Arriving in Britain, 1946-1950: Excerpts from the book

The book ‘Changing Identities: Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians in Great Britain’ focuses on the experiences of Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians who were displaced from their homelands during the Second World War, and who were subsequently recruited from Displaced Persons’ Camps to fill post-war labour shortages in Britain.   Two schemes: Balt Cygnet! and Westward Ho! brought approximately 26,000 Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians to Britain betweeen 1946 and 1951.   These recruits were called ‘European Volunteer Workers’ or EVWs.  What were their experiences of the journey to Britain and their initial impressions and experiences on arrival?  Below are some excerpts from the book ‘Changing Identities.’  Names from the book have been changed to protect anonymity on-line.

EXCERPT:

“THE JOURNEY TO GREAT BRITAIN

The first stage in the journey was the transfer of the refugees from the DP camps to a Regional Collecting Centre^[i] and then to the Embarkation Transit Camp^[ii] at Münster, in North-west Germany, where they stayed for several days, before taking a train to either Cuxhaven in Germany, or the Hook of Holland.  Here the refugees boarded ships sailing either to Tilbury or Harwich, on England’s southern coast or Hull, in the east.  The boat trip was usually overnight, and after embarkation in the morning, most of the Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian men and women travelled by train to holding camps^[iii], where they stayed for a short period, sometimes as little as 24 hours, until onward accommodation was found.  From the holding camps the refugees usually travelled to a hostel or other temporary accommodation and from there they were recruited by employers for labour.^[iv]  Those refugees arriving in England via the port of Harwich or Tilbury, and heading north, boarded a train to London, where they spent a night in a hotel,^[v] before continuing their journey to the holding camps or hostels.  One EVW woman recalls that in the hotel, ‘we were given cutlery, soap and towel, and were able to have a bath again’.^[vi]  Doctors were also on hand when the recruits first arrived, to check that the workers were fit and healthy, and to test women for pregnancy.

The recruits took only limited belongings with them on the journey, often only one small suitcase, or some clothes wrapped in a blanket.  The refugees had few possessions left after years of displacement and accumulated scarcely any items in the DP camps.  Tannahill felt that:

…it was pitiful to see them arrive with their few belongings wrapped in a blanket.  These were often a miscellaneous collection of rubbish, hoarded with the miserly care of the homeless, but sometimes included what was obviously loot, such as the two sewing machines brought by one girl.^[vii]

Tannahill also noted that ‘Clothing…was always scarce.  Many girls arrived at the textile mills with no underclothes and few outer garments’.^[viii]  The News Chronicle reported the arrival of 87 EVW women in 1946, to undertake domestic work in hospitals in Lancashire and Cheshire: ‘Some carried all their belongings in a grey army blanket; others wore fur coats and smart hats’.^[ix]  Efforts had been made by the military authorities to hand out clothes in transit^[x]; however, these were often insufficient.  Nevertheless, at the very least, it was ensured that if they did not have one already, the refugees were provided with warm coats for the journey across the North Sea.

On arrival at the English ports, the refugees were given some pocket money.  One EVW recalled that she was given one pound (£1) on disembarkation at Harwich.^[xi]  A Latvian arriving two years later was given 30 shillings on arrival.^[xii]  The EVWs were met by WVS (Women’s Voluntary Service) volunteers, who accompanied them to either a hotel, hostel or other temporary lodgings.  Many of the participants in this study noted how friendly the WVS workers were.  A leaflet issued by the WVS described some of its functions:

WVS work in close contact with the Ministry of Labour Welfare Department through all the operations affecting the EVWs once they land here.  We meet the boats at Harwich and act as escorts and interpreters on the journey to the Reception Centre in London.  Next day our escorts accompany the party to one of the Holding Hostels.^[xiii]

Their work did not stop there however:

WVS also help with the first shopping trip expedition, a visit to the church, or the cinema, they start right away teaching English and collecting papers and magazines for them; they arrange hospitality and try to set up concerts or social evenings in local clubs.^[xiv]

Alise, a Latvian woman, now in Nottingham accepted work as a nursing orderly on the Balt Cygnet scheme, which meant leaving her parents behind in the DP Camp in Germany.  She described the journey:

