Articles:
Attacks On Trawlers in Scarborough in WW2
It was Scarborough's fishing fleet that first felt the effects of the war as far as enemy action was concerned. Fishing was only allowed between the hours of sunrise and sunset. The first incident occu...
Scarborough Blitz 18th March 1941
1378 buildings were damaged or destroyed - Scarborough's worst air raid of WW2. 98 German planes dropped high explosive parachute mines on the town around 9pm. Some were delayed action bombs that we...
Scarborough Harbour Commission Minute Book for WW2 period, 1939 to 1945.
01/02/39: Issue of congestion of people on the pier in evenings at weekends should be resolved by the ticket kiosk for the Coronia and Royal Lady closing whilst the boats...
Hotels And Places Of Entertainment in World War Two
With the commencement of hostilities all places of entertainment closed down. The Floral Hall closed on 2 September, 1939 and the cinemas followed on the 4th although at the Odeon Cinema the Caf&...
John Player & Sons Set of Modern Naval Craft Cigarette Cards 1939
This Modern Naval Craft series came out in 1939, just at the beginning of World War II. In December 1939, HMS Exeter (card 6), engaged the Admiral Graf Spee (card 24) in the...
Scarborough in WW2 75th Anniversary 2020
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day we have produced a new exhibition and set of webpages focussing on WW2 and Scarborough. Please click on the links below to read more: Much of this new...
Sinking the Tirpitz
This article was written by Ian Baird whose family loved Scarborough and he evenutally moved to the borough in the 1970s.
On 12th November 1944, my father, Flt Sgt Robert Baird was safely relaxing back at base after one of t...
SPECIAL WIRELESS SECTIONS (1939-1945) and GCHQ 'Y' Station.
My father was born 3rdAugust 1918 to Austin and Laura Barton nee Marshall and sadly passed away 16thSeptember 2014 aged 96 years..He had a British Legion escort at his funeral who...
SS Betty Hindley
The SS Betty Hindley registered to Messrs Stephenson, Clarke & Collingwood, Newcastle Upon Tyne, was a collier constantly feeding the homes and power stations of london with coal. She became the last vessel to b...
Scarborough Fishing Trawlers in Wartime
Paper given on 2 Feb 2016 to the Friends in Council Society Cheltenham (formed 1862).
By Michael Herman
I was brought up in Scarborough, with its long history as a North Sea fishing port, and I s...
12 Scarborough Wrens sunk by U-boat
In August 1941, twelve Scarborough based Wrens were killed while at sea on route to Gibraltar.
The women were:-
- Phyllis Bacon
- Madge Barnes (who volunteered on her 18th birthday)
- Cecilly Ben...
Scarborough 40 Club Debating Society during WW2
The Scarborough 40 Club Debating Society was established in 1899 and carried on meeting throughout WW1 and WW2 with a diverse range of topics for debate, including the war and the future post wa...
WW2 Air Raids
There were over 20 air raids on Scarborough, mostly in 1940 and 1941. Below are four examples.
Burniston
The first attack on the Scarborough area took place on June 26 1940 when the village of Burniston was hit in a night-time ...
WW2 Archive File List Of Contents. This 'Blue Folder' in our library has a collection of newspaper and other articles in. Contact us for more information (updated 2015)
A Return To Normandy 70 Years On - Scarborough Evening...
Blackouts in Scarborough during WW2
From the beginning of the war, precautions were taken to 'black-out' all lights. This was essential as it soon became clear that most bombing raids would take place at night. It was thought that a light ...
WW2 Childhood memories
Transcript below is from an oral interview supplied by Gloria Pickering, nee Rollinson. It tells of her brother Kenneth’s childhood memories of wartime in Scarborough. It was compiled at The Howarth Unit at Scarborough...
WW2 Civil Defence
Since the mid-1930s British war planning had assumed that a war against Germany would unleash a mass bombing of the country by the Luftwaffe, possibly involving the use of poison gas. The planners therefore developed a system of ...
