Christmas At War

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		Making your own entertainment was often the only option. A prominent feature of Christmas festivities during the First and Second World Wars was the singing of songs and carols, and entertainment such as pantomimes and plays.

		Click on image for larger version Q 12726. Mr Leslie Henson's Company: Christmas pantomime Aladin at Lille. Bert Errol as the Princess. 1918. © IWM.

		W M Floyd (87/35/1). As an orderly in the St John Ambulance Brigade, Mr Floyd served in hospitals in France from September to December 1914. In this extract from his diary, he describes the 'spanking' Christmas he spent there - a highlight of his service. Read extract.

		Alan Potter An Australian NCO who served with 2/28th Bn in Australia; the Middle East and North Africa (1940-1942) and was a prisoner of war in Italy and Austria (1942-1945). Here Alan Potter discusses the Christmas he spent in a POW camp in the Austrian Alps in 1944, where 'making your entertainment' was the only respite from the privations of prison life: such as the cold, boredom, sickness and lack of food. Listen to sound extract \| Read transcript
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Click on image for larger version

A 13429. Christmas entertainment on board a
destroyer depot ship at Scapa Flow, 1942.
In the dressing room before the show.
Nearest the camera Leading Stoker R C Wright
making up Stoker A J Barnes, in the
background, Stoker F Dickinson being made
up by Stoker A Hills. © IWM.