Life in Britain from the 1920's through the NHS in 1948

A

Ameriscot

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Long but good article.

"Hunger, filth, fear and death": Remembering life before the NHS

Harry Leslie Smith, a 91 year old RAF veteran born into an impoverished mining family, recalls a Britain without a welfare state.

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/10/hunger-filth-fear-and-death-remembering-life-nhs

My husband was born in 1948 and because he was a troublemaker (breech birth) he was one of the first babies born in an NHS hospital.
 

Quite a life story, and it is a wonder that Hitler or Stalin didn't seduce more of them into looking for change before it came thru elections...
 
Like so many others at that time I was born poor, poor enough to go scavenging for bits of coal that might have fallen off railway engines along the sides of the track.

Trouble is, nobody told us we were poor so we just got on with life!
 

I was born in 1950 not long after the NHS had started. I remember my father telling me that he had to pay for an apendectomy which was performed at home by a GP.

I became aware very early on that we did not have as much as other families, although we never went without life's necessities.
Education and a strong work ethic were looked upon as the key to advancement and along with most of my 'baby boomer' neighbours, I went to university. I swore that I would never live like my parents. The 'good old days' - humbug!
 
Capt Lightning said:
I was born in 1950 not long after the NHS had started. I remember my father telling me that he had to pay for an apendectomy which was performed at home by a GP.

I became aware very early on that we did not have as much as other families, although we never went without life's necessities.
Education and a strong work ethic were looked upon as the key to advancement and along with most of my 'baby boomer' neighbours, I went to university. I swore that I would never live like my parents. The 'good old days' - humbug!
Click to expand...

My husband grew up in a scheme in Glasgow where everybody was poor. He was the only one in his scheme (at that time) that went to university.
 
Brits will be familiar with the singer Lulu(AKA Marie Lawrie) - not sure how well known she was in the US.

One night on TV she was describes as coming from the 'slums of Glasgow'. Mother nearly went mad - shouting at the TV "She came from two streets away from me and when you lived there, you were virtually a snob".

Dennistoun (where they lived) had failed to attract the intended upper middle classes in Glasow, but ended up being one of the best areas for the Artisan and lower middle class families. In more recent years, it has become fashionable with young professionals. Not everyone in Glasgow was poor. Some other past and present Dennistoun residents included
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Architect, designer and artist.
 
Capt Lightning said:
Brits will be familiar with the singer Lulu(AKA Marie Lawrie) - not sure how well known she was in the US.

One night on TV she was describes as coming from the 'slums of Glasgow'. Mother nearly went mad - shouting at the TV "She came from two streets away from me and when you lived there, you were virtually a snob".

Dennistoun (where they lived) had failed to attract the intended upper middle classes in Glasow, but ended up being one of the best areas for the Artisan and lower middle class families. In more recent years, it has become fashionable with young professionals. Not everyone in Glasgow was poor. Some other past and present Dennistoun residents included
Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Architect, designer and artist.
Click to expand...

Americans know Lulu, especially for the song To Sir with Love. She's two weeks older than my husband and they were born in the same hospital. He didn't live in Dennistoun though. I didn't become familiar with Rennie Macintosh until I moved here and I love his work and his wife's.
 
Laurie said:
So I did. Sorry.

My prejudices against coalowners and ironmasters (we've just seen the anniversary of Senghenydd 14 October 1913, 439 miners dead) blinded me!
Click to expand...

Understandable. It's just that it looked like I had implied everyone in Glasgow was poor. :)
 

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