Scarborough and D-Day June 1944
Scarborough and Tourism
The Second World War had had a disastrous impact on tourism in Scarborough in 1940, ‘41 and ’42. But things picked up in 1943. There were high hopes for 1944. D-Day ended s...
WW2 Dunkirk
The Coronia and Regal Lady were built in the 1930's. The Regal Lady was built at Great Yarmouth. During the 1930's the majoirty of people stayed in Britain for their holidays. Their holidays would be&n...
WW2 Evacuees
Courtesy of Jack Binns' book 'History of Scarborough'
In September 1938 Scarborough received 60,000 gas masks. A year later 5000 children and teachers from Hull arrived in Scarborough. That was followed by a furth...
Fishermen at War
Between January and April 1940 numerous Scarborough fishing boats (or boats crewed by Scarborough men) were attacked by the Luftwaffe:
Persian Empire, Aucuba, Cardew, Courage, Hilda, Mary Joy, Riby, Our Magg...
The Home Guard and coastal defences in WW2 Scarborough
With Scarborough being a prohibited area and the threat of invasion on everyone's minds defences were erected very quickly in and around the town. Rolls of barbed wire and posts were put o...
Scarborough 1940 to 1941
Written March 2006 by Winifred Cappleman, aged 97 for her son Peter.
Courtesy of the Scarborough Commanet Archive, see https://www.sahs.org.uk/Scarborough-Community-Archive.html
World War Two commenced on the ...
WW2 website links:
Bletchley Park
British Legion Post War Britain
Imperial War Museum VE Day photos
A Scarborian talks about life in the war part 1
Scarborough Air Raid account
BBC Archive of WW2 diaries and events
...
Post-war Scarborough
1945 General Election: The results in Scarborough and Whitby constituency were as follows. Nationally, Labour enjoyed a landslide victory.
Vote in Scarborough and Whitby
% of the vote...
Rationing
Rationing was introduced in January 1940 for bacon, ham, sugar and butter. It was extended` as more commodities became scarce and as prices for them rose: March 1940 – meat; July 1940 – tea, margarine and cooking fat; March 1...
WW2 related deaths in Scarborough:
Fatal walk on beach – By Marie Belfitt
Mary Wardell was shot dead by a soldier as she walked on the South Bay on 14th September 1940. The event was shrouded in wartime rep...
Salvage and Recycling
The range and volume of materials salvaged in wartime Scarborough was impressive. In the Council’s Salvage Depot there were large amounts of ferrous and non-ferrous (containing no iron) metals, books and wastepaper. The...
WW2 Brief Timeline
1939
Hitler invades Poland on 1 September. Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later.
1940
Rationing starts in the UK.
German 'Blitzkrieg' overwhelms Belgium, Holland and France.
Churc...
Trawling During WW2
As in the previous conflict the Government recognized that trawlers and fishermen had an essential role in the maintenance of Britain's sea lanes and the Admiralty was keen to get minesweeping operations underway. The...
VE Day
On the 7th of May 1945 at 7.30pm the B.B.C. interrupted a piano recital to announce that the war in Europe was over and that the following day would be V.E. Day, a public holiday.
In Scarborough there was a brief civic occasion in ...
WW2 war memorial listings
CWGC Listing of Service personnel killed in WW2 (Manor Road Cemetery)
surname
forename
age
death
rank
regiment
...
Wider World Involvement
During the war many nationalities came to Scarborough to be billeted and train as servicemen: Canadians, Americans, Czechs, French, South Africans and Poles. It is not always appreciated how much support was given to Britai...
Women helping with the War
Many women replaced conscripted men in the workforce, taking up jobs in transport, wartime administration and the war industries. In Scarborough male conductors on the buses were replaced by women. One little girl wa...
“Y” Station and Wrens
From the beginning of the war, the Royal Navy used their secret “Y” Listening Station on Sandybed Lane to eavesdrop on German naval communications. The old Sandybed station was replaced by a much large...
