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Ingham, Mary. 2019. 'Improperly and Amorously Consorting'

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Ingham, Mary. 2019. 'Improperly and Amorously Consorting' Ingham, Mary. 2019. ’Improperly and amorously consorting’: post-1945 relationships between British women and German prisoners of war held in the UK. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis] http://research.gold.ac.uk/26281/ The version presented here may differ from the published, performed or presented work. Please go to the persistent GRO record above for more information. If you believe that any material held in the repository infringes copyright law, please contact the Repository Team at Goldsmiths, University of London via the following email address: [email protected]. The item will be removed from the repository while any claim is being investigated. For more information, please contact the GRO team: [email protected] ‘Improperly and amorously consorting’: post-1945 relationships between British women and German Prisoners of War held in the UK Mary Ingham Thesis submitted for examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of History, Goldsmiths College, University of London March 2019 Declaration of Authorship I, Mary Ingham, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. 6 March 2019 2 Acknowledgements This study would not exist without the generous response of all the women and men who shared their personal memories with a stranger. I am greatly indebted to them and to their families. I also owe a large debt of gratitude to Heidi Berry, and latterly to Ingrid Rock, for their invaluable translation assistance. I must also thank Sally Alexander for encouraging the proposal, my supervisor Richard Grayson for his support and guidance through this process, and others who have offered constructive suggestions. Appreciative thanks also go to Vivienne Richmond, the History Department and Goldsmiths for enabling me to resume the project after personal circumstances necessitated a long period of interruption. 3 Abstract This thesis concerns transgressive gender relations in Britain in the aftermath of WW2. It examines illicit intimate relationships between British women and German prisoners of war held in the UK for several years immediately following WW2. In discussing the significance of these relationships relative to gender roles, sexual relations and war, this study seeks to re- address and add a nuanced aspect to the question of the effect of the war on British women. It is argued that in the context of the gendered dimension of the transition from war to peace, these controversial relationships highlight a neglected narrative of the conflicted early postwar years. By exploring the subjectivity of both sides, this thesis also attempts to show how these relationships demonstrate susceptibility among younger age cohorts to wartime influences on British women. Oral history testimony from the subjects themselves forms the main primary source material. These narratives, comprising interviews and correspondence with 38 former prisoners of war and 61 women, were mostly collected in the mid- to late-1980s, when many of the subjects were in their early 60s. A wide range of other sources, both primary and secondary, including official documents, newspapers and autobiographical accounts, has been used to complement, inform and verify or compare with the primary source material. Secondary sources have been drawn on for contextual, comparative and reference purposes. These initially prohibited relationships have been summarised in general discussion of fraternisation with UK-held enemy POWs, in terms of formal and informal policing of sexuality. This thesis argues for the relevance of exploring individual protagonists’ lived experience in greater depth, to clarify their place in the debate on post-conflict sexuality, and their significance in the context of war, gender relations and women’s history. 4 Contents 1. Introduction 6 Section A: Contrasting Enemy Subjectivities 51 2. Young British women and the disruption of war 54 3. Young German men – war and personal transformation 92 Section B: Subjectivity, Identity and Sexual Attraction 136 4. Forbidden fruit: the attractions of ‘otherness’ 139 5. Forbidden fruit: sexual hunger and challenged identities 190 Section C: Ex-Enemy Relationships in the Public Sphere 239 6. Intimate alliances in the public eye 241 7. Ex-enemy marital alliances 273 8. Conclusion 311 Appendices 314 Bibliography 329 5 Chapter 1: Introduction At 14, I met a German prisoner of war, whose face I can no longer fully remember, who filled all my life for one brief summer after the war… with guilt and happiness and a dread of being discovered. Beryl Bainbridge1 Drawing on subjective narratives from British women and former German prisoners held in