'An increase in depravity among the young! The great evils in our midst' PMC meetings in Hyde Park

Anne Connaughton’s third instalment of the Public Morality Council looks at the many hidden aspects of this history including attitudes towards young women.

The widely-held notion that dark evenings attracted undesirables to centres of population, kept the Public Morality Council’s (wartime) morality patrols very busy. Patrol work, together with crowded meetings in Hyde Park represented  “the best propaganda of all, as it....draws attention to the great evils in our midst”.

A patrolling officer’s report from February 1943 noted “considerable zeal” shown by police in the Victoria area where, since September 1943, 30 arrests for importuning had been made. The same report envisages that “the difficulty of dealing with the situation (vis a vis female prostitution) will loom large in the future “. The most stringent action was taken against male “pests”. Patrolling officers compiled several lists of men arrested, including a list of 15 men under the age of 25, of whom 3 were aged 18 or under. The report bemoans “a definite increase in depravity among the young.” Patrolling officer Arthur Wheal, asks “Is it inferable that men may be leaning to these practices to avoid the scourge of venereal disease, of which much is being made in the press?”

Wider concern about the spread of VD was reflected both by the PMC and the Ministry of Health, which foresaw a prominent role for local and central agencies against “deep seated ignorance and prejudice of the public.“ The Ministry was represented at a conference in February 1943, convened by the Central Council on Health Education. Delegates heard one speaker describe “heartbreak trains” at a certain London terminus “being met by women who lure young girls to places where they get infected, and irresponsible employers who take girls as general maids and drive them to bad company.”

 Records held at the LMA convey a crusading ambience among war-time audiences at the public gatherings in Hyde Park, where the PMC engages in  “work of the highest importance “, alongside like-minded organisations. Audiences are challenged on whether,  because of “lax morality, and an improper view of the marriage state.... People are going in large numbers to clinics for information before they get married.............one of the chief things they are told there is how to use preventatives”.

These records also reveal spirited interaction between platform speakers and audiences, whose members comment variously that “clinics where girls go for treatment of VD....are of a certain class”! Another, in describing a village which houses an army camp, asks, “do you know how many girls of 15 in that village are pregnant?” Yet another remarks “Are people not kept down at work? They are absolutely in the hands of their bosses”. The 1942 meeting hosted a discussion about the presence of American troops in the country, and how the large sums of money “generally in their possession...such a temptation to a certain type of young girl.”

Reports commonly observe “very large crowds of all nations...especially soldiers, wrens, ATS, WAAF...”, with “many led to a better way of life”. More remarkably “even on the worst Sundays of the war the meetings were held”.

Next time, and last in series, “...in darkened corners...” : A PMC patrol looks at life in air-raid shelters!

Useful Sources, including italicised extracts:

 Files of Patrolling Officers’ Reports 1938-1942; 1941-1945; 1942-1947  (LMA)

 Files relating to Hyde Park Meetings 1940-1943; 1944-1948 (LMA)

Our team: Lee Copeland

Lee Copeland is our wonderful and committed front of house, tour guide and events volunteer representative here at Fulham Palace

What excites you most about working at Fulham Palace?

Sharing the history of such an historic site. Given the opportunity to achieve a life long ambition to be involved in the heritage sector, not possible during my working career. Helping and representing my fellow volunteers as a Rep.

Which is your favourite part of the Palace?

The Tudor courtyard particularly the Tudor bricks, if those walls could talk

What are the three things you cannot live without?

Family, friends, smiles (especially from my mum)

What dish do you love to cook? 

I've never liked cooking, it's not for everyone, I like eating though.

What’s the one song you can’t get out of your head right now?

Now you've asked that, 'I can't get you out of my head' Kylie

What’s your favourite film?

I love films, so too many to have one favourite, sorry

A common drinking den! The accosting of women and moral laxity

Anne Connaughton continues her series looking into the Public Morality Council (PMC) which played an integral part in the role of Bishop of London for many years. Here Anne discusses some of the more shocking aspects of their role and what they found.

As we continue on our travels with a London morality patrol, remember how  the parent organisation, the Public Morality Council (PMC) was underpinned by a committee structure, which observed public activity on several fronts, and including, for the purposes of this blog, the Parliamentary, Patrol and Propaganda Sub-Committee. Its wider remit covered clubs; gaming houses; brothels; prostitution, souteners and male importuning; obscene literature; parks and open spaces and contraceptives.

The work of the morality patrols kept the  show firmly on the road, as they assiduously sought out the iniquities of fleshy pursuits. A patrolling officer's report from late 1942 records a conversation with a shop keeper who describes premises in the Paddington area as “nothing more than a common drinking den”. A patrolling officer named Arthur Wheal describes “the difficulty experienced by managers to weed out or decline to serve any person under 18 with alcoholic liqueur”. The Association of Moral and Social Hygiene (AMSH) which often worked alongside the PMC, speculates on a problem “2 with girls as young as 13-15, who ...........get themselves up to look 18”. Many couples, notably troops and young girls found their entertainment in such places. Arthur Wheal revealed the plight of a 14 year-old girl who had given birth to twins, and whose chief recollection was that she had been “drinking with American troops”.

