Britain’s 1939 Register lists ancestors of Kylie Minogue, Julia Gillard and James Blunt
Britain’s 1939 Register, which lists all its citizens from labourers to royalty, is finally available to those researching their family tree.
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At the outset of World War II the British government undertook a gargantuan project to create a register of every citizen. A virtual army of 65,000 people was sent out to 16 million households on one day in 1939 to collect the names, birthdates, addresses, marital status and occupations of everyone living in England and Wales.
These records, known as the 1939 Register, provide a unique snapshot of Britain before it was hit by the full force of war. The Register has now been made available to the public online by findmypast.com.au.
It is a valuable tool for people putting together their family tree and for historians since they provide the only comprehensive record of the population between the 1921 and 1951 censuses. The records of the 1931 census were destroyed in a fire caused by bombing during the war, the planned 1941 census never took place due to the war, and the 1921 census will not be available to the public until 2021.
When war broke out, the government moved quickly to take the survey of its population.
Britain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, and on September 5 the National Registration Act received royal assent. The act was to “provide for the taking of Censuses for the purpose of National Registration, for the establishment of a National Register, and for other purposes”. It was to be a register that would give the government an idea of the manpower (and womanpower) it could call on during the war, allowing them to keep tabs on the population.
It would enable the government to call up people to serve, as well as allow the introduction of rationing.
One of the “other purposes” of the act was to issue identity cards, which citizens would need to carry at all times and produce on demand from authorities, allowing them to identify enemy infiltrators. The register was administered by the registrar-general Sir Sylvanus Vivian, who had overseen the 1921 and 1931 censuses. He answered to the minister for health, partly because the register was intended to look after the health of the population. After the war it was used to introduce the National Health Service, giving registered citizens access to free health care.
The information was collected by thousands of people on September 23, 1939. Some people, suspicious of the government’s motives, didn’t want their children’s names registered. However, when rationing was introduced, these people had to register their children or miss out on getting their share.
Nobody was exempt. The records even show who was living at “Buckingham Palace SW1”, listing “His Majesty THE KING” and “Her Majesty THE QUEEN” along with the names of their various household staff members. Curiously their children Elizabeth and Margaret are missing.
Among the other notable entries is Winston Churchill, who was First Lord of the Admiralty in 1939, but the words “prime minister” have been written in afterwards (he did not become PM until May 1940). Some are interesting for what they don’t say. Ian Fleming is listed as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and his primary occupation is “stockbroker”. What it doesn’t reveal is that Fleming was involved in intelligence work. His experiences would later inspire him to create the James Bond novels.
Lieutenant Hubert Blount of London is another interesting listing, an officer in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, he is the grandfather of singer James Blunt (who removed an “o” from his name). Blunt’s great-granduncle Air Vice Marshall Charles H. Blount is also listed. He died in an aircraft crash in 1940.
FAMOUS NAMES
The forebears of some notable Australians are in the 1939 Register. Ralph Gillard, a “colliery sawyer” and his wife Mary Gillard, of Glamorganshire, Wales, are the great grandparents of former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard.
Also from Glamorganshire in Wales is Morgan Riddiford, Kylie and Danni Minogue’s great-great-grandfather, listed as a “builder’s labourer”.
Singer Olivia Newton-John’s father John Brindley “Brin” Newton-John is listed as “school master” but during the war was an M15 officer at Bletchley Park, working on cracking the Enigma encryption device code. He interrogated Rudolf Hess in custody after he parachuted into Scotland.
Access to records from the 1939 Register can be found on findmypast.com.au
Originally published as Britain’s 1939 Register lists ancestors of Kylie Minogue, Julia Gillard and James Blunt
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