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In another of our popular 'Stories Behind The Pictures' items, local historian Peter Seddon explains why a party of nuns are being ushered across the road by a policeman outside Derby's Brunswick Inn.

The above image has often been reproduced in books concerning 'old Derby'. It is an easy picture to describe on the face of it, but one which needs a little more explanation to make any real sense.

What we see is this. A party made up of mostly ladies - including a number of nuns - is ushered across Siddals Road in Derby by a kindly policeman. On the right are buildings serving the railway. In the background are a proliferation of signals. On the left - at the end of what is now known as Railway Terrace - is the Brunswick Inn advertising its Hansons Ale.

The picture has occasionally been mischievously captioned to suggest that the ladies have just enjoyed an extended session in their favourite hostelry - cue the usual corny jokes about 'bad habits' and 'singing nuns'.

But in fact this rather 'amusing' photograph depicts an altogether more serious event.

The clue is in the date, for it was taken on Wednesday 29 May 1940 in the early years of the Second World War. In fact the ladies are not so much being 'helped' across the road as 'forcibly escorted'.

They have just been marched through the streets of Derby on their way to the Midland Station. From there they will be transported to Liverpool or another west coast port pending their onward transit to the Isle of Man. There they will be interned in a civilian camp so that the people of Britain can sleep a little more easily in their beds.

The fact is that all the women in the picture were 'foreign nationals' living in Britain at the time of the second world conflict - many had been resident in Britain for a considerable number of years, but all were designated 'aliens' and deported to a small island where they could do no damage.

Viewed from a standpoint more than sixty years later, the action of the British government in executing such a scheme seems harsh indeed - at best a hasty response at a time of war, at worst the product of extreme paranoia and a blatant attack on 'civil liberties'.

Yet of course there are definite parallels with the 'send them all back' culture which prevails in certain quarters of Britain today - to many people the fear of 'terrorists' and 'strangers in our midst' is so real that extreme reaction results.

And that is precisely why a party of 'dangerous' nuns and 'subversive' Women's Institute types are being shown the door in this picture. Some might offer the counter explanation that this peculiar evacuation was merely for the ladies' own safety at a time of war, but on balance the reality suggests otherwise.

As the war with Germany had escalated, a wave of fear concerning 'enemies in the camp' swept Britain. This was the era of 'walls have ears', when even the most innocent-looking foreigners were considered a potentrial threat to national security.

The fear reached a peak after almost 200,000 British troops were evacuated from Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940. In withdrawing the British Expeditionary Force successfully onto 'home' territory, the British Government adopted an entrenchment mentality, believing the country to be more vulnerable to invasion than ever before.

There was simply no room for 'the enemy within' - so only days after the Dunkirk evacuations began, the nuns just had to go.

On closer scrutiny some of the ladies can be seen carrying their gas masks in their square boxes. The policeman has a tin helmet attached to his shoulder bag. And a woman in uniform behind the lady in the check coat is supervising the aliens' progress to the station.

How humiliating it must have been to be marched crocodile-fashion through Derby. And with what trepidation must this band of ladies have faced their uncertain future? They say 'a picture is worth a thousand words' - but this particular picture says very little at all without the sobering words of explanation to go with it.

• The 'Stories Behind The Pictures'

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