Some newspapers described teenaged girls as frequenting public houses where “they bragged about their capacity for heavy drinking “(1). The AMSH, whose records hold a fulsome list of press cuttings, investigated a complaint about juvenile drinking in licensed premises at Liverpool Street station. These records tell of a 14 year-old girl who “had been the subject of assault by at least five soldiers” between December and February (1944-1945).

The “laxity of public morals since the blackout began”(2), was the raison d’etre  of the patrols, which identified “undoubtedly an increase in the number of offences against young women “ (3) and how “shady clubs”(4) merely cloaked “morality offences by young women.” (5) Morality patrols believed that these circumstances were compounded by “allied troops coming home on leave who have found a girl before leaving the station.”(6) A female doctor told a newspaper that “I would like them to stand at a main London station, as I did.........and watch the kids of this (teenage) age loitering about, waiting for any soldier who is willing to pick them up.” (7)

Another newspaper proposed that “men on leave should be paid less.”(8). In November 1943, Arthur Wheal reports that the authorities intend tightening up on the discipline of the troops “particularly as regards their conduct......the accosting of women.” Having become “ deeply disturbed by the existence of questionable night clubs”, the PMC observes the conjoint experiment between the Home Office and the Military Police in permitting “extended hours” to selected restaurants accessible to the great railway stations. The wisdom was that given a rigorously enforced curfew, and no exceptions “with regard to foreign waiters, the undesirable night club problem will automatically solve itself”.

Next Time  -

“........increase in depravity among the young “!

Visit a PMC meeting in Hyde Park.

Useful Sources, including italicised extracts:

PMA Files of Patrolling Officers’ Reports 1938-1942; 1941-1945; 1942-1947 (LMA)

File of Association of Moral and Social Hygiene (LMA)

1;2 & 5  “Naughty London Is Better “; p.3, Daily Herald, Tuesday 7 September, 1943

3/4     “London Morals Cause Concern”; p.7, Daily News, Wednesday 21 February, 1940

6/8       “These Men Must Know The Truth “; p.7, Sunday Mirror, Sunday 23 January, 1944.

Volunteer skills bank summary by Heather Watson

As part of my role as a volunteer enquiry assistant I have recently been updating the skills bank. It came as a surprise to me to see what a talented lot we are!

The variety of languages spoken between us include Hungarian, Polish, Cantonese, French, Dutch, Mandarin. Russian, German, Spanish, BSL, Latin, Chinese, Albanian, Turkish, Serbian-Croatian, Bosnian, Japanese, Urdu, Punjabi and Arabic.

We possess skills as varied as: qualified accountant, chartered surveyor, trustee skills, corporate governance skills, product management. mudlarker, actor, hypnotherapist, intensive care nurse, floristry, finance director, international conference organiser, massage therapist, ESL volunteer, qualified teacher, City & Guilds sewer and embroiderer; all of these skills as well as the varied roles we all undertake at the Palace.

Who knew what a talented lot we are.

Many thanks to Heather for updating the skills bank, and to Hilary for her work on updating start dates- we are very lucky to have such a skillfull volunteer enquiry assistant team!

Blighty, the blitz and barrage balloons: Britain at war with Germany 03/09/1939 – 08/05/1945

Learning volunteer, Tricia Kern tells us more about our family day on Fulham Palace and the Second World War. If you want to get involved please get in touch.

Special event on Sunday 26 March 2023 celebrating Fulham Palace and the people who lived and served there and the contribution and tribulations the war had. 

Whilst we will not be experiencing the blitz and have barrage balloons on the day, we will have other exciting events happening to get our visitors into “day time World War II mode”.  Fulham Palace played an important role during the war by becoming a hospital, a shelter for those made homeless by the almost nightly bombing of the area from September 1940 – May 1941, also being home to up to 200 evacuees of all ages.  It has been said, some people who sheltered at the Palace, preferred to sleep in the gardens, rather than risk dying in a direct hit of a bomb onto the building.

Fulham Palace was also a place of billeting for the Women’s Auxillary Air Force (WAAF), who were the Squadron 24 site for barrage balloons.  These balloons were massive and floated in the air, to discourage enemy bombers from flying low and seeing where to drop bombs more accurately.  Queen Elizabeth, wife of King George VI visited the Fulham Palace WAAFs on 24 March 1943 and stayed long enough to show an interest in what was being done by the corps in aid of the war effort.  In 1944 a barrage balloon broke away from its anchor site and flew off and hit a tree with 1,300 feet of cable, this could have been a much worse accident than it was.  This incident was included in the Palace Cat! 

