Alan Allport's website

Tuesday, 4th June, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Journalist James Lansdale Hodson comments on the job-hunting experiences of a friend, an ex-Flight Lieutenant, DFC: "My pal from the RAF who is a solicitor has just drawn the dole for three months (£2 5s) for himself, wife and child. When the Labour exchange demurred and said they'd soon find him a job, he said: 'OK, you do it. Three hundred solicitors are looking for one.' They referred his case to headquarters. But he got his dole (17s 6d)."

Monday, 20th May, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

On the sixth anniversary of the British occupation of Iceland, the owner of the English bookshop in Reykjavik writes to the Times to commemorate the servicemen who took their turn in the lonely garrison post during the war:

I was one of the many who on that memorable day roamed the streets of Reykjavik from morning to night to see what was taking place ... the spring and summer of 1940 were among the very worst within living memory, and the only shelters the men had at their time were their tents. It must have been a miserable life for them. But in spite of all these disadvantages, and even direct provocation, the proverbial British good temper and their genial humor remained unpeturbed, a moral victory of the first magnitude.

"I am 36 years of age and have done five years in the RAF," writes 'Another One of the Many' to Picture Post. "I was demobbed in November and returned to my old job as a grocer's assistant. I have the remarkable wage of £143 per annum. I asked for a higher wage, but it was a case of take it or leave it. I have been with the firm since I was fifteen."

Friday, 17th May, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

"How do I become someone's 'regular customer'?" complains a John Bull reader in Warrington this week. "Since being demobbed, I need cigarettes and a paper every morning on the way to work. But several shops have told me clearly that they can only serve their regular customers. As I have been unable to be a regular customer anywhere for five years, I am fast being forced into becoming a non-smoker and non-reader."

Another John Bull correspondent is unhappy about career opportunities for ex-servicemen. "My cousin, a corporal in the Royal Corps of Signals, who had had a highly technical training, was looking forward to a job in engineering or radio when he was demobbed. But both the advisory council and the employment exchange were very definite. 'Go back to your old job,' they told him. Now he's back at the provisions counter earning £3 a week. Of course, he has prospects - he may rise to be a manager at £4 a week."

Tuesday, 14th May, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Journalist James Lansdale Hodson quotes in his diary a45-year-old ex-Squadron Leader who recently went to the Ministry of Labour Appointments Board: "The man I saw says this: 'One of my colleagues tries to raise morale by saying lots of jobs are going. Not true. Not only not lots, but practically none. I have 170 men who want work - youngish middle-aged men, years of work left in them; but nobody wants them. Employers say they'll have lost during the war all the skill they had.''"

Thursday, 9th May, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

"It is an exciting moment for the service girl when she pulls off her khaki cap for the last time and exchanges the khaki tunic and skirt for the new clothes she bought for her return to civvy street," begins the Daily Herald's 'Womansense' column by Cicely Fraser today: but "by the time leave is finished," the paper warns, "she may be feeling less elated ...

The question of a job is looming up. Of course, she can go back to the factory or the shop where she worked six years ago. But very often she doesn't want to. She has been doing an open air job, or perhaps something responsible and dangerous on a gun site. She feels that the effort to adjust herself into the old rut is too much.

Fraser suggests contacting the ATS Ex-Service Employment Office, which is working in liaison with the War Office and the Ministry of Labour to place ex-servicewomen in congenial work positions. "It may be clerical - many factory workers and servants have had clerical training in the Army and want to use it. Or it may be something more glamorous - a mannequin's job or a driver or a ship stewardess." Up to 30 people are interviewed at the Office each day: one ex-corporal said: "this place gives you the feeling that you haven't lost the wartime comradeship you felt in the Army."

Tuesday, 7th May, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

On the eve of the first anniversary of the German surrender, the Minister of Labour addressed a meeting at the Guildhall yesterday to report on the progress in resettling ex-servicemen and -women in civilian employment during the twelve months of peace in Europe, reports the Times. Mr. Isaacs had much to be pleased about; up to the end of March about 2,700,000 persons had been released from HM Forces, and it was expected that another 1.25 million would be out of uniform by the end of 1946. Isaacs spoke at some length about the special problems of disabled ex-servicemen. About 400,000 persons were listed on the official Ministry of Labour disabled register, and of those only 53,000 were still unemployed, 44,000 of whom were assumed to be able to compete in the insustrial labour market under ordinary terms.

