BRITISH FAMILIES REUNITED

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25083, 15 January 1947, Page 2

BRITISH FAMILIES REUNITED

PARENTS ARRIVE ON LARGS BAY

CHILDREN EVACUATED DURING WAR (P.A.) AUCKLAND, January 14. A long separation caused by the war ended for two British families when the Largs Bay berthed at Auckland with the parents of three children who had been evacuated to New Zealand in 1940. When two sets of parents, one from Manchester and the other from Glasgow, said good-bye to their children when Britain’ was facing the prospect of a German invasion, they knew the period they would be apart was indefinite, but they realised that more than six years would elapse before they were reunited. A boy is earning his own living, and a girl, who has finished her secondary education, awaited Mr and Mrs A. Milne, of Manchester, when they stepped on the wharf. Six years ago when the children left England, the boy, Kenneth, was 12, and the girl, Elizabeth, was 10. They came to New Zealand for safety and have since been the foster children of Mr and Mrs L. Sunley, of Papakura. Mr Milne, a retired Manchester policeman with 20 years service, said he and his wife intended to stay in New Zealand because their children had been happy here, and it seemed that the Dominion had much to offer them. They were very grateful for the help that had been extended the child ren.

The Scottish parents were Mr and Mrs A. E. Blanchard, who had come to join their daughter Margaret. She was only six when she arrived at Wellington in September, 1940. and was the youngest girl to come out alone among 89 evacuees from Scotland Hei foster parents since then have been Mr and Mrs N. Mercer, of Kerikeri.

Mr Blanchard, a former aircraft production engineer, intends to become an orchardist. He and his wife said they came to New Zealand because Margaret had become settled here, liked the Dominion, and wished to remain. They were also very grateful for all that had been done for the girl.