CENSUS UNSEALED
The early 1920s were a very different era, with some very familiar problems. Now history fans can take a glimpse into the lives of kings, commoners, prime ministers and future pandemic heroes a century ago, in a Britain still reeling from the horrors of war and riddled with inequality.
Among the 38 million people included in the June 19, 1921 survey were prime minister David Lloyd George, and King George V.
Even the one-year-old Thomas Moore, of Keighley, Yorkshire, gets a mention... some 99 years before he would find fame as Captain Tom Moore, raising £30milllion for the NHS during the pandemic.
Supersleuths will also be able to uncover an entry for Arthur Conan Doyle – creator of Sherlock Holmes.
As well as his wife and their three children, the then 62-year-old paranormal enthusiast had three overnight visitors to his home, prompting speculation he may have been taking part in a seance.
While the great and the good are here, the most powerful – and
Arthur Conan Doyle
revealing – responses come from the man and woman in the street
Crippling unemployment and a changing jobs market left many, including heroes from the First World War feeling hopeless.
And a housing shortage meant whole families were often packed into one-bedroom properties.
Among those who underlined the hardship endured by the working classes was James Bartley.
A father of three young children from Sussex, James wrote in his census return: “Five persons living in one room. Stop talking about your homes for heroes and start building some houses and let them at a rent a working man can afford.”
Constance Beatrice Halstead, of Burnley, Lancs, wrote: “The only difference between the ordinary worker and a convict in England is that the worker may choose where to lay his head at night, and the convict’s choice becomes the command of another.”
Alice Underwood, 53, from Buckinghamshire, was also fuming as the jobless figure hit around 2.5 million. “What a wicked waste of taxpayers’ money at this time of unemployment,” she wrote of the census.
Some found time for humour.
David Lloyd George Car tax discs
■ introduced.
■ Australia’s national cricket team becomes the first to complete a whitewash of the touring England team in The Ashes, something that will not be repeated for 86 years. ■ Coal rationing starts. ■ Only 13 paying spectators attend Leicester City vs Stockport County at Old Trafford, the fewest in Football League history.
■ Crown Prince Hirohito becomes first member of Japanese royalty to visit United Kingdom.
■ Humorist wins The Derby. Result is broadcast live by wireless for first time.
■ Music retailer HMV Crockford, a 31-year-old printer from London, married to Florence, described three-year-old daughter Joan’s occupation as “keeping mum busy”. Audrey Collins, historian at the National Archives, said: “We can actually see at first-hand people’s quite heartfelt comments. “You don’t protest about something if you’re just a bit irritated, these are real cries from the heart opens first shop in London.
■ Airship R38 explodes on her fourth test flight near Hull, killing 44 of the 49 on board.
■ Charlie Chaplin visits London and is met by thousands.
■ First women are admitted to study for full academic degrees at the University of Cambridge.
■ The steamer SS Rowan sinks off the coast of Scotland, killing 22.
■ The British Legion holds the first official Poppy Day.
■
John William Gott becomes the last person in England imprisoned for blasphemous libel. Amputee veterans march for fallen comrades
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Children in street near Holy Trinity Church, Coventry
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Racegoers at Ascot show off their outfits and headwear
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– undoubtedly, things were very, very grim for an awful lot of people.
“There were an awful lot of people out of work, and that didn’t really get better over the coming decade.”
The toll of the First World War is keenly felt.
There were 1,096 women for every 1,000 men, around 1.7 million more in total in England and Wales.
Some three years after war ended, retired Army officer Harold Orpen, 46, originally from London said sorry for giving a typed response rather than the required handAlbert