The Twentieth Century

Transcription

1 1 The Twentieth Century The Second World War This is Albert and his wife Joan, with their children George and Wendy. They are living in the Twentieth Century. They are alive at the time of the Second World War, There are still people living who can remember that time. Albert is an officer in the army. He might have to leave any day to go overseas. Joan knows that life will be difficult without him, and that he might be in danger every day. Life for everyone is difficult. Food is rationed, as are clothes. The family may have to take in strangers from areas of the country that are being bombed. Families are split up. The whole of Britain, not just Wales but the whole of the British Empire too, is going to go through a period of change. The children s lives will be changed by the war too. Activity There are people still alive today who were alive at this time, many of them as children then. There may be some in your family. Ask these people about their lives, hear their stories. How are their lives then different to those of children today?

2 2 Would your house in 1940 have had all the same equipment as today? The houses that people lived in during the Second World War are very much like the ones that we live in today. There are, however, many differences. The house is built in the same way as the Victorian House, but Albert and Joan s house has electricity like ours today. Not every house had electricity. There are electric lights, but what else would they have in their home in the years ? Television? Well, maybe, but it s very unlikely most people did not have one and there would be nothing to watch! The BBC began broadcasting television in 1936, but it was switched off during the war. The last programme to be shown was a Disney Mickey Mouse cartoon. When television began again after the war, they showed the same cartoon. So no television and even before and just after the war there would have been only one channel, the BBC, broadcasting for only a few hours a day and the picture would have been in black and white. Radio? Certainly! Your radio would have been one of the most important items in the house. From entertainment shows to news and government announcements, it was vital to listen to your radio for information as well as for fun! Computer? No computers only started to become common in people s houses in the1980s. The same goes for video games, so sorry: no games apart from board games or toys that you can play with outside. Dishwasher? No. Most people would have had no electric washing machine for clothes either. Joan would have to do all this by hand. Refrigerator (Fridge)? Probably not like the television it is unlikely. By the end of the Second World War in 1945 only one house in fifty in Britain had a fridge. Freezer? No. If you were lucky enough to have a fridge it might have a small freezer box inside but only big enough for a small block of ice cream. If you wanted ice cream you d have to go to a proper ice cream parlour. If there was one, which there probably was not.. So no frozen fish fingers, no ice cream, no pizzas... in fact no frozen food at all! Vacuum Cleaner? Again, probably not. They did exist, but vacuum cleaners as we know them today came in only in the 1920s for use in normal houses. If you wanted to get the dust out of your carpets, you would have to take them outside and beat them with a carpet beater! Question You have no television and no computer games. How would you spend your free time?

3 3 There were a couple of things that you would not have left home without. One was your identity card. Here s one from Llangollen. Everyone had their own identity card. That included children! The idea was that with Britain at war, people needed to be able to prove who they were not enemy spies! It was also used to help in an emergency if you needed to prove that a ration book was yours, or if you became separated, as many people did because of the war. You needed the Identity Card if you were moving house - you needed to let the government know where you were. The cards had the following information: your name; address; age; your job (or usual trade); whether you were married or not and if you were a member of the armed forces the navy, army or air force. This one, owned by Bertie Perkins of Llangollen is in the Museum s collections. You can see the information that he has had to provide. It s also a good document for telling us about people in the past. If a policeman asked to see your identity card, then you had to show it to him. If you did not have it on you, then you had to go to the police station with your card within 2 days. If you did not do that, then you would be arrested! Activity Discuss what reasons there might be for people to become separated during the Second World War. Why would the Identity Cards have been so important?

4 4 You would not have left home without this box either! It s a simple cardboard box. Some you carried with a piece of string, but people liked to make covers for them some women even disguised their boxes as handbags, covering them in leather or cloth ad making a fancy handle. This made it easier to think of as something normal. You can see that this was issued to someone in Llangollen. People had to keep this with them at all times. That is because what was inside the box was. A gas mask although their official title was Civilian Respirator but people just called them gas masks. Because poison gas was used during the First World War, the Government expected it to be used again, this time on civilians. Everyone was given a gas mask there were even special ones for children and babies. This one has been a long time in its box and the rubber that the gas mask was made from has rotted a bit. If you went out without your gas mask, a policeman could send you home to get it. You would even be sent home from school or work to get it! As it turned out, poison gas was never used in the Second World War but it was better to be safe than sorry! NOTE: GAS MASKS HAD A HARMFUL CHEMICAL IN THEM CALLED ASBESTOS. DO NOT HANDLE A REAL ONE UNLESS YOU KNOW THIS CHEMICAL HAS BEEN REMOVED!

