UNIT 1 Britain in 1945 L What is this unit about? A This unit focuses on what life in Britain in 1945 was like. In this unit you will: I • find out about life in Britain in the post war years, socially, politically and economically • be introduced to the differing types of sources historians work from and theR strengths and weaknesses of these sources. EDEXCEL Key questions E • What was Britain like socially and economically in 1945? • What were the key features of the British political system? T BY A Timeline 1939 September Outbreak of Second World War 1940 May Churchill becomes Prime Minister of a CoalitionM government May/June Dunkirk – evacuation of the British Army from France 1941 Lend Lease inaugurates massive US aid to BritainE 1942 Publication of the Beveridge Report urging a system of national insurance and comprehensive welfare L 1944 June D Day – successful invasion of France by Britain and the USA August Butler’s Education Act P 1945 May Germany surrenders July General election – Attlee forms the first majorityENDORSED Labour government M September Japan surrenders A The end of war S YET Britain of 1945 might appear in photographs and film as a strange, grey and deprived world. Its rubble-covered bomb sites, its queues for limited supplies of goods and its relative absence of cars, mark a society very different from today’s society. There are two reasons for this: NOT 1 L A I R E EDEXCEL T BY A M E L P Consensus and Conflict: British Political History 1945–90 ENDORSED M A YET S • Britain was very different socially and economically. • the impact of the Second World War, even after peace had been The prospectdeclared, of peace was brought in evidence wild rejoicing everywhere. as Sources A, B and C show. Source A NOT 2 Source B Cartoon by Carl Giles, Sunday Express 19 August 1945 [156Cartoons WWII] VE celebrations in Piccadilly Circus, 8 May 1945 Britain in 1945 1111 2 Source C 3 4 5 6 L 7 8 9 A 1011 1 I 2 3111 4 R 5 6 EDEXCEL E‘VE street party 1945’ 7 by Edwin La Dell 8 9 T 20111 S IL S BUIL ER BY 1 K L D 2 1 In what ways do the three visual representations differA in value as 3 historical evidence? 4 2 Which in your opinion is the most useful and which the least? 5 3 How might the three be used together by an historian?M 6 7 8 A lost world 9 E 30111 Old industries 1 Working class men really did wear flat caps Land there were many more 2 engaged in heavy manual labour than there are today. Over a half a 3 million were members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and 4 coal mining was a major industry producingP over two hundred million tons 5 most years. The coal produced literally covered Britain with soot, 6 engraining buildings and contributing to the dank smog that enveloped 7 ENDORSED most cities. Coal was used to heat most houses and power most industries. 8 M It was a key component in the production of steel, the steel industry being 9 a major contributor to the British economy. It was also the fourth largest 40111 industry in the world. 1 A 2 British ship-building was still operating on a large scale, with production 3 second only to that in the UnitedS States. Coal mining,YET steel and 4 shipbuilding had experienced problems between the first and second world 5 wars but recovered during the second world war. There were still many 6 large textile factories operating in the North West of England working five 7 and a half day weeks, the hooter at midday on a Saturday signalling the 8222 start of the ‘the weekend’. NOT 3 Consensus and Conflict: British Political History 1945–90 New industries Industries such as motor cars and electrical goods, had grown up in the Midlands and around London. These factories were new and light compared to the heavy industries of the North, South Wales and Scotland but it was still the old manufacturing industries that dominated industrial output. L Transport system A The transport system relied heavily on the railways. The road network was in its infancy and there were no motorways. ISteam engines puffed and chugged from one end of the country to the other. The railway closures of the 1960s were still two decades away and although there was much talk of modernisation and electrification, new steamR locomotives like the Britannia Class were still being built in the late 1940s and early 50s. E EDEXCEL Standards of living By the standards of the twenty-firstT century, living standards were low but they had been rising throughout the twentieth century as had life expectancy. In 1945, £5 per week was a good wageBY and marked a man as a well-paid worker. Few marriedA women worked especially if they had children and it was still widely accepted, even by women, that a ‘woman’s place was in the home’. Foreign holidays before the war had been extremely rare and during the war impossible, but the annual weekly holiday to the seaside hadM become established and was quickly resumed in the late 1940s. Entertainment E Entertainment centred around the radio, which most families possessed, and the cinemas,L which drew millions of viewers every week. The Daily Mirror or the Daily Express were likely to be the paper of choice for those working-class families which took a daily paper. In many households these ended up tornP into strips and used in the lavatory. The public house attracted many men but alcohol consumption had fallen sharply since Edwardian times as taxes onENDORSED beer and spirits had been increased. Sport was a nationalM obsession. Football matches drew vast crowds of supporters and the Wembley cup final was a major national occasion blessed by the presence of the royal family. In summer, cricket transcended all classes. LargeA numbers played in village and club teams and the likes of Yorkshire’s Len Hutton were national heroes. YET TheS class structure The better off working class shaded into the middle class but the badges of class were still distinct. White shirts, not blue, marked the middle class as did the bowler or trilby rather than the flat cap. The possession of a car, just over two million in 1940, or of a telephone, just over three million, NOT 4 Britain in 1945 1111 and a bank account were middle class traits. The Victorian badge of 2 middle-class respectability, servants, was disappearing but it was the 3 middle classes who enjoyed the new labour saving devices, such as the 4 vacuum cleaner. The type of house clearly pointed to the occupants’ class. 5 Detached or even semis conferred respectability. Newspapers like the Daily 6 Telegraph, or in the North, the Manchester Guardian, signalled middle- L 7 class status. 8 The middle classes shaded into the upper or ruling class. Here a private 9 A education at one of the more established public schools followed by three 1011 years at Oxford or Cambridge were features of the upper classes as was 1 I ownership not just of an imposing house but also an estate. Wartime had 2 imposed all manner of hardships but key aspects of the old lifestyle 3111 survived such as membership of a London club, participation in shoots and 4 R hunts and the possession of servants. Churchill’s private secretary, John 5 Colville, records his return home in May 1945. EDEXCEL 6 E 7 8 Source D 9 T 20111 Wednesday 2 May 1945 BY 1 Went home to find the married couple whom mother has engaged had arrived 2 A and also that she had discovered that the man had just completed a three year 3 sentence for fraud and embezzlement. This was something of a shock, but we 4 decided after dining at the ‘Good Intent’, that we ought to give him a chance to 5 make good. Besides his wife seems honest and hardworking.M All the same, an 6 ‘old lag’ for a butler with several previous convictions, is something of an 7 experiment. Mulberry Walk now begins to look charming. 8 9 From Sir John Colville The FringesE of Power, Downing Street Diaries 1939–1955 published 1985 30111 1 L 2 3 The awareness of class was a pervasive aspect of British society at the SKILLS BUILDER 4 time, commented upon by many writersP and journalists. The American Source D is from a 5 reporter Ed Murrow wrote in 1946 about his impressions of England on his diary. Does this make 6 arrival in the 1930s: ‘I thought your streets narrow and mean; your tailors it more or less useful 7 ENDORSED over-advertised; your climate unbearable; your class-consciousness to the historian who 8 M offensive.’ is researching British 9 society at the end of 40111 the Second World 1 Education A War? 2 The education system both reflected and helped to reinforce class 3 differences. System is perhapsS misleading implyingYET some element of 4 planning. Education had received some reform in 1870 and 1902 but 5 in general had evolved rather than been part of a long term strategy. 6 In the 1930s most children attended state elementary school, which they 7 left at 14. Only 14 per cent went on to attend secondary schools and 8222 half of these paid fees, even if they went to the state grammar schools.