I enjoyed the journey.  I was with friends.  There were lots of young…ones from the school [in the DP Camp] as well.  First, we went to a transit camp, which wasn’t very far away from our camp, and then we were moved to Münster… That was the big transit camp.  And from there we were put on the train, and we went to the Hook of Holland and during the night we went on a ferry and came to Harwich, and I think most of the night I stayed on the deck, and I was looking at the stars, because I love sea, and I hadn’t been near the sea for a long time.  It was very nice.^[xv]

She continued:

…by train we came from Harwich to Liverpool Street Station, and oh…it was a dull day and so it wasn’t very impressive.^[xvi]

From the ports in the south of England, most of the refugees travelled to London in the early morning.  Alise stated that when she travelled on the train from Harwich to London, it was:

…sometime in the morning, because we travelled during the night and we stayed in a church building.  I think it was Hans Place in London, and apparently we were taken by double-decker bus from the Liverpool Street Station to this building in Hans Place, and my friend tells me that we went upstairs and I found a ten shilling note on the bus…but I can’t remember about it.  Well, if she said I must have done.  I don’t know what I did with it either.  I just don’t know.  And after that we were…after one night, we were sent to this transit camp.  It’s called Wigsley near Lincoln.^[xvii]     

In most cases, the refugees’ first impressions of Britain as they passed through industrialised war-recovering cities were unforgettable, although hardly positive.  The adjectives used in the descriptions of Britain on the journey from the ports to the holding camps are telling: they are of a dull, grey, drab, foggy, smoky and smoggy, 1940’s Britain.  The refugees’ depiction of Britain reflected the huge contrast between this ‘never seen before’ landscape, and the newly industrialising, green, rural and picturesque vista that was the homeland.  It seemed that even experiences of war ravaged Germany had not prepared the refugees for the industrialised urban sprawl of many of Britain’s towns and cities.

The book Latvieši Lielbritanijā described the first impressions of a group of Latvians arriving in England on 17 October 1947:

Travelling by train, their first impressions were pleasant and reminded them of Latvia.  On reaching the outskirts of London, the impact of poverty, dirt, huge factories and run-down urban housing areas was overwhelming.  After the train, the experience of travelling by double-decker bus from the station to their hotel felt very strange.  Registration, medical examination and an evening meal ended the first day in England.  After a typical English breakfast they were taken to work.  On their journey through the centre of London they marvelled at the well-dressed people in the streets and the crowded shop windows.  They felt happy to have escaped the ruins of Germany, but sad for their homeland so far away.  Words from a newspaper reminded them: “England has been reached, but not yet Latvia”.^[xviii]

Agnese, a Lithuanian woman came to England with her mother in 1948.  She was aged nine.  Her father had been recruited as a European Volunteer Worker, and Agnese, her brother and mother travelled to England as dependants, to go and live with him.  Agnese described the journey:

We were driven to London.  We came to London.  We stayed overnight in London, don’t ask me where…some sort of dark place to me, and then sat on a train.  We were in a train and we travelled to Nottingham and my first recollection of England were…chimneys!  I’d never seen chimneys like it and I’d never seen houses so close together and dark.  It was very different, very, very different.  We arrived in May.  I remember it was springtime in May.  It was an overcast day and the WVS woman I recall was extremely pleasant and nice and so on…^[xix]

Like many of the refugee stories, Agnese’s recollections of her initial impressions are vivid.  She continued:

…and I recall we were taken to this terraced house – I didn’t know it was terraced at the time type of thing, up these narrow stairs and there was my father…and that’s where we started our lives in Britain’.^[xx]

Local and national newspapers reported the arrival of the Baltic DPs all over Britain.  The Western Morning News of Plymouth reported on 21 November 1946 that: ‘DPs Arrive in Devon For Domestic Work: Six to be Employed in Sanatoria’.^[xxi]  The article wrote that:

Six of the 54 displaced persons from the British Zone of Germany who landed at Tilbury on Monday, including Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians arrived in Devon yesterday to take up domestic work at Hawksmoor (Bovey Tracy) and at Didsworthy (South Brent).

