Description
Object description
British civilian worked at Schneiders Garment Factory in Mile End, London, GB, 1915-1919
Content description
REEL 1 Family background in East End of London, GB and in US, 1900-1919: brother's wartime military service and delayed shell shock; wartime entertainment in London's West End; voyage to US, 1906; life in Brooklyn, New York, US, 1906-1913; father's cigar making work; impressions on return to East End of London, 1913; aspects of pre-war life in New York and East End of London.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of period as civilian worker at Schneiders Garment Factory in Mile End, London, GB, 1915-1919: food shortages; description of work in Abrahams and Gluckstein Cigar Factory, 1914-1915; pay; move to Miers Factory hand sewing khaki caps, 1915; pay and buying clothes; learning to make caps on machine at Schneiders Garment Factory; swimming in lake at Victoria Park, Hackney; frugality.
REEL 3 Continues: blood poisoning from khaki cap work in factory; change in women's financial position effected by wartime earnings; importance of women's suffrage; mother's attitude towards children; family's financial situation and living conditions; making sample caps at Schneiders; pay and hours.
REEL 4 Continues: unawareness of war conditions; social life; composition of factory workforce; factory working conditions; women's reactions to news of war deaths; learning facts of life.
REEL 5 Continues: air raids; hearing Silvertown Explosion, 19/1/1917; sailor boyfriend recieving white feather; marriage, 4/1919. Aspects of post-war life in East End of London, GB, 1919-1930: husband's work, illness and subsequent death; description of wedding; attraction of foreign servicemen in London; accommodation and financial hardship when married.
REEL 6 Continues: becoming dressmaker; memories of Second World War. Aspects of life and work in East End of London, GB, 1914-1919: food; mother's attitude to children; husband's courtship; social life; British civilian and service attitudes towards American troops; post-war conditions; life in Brooklyn, New York, US, 1906-1913; Armistice Day celebrations, 11/11/1918; effect of war on women's lives.