Clare Britton and the Evacuation of Civilians in Britain During the Second World War

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to clarify the facts concerning how social work for children initially developed in Britain, in response to the evacuation of civilians from urban areas during the Second World War. This paper sees Clare Britton as the key figure in the fundamental development of this field, and by examining her career, it discusses social work for children in the 1930s and 1940s. Specifically, it examines how Britton developed her career before she worked in an evacuation hostel. This paper concludes that Britton became deeply concerned with the development of social work for children, during this time when many social workers were needed to address the needs of evacuated children. Britton took a training course in psychiatric social work during the war and she changed her career as she came to partake more in this field as it developed over time.