5 5 What did they wear? Many of the clothes were the same as we wear today, just slightly different styles. Clothes were rationed, however you couldn t have a new shirt or skirt or pair of shoes just when you wanted to have them! George and Wendy are growing fast! Clothes were rationed from 1 June This ration card on the left is from R. Einion Jones of Llangollen. Each person was given 60 coupons each year to spend on clothes. You would take them to a clothes shop where the shopkeeper would cut out the coupons to make sure that you were not using someone else s coupons. The coupons were not money you still had to have enough money to buy the items. They were simply a way to make sure that everyone had a fair share of clothes. If you could not afford new clothes, you had to make do and mend as this 1940s poster (below) tells us. Question How can you tell that this book was from the first year of clothes rationing? When did clothes rationing end?

6 6 Look at this list from the Clothing Ration Book. It lists how many of your 60 coupons a year were needed to buy each item of clothing. It also tells you what sort of clothes people were wearing at the time. Are there any types of clothes that you do not know about in this list? Ask or research what they are. These ration cards are in Llangollen Museum. Activity Look at the clothes that you have on, or may wear at the weekends. How many coupons would it take to be able to buy all of it? Use the document above to find out the cost. Think how difficult it would be to buy clothes for a growing child. How might your parents cope?

7 7 What did they eat? Many of the food that we eat today, but with not as much variety and people would eat in different ways. As we ve already seen, most people would not have had freezers. Frozen food as we know it today only came in when freezers became widespread in the 1960s and 1970s. Most people, certainly those living outside of the big cities, would also not have known about foreign foods as much as people do now. Foods like pizza (from Italy), hamburgers (from America), and curry (from India) would have been thought very new and strange. It was only after the Second World War that such foods began to be seen in Britain. Men such as Arthur, serving overseas would have seen and eaten these foods and brought their experiences home. So: no Hamburger restaurants; no Curry Houses; No Pizza Parlours. The only takeaway food for most of the country would have been Fish and Chips. The main issue with food during and after the Second World War was rationing. We ve already seen that clothes were rationed, but food was as well. The British Isles were cut off from the rest of Europe which was under German occupation and bringing food from the Empire overseas was difficult. The Germans tried to starve the country by sinking ships coming to Britain using submarines known as U-boats. Britain then had to become self-sufficient when it came to food. Everyone had a book like this one to the left in the collections of Llangollen Museum. It worked the same way as the Clothes Ration Book. As you can see from the date on the book, rationing went on long after the war was over. Just like Clothes Ration, you had to have the money to buy the food; the ration coupons were just to make sure that everyone had their fair share. You had to register with a butcher, a fishmonger and a greengrocer (this is also a time before supermarkets!) who were responsible for making sure that the rations were fairly given out. More information and videos here:

8 8 The weekly ration for one person is listed below. These measures are in grams, but during the Second World War the ration was given out in ounces (oz for short), which was the old Imperial Measurement. The amount of ration per person varied throughout the War, as sometimes there were shortages of some of these foods. Money was different then too. Britain only started using the money we know today, where 100 pence make a pound in Until then we used the system of money that had been used in Britain for centuries. It worked this way: Twelve Pence = One Shilling. Twenty shillings = One pound. This coin is a coin that would have been used during the Second World War. It is a 3 pence piece. It shows the King during the War, King George VI, who was the father of Queen Elizabeth II. Question How many pence were there in one pound? How many of the Three Pence pieces would you have needed to make up one pound? The Ration: For one person for one week. Meats: Lamb, pork or beef: up to the price of 1shilling and 2 pence. This usually bought just over 500g of meat. Bacon and ham: 100g (4oz) Dairy: Milk: 3 pints (preference was given to pregnant women and mothers with children under 5 years of age). Butter: 50g (2oz), with artificial butter (Margarine) rationed at: 100g (4oz). Cheese: 2oz (50g) Eggs: 1 fresh egg a week. In addition there was a ration of 1 packet of dried eggs every month. These dried eggs could be used in cookery, such as making cakes. Other: Tea: 50g (2oz). This would have been lose tea not teabags! Sugar: 225g (8oz). Jam: 450g (16 oz) every two months. Sweets: 350g(12oz) every four weeks!