A welcome surprise for Ministry of Labour Officials and representatives of the Women’s Voluntary Service who met the women was that several spoke sufficient English to make themselves understood despite the fact that they commenced the study of the language only recently.^[xxii]

 

INITIAL EXPERIENCES

Accommodation

Following their arrival in Great Britain, almost all of the Baltic men and a smaller majority of the Baltic women EVWs, spent their first few months in hostels and camps dotted around Great Britain, including Devon, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, the Midlands, Wales and Scotland.^[xxiii]  Men and women remained in the hostels and camps until they were assigned work, and in some cases continued to reside there during their initial employment contract.  Depending upon the type of work allocated during the recruitment interview, the refugees were sent to hostels or camps either run by their employers or near to the places of work.  Hostels and camps were run by different bodies including the National Service Hostels Corporation, the County Agricultural Executive Committees, the YMCA, and some private firms, for example, mill hostels.

Hostel and camp life offered the refugees a measure of emotional security when they first arrived in Britain, and were a manageable stepping stone from the DP camps in Europe.  Not only were they cheap, but they also provided the opportunity to be with fellow countrymen.  Tannahill stated that for ‘some of the older men who had left wives and families behind in Europe, it is perhaps the most satisfactory form of accommodation’.^[xxiv]  Older inhabitants were less keen than younger refugees to enter the outside world and enjoyed the companionship and close-knit character of hostel life.  However, it was also an existence of communal feeding and dormitory accommodation, housing between eight to twelve men, ‘an unnatural life’, which many of the refugees had tired of in the DP Camps.^[xxv]  Hostels were usually segregated, dividing men, women and families and there were restrictions on.  Most of the agricultural hostels were extremely isolated, often miles from the nearest town or village.  One Latvian woman who initially stayed at Wigsley camp in Lincolnshire described the isolation of the camp.  I had asked her what her first impressions of Britain were.  She replied:

Well, in the first place we didn’t see an awful lot of it, because living in the camp, you didn’t see the life as such much at all, because the camp was on the site of a wartime airfield which was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so the first impressions were…you went to Lincoln shopping with what bit of money you had, which again was very little and the shops were pretty empty after the war as well.  But no, we thought you know, it’s quite nice, but…the beginning was quite limited contact with local people because in the camp, the people who were in charge of various sections of the camp, they were British, and then from then downwards, it was all the DPs that had come in.^[xxvi]

Conditions in the hostels and camps were extremely variable.  Initially, recreational facilities were frequently inadequate, although these did improve.^[xxvii]  By 1949, it was reported that: ‘Cinema shows, billiards, table tennis, football, volley-ball and dances are provided in most hostels’.^[xxviii]  However, even the government acceded that light entertainment often did ‘not satisfy the desire of many foreigners for creative activity, and there is considerable scope for hobbies and recreational pursuits of all kinds to be developed’.^[xxix]  As they had done previously in the DP Camps, the different nationalities organised their own cultural activities, both to fill their time and to provide a home from home for the refugees.  Opportunities for learning English while living in the camps and hostels were limited, although English classes and lectures were held in some of the hostels.  The difficulty of learning English in the hostel environment was furthered by the fact that inhabitants were generally not regarded as members of the local community.^[xxx]  This also increased the need for organising a full schedule of activities in the camps and hostels.^[xxxi]  One Latvian described the situation in agricultural workers’ camps in Sussex:

There was virtually no socialising between locals and camp inhabitants, partly due to the inability to communicate in English and partly because the English farmers rarely invited anyone inside their homes, preferring to conduct business on their doorstep.  Thus isolated, the Latvian EVWs organised their own churches and congregations, social activities, choirs and dance groups.  There were also English classes, lectures and dances.  Local branches of the Latvian organisations (e.g. the Society of Latvians in Britain, the Latvian Welfare Fund and the Latvian National Council) were established.^[xxxii]

Even in camps where adequate facilities and activities were organised, it was common that as one Latvian noted, ‘many still felt depressed by their uncertain future and the endless years of camp life’.^[xxxiii]  Many of the hostel inhabitants, particularly the younger men and women hankered for more freedom, privacy and better living conditions.

