Growing Up in Wartime London

A country at war is very different from one at peace, a range of social changes quickly emerge. Men are conscripted into the armed forces and are replaced by women. The economy is rebalanced towards defence, and towards the production of war materials. Food and all basic commodities are controlled, and their consumption is rationed. The national culture changes.

The second World War which engulfed the UK and indeed many other countries had all these features, and much is known about the political, social and economic changes of those years in the UK from the adult perspective. Less is known about their effect upon children, and children’s perception of the times.

So how did youngsters adapt to the outbreak of war in September 1939, and what did they make of all the changes? Which were the most significant for them and what attitudes and activities continued as before? The author of this brief account was seven years old in 1939, and with his younger brother lived through the war years in London. The book provides vivid descriptions of life in wartime London as experienced by these two young South London boys, with their fears and excitements, their mischief, and what they made of the changing social environment.

Maurice Craft grew up in Southeast London during World War 2, personally experiencing the preparations for war, the fierce bombing raids, and the mass evacuation of children. Later, a graduate of LSE, he began as a schoolteacher and became a noted university professor in the UK and overseas, publishing and advising on education and the social environment. He returned to SE London on retirement, and in this book he recalls the anxieties, but also the fun and mischief he and his younger brother enjoyed during those dark war years.