Blitz Spirit with Lucy Worsley
We watched this interesting programme this afternoon. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000sm7s/blitz-spirit-with-lucy-worsley Lucy Worsley takes a historians look at what happened from the time war was declared to London Blitz and how the general public reacted. It is seen through the eyes of a series of people involved in helping and gathering information. One aim was to try and discover whether there was such a thing as "Blitz Spirit" Reporting of the facts was strictly controlled and even the famous photograph of St Paul's at the height of the Blitz was actually edited so that it didn't give a true representation of the damage nearby. One interesting snippet is the the "Keep Calm and Carry On Poster" which was never used in the war and we only know about it because a copy was discovered in the 1970's!!!
One thing that struck me in watching the programme was the similarities between the Blitz and the COVID crisis in terms of how some sections of the community have been treated.
David
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It’s sort of the reverse of what is happening now. Media strictly controlled, bad news censored. Dad used to tell me about looking out from his family air raid shelter, high on one of our hills, peeking out and watching with a horrid fascination as Sheffield and its steel works were on fire. Mum still has a small collection of shrapnel picked up after raids, by her and her little brother.
Not sure DK, but did it mention Barter Books at Alnwick as where the poster was found? We bought a poster and a couple of KC&CO t shirts years ago from there, I think they had the reproductive copyright? Don’t think it was actually ever used.
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One motivation for watching was my Dad. There are pictures of him in the family of him in command of an Army Fire Service appliance during the Blitz. I have no more information than that as he was reluctant to speak about it. He didn't hold back on Winston Churchill who I didn't think he had much time for which I never got to the bottom of but I suspect the Government's reaction during the Blitz might have influenced him being an Deptford lad?
Re the Keep Calm and Carry on poster. Firstly Margaret thought I might have the date of discovery wrong it may have been later. There was no mention of where or by whom it was discovered by from memory just that it was.
David
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It doesn’t surprise me your Dad was reluctant to say much, they were very brave, but must have dealt with some horrendous things. Truly right in the thick of mayhem. Mum and Dad were not that old, still children, but they used to tell us some stories of being in Anderson shelters, all the bartering of different rations that went on. Dad’s older sister was married to a soldier, he spent a couple of years in a German POW camp. Wouldn’t talk about it to anyone, left deep scars. He was a lovely man though.
I found this, which does indicate that Barter Books was involved in resurrecting the Keep Calm thing somehow. We bought our poster sometime in early 1990’s I recall, just as the trend for all things “Keep Calm and....” kicked off. Bright red, very retro. We bought it as a bit of fun for back of bathroom door😂 I still have my original t shirt.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/mar/09/keep-calm-and-carry-on-secret-history
If you haven’t been to Barter Books, it’s fabulous for book lovers. A tourist attraction in itself, all housed in Alnwick’s old station. Waiting rooms have lovely warm fires, deep sofas, great cafe. Huge place, full of interest.
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My Father was a Police officer based at Gloucester road station when i was born in Kensington ,(i was evacuated to Weston super Mare) but neither he or my mother would talk about any thing to do with the war,
The address on my IDcard (still have it
) is no longer there but the houses either side are still shown?0 -
Just watched video on link above. I think I must be mistaken about when we bought our poster, must be later than I thought, maybe early 2000’s. The perils of visiting lots of times, confusion sets in🤪
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We discovered a box of diaries after my Dad died, written from age sixteen to the time he met my Mum in his thirties. The war time bits are interesting as he was living in a place that was heavily bombed. He was a Home Guard as well as doing communications work, some of which he refused to ever reveal, there are trips to London to meet people that I now realise were connected with the war not work. The war diaries start with "digging an Anderson shelter in the back garden with Mr B the next door neighbour." This would have been a horrible job as it was on heavy clay, damp and miserable to spend any time in too. Dad used to really laugh at Dad's Army, he knew the drill.
He was on fire duty when incendiary bombs hit the roof of his work place.
Every family has a tale to tell.
I haven't had time to view the programme so will look forward to it on iplayer. It sounds good.
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I thought the programme was thought provoking as it raised issues that I hadn't thought about, even given that I have seen a lot of programmes over the years on the same subject! A couple of examples was the first German bombing raid used incendiary bombs. It had not occurred to me or had I seen this mentioned before but perfectly logical that they provided a guide to the target in the later raid that day. The second thing that struck me was that the Germans struck at low tide so it was very difficult to get water from the Thames to fight the fires.
David
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Sounds very interesting, I like Lucy Worsley, very good presenter. Is on our catch up list. OH’s Dad was out in Africa and Middle East, while his Mum Was a nurse up in Middlesbrough. My Mum and Dad were a bit younger, luckily too young to have to join up.
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OH was watching the snooker last night so I watched the "Blitz Spirit" on iplayer (not easy on our present slow wi-fi, but just a couple of blips..)
Consequently I woke up in the middle of the night, was it the cheese on toast or those graphic words and images?!
I think the eight foot bomb in Exeter this weekend was a bit of reminder of those times.
Without the written histories much would be lost in the passing of time. It was quite a sobering programme.
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So very true Brue. It’s often the little snippets like letters home, and diaries that bring history truly to life, particularly for ordinary folks, as opposed to Royalty. I have my Dad’s old tin box of letters, etc. Lots of letters from Grandad and Grandad’s brothers and sisters. Biggest worry seemed to be if Ebor meeting at York Racecourse would go ahead during War. 😂They lived close to racecourse, so it was a big part of life. But lots of lovely stuff on a personal level. Future generations will miss out on a lot of this, as letter writing, post card sending doesn’t happen like it used to, it’s mainly electronic nowadays, Deleted User after a while. Hopefully, someone, somewhere will be archiving stuff for the future. Such a life changing event as we are living through at the moment will have its place in history at some point.
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