Life on the Home Front
From descriptions of shared conditions such as bombing and rationing to individual accounts of evacuation, internment and civilian war-work, a small free display running until 11 December 2021, gives a flavour of the experience of those living and working in Britain during the Second World War. This is a brief introduction to the items on display at St Pancras.
View of Home Front exhibition cases at the British Library
Bombing raids had a devastating impact on civilian life. On display are the air raid appointment cards, badges, chevrons and whistle of Edgar and Winifred Wilson who served as air raid wardens in St Albans, and a copy of Bombers over Merseyside giving an indication of the heavy bombing of Liverpool.
Bombers over Merseyside. [Liverpool], 1943. 9101.ff.7
The British Museum in London was also hit by incendiary bombs. This photograph shows the damage in 1940 to the King’s Library Gallery, built to house the collection of King George III.
Kings Library Gallery, British Museum, [1940]. British Library Corporate Archive, Photograph Box A1, no. 51
In order to escape the bombs, children were evacuated to the countryside. For some this was a happy episode but for others it was a miserable, dislocating time. An account by Rita Cowell describes her experience of evacuation to Exmouth, Devon, during which she was treated as a ‘domestic skivvy’. Another account is taken from News notes produced by the League of Coloured Peoples, an organisation which campaigned against racism. It describes the prejudice faced by two young boys evacuated to Blackpool.
Judith, Baroness Wentworth, ‘Back to the land’, pen and ink cartoons. Wentworth Bequest. Add Ms 75276
Other items reflect the hardships of rationing. Civilians were advised to grow their own vegetables and to salvage waste for reuse. Some women as in this cartoon were sent to work on farms to help food production. Not all foods were rationed and the restaurant Maison Prunier remained open through the blackouts, offering oysters to its clients.
Other documents record the work of volunteers including Vera Lloyd’s diary of her time with the Women’s Timber Corps. Dilys Powell, film critic for The Sunday Times, volunteered as an ambulance car driver and George Orwell, novelist, as a member of the Home Guard.
Many men and women registered as Conscientious Objectors. They were assessed at a civilian tribunal on the strength and sincerity of their beliefs. The Scottish poet Ruthven Todd describes working as a stretcher-bearer until his tribunal. Michael Tippett, the composer and pacifist, writes to his friend Evelyn Maude on the back of the Wormwood Scrubs Prison paper with a list of requests. Tippett was imprisoned following his refusal to accept the result of his tribunal to undertake non-combatant military duties.
Michael Tippett, Letter to Evelyn Maude, Wormwood Scrubs Prison, 1943, MS MUS 1757/5 f.26 Case 4
Usage terms - Reproductions of Michael Tippett’s writings are included by kind permission of the Trustees of the Sir Michael Tippett Will Trust. Except as otherwise permitted under your national copyright law this material may not be copied or distributed further. Held by© The Sir Michael Tippett Will Trust
Many Germans and Austrians fled the Nazi regime and thousands of refugees arrived in the UK. However, on the outbreak of war, all Germans and Austrians resident in the UK were classed as ‘enemy aliens’. Large numbers were interned in camps across the country. The letters and diaries of Ernst Roth, Konrad Eisig and Gwyneth Hansen reveal some of their experiences.
The final items on display reflect the war-time experiences of the novelist E.R. Braithwaite and The British Honduran Forestry Unit. Members of the Unit, sent to help fell trees in Scotland, were greeted with substandard accommodation and a lack of warm clothes. In his book, Amos Ford, one of the first contingent, recounts that the Hondurans often felt isolated in the remote Scottish forests but that, after initial mistrust, relationships with the local population improved and some married local women.
Members of the British Honduran Forestry Unit from Amos A Ford, Telling the truth: The life and times of the British Honduran Forestry Unit in Scotland. London, 1985. X.329/20351
The items on display represent only a small selection of the wealth of material relating to the Second World War in the Library’s collections and much more can be found via our catalogues.
Laura Walker
Lead Curator, Modern Archives and Manuscripts
Life on the Home Front at the British Library St Pancras