The Londoners of Aberystwyth

If you were to stroll down Marine Terrace at any point between the spring of 1939 and 1945 you could be forgiven for thinking, upon first inspection of the grand Victorian houses which tightly hug the coastline, that these were the homes of local entrepreneurs, businessmen or important families. However, during this volatile period, these buildings played host to one of the oldest higher educational institutions in the world, University College London.

Shortly before the true onslaught of the Blitz was brought down upon London, it was decided that, to preserve the continuity of education and perhaps even the institution itself, University College and its departments would relocate outside of the capital to less dangerous areas. It may not be surprising that several, well-connected, university cities in England were chosen including Oxford and Cambridge; however, it was rural Wales whilst remote, yet with an established educational pedigree, which proved the ideal place for the majority of the University’s departments. These departments were consequently spread out amongst the colleges which made up the then University of Wales.

 

Map showing the distribution of UCL students during the WWII evacuation

 

 

As the above map shows, Aberystwyth, amongst the other colleges, provided refuge to several departments. The departments included Arts, Economics and Chemistry. As neatly summed up in the preface of the 1942 study handbook for new students, university life would be different, but still at its core the same:

 “Though exiles from their home, the Departments of the Faculties of Arts and Science, now at Aberystwyth, are far from having lost their life and vigour in the dwelling-place allotted them on the outbreak of war…While students will miss some of the cherished amenities of college life in London, which would have been theirs in happier days, they will also find some compensations for their loss. Their work will lie in the midst of a delightful countryside and among a kindly and hospitable people.”

It is almost impossible to not draw some parallels between students starting university during the Second World War and those who started during our current Covid-19 pandemic. Likewise, during this period of disruption student life did indeed continue. To keep a sense of community alive, the New Phineas magazine, was created to ‘unite the scattered ethos of U. C’ [University College London] and circulated amongst the evacuees. This was particularly important given that some of the students may have found it difficult settling into the culture of what was effectively, a different country. A cartoon from New Phineas in 1939, below, portrays a Beadle on the lookout for students in the evacuated UCL, with nearly all of the student lockers unsurprisingly available.

 

UCL students also continued in their extracurricular activities and the Dramatic Society shared their work with the locals by putting on a performance of Little Plays of St. Francis at the Kings Hall, a former hub of local life. Unfortunately, this venue has since been demolished and now provides a seating area on the seafront along with a restaurant and flats. The play was performed again to the students of the University of Wales the following year for students located in Bangor, North Wales.

 

University College London also shared its own educational expertise with the local community during its time in Aberystwyth. The physiologist and former President of the British Psychological Society, Dr. S. J. F. Philpott, gave an address on “The Price of Freedom” to the students of Ardwyn School. He compared the ideals of freedom in countries under totalitarian rule with those of democratic countries and how in the former they had been turning people into slaves of the state, whereas in the latter, the ideal of free citizens in a free nation is at its core. He also discussed some of the difficulties which were met in developing men and women with free minds and independence. He went on to comment that one of the key objectives of education should be to teach young people that they were born to be free to do any job they liked within the limits of their abilities but aided with the tools that a good education provides. He also shared commentary on the current issues of the day in the Welsh Gazette of 23rd February 1943, where he stated, “The state of Europe to-day seems to indicate that a new something is required”.  He concluded there was a need to protect young people against the poison of propaganda and extremism, and it was through education that they would be able to recognise it. It could be concluded this need for open-mindedness and tolerance is one that is especially relevant today.

University College London also generously commissioned a writing table for the senior staff common room, providing staff with a reminder of the ever-present link and history between the two educational institutions. However, this table is yet to be traced.

To many Londoners, Aberystwyth may seem a distant and remote place; however, for those London students between 1939 and 1945, the town and its university welcomed them with open arms and accommodated them within its unique community. Even today many Londoners come to Aberystwyth to study and holiday in a place far removed from home for the same benefits as those evacuees from UCL - tranquillity, reflection, and perspective.

 Blog by Andrew Wolckenhaar

 Many thanks to the Records Office at UCL and Ceredigion archives for providing access to the above documents.

Beagle cartoon and ULC distribution map reproduced from The World of UCL, eds. Negley Harte, John North, and Georgina Brewis, UCL Press, 2018

The Hinterland in WWII

The Second World War had a massive impact on civilian lives, town or country. The Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939, mean that all lives could be controlled by diktat by the government in London.

