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WORK: UNEMPLOYMENT, REGISTRATION AND DEMOBILISATION 1939-46
TC 27: 3 boxes
Introductory note
This Topic Collection has been somewhat artificially created from boxes and files of material labelled 'Registration', 'Unemployment', and 'Demobilisation'. There is considerable overlap with other Topic Collections, especially TC 75: INDUSTRY, TC 29: FORCES, TC 32: WOMEN IN WARTIME and TC 6: CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS and researchers are advised to follow up the material in these other boxes in order to get a fuller picture of Mass-Observation's studies in these areas
DW, October 1980
BOX 1: UNEMPLOYMENT 1939: DEMONSTRATIONS; MILITARY REGISTRATION AT EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES 1940
27/1/A: Unemployed demonstrations as news
Notes and newspaper article: "40 million people say this to Mr Renton", Daily Mirror, 11.1.39 by TH. Criticisms of 'unemployed stunts' organised by Mr Renton and the unemployed workers, comparisons with the press attention given to a news story about Mr Grover who flies single-handed to Russia to bring back his wife, Jan 1939
27/1/B: Newspaper cuttings
Coverage of the 'unemployed stunts', eg delivery of a coffin, a 'lie-down' in the street, demonstrations before Chamberlain flies to Rome etc, Jan 1939
27/1/C: Survey of attitudes to 'unemployed stunts', 1939
Interviews with 'down and outs', London (LT)
Interviews with working class people in Fulham and Central London (LT)
Interviews asking about both the 'stunts' and the Mr and Mrs Grover news in Walworth (7.1.39), Newington Butts and Elephant and Castle (8.1.39) (AH) and in Lewisham among middle class people (PBS)
27/1/D: Effect of war on jobs
Informal interviews (DH) London 22.8.40
27/1/E: Attitudes to conscription 1939
Interviews about conscription carried out in a working class housing estate, by AH, 28.4.39
27/1/F: Registration Day for the 25s, April 1940
List of London Employment Exchanges (BW). Annotated copy
Memo: preliminary reaction to reports (TH)
Report: Registration Saturday, 6.4.40 summary of work (TH)
Report: For King and Country by Willy Goldman 15.4.40
Report: Registration of the 25s by Newman Turner with cutting from Peace News
Typed list : "Registrations", 2.4.40, (TH)
Two typed letters from Nicolas Bentley at the Ministry of Information. 5.4.40 and 6.4.40
Typed list : "Employment Exchanges in London", annotated in pencil, 5.4.40, (BW)
Eight typed sheets of instructions to individual Investigators concerning the day's work, 5.4.40, (TH)
Typed time-sheet giving details of telephone messages from Investigators
Typed memo from Tom Harrisson to Investigators containing guidelines for the Labour Exchange investigation : "Points for everyone", 6.4.40, (TH)
Typed report : "Attitudes of applicants to Ministry of Labour Employment Exchanges", 24.8.40, (HH)
Typed "remarks" on the Labour Exchanges investigation, 22.8.40, (CF)
Copy of standard letter to women from the Women's Employment Federation concerning the Emergency Register
News cutting from the London Evening News, containing article about registration at Croydon Labour Exchange, 6.4.40
Typed indirect outside/on Labour Exchanges (JS) 26.8.40
Copy of "Impression" outside Hendon Labour Exchange (JS) 27.8.40
27/1/G: Correspondence with Panel members 1940
Draft letter from Mass-Observation to Panel members asking for reports on Registration Day (6 April). Lists of people contacted with addresses; notes on which Panel members are conscientious objectors
Replies from Panel members
27/1/H: Registration observations from Panel
Detailed reports from Panel members on the military registration of 25 year olds at Employment Exchanges in England and Scotland
27/1/I: Registration observations from full-time Observers
