So if you'd like to participate in our project, please get in touch with me at kas@aber.ac.uk.
Armed forces
Some soldiers and airmen were trained in Aberystwyth, eg, the no 6 Initial Training Wing of the RAF and the 22nd Training Regiment of the Royal Artillery. They slept in many of the hotels, like the Belle Vue and the Queen's Hotel, and in boarding houses. The Old College and Assembly rooms were utilized for offices and training. Some injured soldiers, sailors and pilots were cared for in Aberystwyth and arond. 3,000 troops from the British Expeditionary force were billeted here after Dunkirk.
Shortages
There was a general shortage of food, petrol, and other materials but Ceredigion may have been better off than many other towns since so much food was produced here and fish could be caught in the sea.
Fundraising
There were various events to raise more money for the war effort. These included concerts and other entertainments and collection of scrap materials.
Entertainment
The Coliseum Cinema (where Ceredigion Museum is now housed) was closed on the first day of the war because it was a Sunday, and all cinemas in Britain were closed the following day. The Pier cinema was opened on the third day of war and was said to be the only one open in the whole country. The Coliseum reopened on the fourth day of war and remained open every day but Sundays. It showed some war films and news reels but mostly funny, romantic or exciting films, to help people forget about the war.
The Women's Voluntary Service
The W.V.S. was formed in June 1938. Although their task was to recruit and train women for various ARP duties, the W.V.S. took on all sorts of jobs which did not fall into the remit of other services. Early examples included the evacuation of children, making medical supplies, pyjamas, nursing gowns and bandages.
Civil defence
This included: two pill boxes of concrete at the mouth of the harbour (one survives; a bomb shelter built in North Parade; two radar masts on Constitution Hill (for detecting low flying aircraft); a direction finding tower built in Cwm Woods; a rifle range and clay pigeon range on Pen y Angor (to practice shooting); the Old College Council chamber was half filled with museum display cases, and the remainder used to teach RAF personnel and there was a signals room and Air Raid post elsewhere in the building; the Parish Hall was an Air Raid Post.
Home Guard
On 14th of May 1940, Anthony Eden broadcast an appeal for volunteers for a Defence Force to protect the country from an invasion, which at the time seemed a forgone conclusion. In Aberystwyth, at the obligatory proficiency tests, the examining staff were astonished at the numbers of men who turned up. Volunteers arrived at the Police Station in Great Darkgate Street and filed up in line to draw rifles from a cell where they were kept. These were S.T.C. (Student Training Corps) rifles (as there were no students in residence), a few Ross rifles loaned by the police, and a few shotguns. The only available uniform was denim but some volunteers had just an overcoat and a cap.
‘The secret Cave’
Shortly after the outbreak of war, many of Britain's national treasures were removed to storage in Aberystwyth in order to keep them safe from German attack. These allegedly included original copies of Shakespeare’s works, paintings by Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, the Crown Jewels and the Magna Carta. This 'treasure trove' was located in a specially-built underground chamber near the National Library of Wales.
More information can be found on Ceredigion County Council's Museum Collection page:
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