Swindon in the Past Lane

In the final days of 1940, London received yet another pounding from the Luftwaffe during which serious damage was caused by fire in the historic City area. “An army of firemen, wardens, workers and civilian volunteers battled with the thousands of incendiaries showered on the district,” reported the Advertiser. Several incendiary bombs were dropped on St. Paul’s but Cathedral staff managed to prevent any serious damage. “At one time the Cathedral was ringed with fire,” the report continued.  Cheapside was badly damaged with building after building reduced to a scarred and blackened shell. Back home in Swindon things were much quieter.  Brides who walked down the aisle on the last Saturday in 1940 included Ida Muriel Green of 73 Rodbourne Road, who married Engine Room Artificer Reginald Rouse at St. Augustine’s Church.  Annie Seward Stratton of 7 Buller Street married L/Cpl Frederick Charles Monk at St. Barnabas’ Church while Margaret Louise Avery o...

W.W. Wakefield Conservative MP With the war in Europe over, Winston Churchill faced increasing pressure at home to call a General Election.   Winding up the wartime National Government he went to the country to ask the electorate to give their mandate to his Conservative Party. With the town’s newly honoured former MP, Sir Wavell Wakefield, contesting the Marylebone seat, Lieutenant Col. Alistair Gibb became the Conservative candidate in Swindon where he hoped to hold on to his predecessors 975 majority.  His adversary was Labour candidate Thomas Reid. Among the 59,898 names on the new electoral register were 4,679 service voters.  However since its compilation, hundreds of war workers billeted in the area had returned to their homes. “I regard it as the greatest compliment I have yet received that all the boo boys should have followed me here tonight,” said Col. Gibbs, addressing an eve of poll meeting held at the Drill Hall.  Meanwhile, at a Part...

This week's episode of Wartime Farm saw historian Ruth Goodman getting to grips with the availability of ordinary foodstuffs, rationing and the role the Women’s Institutes played during the war. In Swindon the first meeting of the Food Control Committee took place during the second week of September 1939.  It was already anticipated that there would be rationing of butcher’s meat, bacon, butter, margarine, lards, fat and sugar. Chairman of the new committee, Swindon Mayor Harry Hustings, announced that plans for the registration of customers was under way and that forms would be sent to every household within the week.  Ration cards would be issued and it was hoped that food queues would be shorter than during the previous war.  Mr Hustings commented that as far as he could see there would be little opportunity of profiteering in food stuffs. The rationing of coal as of October 1 was announced and supplies, along with gas and electricity for domestic and sm...

Shortly after 11.00 am on September 3, 1939 Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was forced to break the news everyone expected but no one wanted to hear. In a radio broadcast made from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street, Chamberlain announced, that for the second time in a generation, Britain was at war with Germany. By 1921 Austrian born WWI veteran Adolf Hitler was leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, popularly known as the Nazi Party. In the 1932 July elections he led the Nazis to a victory which saw them become the largest party in the German Parliament with over 37% of the votes and 230 seats. Throughout the 1930s Hitler climbed the political ladder in pursuit of his ambitions, the creation of a thousand year Third Reich and the annihilation of the Jewish people. In defiance of the Treaty of Versailles he had rebuilt the German armed forces in preparation for the seizure of Lebensraum, ‘living space’ for his Aryan master race. Hitler resolved to reunit...

Despite the growing deprivations on the home front, hard pressed Swindonians were asked to dig deeper into their pockets as Britain entered a second year at war - and the response was phenomenal. "It does not matter how much we women detest war, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that in this war women and children are in the front line," May George, Swindon's first Lady Mayor 1935-36 wrote in a letter to the Evening Advertiser.  "Let the women of Swindon show what they can do to help in the defeat of the enemies of everything that we hold dear." Just days before the town's War Weapons Week was to begin, ten people were killed and several others injured during an air raid on October 20, 1940.  Houses in Rosebery Street took a direct hit while a second bomb dropped in the middle of an adjoining road.  Local residents were commended for their great fortitude and the calm way in which they responded to the emergency. If ever the people of Swindon needed ...