"Goodnight Children, Everywhere" (Vera Lynn, 1940)

[tmmy773]

Very sweet and lovely :)

[MrGoto7734]

Lovely lullaby.

[AGMorkie]

As an evacuee in 1939 (from Manchester to Wilmslow, Cheshire) I recall this song very well. It upset so many evacuees that the BBC Stopped broadcasting it,

[TheDavephillips]

My grandad was Harry Phillips too! He didn't write any music though as far as I know he died in 1947 at Woolwich Arsenal (at work). All of Vera's songs are brilliant though and bring back such memories. Thanks RR.

[MrDreamsandvisions]

Vera Lynn is one of the most beloved singers of hope during WWII

[Inesmytube]

bellissimo brano complimenti, anna.

[HowDareThey1970]

So lovely. Also sad I can no longer locate her beloved hit Auf Wiedersehn on youtube. However, I am grateful for what I can find here of her.

[AimeeUptonxD]

I am 13... And I really adore this song, and really really love Vera Lynn<3

[DeadHelena]

love the lyrics...

[lizzyvance]

I'm 23 but I like this lady a lot.

[MissGenius3847]

I may be much younger than the people who remember hearing this (18), but I still cherish this song

[execelsior]

I was born in 1943 and I was not evacuated. I caught pneumonia and whooping cough in the shelters on two occasions. I was given the 'last rites' twice and only lived thanks to Pencillin - I was one of the first to get it. My mother made deliveries with a team of shire horses about the docks in London when she worked for British Railways during the war. The Imperial War Museum still refuses to acknowledge the war work performed by such women.

[cosycleaner]

loose the irritating ' jump frame and scratches' effect - just keep the photo still please!

[AnotherCuppaCoffee]

Interesting how the British middle class and working class are attached to their kids but the upper class gets rid of them early to boarding schools.

[Verderer]

For those people in Britain who have memories of the evacuations of 1939 and 1940 this song by Vera Lynn literally brings it all back - it was very much THE song at the time of the evacuation of all children from the danger areas......the sadness and tears of the time was truly dreadful, but it was so necessary. Evacuation was NOT actually compulsory and some parents refused to let their children go and kept them at home in the danger areas but the risk was enormous! In some cases - tragic!

[Sassafrasican]

@verderer: thank-you so much for sharing this info (and to rready555 for posting)! i really know nothing about this era and history (having grown up in africa in a time with its own different tragedies, so i very much appreciated what you wrote - and how vividly you wrote it (you brought a tear to my eye).

[Verderer]

In many country area the few black children in Britain in those days who were evacuated caused quite a stir in the small towns and villages all over Britain - it was the first time people in those areas had ever seen a black child, or any black person for that matter. All the evacuess soon settled into their new surroundings and they found going to new schools very thrilling and nature walks out in the fields and woods and meadows of the lovely British countryside was a tremendously exciting!

[Verderer]

But i the end all children were found a safe refuge in the homes of strangers who were obliged to take them in by law anyway.  There were inevitable tragedies of course. Parents were distraught as they waved their kids goodbye on all the train stations as the trains left for the safe areas. Sadly many of the kids never saw their parents again - as they went about their new lives in the country their parents were killed in the bombing air raids on the towns and cities they had left behind.

[Verderer]

One thing is certain - the children of 1939 were also very different from their equivalent today in Britain - they were so much better behaved, were far more innocent and respectful and ttherefore much easier to control. Overall the Mass Evacuation of children in WW2 Britain was a massive venture which for the most part was very skilfully done, a great success, but there were of course individual difficulties and the billeting officers sometimes had great difficulty finding a home for some kids

[Verderer]

The parents had done this to keep them warm in the winter and their "new parents" had to strip them of this paper and all their clothes and they burned them as they were in a dreadful condition. They had to be fitted with new clothes. Many of the kids screamed blue murder when the "new parents" tried to bath them - the kids really thought they were going to be drowned! Evacuation was a massive culture shock for both sides - life in 1939 Britain was totally different to that of today!

[Verderer]

Many of the children found it all very exciting seeing things which they had never seen before in the countryside; some were amazed to see that cows were bigger than dogs and they had to get used to just small village shops with no Woolworths and no buses every few minutes! It was also a shock for many of the country people as some of the kids from the cities came from poor areas - some had never seen a proper bath before and were bound up in brown paper under their clothes by their parents.

[Verderer]

London was not the only British city from which children were evacuated right at the start of WW2......every major city or town in the so called "danger areas" saw mass evacuation to the "safe areas" well away from possible air raids and bombings which, unfortunately, became very much a reality by the summer of 1940 and throughout the war. For many children it was their first encounter with life in the countryside and people in safe areas there could NOT refuse to accept evacuees.

[sammipink]

i remember this song during the war playing on our radio thanks for posting brings back memories of my late mum and dad

[Jackman1919]

Thank You so much for this,

My grandfather wrote this,

I unfortunately never met him but it can give me an insight to his brilliant mind.

He was Harry Phillips by the way

[jillby3000]

There is a remake of it from Sixpence None the Richer, so a whole new generation of children will sing your father's lovely lyrics!

[PatsyB1955]

This makes me sad as my late Mum was an evacuee and anything from that era makes me think of her.

[tig1960]

@PatsyB1955 and so sad that not so long from now that generation will be gone and taking with them not just the 1st and 2nd ww memories but the stories they told of the time of theirgrand par ents and for a rare few possblytheir great grandparents and being of the same generation as yourself we witnessed the tail end of a way of life unchanged for what seems like forever and even if we pass on these stories on to the children of now because life today has changed so much to them it ------

[tig1960]

@PatsyB1955 will be just th at stories

[llewri]

I was an evacuee in Britain in 1940 and this song brings tears to my eyes now as it did then

[Corrie121]

Vera + Bert Ambrose = perfection.

I remember this song from the war years.

Thanks for sharing.

[t0mme1981]

Apparently the Government stopped the BBC playing this song as it upset too many evacuated children, who after hearing it tried to run back home.....

[utubetastepolice]

She has the most amazing voice, doesnt she??

[cygnus011]

Emotion! For all the children of Gaza and the children victims of the wars.

[cygnus011]

Charming!

[mrdee11091]

thank you for the post like the sound of the american band in this one sounds like glen miller band

[RReady555]

She's joined by the Ambrose Orchestra--the downbeat and trombone/muted trumpet arrangement does sound like the Miller Band.

Best,

-RR