“People certainly didn’t just fill it in exactly as they were prescribed.
It’s the 1920s equivalent of angry tweets. There’s a lot of anger about things like the war and housing”
What did people think of Britain a century ago? 👇
thetimes.co.uk/article/census…
Britain had been transformed since the 1911 census - the First World War upended everything.
Unemployment was high and in 1918 deaths exceeded births for the first time. The Spanish flu was partly to blame, claiming about 228,000 British lives
The country was still clearly affected by the Spanish flu. Ruth and Albert Dunn in Durham even tried to disinfect their census with carbolic acid, leaving it badly stained
In another entry, one serviceman wrote: “Remember no pension [...] received. Fought since 1914 + wounded twice. This case is a disgrace to the nation so called England”
This cartoon on one form describes a group of men as ‘cannon fodder’
Arthur Conan Doyle, spiritualist and author, was being visited by Ada Bassinet, an American medium, James Hewat McKenzie, founder of the British College of Psychic Science, and McKenzie’s wife at the time — suggesting a possible seance 🔮
As for 10 Downing Street, there is no sign of the PM, David Lloyd George, at No 10.
The PM was staying in Chequers, his official country home. That night, there were eight residents at No 10; all of them Welsh and all of them women
Captain Sir Thomas Moore, who died last year, was a 13 month old baby in 1921. At the time the census was taken he was living in Keighley, West Yorkshire, with his parents, Wilfred and Isabel Moore, and his four-year-old sister, Freda
Beatrix Potter listed herself on the census as a ‘farmer’, despite having written and illustrated more than 20 of her books by then. She is listed under her real name –– Helen Beatrix Heelis –– and lived with her husband, William
Read more about the life in the ‘roaring twenties’ here 👇
thetimes.co.uk/article/census…
The National Archives marks the centenary of the census with an exhibition called The 1920s: Beyond the Roar open from January 21
thetimes.co.uk/article/the-19…
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