Evacuees 

In 1940, during the height of the Blitz, large numbers of children and families were evacuated from heavily bombed cities such as London to safer rural areas, including towns within Kirklees like Marsden and Batley. Reception centres were set up in rural areas where the risk of bombing was lower, while local authorities in towns were tasked with organising billeting, finding homes for evacuees with local families who volunteered to take them in. 

“So now, we had to be evacuated for a second time, approx.200 miles to Huddersfield and as the train emerged from the long Standedge tunnel and we saw the bleak cold moors, it was like another and much harder world. It was, by now, autumn of 1941. With other evacuees, we were taken to Dean House hospital, near Holmfirth, then later, the four of us were taken to a big dark millowners house where there was a cook, it was up a curving drive with lots of trees round, and I started school while there in Sept 1941, about ¾ of a mile away. We were treated as comers in, found the people hard and often unkind and nosy-one parent lifted my dress to see if I wore a petticoat, another wanted to know where our coupons went.”  

- Mrs P., WW2 People's War  

Central Europeans 

During World War Two, Kirklees became a place of refuge for people fleeing Nazi persecution. The local Czech community established clubs to support anti-Nazi refugees, hosting concerts, lectures, exhibitions, and sporting activities like table tennis, which often brought locals and refugees together, fostering friendships across cultural lines.  

One such group, the Anglo-Refugee Friendship Club based at 17 Dundas Street, evolved from a 1939 initiative aimed at uniting all nationals willing to resist Hitler. Its members included Czechoslovak citizens, anti-Nazi Germans, Free Austrians and supportive locals. The club operated until 1943, when its members formed separate national organisations. To accommodate the influx of Central European refugees, hostels were set up at Grasmere Road, Marsh, and Halifax Old Road.  

Later, in September 1943, the British-Czechoslovak Friendship Club at 32 Westgate was founded for around 150 refugees, organising events to support the Allied cause, celebrate national days, and raise awareness of Nazi atrocities.  

Among those who found safety in the area was Rudie Thramer, who arrived in 1940 with her family from the Sudetenland. She attended St Peter’s School and Mirfield Grammar School, integrating into the community and remaining in Kirklees long after the war ended. 

France 

French soldiers rescued from Dunkirk in 1940 were found homes in towns such as Huddersfield. Military presence was significant; many villages hosted soldiers in private homes, and schools were sometimes repurposed as British restaurant kitchens to feed troops. Soldiers from different backgrounds came to sing at local schools and took part in village dances, often held in commandeered woollen mills like the one in Slaithwaite. 

“During the war our family took in Dorothy, an evacuee from Avery Hill School in London. Dorothy and I still exchange Christmas cards. We also took in a soldier after Dunkirk, and later a radar operator from Altrincham. As we had a spare bedroom we were expected to take someone in.”  

- Mrs Porfitt. WW2 People's War  

Prisoner of War Camps 

During World War II, Kirklees became home to several prisoner-of-war (POW) camps, including one at Stirley Hill, Farnley Tyas. This camp housed German and Italian prisoners, and was part of a network of POW facilities managed by the British authorities. They were established to detain enemy combatants and, in many cases, to employ them in agricultural and industrial work to support the British war effort. The prisoners were housed in basic accommodations and were subject to strict regulations, but many formed bonds with local communities through their work and daily interactions.