THE $100m movie Dunkirk sorts who dies, who escapes and who is left behind in German-occupied France in two hours – people in the Furness of 1940 had to wait rather longer.

News of the first deaths in Operation Dynamo – the evacuation of 330,000 British and allied troops between May 26 and June 4 – could take weeks to reach home.

Some families didn’t know for several months that their relatives had survived the retreat to the port of Dunkirk, in Northern France, and been taken prisoner.

The Barrow News of June 1 reported special prayers being said in churches through Furness and South Cumbria.

The Barrow Hospital Saturday Parade, due for June 22, was abandoned and Air Raid Precautions groups staged exercises to get ready for feared German air attacks.

The first casualty to be recorded during the build-up to the troop evacuations from France was Able Seaman Charles Frederick Hutchinson, number D/J 77101, of the Royal Navy who was killed on HMS Venetia on May 25.

He is named on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

The Barrow News noted that he lived at 26 Vernon Street, Barrow and had been a postal worker for three years.

Venetia tried to get troops from Boulogne who had been trapped by the advancing German army.

At 8.40pm Venetia entered the harbour under Germans heavy gun and tank fire.

It was hit several times, was unable to board any troops but made it back to Dover – only to be sunk after hitting a mine on October 19 in 1940.

The June 8 edition of the Barrow News noted the survival of Stoker Sydney Wall from HMS Grafton.

His parents lived at Corporation Terrace, Salthouse, Barrow and he had served on the Grafton for four years.

On May 27 Grafton had evacuated more than 1,600 troops from the beaches of La Panne and Bray, northeast of Dunkirk.

On May 29 the ship was picking up survivors from the torpedoed destroyed Wakeful, off Nieuwpoort, Belgium, when it was hit by the German submarine U-62 and sank.

The June 8 paper noted the cancellation of Askam parade and Ulverston Hospital Parade.

There was talk of Conishead Priory being brought into use as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers.

Furness MP Sir Ian Fraser said: "I want you to continue to expect grave and serious news.

"Do not be discouraged by the bombing of England or the overrunning of large parts of France; it does not mean that the Germans will have won the war."

The same edition recorded the death of Royal Artillery Gunner Edward Burns.

They managed to get him across the channel to Dover but he died of his wounds on May 31 in 1940 and is buried at St James' Cemetery.

The 22-year-old was son of William Edward and Sarah Burns, of Lightburn Avenue, Ulverston.

Wounded in action but back safely in a British hospital was artillery man P Craig, of 54 Arthur Street, Barrow.

Wounded on a converted trawler HMS Thuringia was Barrow sailor Matthew Jefferson.

He made it back to Dover but died on May 28 and is buried at St James' Cemetery.

He was the son of James and Elizabeth of Barrow.

The June 15 edition said Lt Geoffrey St Barbe Rabbidge had died from wounds in a hospital in southern England.

He was a second Lieutenant with the Norfolk Yeomanry, an anti-tank Regiment.

The officer was aged 21 and is buried at Dover.

He was the son of William Floyd Rabbidge and Constance Emily Rabbidge, of Broughton.

Dan Birtwistle has been trying to find out more about a young soldier called Billy Moorhouse after coming across a picture of him with his auntie Catherine Barnwell – known as Kitty.

She was married to Mr Birthwistle’s uncle Alf, who served in the First World War and had moved from Furness to London.

The back of the image notes: “This boy escaped from Dunkirk and swam out to a destroyer and lost everything. He is only 20 and 6ft 2in.

“I nursed him when he was three weeks old at the Curragh Camp in Ireland.”

Internet research shows that a William Thomas Moorhouse was born in Ireland in 1920.

He married Aileen Grant in Ulverston in 1946 and later became a postman in Australia.

The Dunkirk survivor would not be aged 97 if he is still alive.

His father was William Charles Moorhouse, who was born in Brixton in 1895 and married Eleanor Lawler, of Dublin, in 1918. He served in the 16 th Lancers in the First World War.

Another uncle of Mr Birtwistle called Eric was evacuated from Dunkirk but was later a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Formosa, now Taiwan.

An antiques fair at Ravenglass turned up a soldier’s service and pay book for Barrow soldier John William Kendall.

The Royal Army Service Corps soldier was one of those who did not get away from Dunkirk and the book records that he was a prisoner of War from May 20 in 1940 until he was handed over the allies at Odessaon March 29 in 1945.

He was born on April 25 in 1906 and died in Barrow in March 1971.

He married Elizabeth Mullen, aged 22, in September 1928. She died in 1992.