The Day War Broke Out by Jacky Hyams

Author:Jacky Hyams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Blake
Published: 2019-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

Phil Gunyon settled in Canada. Following a long career with Alcan Aluminium Ltd, he has maintained a lifelong interest in military history.

5

HOW WE LIVED THEN

ON 29 SEPTEMBER 1939, 65,000 PEOPLE (DESCRIBED BY the somewhat unlovely term as ‘enumerators’) were sent out to every home in the United Kingdom to register the details of everyone living in every household. This was Registration Day, planned by the General Registry Office in December 1938, and the information recorded that day is known as the 1939 Register.

In a sense, the 1939 Register proved to be a mini census of the UK population at that time. A census is normally taken every ten years. But with war fast looming, the decision was taken to create the 1939 Register as a means of recording everyone in the country who would require an identity card.

The next census was not due until 1941; it was half hoped, in 1938, that there might still be a peacetime census, making the 1939 Register an interim resource. Events, of course, proved otherwise, for the war lasted long after 1941 (a new census was not taken until 1951). As a result, the 1939 Register documents the basic details of the lives of forty-one million people as war broke out.

On Registration Day, householders were asked to complete a form giving details of everyone living in their house. In return, they would receive an identity card and a ration book in the post. Everyone needed to give their full name, address, sex, date of birth, marital status, occupation and/or details of whether they were a member of the armed forces or reserves.

The enumerator’s job, going from household to household, was not an enviable one, as described in January 1939 by the General Register Office.

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