Description
Object description
British schoolchild in London, GB, 1914-1917; worker with Barrow, Hepburn & Gale in London, GB, 1917-1918
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Blackfriars and Bermondsey, London, GB, 1903-1914: family; education. Recollections of period as schoolchild and worker with Barrrow, Hepburn & Gale in London, GB, 1914-1918: wartime work; air raids and sight of Zeppelins being shot down; wartime shortages and children foraging for coal and food; community feeling; father's wartime service; mother providing for family; childhood view of war; Second World War experiences; sight of troops on leave.
REEL 2 Continues: family's service experiences; anti-German propaganda; aspects of family life; work in emery mill; making gas masks; living accommodation and food; religious outlook; ignorance of nature of war.
REEL 3 Continues: public anti-German feelings; society's colour prejudice; social inequalities then and now; father's war souvenirs; evening classes and clubs; giving wages to mother; use of pawnbrokers.
REEL 4 Continues: leaving school aged thirteen, 6/4/1917; school collection for Jack Cornwell VC; financial hardship while father serving in Army; lighting fires for air raid watchmen; reactions to seeing Zeppelin shot down; coal and food shortages; mother taking in washing; cheap food; scavenging coal and fruit.
REEL 5 Continues: work in emery mill, 1917; pay and hours; sheltered upbringing. Aspects of period as worker with Barrrow, Hepburn & Gale in Bermondsey, London, GB, 1917-1918: description of work in gas mask factory; working conditions.
REEL 6 Continues: strike breaking; ignorance about use of gas masks; street games; impressions of Australian troops in London; sight of father in uniform; anti-German propaganda.
REEL 7 Continues: wartime songs; local civil disturbances; brother in law's field punishment and later death in front line; Belgian civilians resident in Bermondsey. Aspects of period as civilian in Seaford and London, GB, 1939-1945: air raids; attempted German infiltrators at Seaford; coastal defences. Aspects of period as civilian in London, GB, 1914-1918: damage to German shops.
REEL 8 Continues: sheltering from air raids; living conditions; giving pay to mother; leisure activities; mother's restrictiveness and own religious feelings; Second World War air raid experiences; mother's restrictiveness.