Keep calm and carry on was the headline in the local paper
following the Prime Minister's radio announcement that
Britain was at war with Germany. Many people did not hear
the broadcast at 11.15am on Sunday 3 September 1939 as
they were outside enjoying a lovely sunny morning. Almost
immediately the air raid sirens went off but there was no
panic. Those who were in church stayed there until the 'all
clear' was sounded (it was a false alarm).
This time Britain was prepared for war. Public air raid
shelters had already been constructed and ARP (Air Raid
Precautions) posts set up. Conscription and rationing were
introduced quickly, gas masks handed out and a blackout
imposed. This inevitably led to a huge increase in the
number of crimes and road accidents in Brentford. Factories
in the Great west Rd went over to making munitions and other
war work and women were called up to work on the production
lines.
Evacuation plans for Brentford schoolchildren (also blind
people and expectant mothers) were in place and on the day
war was declared the evacuees were collected by bus from
Braemer Rd and Clifden Rd. Mr C Walsh, the Brentford Schools
Inquiry Officer, told a reporter that 'The children were
cheerful and the parents bore the parting with remarkable
fortitude'. Many of the children were sent to Chesham,
Chalfont St Giles, Missenden and Berkhamsted in Buckinghamshire
and to Tring and other places in Hertfordshire Lionel rd school's
children went to Port Isaac, north Cornwall. Brentford schools
closed at the outset of the war but were reopened later with air
raid shelters provided. Flower gardens became vegetable plots and
land in Gunnersbury Park Boston Manor Park, and Carville Park was
allocated for allotments as a result of the government's 'dig for
victory' campaign. The local paper contained regular tips on what
to grow and how. Food rationing began in january1940. The weekly
ration was pretty meagre (only 8oz of meat). Clothes, soap and coal
were rationed later. In July 1940 a council meeting decreed that,
to eke out meat supplies, any householder or allotment holder could
keep pigs, hens or rabbits but no cockerels. Worried that people
might be eating adequately, the Borough opened a community kitchen,
serving mid-day meals five days a week in St Paul's Church Hall in
March 1941 in August this was converted into one of the Government's
'British Restaurants' with a three- course meal costing 1/2d (6p
into day's money).
I hope you enjoy the rest
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