A War Guest in Canada

After the crushing defeat of France in June 1940, Nazi Germany’s armed forces were poised to invade the island kingdom of Britain. In that summer of fear, some three thousand British children were temporarily evacuated to Canada, where they were known as “war guests.” The eleven-year-old W.A.B. Douglas — then known simply as Alec — was one of them, and his letters back to his mother are the focus of this fine book. 

“Mother did not really know if she would ever see me again, and she was in tears as she waved goodbye,” Douglas writes. “I was too excited to be sad, and too callow!” His mother had every right to be worried. One ship of children, the ill-fated SS City of Benares, was sunk in September 1940 with seventy-seven young people killed. 

The cheerful and resilient Douglas made it across the Atlantic and was taken into a loving home near Toronto. He acclimatized well to Canada, although he was a keen observer of the differences between Canadian and British schooling, games, and culture. Still, like most kids at the time, he was excited about the annual Santa Claus parade and took part in wartime fundraising activities. 

W.A.B. Douglas returned to Canada after the war and has had successful careers both in the Royal Canadian Navy and as a Second World War historian, mentoring a generation of Canadians and writing a number of key books. Douglas not only wrote history, he lived it — and he continues to contribute to our understanding of the war years through his delightful letters.