The government viewed the camps and hostels as temporary accommodation and aimed to house the refugees in private billets as soon as possible.  Hostels were perceived to hinder assimilation into the local community; yet in many areas they were the only option, since housing shortages in Britain after the war had put private accommodation at a premium.  Tannahill noted that the accommodation problem ‘was difficult from the start’.^[xxxiv]  Women were prioritised in the accommodation sphere, with attempts made to house them as soon as suitable private accommodation became available.  The first batch of female refugees recruited for labour on the Balt Cygnet scheme usually received housing in large boarding houses, often with three or four women to a room.   Women who were initially sent to a hostel were often moved into lodgings within months.  As more and more women entered Great Britain under the Westward Ho! scheme, it became difficult to provide private accommodation for all the women.  Many textile firms, large employers of EVW women began providing mill hostels for their female recruits.

An additional problem with hostel accommodation was that relations between hostel inhabitants of different nationalities were reportedly far from amicable.  Most of the hostels accommodated mixed nationalities, and Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians often shared with Ukrainians, Poles, Yugoslavs and Belorussians.  Women who were housed in hostels were also frequently expected to share with other nationalities, although Balt Cygnet women initially shared only with their own or another of the Baltic nationalities.  A government report undertaken in the spring of 1949 described the problem:

Among the foreign workers there are nationals of all the countries now under Soviet influence, a dozen or more nationalities.  Between some of them there is a definite animosity, and it is only in hostels where there is a wise and friendly warden or manager (and often his wife) that the different races mix freely.  As a rule they prefer to remain within their own little national groups.^[xxxv]

The participants in this study have reported mixed experiences, with some stating that inter-ethnic relations in the camps were relatively harmonious.  One Latvian woman, stated that in Wigsley hostel, where there ‘were quite a lot of Balts, Estonians and…but it wasn’t just one nationality, it was whatever’^[xxxvi], relations between the various nationality groups were ‘quite reasonable.  We used to play volleyball and things every night, so it was quite all right and the British officers were very nice’.^[xxxvii]

Accommodation facilities in both the hostels and private houses were extremely basic.  Even women lucky enough to be housed by the authorities in boarding houses women faced poor conditions.  Many of the refugees who began their lives in hostels and camps were soon eager to move into private accommodation.  This was especially difficult in the mining and rural areas where private accommodation was sparse, as compared to the larger industrial towns.^[xxxviii]  Private accommodation was often virtually uninhabitable, particularly in urban localities.  In textile areas, many houses lacked sanitation and bathrooms.^[xxxix]  Large numbers of Baltic women left textile work quickly, primarily because the accommodation in these areas was so appalling.  Most of the EVWs who lived in private accommodation had to share rooms and the conditions were cramped.  It was not unusual for up to four single men or women to share one bedroom.  One Estonian who had recently married and was working in textiles in Halifax found the living conditions for himself and his wife to be unbearable.  He described the situation as follows:

It were a house where we lived, like a room and a kitchen sort of thing.  It weren’t very old, but it was very small, two bedrooms and [the] bedroom was so small…we couldn’t get dressed together.  We had to wait our turn.  And well, we were fed up really, absolutely fed up because we got our dinners from factory and…where we lived…  We had recently got married and we tried to get somewhere of our own.^[xl]

After help from the factory management eventually they found a flat of their own to rent:

It was a pound a week.  Two rooms…first and second floor…and we had a small bathroom and like a kitchen and eventually my sister came to live with us…  We came to work back end of September.  That were in following March.^[xli]

A minority of Baltic refugees chose to remain in the hostels, while a few were required to stay temporarily in hostels against their choice, due to the dearth of private accommodation.  The hostel population in January 1949 was still high at 50,000 (all EVW nationalities).^[xlii]  This compared to an approximate total of 80,000 EVW nationalities employed in Britain by the spring of 1949.^[xliii]  Although a majority of EVWs remained in hostels in January 1949, it is probable that as the first to enter Britain, Baltic refugees were also among the first group to leave the hostels.  It is clear that the trend towards private accommodation had already begun by 1949, even while EVWs were still being admitted into the country.  A report held by the Ministry of Labour suggested that the hostel situation had improved so much by 1949 that the EVWs ‘have no wish to take advantage of the occasional opportunities of being housed in private billets’.^[xliv]  This claim is not supported by interview evidence, which suggests that perhaps a majority of Baltic refugees had already left voluntarily or were planning to leave the communal life of the hostels to make a living in the industrial towns of Britain.

