The complete report had to be sent to the Ministry by February 28th, and in Bletchley 60 lady enumerators were eventually tasked to investigate available billets with, if evacuation became necessary, Buckinghamshire to then be designated as a ‘receiving area.’ Committee subsequently approved the list. Householders would then shortly receive a letter asking for their co-operation, and with canvassers duly appointed to visit every home, the A.R.P. Offices at 7, Station Road, Newport Pagnell, and, in connection with the National Evacuation Scheme, official notices were duly received by Bletchley Urban District Council. Persons willing to carry out such duties were invited to contact the R.D.C. The Minister of Health had accordingly drawn up a scheme to determine the accommodation available in local households, and on a voluntary basis ‘visitors’ would be appointed in every town and village. officer to Aylesbury R.D.C., had been appointed as the Deputy Council Executive Officer for Bucks., and in a further measure to cope with a possible crisis the Government’s ‘National Emergency Survey’ now intended to survey the number of schoolchildren who, in towns and villages of the Rural Districts, could be accommodated nationally. In fact few people now had any doubts that the need would quite probably soon arise, especially since during January 1939 the Government published a National Service Handbook, which informed the population of the qualifications that would be necessary for service in the armed forces, as well as for other organisations. At Bletchley, a new school clinic had recently been opened in Bletchley Road and, should the need arise, as part of the town’s contingency operations plans were advanced to convert these premises into a first aid post for air raid casualties. In other means of defence, with an order being placed for 1,000 Spitfires in March 1938 it had been announced that £11 million was to be spent on new airfields for the R.A.F., and plans for local measures were now set up in the form of Air Raid General Precaution schemes, and Air Raid Fire Precaution schemes.
In 1936 Britain had started mass-producing gas masks, and as early as 1937 the passing of the Air Raid Precautions Act had laid down the basis for civil protection, with the Government allocating £200,000 in December 1938 for the building of air raid shelters. Jenkins, of the Royal Artillery Depot, Woolwich, who, one Sunday evening in January, had to be taken off the Wolverton to Euston express and rushed by ambulance from Bletchley to Northampton hospital, as a consequence of having some days before sustained injuries to his ribs in a skating accident. Nevertheless, perhaps it could be said that Bletchley’s first military ‘casualty’ was Gunner H. However, on the international scene the plight of Jewish refugees was just one manifestation of an increasingly hostile situation, but, not least through inadequate military preparations, for the moment political gesturing took the place of aggressive action. Workman, 68 Eaton Avenue.’ So read an appeal which had been placed in the local press, and for Miss Workman, a local teacher, it was perhaps of particular relevance since, from 1935, her counterparts in Germany had been placed directly under the control of the Nazi Party, with the ‘Jewish Problem’ then becoming a focus of classroom lessons. ‘If you are interested in helping to alleviate some of the suffering of Jewish Refugees and want to give hospitality, make and adapt clothes, or donate to a relief fund which is being operated by a local committee that is being formed, contact Miss E.
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