No smart phones, no computers, no email, no internet, no Google Maps, no instant news or weather forecast, no social media, no lasers, no drones, no satellites, and no National Health Service. That, plus military conscription, wrecked housing, and food and clothes rationing, was how it was for the UK population living through the 1940s. Life was very different then. We owe today’s freedoms to the soldiers, airmen, and sailors who fought during World War II and to the civilian population who lived through that time. Today the Badger is marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day in 1944, the scale of which was awesome, by celebrating those who took part and all the 1940s civilians whose spirit during hardship and adversity influenced society in subsequent decades. Here’s the story of one war time civilian.
Born in the London Borough of Holloway in 1928, this civilian was a boy who enjoyed school and played football in the street with a ball made from rolled-up newspapers and string in the 1930s. At the age of 10 in 1938, the boy’s father died from the long-term impact of an injury sustained during the 1914-18 War. In 1939, a year later aged 11, the boy and his 6-year-old brother were evacuated to Hitchen on the declaration of war. They were hosted together by a number of different families until 1942 when their mother died in London making them orphans. The boy, now deemed an adult at the school leaving age of 14, was separated from his brother who was sent to a Dr Barnardo’s home. The 14-year-old boy found work in a Hitchin leather tanning factory until 1946. He spent much of his spare time with the local Home Guard as a young volunteer doing routine chores. It was something he enjoyed, and it gave purpose to his life. In 1946, aged 18, the man was called up for 18 months National Service with the Royal Engineers, during which he enlisted in the regular Army because ‘it provided purpose, camaraderie, structure, discipline, education, and an opportunity to better oneself’.
The man served in Germany as part of Operation Woodpecker providing reconstruction timber from Luneburg Heath and the Harz Mountains, and then in the Suez area as part of Middle East Land Forces (MELF). He progressed through the ranks and left the army to marry in 1953 taking with him an integrity and a set of standards, disciplines, and values that he lived by throughout his civilian life. This man was the Badger’s father. He didn’t participate in D-Day, but his hardships and spirit, and those of others like him, had a big influence on the Badger’s generation and have contributed to the freedoms we value today.
Make do and mend. Keep calm and carry on. No such word as can’t, try. If you want a good life, get some qualifications. Things are never what they seem. If life knocks you down, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again (from Nat King Cole’s song). These were the mantras of his life. Will we ever see a future generation with the determination, discipline, resilience, and values of those who lived through the 1940s again? That’s an open question, because the digital world continues to change everything…
