SEPTEMBER 3, 1939 On the edge prepares to How life went on as world hurtled into global conflict

It was one final warning. It would be ignored and, within hours, the world would go to war.

The front page of The Sunday Post of September 3, 1939, spelled it out. “German forces must withdraw” was the headline above a story beginning “Last night Britain and France still awaited Hitler’s reply to the final warning that the guarantee of Poland will become operable unless German troops are withdrawn”.

Hitler had invaded Poland two days before and, when Neville Chamberlain’s Saturday night ultimatum delivered in a packed House of Commons was ignored, the Prime Minister declared war the next day. It came as no surprise.

Plans were already well under way – gas masks for all and huge spending on munitions. The same front page revealed “All men between 18 and 41 to register” and public spaces, like Princes Street Gardens, in Edinburgh, had been dug up for air-raid shelters.

Swathes of Scotland were carved out for airfields, sea defences and seven emergency hospitals to cater for anticipated casualties.

Tom Johnston, the regional civil service commissioner, and later Scottish Secretary in Churchill’s coalition government, reported the evacuation of 140,000 children away from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee had gone smoothly.

All of this was co- ordinated by the Scottish Office from its HQ in the capital, St Andrew’s House, on

Calton Hill. Plans for the building’s formal opening by the King and Queen were cancelled along with the orders from Dobbies to provide rooftop gardens.

The art deco landmark was quickly blackened by soot and grime from the railway below – electrification was talked about by 1940 but took another 50 years – and the modernist design apparently appealed to Nazi planners, who had it earmarked as their potential base after Britain fell.

Other articles in The Sunday Post that day struck a mixed tone of trepidation for the future and reassurance that normal life continued.

They included the Francis Gay column reporting: “In this time of wars and rumours of wars… there is yet peace for those who will carry on the week’s work with willing heart and calm conscience.”

The first article to clear the wartime censor was an account of