During the Blitz raids, Bishop of London, Geoffrey Fisher, counted 12 bomb sites within Fulham Palace grounds, some detonating and others needing to be defused by bomb desposal team members.  The Bishop was most upset when one bomb landed on the melons and cucumbers in the greenhouse!

So what has all this history to do with our planned event?  Well …

We will have World War II re-enactors joining us, with their uniforms, handling collections, demonstrations of drill and generally showing visitors usual day time activities during this awful period in the Palace’s history.  There will be a range of Civil Defence groups in uniform, such as Home Guard, Air Raid Precautions Wardens and Fire and Police staff.  Health and safety messages, like always carrying a gas mask, how to undertake first aid, taping up windows to limit the spread of broken glass and to be aware lighting a cigarette in the open, at night, could be enough to contravene black out rules.  Everyone was encouraged to collect metal to be melted down for the war effort, to save paper and to collect bones and scraps of food for pig and chicken feeding.   This will give a true feeling of how restrictive eveything was, with regard to food, clothing, fuel, movement and the effect of free speech re “careless talk” posters and not to give directions, when place signposts were removed in case the person was the enemy.

Young visitors will be encouraged to register for identity cards, learn about morse code, write a first name in code plus try out a morse code machine.  There could be demonstation of using a whistle for morse code too.  We will also have music of the time.  On show as well, will be a piece of shrapnel removed from a serving WWII soldier, Queen Elizabeth’s Red Cross fund raising book, stamps and money of the time, clothing coupons, cookery book on how to best use the food rations and make do and mend. 

Please volunteer to help us make this a wonderful event for our visitors.

1944 WAAF Gothic Lodge

Ariel view of Fulham Palace from a barrage balloon

A higher standard of moral life: On patrol with the PMC in war-time London

Anne Connaughton, front of house volunteer, introduces us to the first of her series of blogs on the public morality council during World War Two- including its connections to the Bishops and Fulham Palace.

Readers will know that Bishops of London presided over the proceedings of the Public Morality Council (PMC) from its inception in 1899, to its closure in 1968. By World War Two, during Bishop Fisher’s tenure, the remit of its morality patrols had extended to most areas of public life, as London became particularly fruitful territory. In a series of blogs, we will follow in the footsteps of a morality patrol in war-time London, via material held at the London Metropolitan Archive (LMA).

The PMC, which worked through a network of committees,  formed a special War Time Committee. Some meetings were held at Fulham Palace, including in February 1940, when the Committee decided that the work of the patrols be based on observation of, and reports on public outlets, including parks and open spaces; public houses, cafes and clubs; suspected brothels; the myriad influences of theatre, films and literature and gaming and betting activities. Written reports would be submitted to the General Secretary of the PMC. The enthusiasm of the patrols and the prospect of moral panic inspired the PMC’s quest for “a higher standard of moral life”.

Activists espoused “keen vigilance on the part of the police “ given “how many questionable individuals loiter in the vicinity of populous railway stations “.  Unrivalled potential for uncovering “indecorous behaviour” brings our patrol to a chemist’s shop in the booking hall at Euston station. In correspondence dating from 1942, a patrolling officer describes how customers were not served inside the shop, but from a hatch. The shop appeared to be a well-stocked outlet, selling “cosmetics; beauty preparations and shaving requisites”. Contraceptive material was not specifically advertised, although two cards “6 “ square “ announced “Prentif’s Contraception Products “ and “Rendall’s Feminine Hygiene Products “*.  The patrolling officer notes the number of customers wearing military uniform, while concluding  that “whilst obvious that contraceptives are sold, it seemed to be normal in these establishments”. Rendell’s products were widely advertised in sections of the press.

More widely, contraception had long been a political issue. One clergyman informed his congregation that married couples “who  shrink from parenthood are leading Britain to racial suicide”**.  The Baptist Union Assembly was told that birth control resulted in “barnyard morals”, as the use of contraceptives and “marriage responsibilities, indefinitely postponed”, constituted “disruptive influences now threatening the unity of the home”.***  This aggressive ideology accorded perfectly with the PMC’s militancy over moral conduct and the decline in the birth rate in Britain.

Useful Sources, including italicised extracts:

Files of Patrolling Officers’ Reports 1938-1942; 1941-1945; 1942-1947  LMA

File of Reports for the War Time Committee 1940   LMA

Wellcome Collection

*”Rendell’s For Feminine Hygiene Products”; p.7, Reveille, Saturday 15th March, 1941 (BNA)

**“Wives who bar children imperil race”; p.2, Daily Mirror, 22nd November,  1937 (BNA)

***”Birth control is causing farmyard morals”; p.2, Daily Mirror, Wednesday, 5th May, 1943 (BNA)

 Next Time: “A common drinking den.......the accosting of women” : The Perils of Alcohol.

A recognisable scene in Yvonne Langley's latest illustration