Description
Object description
British schoolgirl in Poplar, London, 1914-1918; pupil at Upper North Street School, Poplar during German air raid on 13 June 1917.
Content description
REEL 1: Recollections of period in Poplar, London, 1914-1918: memory of Zeppelin raid; use of Blackwall Tunnel as air raid shelter; family background; queueing for food; no air raid sirens to warn of raid; use of Rotherhithe Tunnel as air raid shelter; mother took in lodgers; education; opinion of teacher Mrs Mountford; recreational and sporting activities; story of singing UK national anthems at school assembly; description of air raid on Upper North Street School, Poplar, 13/Jun/1917; ran down staircase and saw pupil Annie Pickard with her leg blown off; description of classrooms and teaching staff; death of pupil Rose Martin; majority of casualties among younger children; pupils sent to Cirencester for two weeks while damage repaired; pupils sent to Bridport, Dorset for seven weeks; returned home for Christmas; number of pupils killed in air raid; one of nine children in family; further description of school and teaching staff; story of visit to Poplar by Sylvia Pankhurst; left school age 14½; story of street party to celebrate the Armistice, 11/1918; childhood games; holidays in Kent and Southend; story of Sylvia Pankhurst organising picnics for children; story of attending memorial service for children killed in air raid; story of teacher wrapping her petticoat around an injured girl's leg after air raid; reaction of mother and father to hearing bomb exploding and coming to the school; effect of air raid on nerves; description of washing facilities in home; story of contracting scarlet fever and hospital treatment; opinion of school; story of elder sister working at one of Sylvia Pankhurst's restaurants.
REEL 2 Continues: medical care in school; use of Blackwall Tunnel for Suffragette meetings; description of home in Poplar and local area including shops in Frith Street; story of receiving medal at school, 1920; problem of lack of opportunities; attitude of family to religion; mother made clothes for children; poor children given food tickets to redeem in shops and for school dinners; description of tuition in cookery, laundry and housewifery skills; further comments on contracting scarlet fever and shops in Poplar; price of food; story of husband winning £5 prize for being best milkman; aspiration to be a shorthand typist.
REEL 3:employment as milliner and in laundry; problem of finding work in Poplar until after the war; daily life during the Second World War; rationing; death of friend's parents in flu epidemic; story of having a stroke.
REEL 4:further comments on family, childhood and education in Poplar; attended night school; further comments on bomb hitting school in Poplar, 13/Jun/1917; deaths and injuries; story of Italian ice cream man's daughter being one of the victims; various memories of May Day and Empire Day celebrations; further description of street party to celebrate the end of the war, 11/1918; further comments on elder sister's activities with the Suffragettes; reaction to Labour victory in 1945 General Election; various memories of the General Strike and opinion of the police, 1926; marriage, 1935.