It's been seventy years since Operation Pied Piper, which evacuated the children of London to the English countryside in advance of the Battle of Britain. The Times of London reports from an anniversary service today at St. Paul's Cathedral, where one evacuee explains the emotion: "We all look at each other, these old geezers, and see ourselves as children."

For him, and all the other 2,000 evacuees at the service, the memories came racing back of saying goodbye to their parents at railway stations across the capital as they embarked on their strange new lives in the countryside, of seeing their mothers crying across the platform and wondering why they were so unhappy.

"I thought, what are they crying about?" said John Carter, who aged seven was sent from his home in Walthamstow to Langham in Rutland. "We are just going away on holiday, I thought. I know now: our parents did not know when they would see us again, or where, or if they would see us again at all."

The article is full of touching recollections and is a tribute to the children and their families. Back in today's Britain, society is still doing its best to help the young: "Hyperactive children and those with attention-deficit disorders," the same paper reports, "can now queue jump at theme parks because they cannot cope with the stress of waiting."