Observations made chiefly in London but also in Bolton and Farnworth by full-time workers (HN, JA, BW, CP, AH, DH, BA, HP, SS, NM, GT)
27/1/J: Leaflets relating to Registration 1940
Printed leaflets collected during observations at Employment Exchanges. Includes pacifist and anti-war material
27/1/K: Further registration observations from full-time Observers
27/1/L: Juvenile employment: interviews at Labour Exchange Feb 40
BOX 2: ATTITUDES TO DEMOBILISATION DURING THE WAR 1941-43
27/2/A: Attitudes to the postwar situation 1941
Summary of investigation carried out in five London boroughs, Sept 1941 (TH): expectations of postwar employment prospects
Collection of indirect comments about demobilisation policy postwar (JS) 23.7.41 in Mill Hill and Willesden. Indirect comments also collected by GD 23.7.41
27/2/B: The Demobilisation Study 1943
Pamphlet: Looking Ahead, Conservative Party Policy on a points system for demobilisation, Sept 1943
Report: Demobilisation, proposals for the study of the subject, 24.5.43 (with note scribbled on 'for EJ')
Summary of work on indirects (NW)
Report on postwar world (mostly conversation about Germany after the war) 27.8.43 (CG)
Report on Demobilisation questionnaire from AE Rodway in Manchester Area, 5.8.43
Typed manuscript on demobilisation, 1943
Miscellaneous papers and notes
27/2/C: Demobilisation: indirect comments 1943
Attitudes to demobilisation collected by LB, VT, PB, GB, GST, FM, ALS and others including comments on the early demobilisation of women, the points system, the demobilisation of Civil Defence workers and so on. Mostly carried out in London but also in Lancashire towns and Basingstoke villages
27/2/E: Press: demobilisation 1943
Discusses priority demobilisation, women and the Conservative Party policy on a points system
27/2/D: Panel attitudes to demobilisation 1943
Opinions sent in by Panel members, Nov 1943 based on their own feelings and those of their friends and colleagues. Many of the replies are from people in the Forces
27/2/F: University students' attitudes to demobilisation 1943
Notes on their personal opinions written by students in Manchester
27/2/G: Discussions in War Factories
Report (duplicated): An experiment with discussion groups in war factories, July and August 1943 by Amabel Williams-Ellis, Alan Jarvis and Michael Young
Reprint from the Spectator: Factory discussions by Amabel Williams-Ellis, 29.10.43
27/2/H: Osrams Survey 1943
Correspondence between Mass-Observation and Mr Chelioti of Osrams-GEC Lamp Works in Hammersmith Nov 1943 with three duplicated memoranda:
- "Recruitment of women workers to factories", Aug 1942
- "Labour recruitment in the lamp, valve and glass industries" Aug 1943
- "Part-time women workers" June 1943
27/2/I: Osrams Survey 1943
Attitudes of women workers towards demobilisation, Aug-Sept 1943. (indirect comments)
27/2/J: Postwar employment 1943
7 questions asked about hopes and fears for postwar employment prospects, collected mainly in London but also in Lancashire (Bolton and Manchester), Bishop Auckland and Newark (LB, FM, AC, GST, EG, GB, GM)
27/2/K: Results of demobilisation study 1943
Tabulation sheets of results and notes (JF)
27/2/L: Opinions of schoolgirls 1943
Attitudes to demobilisation collected from a small group of secondary schoolgirls aged 16-18
BOX 3: THE JOURNEY HOME 1944; ATTITUDES TO DEMOBILISATION 1945-46
27/3/A-C: Draft manuscripts of The Journey Home
Final version with various annotated and revised sections (notes by TH and BW). Mass-Observation publication on visions of a postwar world
27/3/D: Discussion Groups reports
27/3/E: Forces' attitudes: demobilisation 1945
Reports sent in by Panel members in the Forces, Oct 1945
27/3/F: Opinions on demobilisation 1945-46
Comment collected by GST and LB in London, 11.9.45
Various assorted reports on demobilisation 1945-46
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