I was brought up in Richmond and I’m ashamed that people living there during the war were not more welcoming. So much for everyone pulling together, as Simon Fowler says.
A guest post by London Historians Member, Simon Fowler.
The story of brave Cockneys grinning and bearing it during the Blitz in 1940 is really a myth. The start of German air raids on Docklands and the East End in late August saw many panicky families flee the bombing. Some sheltered in Epping Forest, while others made it as far as Reading and Oxford. Frank Lewey, the Mayor of Stepney, who arranged the despatch of thousands of desperate men, women and children, wrote later that he and his staff were…
“far too busy to keep records of the evacuees. It was all we could do to get them out of London fast enough. We did not know where they had all gone, or all who had gone there, except that one hundred and fifty had gone to Ealing, two hundred and thirty to Richmond and so on.”
In Richmond…
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First Night History 
I was surprised that Richmond was considered far enough away to escape the bombing.
I was not surprised by the attitude that some of them showed to poorer people from the East End though. I am sure that it would be just the same today.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I have no doubt it would, possibly more so in view of the rise in hatred towards ‘others’ that the Tories have engendered.
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