the UK post-1945, this study aims to contribute to the field of post-WW2 gender relations and elaborate upon existing work on the UK presence of German POWs. Recent discussion of themes of women’s history points out that oral history has been effective in ‘restoring narratives of women’s agency’, referring in particular to the work of Lucy Bland in uncovering women’s agency ‘in personal and private contexts’; and that such narratives have often shown women to have exercised individual agency by ‘negotiation with and subversion of… [social] constraints.’2 This study takes a gendered approach, by including narratives from the male participants in these relationships and discussion of their lived experience and influence. As is discussed in more detail below, social histories of Britain have tended to overlook the postwar captive presence of German POWs; academic discussion of this presence has largely remained within POW studies, with some consideration in relation to migration. However, 1 Cited in Chris Hastings, ‘Beryl Bainbridge, a German prisoner of war and a secret love affair’, Sunday Telegraph, 11 December 2005 < http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1505198/Beryl-Bainbridge- a-German-prisoner-of-war-and-a-secret-love-affair.html > [accessed 29 January 2015]. 2 Catherine Lee and Anne Logan, ‘Women’s Agency, Activism and Organisation’, Women’s History Review, 2017, Special Issue Introduction, 1-4, (pp. 3-4); Kathryn Gleadle, ‘The Imagined Communities of Women’s History: Current Debates and Emerging Themes, a Rhizomatic Approach’, Women’s History Review, 22, iv (2013), 524-40, (p. 532). 6 recent commentators have advocated more interdisciplinary approaches, and begun to link the subject of POW fraternisation to issues relating to war and women. The present study builds on that association. It looks to position these relationships relative to discussion of effects of WW2 on British women, and gendered European post-conflict controversies. The following sections of this introductory chapter discuss the British and European context in the debate on WW2 fraternisation relationships; the marginalisation of UK-held German POWs, in relation to Britain’s ‘good war’ myth; and the relevance of age and developmental life stage to an understanding of change or continuity in British women’s lives in the aftermath of WW2. Amorously consorting – the British and European context In September 1946, more than a year after WW2 ended, over 400,000 German prisoners of war remained in the UK.3 Although some were billeted on farms, most were held all over the UK in hutted accommodation in camps or requisitioned large houses. The majority were held for two years after the war ended, ostensibly for re-education purposes but also for reparative rebuilding and agricultural work. Repatriation took place in stages, the last not leaving until mid-1948. Fraternisation (meaning any social contact with the British population) was forbidden until December 1946, when civilians were allowed to invite POWs into their homes and the POWs permitted to walk within a few miles’ radius outside their camps, but barred from entering pubs, shops or cinemas. In the British and American zones of Occupied Germany, social fraternisation had been permitted from mid-1945, with marriage between British servicemen in Germany and German women allowed from mid-1946. By comparison, 3 J. Anthony Hellen, ‘Temporary Settlements and Transient Populations: The Legacy of Britain’s Prisoner of War Camps 1940-1948’, Erdkunde: Archiv für wissenschaftliche Geographie, 53, iii (1999) 191-219, (p. 193) cites rounded official figures, including 402,200 in September 1946. 7 in the UK, social contacts with British civilians were not permitted until December 1946, and relationships of a romantic or sexual nature with women, including walking arm in arm, remained strictly forbidden, until July 1947. The official rationale was that such relationships would prejudice POW discipline. Nevertheless, numerous women and POWs defied this ban. Some liaisons were discovered; resulting prosecutions and courts martial were reported in local and national newspapers. Attitudes towards such relationships tended initially to be hostile; with time, public opinion became more sympathetic, although the issue remained controversial. In July 1947, with more than 250,000 Germans remaining in the UK as POWs, and following considerable public pressure to permit one POW to marry the mother of his child, the marriage ban was finally lifted. Nearly 800 couples are recorded as having taken advantage of the opportunity to marry. This figure is likely to be an underestimate.4 Additionally, given their hidden nature, it is impossible to estimate how many other relationships did not survive the difficulties. However, anecdotal opinion
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