{"id":1401,"date":"2020-04-15T16:28:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T15:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=1401"},"modified":"2020-04-15T16:28:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T15:28:49","slug":"coronavirus-and-wartime-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/coronavirus-and-wartime-britain\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus and Wartime Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

The current Coronavirus emergency has been likened to wartime Britain, so the Records and Archives Team have been searching through the (online) archives from home to find a few comparisons with World War Two.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Closing the doors<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In the last few weeks, it has been necessary for the University to shut the majority of its buildings and it has transformed itself into a virtual University, moving all teaching and assessment online.<\/p>\n

The last time the University shut its physical doors to its students was in 1939 at the start of World War Two.\u00a0 On 3rd<\/sup> September 1939, all teaching in our London buildings ceased and, for the first ten days of the war, classes were cancelled. \u00a0\u00a0However, the Poly soon rallied and by 13th<\/sup> September, a course in Electricity began for members of the Signal Corps.\u00a0 The Old Gymnasium was turned into a temporary air raid shelter, the Secondary and Craft Schools were evacuated to Somerset, and the Polytechnic HQ transferred to Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire. All sport ceased at Chiswick and the recreation ground was requisitioned initially by Middlesex County Council for use as an emergency mortuary, but later, when this proved unnecessary, was used by the armed forces.<\/p>\n

Repatriation\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the last month, many people have found themselves stranded abroad with limited access to travel home.\u00a0 On 25th<\/sup> August 1939, the Foreign Office told all tourists to return home to the UK because of the imminent threat of war.\u00a0 This left the Polytechnic Touring Association with an enormous task on its hands.\u00a0 The Polytechnic Magazine reported that \u2018not less than 1,500 British subjects who were in Switzerland with the Poly Association tickets had to be informed of this sudden evacuation\u2019.\u00a0 Every single tourist was safely returned to the UK, even a tourist who had got lost in Zurich and had to be searched for!\u00a0 The Polytechnic Chalets in Luzern were then turned into a military camp for the duration of the war.<\/p>\n

Stockpiling supplies<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stockpiling goods in times of crisis is also nothing new.\u00a0 The Polytechnic\u2019s War Comforts Fund was established to send parcels to the men fighting overseas.\u00a0 At the start of the War, it was the Fund\u2019s policy to keep stocks very low in case of aerial bombardment and consequent loss.\u00a0 Nevertheless, as rationing came in, it became necessary to stockpile items when they were available.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In October 1944, the Polytechnic Magazine reported the following story of Poly members \u2018who staggered into the Poly with vast quantities of sweets.\u00a0 This, of course, was just before sweet rationing came into force [in July 1942].\u00a0 Several wide-awake Poly people found that manufacturers of sweets were anxious to sell considerable quantities of sweets; and so we bought very heavily; so heavily in fact that stocks have lasted until now [October 1944]\u2019.<\/p>\n

Looking back on the war effort in February 1946, it was reported that \u2018some members of the [War Comforts] Committee did their turn in \u201cqueueing up\u201d.\u00a0 Silently but certainly cakes began to disappear from the shops; we were so short of cakes that, as indicated, some faithful workers joined the queues and bought just what they could and when they could\u2019.<\/p>\n

By 1946 the War Comfort Fund had raised over \u00a36,500 (approximately \u00a3231,000 today) to help the Poly\u2019s servicemen and those affected by the war.<\/p>\n

Positive thinking<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018No doubt, in time restrictions will be lessened.\u00a0 If and when the Poly can resume activities it will do so, and we shall all rejoice\u2019 \u2013 as noted in The Polytechnic Magazine<\/p>\n

The Record and Archives Team at Westminster collect and preserve records created by the University of Westminster and its predecessors in order to make them accessible for use both now and in the future.\u00a0<\/em>To find out more about the University’s history from our Record and Archives Team, visit their webpage<\/a>, follow them on Twitter @UniWestArc, or get in touch at archive@westminster.ac.uk\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The current Coronavirus emergency has been likened to wartime Britain, so the Records and Archives Team have been searching through the (online) archives from home to find a few comparisons with World War Two.\u00a0 Closing the doors In the last…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":246,"featured_media":1403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-1401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","category-general-interest","tag-archives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/246"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}