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Abstract
This article investigates the portrayal of evacuation in the Daily Express during the Second World War, in particular it will analyse how the Daily Express’s coverage of evacuation represented the family. It addresses the ways in which family are presented in the evacuation stories and the extent to which this developed and changed over time by conducting the first in-depth quantitative analysis of the Express content in wartime. There is a central enigma at the heart of the Express’s evacuation coverage, and it requires greater investigation. How did a popular newspaper, which defined itself as a ‘family friendly newspaper’, discuss a scheme which intrinsically broke up ‘normal’ family life? While the Evacuation Scheme broke up individual families, thereby changing a central aspect of British society, it ultimately sought to create a new type of ‘family’ in its place, with new foster families taking on the role of ‘temporary parents’, providing familial continuity and stability for children in the countryside. Ultimately, the Daily Express wanted to be useful to its readers and help them adapt to their new wartime lives, however, its image of ‘new families’ in the newspaper was based upon a traditional, more conservative, image of family life in wartime. Men and women occupied traditional roles within the family unit, with the images and ideas regarding family used to reassure the Express’s readership, demonstrating that particular social values were constant despite wartime difficulties. This article demonstrates why it is so important to study newspaper content in detail, showing that the popular press is central to our understanding of wartime life and the contrasting opinions, experiences and ideas which characterised British society in 1939.
Notes
1 TNA INF 1-256, Letter from Sir Walter Monckton to Sir Kenneth Clark, 15 June 1940.
2 TNA, HLG 108/3, Sir Thomas Fife Clark, “Evacuation,” 7 May 1941.
3 Opinion, Daily Express, February 7, 1940, 6.
4 McKibbin, Classes and Cultures, 82–90.
5 Ibid., 171.
6 Calder, The People's War, 300.
7 Koss, The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain, Vol. 2, 615–56.
8 Smith, Paper Voices, 52.
9 Bingham, Gender, Modernity and the Popular Press, 246.
10 Marwick, “Total War and Social Change,” 4–5.
11 Family Newspaper was a term used during the inter-war period to succinctly describe and target readers for the benefit of editors and advertisers. By identifying an appropriate readership, newspapers could then create appropriate content for its pages. See The Newspaper Press Directory 94th Annual Issue 69, 71.
12 MacNicol, The Evacuation of Schoolchildren, 5.
13 Titmuss, Problems of Social Policy, 23–4.
14 CAB 16/191, “Evacuation: Report of Committee of M.P.” Cmd. 5837 July 1938.
15 TNA CAB 19/191, Sir George Chrystal “Draft Civil Defence Emergency Scheme ‘Y’ Minutes,” 29 June 1938, 26.
16 Titmuss, Problems of Social Policy, 105.
17 Ibid., 104. Padley and Cole, Evacuation Survey, 46–7.
18 Padley and Cole, Evacuation Survey, 36, 57–8.
19 Ibid., 43.
20 Clark and Torns, Evacuation—Failure or Reform? 2.
21 TNA, AN 2/10/19, R.H. Hill, Ministry of Transport Memo, 19 May 1939. TNA, HLG 108/19, “Memo for Mr E.R.,” 8 December 1939.
22 TNA AN 2/10/19, Ministry of Health, Emergency Arrangements: Evacuation of the Civil Population Part II.
23 TNA, HLG 108/19, Anon, “Memo for Mr E.R.,” 8 December 1939.
24 Ibid.
25 See, for example, The Express's coverage of ‘Gas Mask Sunday’, highlighting the issues of public safety in the event of destructive air raids, Daily Express, 26 September 1938, 5. Also, see Daily Mirror, 19 September 1938, 2. The Times, 21 September 1938, 7.
26 Daily Express, 6 January 1939, 1.
27 Sir John Anderson, “Civil Defence Bill,” Parliamentary Debates –Commons, 4 April, 1939, Vol. 345, col. 2633–2634.
28 The following papers, the Manchester Guardian, The Times, the Daily Herald, News Chronicle, Daily Mirror and Daily Express were consulted from the period September 1938 to August 1939. All major references to evacuation were noted and examined with a view to determining the main lines of approach of the papers to the issue.
29 Daily Express, 23 January 1939, 1. See also Daily Mail, 22 February 1939, 10.
30 Daily Express, 25 January 1939, 10.
31 Daily Express, 23 January 1939, 1.
32 Daily Express, 25 January 1939, 10.
33 Daily Express, 25 January 1939, 10. Daily Express, 26 January 1939, 10.
34 Daily Express, 25 January 1939, 10. Daily Mirror, 12 February 1939, 12.
35 Daily Mail, 23 May 1939, 7. Daily Mail, 24 May 1939, 9.
36 Daily Express, 6 January 1939, 1.
37 Daily Mail, 24 May 1939, 9.
38 A full outline of the methods used for this article and other work by the author can be found in Caroline Dale, The Daily Express, Family & the Second World War, 1939–1945 (PhD Thesis Aberystwyth University, 2015).
39 Daily Mail, 1 September 1939, 3. Daily Herald, 1 September 1939, 1. Daily Mirror, 2 September 1939, 14–15. News Chronicle, 2 September 1939, 9. Daily Herald, 4 September 1939, 8.
40 Daily Express, 1 September 1939, 5. Daily Express, 1 September 1939, 5.
41 Daily Express, 1 September 1939, 1. Daily Express, 1 September 1939, 5. Daily Express, 1 September 1939, 5. Daily Express, 2 September 1939, 9. Daily Express, 6 September 1939, 7.
42 Daily Express, 4 September 1939, 5. Daily Express, 6 September 1939, 7. Daily Express, 7 September 1939, 10.
43 Daily Express, 12 September 1939, 8. Daily Express, 14 September 1939, 7. Daily Express, 23 October 1939, 7. Daily Express, 6 November 1939, 8.
44 Daily Express, 21 September 1939, 9. Daily Express, 22 September 1939, 7.
45 Daily Express, 19 September 1939, 3. Daily Express, 19 September 1939, 5. Daily Express, 15 September 1939, 5. Daily Express, 28 October 1939, 6. Daily Express, 8 November 1939, 7.
46 Daily Express, 2 November 1939, 7. Daily Express, 3 November 1939, 7. Daily Express, 8 November 1939, 7.
47 Daily Express, 23 October 1939, 1. Daily Express, 2 November 1939, 1. Daily Express, 3 November 1939, 3.
48 Macnicol, The Evacuation of Schoolchildren, 18–19.
49 TNA, HLG 108/19, “Evacuation and the Return of Children to Dangerous Areas.”
50 Hartley, Understanding News, 31. Daily Express, 4 December 1939, 12. Daily Express, 4 December 1939, 12. Daily Express, 18 December 1939, 7.
51 Daily Express, 20 December 1939, 1. Daily Express, 11 December 1939, 5. Daily Express, 9 December 1939, 7.
52 Daily Express, 19 December 1939, 6.
53 Daily Express, 19 September 1939, 3.
54 Daily Express, 1 September 1939, 5. Daily Express, 1 September 1939, 5.
55 Daily Express, 1 September 1939, 5.
56 Daily Express, 3 November 1939, 9. Daily Express, 9 November 1939, 9.
57 Daily Express, 23 October 1939, 7. Daily Express, 24 October 1939, 7.
58 Daily Express, 14 December 1939, 3. Daily Express, 13 December 1939, 6.
59 Daily Express, 27 October 1939, 6.
60 Daily Express, 16 December 1939, 3. Daily Express, 21 December 1939, 7.
61 Daily Express, 5 December 1939, 5. Daily Express, 20 December 1939, 6.
62 Daily Express, 14 December 1939, 3.
63 McKibbin, Classes and Cultures, 198–201.
64 Daily Express, 5 September 1939, 5. Daily Express, 7 September 1939, 3. See .
65 HATS Archive, “Duplication of Readership Table” (1939), 71–2.
66 Mass Observation File 1339, Report, 6.
67 The surveys used for this article include, A Survey of Reader Interest in the National Morning and London Evening Press (1934) (Pub. London Press Exchange), The Readership of Newspapers and Periodicals in Great Britain (1935) (Pub. ISBA: The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers Ltd.) and the IPA Readership Survey (1939).
68 Daily Express, 6 December 1939, 3.
69 Daily Express, 13 December 1939, 3.
70 Daily Express, 6 December 1939, 3.
71 Daily Express, 8 December 1939, 3.
72 Daily Express, 8 December 1939, 3.
73 Calder, The People's War, 18–19, 44.
74 Daily Express, 19 September 1939, 3. Daily Express, 19 September 1939, 5.
75 Smith, Paper Voices, 52.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Caroline Dale
Caroline Dale, Independent Scholar.