After the Second World War Britain saw arrivals of folk from all across the globe – many from Commonwealth countries who were intrigued to discover what the ‘mother country’ was like. But it was also a time when some British people decided to leave – to emigrate.

The situation in Britain was dire. For some families, it seemed that everywhere they looked all they could see was hardship. Decent housing was difficult and sometimes impossible to achieve, rationing of basic foodstuffs was still in place, secure employment was often unattainable and with the war debt hanging over the economy it seemed that the situation would be unlikely to change any time soon.

No surprise then that in spring 1948 a Gallup poll indicated that around ’42 per cent of people wanted to emigrate’ (Austerity Britain by David Kynaston). Nevertheless, there was a big gap between wanting to leave and…

When I dig around in my tin of old photos I find a picture of my brother – just a toddler at the time – standing in the kitchen sink to be washed. In 1940s Britain this would have been a typical scene in many houses as few had indoor bathrooms, with the only running water being a cold supply to the kitchen sink. Perhaps an gas-fired Ascot water heater would provide a little hot water, but for many families the only way to heat a large amount of water – enough for a bath – would have been to put a large copper pan over a coal fire to heat it up. The water, once heated, would be poured into a tin bath that would be taken down from its hook on the outside wall of the house and placed into the middle of the kitchen. Imagine how much…

Imagine yourself in 1940s Britain, when it was more than likely you would be sharing an outside toilet with other houses in the street, or sharing one on the landing of your block of flats. The kitchen sink might have doubled up as a bath for the little ones in the family, and the luxury of an electric washing machine was yet to arrive in most homes.

Monday was washday for most people. And the popular choice for the weekly laundry was to tackle it by hand – using the kitchen sink or a copper pot and a wooden scrubbing board to scrub the clothes. Steam clogged up the windows and red-faced housewives used all their energy to tug at the clothes with wooden tongs, trying – sometimes in vain – to keep their hands out of the boiling hot water! It was really back-breaking work. Then it was a…

The 1940s brought many much-loved ‘crooners’ into the homes of millions, via gramophone records and via the wireless. Families put their 78rpm vinyl record on their turntable, or tuned in to the BBC Light Programme to listen to the likes of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Perry Como.

Amazing to think that Bing Crosby’s White Christmas (recorded in 1942) still tops the charts of favourite Christmas songs, some seventy-five years on – having sold more than fifty million copies worldwide.

Of course, once the BBC Forces Programme came on air at the start of the war, Vera Lynn charmed listeners with her sentimental and uplifting songs.

The early part of the decade saw the popularity of the Big Band sound, led by the artists such as the wonderful Glenn Miller, and Benny Goodman, who accompanied crowds in the dance halls. But towards the end of the decade the sound of…

When the Second World War ended it didn’t mean the end to all hostilities. Britain still had a commitment to provide military support in Germany, Palestine and India. Opponents struggled with the idea that young men, just returning from six long years of a terrible war, should be called on to serve once more. And so when Clement Atlee’s Labour government presented the National Service Act to Parliament in 1947 it took some persuading to get it through.

However, despite the political disagreements, the Act came into force in January 1949, requiring all physically fit males between the ages of 17 and 21 to join and serve in one of the armed forces for an eighteen-month period.  National Service did not extend to women.

Once the eighteen months were complete the men would remain on the reserve list for another four years, during which time they might…