Series Descriptions
War, State and Society provides access to a vast array of ministerial, local, and propaganda records relating to the management and experience of British society in wartime:
Wartime collections of U.K. government departments:
- Home affairs meetings and of reports the Lord President’s Committee and Food Policy Committee (War Cabinet)
- Domestic intelligence surveys and daily updates on the security situation (Ministry of Home Security)
- Intelligence reports on political disruption and morale (Ministry of Information)
- Records of the Government Evacuation Scheme (Ministry of Health and Board of Education)
- Reports on reserved occupations and the wartime workforce (Ministry of Labour and National Service)
- Refugee Papers and records of the Advisory Council on Aliens (Foreign Office)
- Social reconstruction surveys (Ministry of Works and Buildings)
Records of local wartime organisations and surveys from across the U.K.:
- Surveys on the social impact of bombing in local areas
- Evacuation progress reports from the Ministry of Health’s Regional Evacuation Officers
- Progress reports, census data, and welfare activities in local bomb shelters
- The minutes and tribunals of local Food Control Committees, responsible for enforcing rationing and prosecuting offenders
- Administrative and welfare records of the Women’s Land Army, an auxiliary agricultural workforce
- Organisational records and self-penned histories of local units of the Home Guard, the volunteer defence corps established in anticipation of an invasion
Collections of Government Propaganda
- Wartime film production documents from the Ministry of Information and Crown Film Unit
- Kitchen Front broadcasts from the Ministry of Food’s Public Relations Group
- Advertisements and public notices for a variety of government bodies and initiatives sourced from the History of Advertising Trust Archives