9 9 Fresh vegetables and fruit were not rationed but supplies were limited. With the problem of getting food from overseas, some fruit such as lemons and bananas disappeared for most of the war. What if you were a vegetarian? Vegetarians people who do not eat meat made arrangements for the meat on their ration to be replaced by vegetables and other foods. There were far fewer people who were vegetarian in those days. But the country could not, at first, grow all the vegetables needed to feed the country. This poster is one of the most famous of the Second World War. People were encouraged to plant all available land with vegetables. Flowers in gardens were pulled up and replaced with vegetable plots. Any open space such as public parks and back gardens were given over to vegetable production. This was easier to do in places with a lot of open space around them so areas like Llangollen and the Dee Valley would have found this easier than big cities such as Liverpool. With farms closer to the town than in the cities, vegetables would have been easier to find as well. It would also have been easier to go back to picking wild foods such as blackberries and nuts. Activity Look round your school, or your town or village. What spaces can you see that could be used to plant vegetables if you had to, like they did during the Second World War? How much land is that? Research what vegetables would have been planted in the 1940s as not all the ones we use today would have been available in Britain. Is there anywhere that you could gather fruit or nuts in the wild?

10 10 Women at war! Some women joined the Army, Navy and Air Force although during the Second World War they did no fighting, but worked to support the men. Another way to serve was in the Women s Land Army. With more food needed because of rationing and Britain being cut off from its colonies, and with men who would work on the land now in the armed forces, it was down to these women to help with farming. One woman who joined the Women s Land Army was Myra Suckley. Here are some of the members of the Women s Land Army in their uniforms. The uniform was green and was made for work outdoors thick woollen jumpers over rough shirts, shorter trousers, and thick socks with hard wearing shoes or boots. The women were also given dungarees for dirty work and raincoats The uniform also made the women feel part of the team. So there were women helping plant and harvest crops? Yes! Women were feeding animals, driving tractors and milking cows? Yes! But did women cut down trees and haul logs through the forests?

11 11 Yes! Women did cut down trees. Myra Suckley worked in the Timber Corps part of the Women s Land Army. Her job was to cut down trees and prepare them for use by industry. Rifles, aeroplanes, ships all needed wood in their construction. Question How much of what you use today would once have been made using wood? What materials have replaced wood? Here are some of the Timber Corps working in the woods near Pentredwr, north of Llangollen. This hard work showed how women could be strong and do men s work. Their work helped keep Britain fed and supplied with materials to keep in the war. It was a vital job! Activity Research the Women s Land Army and the jobs that women took over from men during the Second World War. How many of these jobs are done by women today? Women s Land Army armband. All these photographs and Women s Land Army items are available to research in Llangollen Museum.

12 12 How did life change for children? The best known effect the war had on children was evacuation. Evacuation means taking to a place of safety. It was thought that British cities would become targets for German bombing if war came, so plans were made to take children out of the cities. But children around Llangollen and the Dee Valley would not have been evacuated. These areas were not major targets for German bombing. Evacuation would still have affected the area, however, as this was an area that evacuees from the big cities would have come to ensure their safety. The fact that this was thought to be a safe area made it ideal to receive evacuees. How would you feel if someone from one of the big cities probably Liverpool or Birmingham came to live with your family? Where would they sleep? Would you have the room to take an extra child in your house and family or more than one? If Albert was away in the army, Joan might have some extra space to take in an evacuee. Remember the gas masks? Well, here s one from the Museum that was made for a child. Can you see the small rubber flap in between the eye holes? That inflated like a balloon when you breathed out! It was a bit of fun for children but it was also important in an emergency. If you were injured during an air raid and you had this mask on, the people rescuing you would know you were alive and still breathing if the balloon was still going up and down! Activity Imagine that it is The Germans have begun bombing the big cities and you re about to receive an evacuee into your family home. They might speak differently to you, have different words as well. They might know things about the world, such as life in the cities that you do not but not know about life in the country and small towns. Hey might never have seen mountains or wild rivers and lakes. Roleplay meeting a new evacuee, taking turns to look at the points of view of the child of the family taking the evacuee in, and the evacuee themselves. How would the experiences of each child be different? Would there be problems?

13 13 Answers 1. This should be a class discussion. Children were expected to do more work around the house than they do today. See also the section on children s lives. 2. The Clothing Ration book has a date on it the last day of the first year of clothes rationing. Clothes rationing ended on 15 th March 1949 nearly four years after the War ended! 3. There were 240 pence to the pound. You would need 80 of these Three Pence coins to make up one pound! 4. A class discussion and an opportunity for research. Web Resources for the Second World War and, of course: