Post-War Britain

What was the UK like in the 1940s?

In 1942 a man called William Beverage wrote a report about poverty in which he said Britain faced five giant evils. These were:

Disease- There was no free medical treatment

Want-lots of people were poor often through illness or unemployment

Ignorance- Most children left school at the age of 14 or younger

Squalor-There wasn't enough council housing available for everyone

Idleness- At least 10% of the workforce before war had been unemployed


Rationing

Rationing was introduced in January 1940 as the war caused a shortage of supplies ecspecialy food. When the war ended in 1945 people had looked for a better life but things did not happen straight away and rationing didn't stop. The war had been extremely excpensive for the Goverment because they had to cover all the awful bomb damage. Britan had borrowed millions of pounds from the USA. Food rationing finally come to an end in 1954 9 years after the Second World War had ended.

Things begin to change

  • The teenagers got fed up of listening to the boring music ran by the older generation and they wanted to have no interuptions but the older generation wouldn't agree to letting the newer music be played on the BBC. The teenagers wanted to change the style.

Radio Caroline was a radio station run by Ronan O'Rahilly. He had to make his own radio station beacause the other stations were run by the older generation and didn't play any different songs just the same old boring songs, so he made his own for teenagers. he broadcast his radio on internationol water.


  • Radio Luxemburg Music was not only played on the BBC but on Radio luxemburg too. Young people tuned in to Radio Luxemburg late in the eveining when their parents went to bed. Teenagerswere beging to develope their own taste in music and they would listen to the American music pkayed by Radio Luxemburg


  • Radio in the early 1950s young people could only listen to what their parents were tuning into. On the radio there was a show called family favourites played the standard classics. People wanted something new.

Aneurin Bevan

Aneurins farther was a coal miner. Aneurin's parents had ten children four died when they were babies and one died at the age of eight. tradgically this was all to common for poor families. Aneurin left school at the age of thirteen, but Aneurin continued to study in his own time.

He also became involved with a trade union. Aneurin became known as someone who fought for safer conditions for his fellow miners. Aneurin fighted as hard as he could for free health car but he didn't succsed at first but he wouldn't rest untill it was done.

In 1919 Aneurin stood for the labour party in an election. The labour party tried for free healthcare and they won!. The NHS was desingend to be "cradle to grave" Aneurin also beleived that everyone should have good housing state so he helped to build concuil houses.

Here is a picture of Aneurin Bevan and the logo of the NHS we see today.