Keep Them Safe, Keep Them Happy

Norwich
1939
Silent
2m

Sweet and touching wartime cinema appeal for 300,000 London children spending Christmas far from home.

It would take a stony-hearted viewer not to be touched by this sweet and unassuming appeal film for funds to create a fun-filled Christmas for London's evacuated children during WWII. Scenes of happy, healthy kids romping in haystacks serve to reassure anxious city parents that all is well with their distant charges, while the narrator's lilting tones make a persuasive tug on the purse-strings.

Appeal for a Christrmas treat fund for evacuated children.

Life Under Fire

The horror of Luftwaffe bombs coloured daily life in Britain's cities and beyond, and war brought myriad daily hardships besides. But Britain could take it!

The Blitz receded after May 1941, but even after the Battle of Britain, the nation faced a barrage of incendiary bombs, V-1s and V-2s. While young men fought Axis powers across three continents, their families listened anxiously to the wireless, while many worried too about children far from home. But in the face of the destruction, sirens, blackouts and hours in shelters, the now-legendary 'Blitz spirit' kept despair at bay. Britain held her nerve thanks to mutual support, defiance and wit - plus a good grumble and as many cups of tea as rationing allowed.