Their Finest Hour: Mrs Miniver and the World at War

Abstract

When Britain declared war on Germany, on 3 September 1939, IAL was in the process of merging with British Airways Ltd (BAL) to form the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). Both the war and the merger had a profound impact on commercial aviation in Britain. With war came renewed pressures for women to join the workforce in increased numbers, and with the merger came state control and extensive reorganization.

Back to normal. No, thought Mrs. Miniver, standing by the window and looking out into the square, they weren’t quite back to normal, and never would be […] Clem had gone off with his Anti-Aircraft Battery, and Vin had been sent up to Quern, and the children’s day school had been evacuated to the west country, and the maids had gone down to Starlings to prepare it for refugees, and she herself, staying at her sister’s flat, had signed on as an ambulance driver … .

Jan Struthers, Mrs. Miniver (1942: 155–57)