PRESS RELEASE
                                                                                                                                                                     September 2008

STRANGER IN THE HOUSE
The WaterWay, Imperial War Museum North, 25 October 2008 – 1 March 2009. FREE

“When their war ended, our war began” One wife, now in her nineties, to her neighbour

Imperial War Museum North presents a small but unique display focusing for the first time on an often unspoken history, that of the plight of women whose lives were affected by the return of their men folk at the end of the Second World War. Using photographs and stories from the major new book of the same name by Julie Summers, Stranger in the House highlights how the war altered ordinary women’s lives forever, emphasising the fact that it was not just the bereaved that suffered following the end of the Second World War. For many women who had waited for months, but more often years for a beloved son, husband, lover or father to return, they soon discovered that the man who came home was not the same man who had gone away. While some stories are incredibly sad, others are joyous, but all are honest, very affecting and they all reflect a lifetime’s experience of the fall-out from the Second World War.

Anne Stamper with her parents in the early 1940s.

From 1945, more than four million British servicemen were demobbed and sent home after the most destructive war in history. These men, damaged by fighting, imprisonment or simply separation from their loved ones, returned to a Britain that had changed in their absence. For many it was a serious challenge, for ‘home’ was not what they had known when they left to fight. For some it no longer physically existed – their homes had been bombed or lost. For others the loss was emotional: parents had died, wives and girlfriends had moved on, children had been born. For a fortunate few nothing much at home had changed. Yet during the war, whilst these men were away, these women had coped with poverty, rationing, rearing a family and often a job outside the home, yet they rose to these challenges and embraced a new independence, often unaware of how they had themselves changed by their time coping alone. This display concentrates on these women: the mothers, wives, sisters, fiancées and then of course their own children and grandchildren who were caught up in the maelstrom of history.

The display will feature ten individual stories dealing with various aspects of the effect on family life of returning men, including what help and advice was available, how communication helped to bring people together again after the war and how the strains in marriages affected children. One or two of the names will be familiar to visitors, other stories will not be familiar but all will resonate. One whose name is known is Nella Last, the Mass Observation Diarist, whose story was brought to life by Victoria Wood in ‘Housewife, 49’. Her younger son, Clifford, joined the army in 1939 and returned home, injured, in 1944. Nella observed with sadness the emotional damage that the war had done to him. Clifford Last went to live in Australia after the war and his mother’s hope that he would one day work with his father in the family business was never fulfilled.

Barbara Cartland in her ATS Uinform, 1941.

Another familiar personality featured in the display is Barbara Cartland, who found fame as a romantic novelist, but who was also a devoted and generous welfare officer in the WVS (Women’s Voluntary Service) during the war. Her own family suffered a double tragedy when her two brothers were killed a day apart at Dunkirk, but it is her work with ordinary men and women that made her such a brilliant commentator and observer during and immediately after the war. Thousands of young women benefited from her advice. Perhaps her biggest contribution during the war was to collect together a pool of 150 wedding dresses so that WAAF (Womens’ Auxiliary Air Force) officers, who had to marry in uniform, could get married in white.

The accompanying book, Stranger in the House: Women’s Stories of Men returning from the Second World War, written by Julie Summers is published by Simon & Schuster, priced at £18.99 hardback and is available from the Museum Shop (ISBN: 978-0-74329-552-9)

NOTES TO EDITORS

Julie Summers,  Writer and Historian is available for interview
Julie Summers is the author of Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine, The Colonel of Tamarkan: Philip Toosey and the Bridge on the River Kwai and Remembered: A History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. She previously worked as an exhibitions organiser at the Royal Academy of Arts, the Henry Moore Foundation and the Ashmolean Museum.