After much preparation, on 1 September 1939, the train taking the 135 boys aged 5–13 set off from West Dulwich Station, arriving at Cranbrook Station after 9pm in the pouring rain and were transported by car, sheep lorry and on foot to the camp three miles away at Coursehorn.

An extract from “The Kentish Express” at that time states: “The only School Evacuation Camp at present fully established and working in England is to be found in the rural district of the Weald at Coursehorn, Cranbrook, where two hundred boys of Dulwich College Preparatory School have an encampment on most modern and up-to-date lines on an eighteen acre estate.

A large Oast house has been converted into a recreation room where the boys can occupy their leisure in billiards, ping pong etc.

Work is carried on at Cranbrook School, where the boys attend daily and where separate accommodation has been provided.” Eventually, because of the increasing danger from enemy aircraft and parental anxiety, a move to the West Country was planned.

Plans to move close to Lynton, Devon were thwarted so the Royal Oak Hotel at Betws-y-Coed was used instead.