Description
Object description
British schoolchild in Hoxton, London, GB, 1911-1921
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as schoolchild in Hoxton, London, GB, 1911-1921: family; family's living conditions; bathing and washing; parent's work; memories of German air raids on London; Armistice Day celebrations, 11/11/1918; later awareness of hositility shown towards German community in London; sight of troops marching in Hoxton; brother's conscription for military service; food shortages and meals; attending children's play centre in Tavistock Square; parent's drinking habits; father's treatment of family; role of women in family.
REEL 2 Continues: bathing and public baths; family's accommodation; gas supply; how tenants in debt would 'shoot the moon'; overcrowding and sleeping arrangements; presence of vermin in house; clothing; free meals from Alexandra Trust; Sunday school outings; toys and Christmas parties; games played in street; making toys; swimming in Regents Canal.
REEL 3 Continues: visit to British Museum, 1917; swimming in lake in Victoria Park; bicycle rides around London; education at Napier Street School; refusal of trade school opportunity; pay as tea boy on building site; own health and infant mortality rate; incident of violence and police reaction; prevalence of drunkenness; own parent's drinking; family use of pawnbroker; shops and Hoxton Market; outing to Loughton with Salvation Army; family Christmas celebrations.
REEL 4 Continues: other holidays; mother's piano playing and contact with local church; question of unimportance of religion to local people's lives; education and literacy; air raid warnings; sheltering in brewery during air raid; local trades; special wartime policemen; relations between police and local people; significance of doctor's car; lack of medical care available; mother's experience of childbirth.
REEL 5 Continues: helping victims of influenza epidemic, 1918; sight of returning war wounded; police searches for those avoiding military service; reaction of local populace towards German bombing; how children used German names as insults; attitude towards Treaty of Versailles and German reparations, 1919; British opinion of American troops; visits to cinema.