Second World War vintage photograph, taken c. 1940 in Birkby, Yorkshire, England, with handwritten caption “Birkby housewives practice making emergency meals”. A civic leader tastes soup heated on an open fire, flanked by cheerful, smiling women. Monochrome photograph from a Yorkshire family collection.
Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, UK: ‘Birkby housewives practice making emergency meals’ … a besuited civic leader of 1939-45 World War Two Britain tastes soup from a bowl held by an organiser of a cheerful local ‘mums’ army’ of female volunteers doing their bit on the Home Front by cooking for victory on an open fire. The civic dignitary, perhaps a mayor, alderman or chairman of a local council, wears a dark three-piece suit with watch and chain while the women wear a variety of hats and head scarves. One has donned a floral housecoat while another protects her clothes from hot soup splashes with an apron or pinafore. This prime piece of Yorkshire wartime social history comes from the collection of a couple who lived in Birkby, Huddersfield, during the 1939-45 Second World War. Their only son, later a successful engineer and surveyor, sits on the ground staring at a steaming lidded pot, seemingly pondering the science of the cooking process. The photograph is undated but was probably shot in 1940, during Britain’s darkest days of the war, when a German invasion was feared at any time. All over the country, civilian volunteers were mobilised as Territorial Army soldiers and munitions factory workers, or were found other ways in which they could help the war effort.
Size: 10693px × 9832px
Location: Birkby, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, UK.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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