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…

The 1940s were a golden time for cinema, with some of today’s most loved films and revered actors emanating from that decade. Just look at this for a snapshot of what 1940s cinema goers could choose to see…

• Rebecca, directed by Alfred Hitchock, starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier and receiving an Oscar for best picture (1940)
• The Philadelphia Story, directed by George Cukor, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart (1940)
• The Grapes of Wrath, directed by John Ford, starring Henry Fonda (1940)

• Citizen Kane, directed by and starring Orson Welles (1941)
• Gone with the Wind, went into general release, starring Clark Gable and Vivienne Leigh – still one of the highest grossing film in history (1941)
• The Maltese Falcon, directed by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart (1941)
• Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman premieres in New York (1942)
• For…

In 1940s Britain the wireless was one of the key sources of home entertainment and news. Since the 1920s – when the first musical broadcast was aired from the Marconi Research Centre in Chelmsford – the wireless radio provided the backdrop to family life. Once the BBC received its Royal Charter in 1926, becoming the first national broadcaster in the world, households got used to turning on their wireless to be entertained, as well as to be informed.

Back in 1940 the BBC Home Service provided a wide range of programmes, everything from classical music, short stories and drama, schools programmes, comedy and sport. It was on the Home Service that the nation heard King George VI announcing the start of the Second World War, and throughout the war years wireless radio provided a vital link for families divided from their…

Before we look at what youngsters were getting up to during the 1940s let’s consider some of terminology that we are so familiar with today – words that we tend to associate with young people…

Hooligan

Origin late 19th century, first found in British newspaper police-court reports in the summer of 1898, almost certainly from the variant form of the Irish surnameHoulihan, which figured as a characteristic comic Irish name in music hall songs and newspapers of the 1880s and ’90s.

Oxford English Dictionary

What about ‘vandal’? Well, that goes way back to the fourth or fifth century…

Vandal

A member of a Germanic people who ravaged Gaul, Spain, Rome and North Africa and more recently (since mid 17th century) a person who deliberately destroys or damages public or private property.

Oxford English Dictonary

In their original form neither term seems to refer exclusively to young people and…

For the first half of the 1940s Britain was in the grip of war, followed, once the war ended, by years of austerity and hardship. So what about reading habits during those years? Was there still an attraction in the escapism offered by a good book? It seems the answer was ‘Yes’. Despite paper rationing, labour shortages and even the difficulties of censorship, people were still keen to read. Here is a snapshot of ten books published during the 1940s that – according to Goodreads – helped to shape that decade.

• 1984 by George Orwell
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry
• The Stranger by Albert Camus
• A Streetcar named Desire by Tennessee Williams
• Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
• Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
• For the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• A Tree…

When Britain entered the Second World War in September 1939 the country was governed by a National Government, a coalition of all the political parties, as well as a number of individuals who belonged to none of the parties. Conservative politician, Neville Chamberlain, was Prime Minister but by spring 1940 he bowed to pressure to resign, with another all-party coalition taking centre stage, led by Conservative, Winston Churchill.

Churchill famously led the country in defeating Germany but just as the war was ending the war-time coalition broke up, with Labour leaving the coalition, sparking the election of July 1945. After Churchill’s successes in rallying the country behind Britain’s fighting forces many believed another win for the Conservatives was a foregone conclusion. Instead it was Labour who won a landslide victory, led by Clement Atlee.

The magnitude of the loss was historic. The Labour Party…