With the loss through fire of the 1931 England and Wales census and cancellation of the 1941 census, the wartime 1939 Register is the closest census-like substitute. Sometimes known as 'The Wartime Domesday Book', it helps bridge what is a yawning 30-year census gap for England and Wales, namely between 1921 and 1951 (Scotland's 1931 census did survive).
The inevitability of a European war brought about the National Registration Act of 1939 (2 & 3 Geo. 6. c.91) which was passed on 5 September. This would create 'a register of all persons in the United Kingdom at the appointed time', a pre-requisite for the issuing of national identity cards (IDs). In December the previous year, with war clouds looming, the government had first proposed the need for IDs.
Over eight years had passed since the last census and a nationwide emergency necessitated an up-to-date record of the populace. (It was not the first such survey. During the Great War of 1914-1918 the 1915 National Register had been created. Sadly, it has been lost to posterity.)
On 18 September 1939 The Birmingham Post proclaimed 'Registration Day is to be September 29, Michaelmas Day. On that night there will be no need of St. Michael's sword, let us hope, for the householders of Great Britain to show themselves all angels. Everybody who takes pains to furnish the required information fully and accurately is helping to cook the Nazi goose.'
As a basis for the 1939 Register, the General Register Office for England and Wales (GRO) used the plans already in place for the abandoned 1941 census. Unlike the standard census it was arranged according to the boundaries of local government units and not by registration districts. These were county boroughs (CBs), municipal boroughs (MBs), urban districts (UDs) and rural districts (RDs). London was an exception, being made up of metropolitan boroughs and the Cities of London and Westminster.
There were over 1,400 enumeration districts (EDs). Each was assigned an ED letter code, commencing with the City of London (area code AAA) and ending with the rural district of Rhayader in Radnorshire, Wales (area code ZZJ). As a general rule an enumeration district comprised of no more than 300 households.
In England and Wales an army of 65,000 enumerators delivered forms to households and institutions. Friday 29 September 1939 marked 'National Registration Day', only 26 days after the United Kingdom had declared war on Germany.
The registration form requested the following information:
- Address
- Surnames and other names
- O, V, S, F or I [For Institutions only: Officer, Visitor, Servant, Patient, Inmate]
- M. or F. [Male or Female]
- Birth [with 'Day' and 'Year' in columns below]
- S, M, W, or D [Single, Married, Widowed, or Divorced]
- Personal Occupation
Consequently, unlike the standard census, columns indicating place of birth and relationship to the head of household are absent. One plus though is the request for a person's exact date of birth, but these are not always reliable (with conscription being in force - for all men aged 18-41 in 1939 - some would have provided an incorrect birth year). This feature, which was not found in earlier censuses, makes locating a birth record considerably easier.
People were instructed to be as specific as possible when declaring their occupation. General terms were not permitted; for example, if they were a clerk they would have to specify 'Railway Clerk' etc.
A National Register enumerator on the doorstep, 1939. Note the 'NR' badge on his lapel.
Between Sunday 30 September and Monday 1 October the enumerators returned, checked the form, and promptly issued a completed identity card to each resident (cards for children under 16 were kept by their parents). A person's identity card number was made from the ED number, schedule number and schedule sub-number. It was a legal requirement to present the ID on request by an official or bring it to a police station within 48 hours.
More than 45 million identity cards were issued. Included were members of the armed forces on leave and civilians on military bases, but military authorities independently handled the registration of army, naval and air force personnel in establishments. Also not included are armed forces billeted at home or in private homes.
As conscription did not become established until 1940, civilians who went on to serve as members of the armed forces are included.
National Registration Identity Cards, plus holder. The blue adult card (right) was issued from 1943. Prior to that date they were buff like the under-16 card (left).
Enumerators wrote-up the information into transcript books. Extending to 1.2 million pages the Register was constantly updated. Upon marriage or remarriage a woman's surname would be struck through and her new surname noted - then a new identity card would be issued. Additional information can sometimes appear, such as whether an individual volunteered as an air-raid warden. Changes of address were recorded at a local level, so do not appear in the Register.
The resulting Register became a critical tool in the administration of mobilisation and labour, mass evacuations, monitoring/controlling wartime population movement and the issuing of ration books. To enable the issue of such books - which began in January 1940 - the original registration forms were sent to local food centres; unfortunately they have not survived.
By the time of the Register mass evacuations had already commenced. 1.5 million children, women and disabled people were removed to areas at lower risk from enemy bombing. As a result the Register shows that only 2% of the population of London was aged 2-10, compared to the national average of 14%. Consequently, so you may find relatives in unanticipated parts of the United Kingdom. The following counties served as 'Reception Areas':
- Bedfordshire
- Berkshire
- Buckinghamshire
- Cambridgeshire
- Cumberland
- Dorset
- Herefordshire
- Huntingdonshire
- Northamptonshire
- Oxfordshire
- Rutland
- Shropshire
- Suffolk
- Sussex
- Westmoreland
- Wiltshire
- the Isle of Wight
- the Isle of Ely
- the Soke of Peterborough
- the Holland and Kesteven divisons of Lincolnshire
From 21 February 1952 the carrying of an identity card was no longer necessary and the National Registration Act of 1939 was repealed on 22 May 1952.
The last person to be prosecuted for not producing an ID was a Liberal Party activist, named Harry Wilcock. In December 1950 he was caught speeding and when a policeman asked that he show his ID, Wilcock reportedly replied 'I am a liberal, and I am against this sort of thing.'
He received a guilty, but no reprimand verdict. Wilcock was still fined 30 shillings for speeding.
From 1948 the Register served as the basis for the NHS (National Health Service) Central Register (National ID numbers used to double up as NHS numbers). As a 'living' paper record it was regularly updated until 1991, at which point the NHS moved to a computer-based system. This means that name changes (whether by divorce, marriage or deed poll) continued to be made.
How to Access the 1939 Register
Unlike standard censuses, which require the passage of 100 years before release, the 1939 Register was made available after 76 years, on 2 November 1915. Digitised images of the enumerator's books for England Wales can be searched and viewed on both Findmypast and Ancestry.
An entry from the Scotland 1939 Register can be ordered from the National Records of Scotland. For Northern Ireland an application by address can be made to NIdirect. Records for the Isle of Man and Channel Islands are not known to have survived.
But there remains an important caveat. Any individual who has not been registered as dead (unless 100 years have passed) will have their entry redacted, meaning their entry line will be blacked out and carry the wording 'This record is officially closed'.
To ensure as many entries are open as permissible, Findmypast have conducted a check of names and dates of birth in the 1939 Register against the GRO indexes of deaths in England and Wales (as previously noted, the paper Register ceased to be updated after 1991). Where exact matches have been found entries have been opened and this continues on a regular ongoing basis.
Note
The following parts are missing from the Register for England and Wales: The western end of the parish of Eyam with the enumeration district letter code of RCCY (Bakewell Rural District, Derbyshire) and Ashburnham Road, Beltwood Road, Bullbanks Road, Gordon Road, Mayfield Road and Stanmore Road (Erith Municipal Borough, Kent).
(1,405)
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