Glimpses of Holidays is a part of the Noel Beardsell collection which consists of mainly home movies documenting the middle-class Beardsell life.  Noel Beardsell, a passionate amateur filmmaker, was the managing director of a worsted spinning mill in Clayton West, near Huddersfield, employing around 44 people. He was a competent director, employing film techniques that give his films an occasional surreal edge; many of his films have a similarly playful feel, such as Scissett Parish Newsreel....

Glimpses of Holidays is a part of the Noel Beardsell collection which consists of mainly home movies documenting the middle-class Beardsell life.  Noel Beardsell, a passionate amateur filmmaker, was the managing director of a worsted spinning mill in Clayton West, near Huddersfield, employing around 44 people. He was a competent director, employing film techniques that give his films an occasional surreal edge; many of his films have a similarly playful feel, such as Scissett Parish Newsreel. Another trope of the Beardsell collection is his descriptive and often humorous intertitles. More information about Beardsell can be found in the context for Cricket, Football & Sports Day. Scisset & St Anselms.

Home movies are made to record family life, special events or outings. While most people these days have access to a camera with the capability to take video or a camera which records onto memory, making home movies was once the preserve of the privileged. Film and the equipment necessary to use it was out of the price range of much of society, and early nitrate film was incredibly volatile and needed specialised handling and storage. This changed with the introduction of ‘safety film’ to amateur users during the 1920s, although the price still posed a high barrier to entry. It is notable that Glimpses of Holidays is filmed on 16mm film stock, rather than the cheaper 8mm, which was introduced in 1932.

It should be noted that the standard of living portrayed in Glimpses of Holidays is an exceptional one. Colour film was rare at best during the war; its availability to Noel Beardsell and the existence of the film in the first place is an indicator of the Beardsell’s privileged position in society. Another film in the Beardsell collection, An Englishman’s Home, depicts this comfortable middle-class existence in a light hearted, self-aware way. Employing a maid or playing games on the lawn are comforts that many people, cramped in urban areas and victims of frequent bombing, would not have enjoyed. This is important to take into consideration when using Glimpses of Holidays to examine domestic life during the Second World War.

Rationing was introduced by the British government in 1940, in response both to pre-existing food shortages and the recognised possibility of the war dragging on longer than current food stocks could handle.  Two systems dictated the majority of the rationing of food: the coupon system, used for items such as meat, sugar and dairy, and the points system, used for cereals, biscuits, and tinned or dried goods. Items allocated via coupon were given to everyone in set amounts, whereas how much (or whether you could get any at all) of items distributed via the points system depended on their overall availability and individual need. 

The rationing system often seemed fit to burst, as long queues began to form as the war dragged on and supplies became so stretched some expectant civilians had to be turned away. The Allied victory didn’t spell the end of rationing either; by 1946, even bread was on the ration list. In 1954, however, meat was finally taken off the list, resulting in the end of British food rationing. While under the system, the British sought to find ways to alleviate the strain of the restrictions, or at the very least creative ways to make what they did have go even further. Foodstuffs alien to the British market also started to appear: most famously, the American tinned ham product Spam was first introduced during rationing. Snoek, a large species of barracuda-like snake mackerel, proved particularly unpopular despite attempts by the government to encourage its consumption; it was seen by many as a food of destitution, despite (or maybe because of) its popularity in South Africa.  

Although there were fears that rationing might negatively affect the health of the British population, it actually offered many families their first chance to have a diet varied in its vitamin, macro and micronutrient content. Despite the ever present threat of being bombed or gassed, and taking into consideration the loss of life in fighting, infant mortality dropped and the average life expectancy rose.

Domestic life for most people on the Home Front during World War 2 was defined by its restrictions. Many families saw their patriarchs and any of-age young men either conscripted for the war effort or absorbed into the vast mobilised labour force; Noel Beardsell was spared conscription because of his age. Women who may have previously worked in the home were employed to replace the labour of men that had been sent to fight, and those residing in cities had to contend with nightly blackouts and air raids.

The need for self-sufficiency and thrift were highlighted; many families grew vegetables in their gardens, and mothers started to ‘make do and mend’. Children were evacuated to the countryside en masse; this was famously depicted in the children’s novel and later television film ‘Goodnight Mister Tom’. Following the successful Nazi invasion of the Channel Islands, men who were too old to be conscripted or were exempt because of their career were enlisted into the Home Guard, a force intended to aid the country’s defence following the feared loss of the Battle of Britain. This would serve as the context for the popular TV comedy ‘Dad’s Army’. Domestic life revolved around the war effort; many consider this era to represent the first real ‘total war’, one that involved every part of society.

By 1942, the Axis powers had launched their assault on the USSR. Recognising that a British-Soviet military alliance could prove difficult for Germany, Hitler had made attempts to strengthen Nazi-Soviet relations. After these proved insufficient, Hitler amassed forces along the Nazi-Soviet border and started to plan the push into Russia. On the 22nd June 1941, Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s Italy and Romania initiated Operation Barbarossa and invaded the USSR; Stalin had ordered preparations for a counter-offensive, but the Red Army was woefully unprepared for the actuality of the collective Axis surge.

Elsewhere, on the 7th December 1941, Japan launched a series of invasions and raids across the Pacific, including the battle of Hong Kong and the attack on the American fleet stationed at Pearl Harbour. These signalled the start of the war in the Pacific and, after the United States declared war on Japan, the following German declaration of war against America resulted in their involvement on the Western Front. U-Boats exploited poor joint Anglo-American naval planning by attacking the supply lines across the Atlantic, causing food shortages in Britain. It was a time of serious uncertainty for Britain, though the Beardsell’s don’t seem to be letting that get in the way of a bit of family fun.

Further Reading:

What You Need To Know About Rationing In The Second World War

Eating for Victory: original Second World War ration recipes