... that existed in the country between the rich and poor. This had both positive and negative connotations. Firstly, the government took steps to make social improvements to try to lessen this gap. The government introduced things like free school meals and milk in order to improve living conditions in poorer areas of the country. It could be argued that these improvements were imminent regardless of evacuation, however evacuation certainly acted as a catalyst for these improvements. However, the rich-poor gap certainly came to the attention of the host families. They had to endure poor hygiene and bad manners from children "from homes where no sentence was complete without a swear word" ('How We Lived Then'). Many of the hosts were shocked at the lack of hygiene displayed by some of the evacuees. Oliver Lyttelton, who allowed ten children from London to live in his large country house, later said, "I ...

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