester and Salford’
Follow this link to the Passions of Youth web page for more information, and to see a new film - 'Returners' Stories'.
Update!
A new website is being created by Prof Melanie Tebbutt, who is researching the Swiss adventure and interviewing the ‘kids’ about their childhood experiences – this is part of ‘The Passions of Youth: Histories and Heritage of Childhood and Youth in Manchester and Salford’
Follow this link to the Passions of Youth web page for more information, and to see a new film - 'Returners' Stories'.
https://passionsofyouth.org/returning-home/
Updates will follow. See also an item online in the Manchester Evening News on 23rd June. Manchester Evening News Link HERE
The North West Film Archive is pleased to announce a new project based around one of its films, Returning Home, made exactly 70 years ago.
On the 22nd March 1948, 238 ‘delicate’ children from Manchester and Salford set off for Switzerland. Invited by the Swiss Government to spend three months living with host families in Switzerland, these lucky youngsters were to enjoy plentiful fresh air and good food to build them up after their wartime deprivations. Aged between 5 and 10 years, the excited party left Manchester’s London Road station with an escort of 12 adults, including teachers, nurses and a doctor.
Returning three months later on 24th June, their return trip was filmed from their arrival on the ferry at Folkestone, and this unique record of the journey and family reunions at Manchester’s Mayfield Station is preserved in the North West Film Archive. The Archive is planning to show the film around 24th June to mark the 70th anniversary of the children’s return, and is looking for anyone who was involved. Some have discovered the film for themselves over the years, and much has been learned from their accounts.
Were you one of the children? Or was a member of your family?
Do you recognise anyone in these pictures? Or remember hearing about it?
On the 22nd March 1948, 238 ‘delicate’ children from Manchester and Salford set off for Switzerland. Invited by the Swiss Government to spend three months living with host families in Switzerland, these lucky youngsters were to enjoy plentiful fresh air and good food to build them up after their wartime deprivations. Aged between 5 and 10 years, the excited party left Manchester’s London Road station with an escort of 12 adults, including teachers, nurses and a doctor.
Returning three months later on 24th June, their return trip was filmed from their arrival on the ferry at Folkestone, and this unique record of the journey and family reunions at Manchester’s Mayfield Station is preserved in the North West Film Archive. The Archive is planning to show the film around 24th June to mark the 70th anniversary of the children’s return, and is looking for anyone who was involved. Some have discovered the film for themselves over the years, and much has been learned from their accounts.
Were you one of the children? Or was a member of your family?
Do you recognise anyone in these pictures? Or remember hearing about it?
