SEE YOU AFTER THE DURATION - ARTICLES
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
The following article appeared in the Daily Telegraph (UK) on September 2 2009:
WW2: Former evacuees look back
To mark the 70th anniversary of evacuation, hundreds of people gathered at a service in St Paul's cathedral yesterday. To some, it had been an adventure; to others, a lonely and fearful separation. In these moving testimonies, former evacuees recall the day when their lives were altered for ever.
Michael Henderson
My life was turned upside down by evacuation, not in 1939 but in 1940. My horizons were narrow, just those of a patriotic young boy at a boarding school in Surrey. Then suddenly a voyage on an ocean liner over the Atlantic in a convoy with other ships, guarded by a battleship and five destroyers and being received by an unknown American family. We were some of the 3,000 British children who enjoyed the amazing generosity freely given by American families.
THE PATRIOT LEDGER
The following article appeared in this Boston paper on June 20 2009:
Man recounts his evacuation from England during World War II
Former Milton resident Michael Henderson, the author of “See You After the Duration: The Story of British Evacuees To North America in World War II” recounts the experiences that shaped that book.
During World War II, I was one of 3,000 children evacuated from England to the United States for safekeeping. Today, at age 77, I have returned to Milton Academy for a reunion of the Class of 1949 with the boys and girls with whom I shared the fourth, fifth and sixth grades.
THE POMFRET TIMES
The following article appeared in The Pomfret Times in Connecticut in June 2008 by Michael Henderson:
It is little known nowadays that during World War II American families hosted several thousand British children threatened by bombing and invasion. It was a generosity that is remembered today with great gratitude by those who spent anything from two to six years in this country.
My brother Gerald, then aged six, and I aged 8, were two of them. I have written a book, See You After the Duration, that conveys a sense of the adventure and heartache of those wartime years. The book expresses to Americans our continuing sense of gratitude to those families and will, I hope, introduce to British readers the generous heart of America which we encountered at that young age.
There is a strong Pomfret connection in the book and I devote a whole chapter to it. First of all the American family that took us in were the Walter Hinchmans of Milton, Massachusetts. In May their grandson, Walter, was our host in Pomfret where he taught for many years at Pomfret School.
THE OREGONIAN
The following article appeared in The Oregonian on May 18, 2005 under the headline "Words of gratitude for U.S. care of British children in wartime"
by Michael Henderson:
In Britain’s public life there is a community of several thousand men and women who have their own special relationship with the United States. They include former cabinet ministers and members of parliament and at least a dozen well-known writers. During World War II they were evacuated, as I was, to the United States and spent anything from two to six years living with American families.
If there is a common outlook as a result it is a deep sense of gratitude for American generosity and an appreciation of the United States at its best. Some may disagree at times with US policies but they would not indulge in crass anti-Americanism.
In the spring of 1940 when England expected an invasion by Hitler offers of sanctuary for children flowed into Britain from the Dominions, and American companies and universities and schools threw open their doors to welcome British children. The UK government launched a program to ensure that the option was also available for those who could not afford the passage. More than 200,000 children were signed up.
CHILDREN IN WAR – THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVACUEE AND WAR CHILD STUDIES
An article by Michael Henderson on 'The evacuation of British children to North America in World War II' appeared in December 2005
Autumn 2006 issue of This England
by Michael Henderson
Like the Narnia evacuee children I had a magic wardrobe. Opening its doors, however, did not transport me to a make-believe land inhabited by Aslan and the other denizens of the wood. Rather I was carried into the very real world of the British lion and the trappings of empire. My wardrobe was not in the New Forest but in New England .
My brother, Gerald, and I were two of the some ten thousand young British who were evacuated to Canada and the United States in World War II and the ‘wardrobe' was a huge cupboard in which my American hosts stored back numbers of the Illustrated London News and The Boy's Own Annual . Their enthralling pages contained stories of bravery under fire, portraits of the Royal family, cross sections of Royal Naval ships and much more which fed my pride in country and helped to sustain me in five years of separation from my parents.
CHILDREN IN WAR – THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVACUEE AND WAR CHILD STUDIES
An article by Michael Henderson on ‘The role of patriotism in sustaining the evacuees to North America in World War II’ appeared in December 2006
RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
The following commentary was sent out to the American press by Religion News Service (New York) in May 2005, by Michael Henderson
As we mark the 60th anniversary of the ending of World War II, may I, as an Englishman, express gratitude to the American people. Not only for what you did to preserve freedom in the world but for a less well recognized example of American generosity.
Sixty years ago this month (May) my brother Gerald and I returned to Britain after having spent five years with a family in Boston unknown to us when the war started. We were two of some 3,000 Brits who, in 1940, when it looked as if Britain was going to be invaded by Hitler, were offered refuge in the United States "for the duration of the war." A poll at the time indicated that several million American families were willing to take British children. Thousands more children were signed up to come. The sinking of The City of Benares, with 77 children killed, however, brought the evacuation to an end.
AMERICA BOUND
The following article appeared in Mature Times on 21 May 2005:
Many children found that evacuation to a safer place in the war meant travelling thousands of miles to another continent. Michael Henderson’s has written the moving story of British Evacuees who went to North America in World War II in his book “See you after the duration”.
In 1940 when it looked as if Britain was going to be invaded thousands of American families – and Canadian families too - offered refuge to British children for the duration of the war.
The Times' website, under its faith section, reports on the latest launch of Michael Henderson's book 'No Enemy to Conquer' at a Greencoat Forum in the London centre of Initiatives of Change. Under the headline 'Forgiveness is the key to bringing peace in Northern Ireland', Cheryl Gallagher reports Henderson's emphasis that 'forgiveness far from being just a personal or religious matter can affect the life of nations'. Click here to read the article.
TIKKUN, one of the leading Jewish magazines in the United States has a review by Roger S. Gottlieb (writing about No Enemy to Conquer): "changes are possible for us as human beings and have many times, against all expectation, actually occurred." To read the article click here.
An interview with Michael Henderson was published in The Jewish Week, widely recognized as the largest and most respected Jewish newspaper in America, on 15 September to mark Rosh Hashanah. "In No Enemy to Conquer: Forgiveness in an Unforgiving World, British journalist Michael Henderson argues that apologizing and forgiving have a value on both a personal and political plane. The Jewish Week spoke last week to Henderson about the issue." Click here to read the article.
The Invitation: In the UK Islamic Community Magazine, Imam Dr Musharraf Hussain, a joint Chairman of the Christian-Muslim Forum of Britain writes "'This book represents a tour de force between victims and offenders and soul-stirring tales of human goodness." Read more here.
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