Also in the Times: plans for the 8th June Victory Parade in London are in progress. More than 14,000 men will line the roads and direct traffic, including several thousands serving troops, RAF Police, and many reserve retired policemen who have volunteered for special duty.

Monday, 6th May, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Emanuel Shinwell, Minister of Fuel and Power, yesterday praised the work of ex-servicemen who have returned to Britain's coal mines, reports the Times. The country began the past winter with an eight million ton deficit in coal stocks - so the achievement of Britain's attenuated mining workforce in producing enough fuel to get her through the coldest months was, Shinwell said, nothing short of a miracle. But he warned audiences in Newcastle and County Durham that another 40,000 men were needed urgently for face working.

Reporter James Lansdale Hodson notes in his diary: "A remark made to me by a dweller on the south coast: 'There are not so many burglaries now the troops have gone.'"

Saturday, 4th May, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Ex-servicemen were warned in the House of Commons yesterday against fake agencies which are offering bogus jobs to the demobbed, reports the Daily Herald. Glasgow MP Sir James Hutchinson, a former French resistance liaison for Special Operations Executive, said that no amount of legislation would stop a fool and his gratuity from being parted: "Some people ask for trouble by investing in horses and dogs and other hazardous enterprises ... [but] a small group of unscrupulous people may well catch out men who are in no way fools but honest, plain, decent soldiers, sailors, and airmen."

The discussion took part during a wider House debate on unemployment. The Minister of Labour announced that in March 1946, 371,000 persons were registered unemployed across Britain. One problem is the geographical distribution of postwar job opportunities: while Scotland and South Wales continue to suffer from surplus manpower, in the West Midlands there are five jobs available for every two persons willing to fill them. London too is crying out for workers.

Flying Officer Charles Crichton, still awaiting demobilisation, writes to his mother from Iraq: "The German PoWs with us are nearly in the same boat as our men. They just sleep behind different sets of wire … I hear from [his brother] David that he is in a naval form of Belsen.”

Wednesday, 17th April, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

J.J. Astor, chairman of the Times, writes to the paper in his capacity as President of the National Association for the Employment of Sailors, Soldiers, and Airmen:

Though in theory more jobs are [currently] available than men, in practice so far as the individual is concerned this statement needs qualification ... many men have acquired qualities of leadership and administrative ability. Having been engaged in mechanized warfare, most have proved capable of mastering and maintaining some machine, whether weapon or instrument. All are embued with the spirit of service. These qualities, though of great potential value, may not immediately fit them for positions which with training they would be exceptionally well qualified to fill ...

The men themselves are not fully aware of the effect which the shortage of houses has upon employment. A man is limited in his choice of work to the vacancies which occur within reach of the lodging he is able to secure. These vacancies may not be to his liking nor within his capacity ... this handicap bears most hardly on the married man with children. Unfortunately it is not removed by offers of well-paid domestic service, as this type of work rarely attracts the ex-servicemen and his wife ...

Monday, 15th April, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Forty educational experts are about to embark on a five-month talent-spotting expedition across Europe, the Near and Far East in order to identify excellent potential teachers amongst serving members of HM Forces, reports the Times. Two interview boards, each consisting of representatives from local education authorities and teachers at the elementary, secondary, and tertiary levels hope to meet with 4-5,000 prospective candidates during their extended tour.

In other news, the paper also reports on a proposal to create a new flying-boat base at Langstone Harbour, in Hampshire. "Whatever the technical merits of flying boats," suggests the Times, "the British public likes them. They are roomy and clean, and they do not have to employ airfields which are hot and dusty in summer and cold and muddy in winter. Perhaps the liking is due to an island people's traditional love of the sea - something which suggests to them holidays and sunshine ..." [sadly, with the rapid increase in the size and performance of land-base aircraft in the post-war era the idea was eventually abandoned].