Whilst farming families in rural Ceredigion were self-sufficient to a certain extent, war brought a demand for Britain as a whole to be far more self-reliant for its food. Pre-war it had relied on its empire to provide; by the middle of 1940, imported food supplied had diminished by 85% because of U-boat activity in the Atlantic. Growing potatoes was seen as a national insurance against starvation. The countryside was perceived as depressed and run-down. County War Agricultural Executive Committees (Warags) were set up, giving local officials responsibility for controlling all aspects of farming and rural communities. The popularity of this policy was not helped by the appointment of men from Aberystwyth University as Warag officials. Perceived by locals as youngsters who knew nothing about farming, they were drafted in because the Aberystwyth University agriculture department had been closed for the duration of the war.

The Thomas family, Southgate, harvesting. Image from People's Collection Wales 

The officials were responsible for ensuring that Ceredigion’s 15,000 acre share of the Welsh180,000 ploughing quota was fulfilled. Those traditional upland ways were deemed insufficiently efficient in producing those staple foods that would stave off starvation. Farmers, who knew all too well, the limitations of their land, were taken to court if they failed to comply. Growing potatoes at high elevation and in damp conditions has never been a good idea. Aberystwyth’s hinterland seems to have avoided the invasion of Irish labour to drain areas that was the fate of parts of Montgomeryshire. There were 116 court cases in Ceredigion, where farmers were prosecuted for failure to follow the strict rules, reported in the Cambrian News between 1940 and 1944. The ultimate penalty was the requisitioning of land. The case of a single woman being dispossessed of her farm in Rhydlewis in 1942 is well-documented in the paper. Branded an eccentric for her defence, she labelled the Warag across Ceredigion as ‘a pack of Gestapo’. The situation escalated to the point when she threatened to shoot the new tenant and was restrained by the police. Ultimately she was allowed to keep her house; the farm remained confiscated. 

The same threat - comply or be ousted - hung over the heads of all farmers across the Aberystwyth hinterland and the protection of their property was the highest priority for Ceredigion folk living off the land. But compulsory cultivation orders were just one threat to rural lives in the detailed new legislation. Those trying to feed themselves by catching rabbits, as they had done for years, provided a steady stream into the courts of people accused of poaching. Perhaps they were and heightened vigilance was catching them out. All minor infringements across the newly regulated countryside provided lucrative business for lawyers as they prosecuted ‘offences against the realm’.

Whilst farming was technically a reserved occupation, more and more men were called up. Shortage of labour led to the ‘invasion’ of the Women’s Land Army, the WLA, or  the Land Girls as they were known. Unwelcome until they became assimilated, their hard work earned them respect and local people realised how genuinely helpful they were. There were over 200,000 deployed across Britain between June 1939 and November 1950. Employed to increase food production and with little or no previous agricultural experience, they did the ploughing, milked cows, caught rats and took on any other jobs that needed doing.

The land army women of Bow Street at the threshing machine.

There is little documentation about WLA work across the Aberystwyth area but Meinir Jones Davies’ photographs of the WLA at Bow Street, above, present an invaluable record. (see our blog of March 2021 for more on the Bow Street Land Army)

WLA official uniform was smart yet practical. There are great tales recorded by women who loved Aberystwyth and remained in the area. For Aberystwyth town, a lively crowd with purchasing power and filling those cinema seats certainly had its advantages.

 

Mary Bott, land girl, in her uniform. Photo from West Wales Veterans Archive

Prisoners of war provided another source of rural labour. There was a camp south of Henllan in the south of the county, and prisoners were billeted to local farms. By 1943 there were thirty-two POWS  in Ceredigion. PC Evans-Vaughan seems to have been kept busy, dashing around trying to ensure there was no fraternisation with locals and that POWs were in their billets by ten o’clock at night. There are stories of him getting one POW out of bed, who was refusing to eat or work, and reassuring a single elderly lady who had seen one of them taking a walk at 11.15 at night.

It was the Irish workers, and their enthusiasm for tipple, who presented more of a challenge for the Aliens Office at Aberystwyth police station. There were thirty Irish labourers billeted around Tal-y-bont in 1943. Most of them worked on the Reclamation Scheme in Ynys-las. The task of overseeing their movements and checking their leave certificates fell to PC Evans-Vaughan. He felt sorry for them. In January 1944, he wrote to the Aberystwyth Aliens Office showing pity and sympathy for those who were illiterate and unable to fill in a simple form. He explained why he had typed out the forms and the addresses. PC Evans-Vaughan, proactive and compassionate, clearly had a great impact in safeguarding the emotional welfare and safety of the people of Aberystwyth. It would be great if someone could provide us with a photograph and more information about that admirable man. 

Blog by Alison Elliott

Sources:

County Council War Emergency Committee
R J Moore-Colyer. ‘The County War Agricultural Executive Committees; The Welsh                         Experience.’ Welsh History Review, 22 (2005)
Report of Chief Constable to County Council, 25 March 1944