Sharrock, John Matthew; (2022) The bombing of British cities and the contesting of remembrance: WWII civilian experience and its commemoration since 1945. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The notion of resilience, sustained throughout the bombing campaigns of WWII, notably the bravery and fortitude, exhibited as Britain held firm after 1940, has contributed to national self-esteem, in a much-changed post-war world. Its recall continues, in tough times, such as the 7/7 London bombings and the Covid-19 pandemic. Widely deployed, as ‘Blitz spirit’, the privileging of admirable personal qualities has a cost, this thesis contends, to a more considered knowledge and understanding of the civilian bombing experience. The aim of the research is to challenge the prevailing Blitz narrative, with its limited representation of the civilian experience, through engagements with and analysis of the processes and practices of civilian commemoration and the people behind them. This aim can be fulfilled by a research plan that conducts an archaeology of the Blitz myth, tracking the historiography of the Blitz narrative, from its foundations in 1940, determining the commemorative materialisation of civilian remembrance and the activism that gives rise to it. The commemorative material represents the voices of personal wartime memories being heard and seen through voluntary civilian activism, bringing forward private memory to public view. WWII civilian commemoration is limited in quantity and hard to see given the military emphasis of wartime memorialisation. Indeed, the thesis exposes the struggle to establish memorial meaning and engagement at a national and metropolitan level. Moreover, the contesting of civilian remembrance has produced a diversity in material form, more recently in response to important anniversaries, in marked contrast to the standardised commemorations at cemeteries in the immediate aftermath of war. A broad constituency of activist voices has been heard and the range of their commemorative output speaks to the power of story-telling, personal truths made public, transcending narrow national narratives, through individuals, groups and communities pursuing specific remembrance agendas.

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