Initial Employment Experiences

The Baltic refugees were usually assigned their first jobs within several weeks of their arrival.  The initial work assignments of Baltic refugees varied, although all were in areas of manpower shortage.  The 2500 Balt Cygnet women undertook work as kitchen hands, general ward maids, cleaners, laundry workers, nurses and midwives in tuberculosis sanatoria and hospitals.  The areas of labour initially undertaken by Baltic refugees engaged on ‘Westward Ho!’ included: agricultural labour; textile work; domestic service in hospitals and other institutions; nursing; working in the steelworks; coalmining; forestry; working in the building materials industry, for example brickworks; various jobs in the Hostels including administration; and finally, other miscellaneous jobs approved by the Ministry of Labour, for example, work in ammunitions depots.^[xlv]

The geographical distribution of the Baltic communities in the early years reflected the areas where these industries and jobs were located.  The largest numbers were assigned to industrial areas of the North of England (particularly the textile towns of West Yorkshire and Lancashire) and the Midlands, although communities were also established in Wales and Scotland and diverse regions of England.  Among Latvians the most sizeable communities developed in Bradford, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Mansfield, Chesterfield, Coventry, Leicester, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Corby, Bedford and Peterborough.  Smaller Latvian communities also developed in Scotland and Wales.  The geographical development of Lithuanian and Estonian communities followed a similar pattern, although due to their smaller numbers, particularly the Estonians, sizeable communities were formed in fewer areas.  Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian women arrived in Scotland primarily to undertake work in hospitals, joining men working in agriculture, coalmining and forestry.  In Wales, relatively small numbers of Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian EVWs worked primarily in TB hospitals, brickworks, coalmining and tin-mines.  Agricultural workers were distributed all over Great Britain, as far north as Scotland, and as far south as Devon.  Forestry recruits were sent primarily to Scotland, while a popular destination for EVWs employed in the brickworks industry was Bedford.  Recruits for nursing and domestic service were distributed in many different regions of Britain and coalminers were assigned mainly to Yorkshire and Scotland.

The refugees’ early experiences of employment were variable.  While some of the refugees enjoyed the work first assigned to them and remained in the same job even after a year, others were dissatisfied and changed their employment as soon as possible.  There are instances of some Baltic refugees moving to half a dozen different camp or hostels and undertaking many different jobs by 1950.^[xlvi]  Some even transferred from the job they had first been assigned, to another area of labour shortage almost as soon as they arrived.  One Latvian, who came to Britain to engage in agricultural work in 1947, aged 20, stated that he quickly changed his mind after seeing the dilapidated, cranky equipment, which was quite unlike the well-maintained machinery he had operated on the farmstead in Latvia.  He described his experiences:

Well, first of all when we came, we came to Full Sutton from Hull, landed in Hull and then Full Sutton.  We had a camp there.

…after two months, a firm from Leeds came to see who wanted to work in [the] textile industry.  And I had a look around.  I didn’t like the agriculture because I didn’t like the rusty machinery all the farmers had left outside’.  ‘It was so rusty and that was never my idea of farming, so…I didn’t want to go in coalmining.  Some of them did but not myself, so I thought well we’ll try textiles, see what it is like.  So I joined the firm of W E Yates in Bramley and I spent there until 1964, working for them.  First of all in the wool mixing department.  It was very mucky, up to the eyes.^[xlvii]

Occasionally, work could not be found for the refugees immediately.  This was particularly the case for refugees in agricultural hostels in the winter months, although also at other times of the year, and was especially frustrating for the younger refugees who were keen to start work and earn money.  One Latvian man, who stayed in Full Sutton camp in Humberside detailed in a diary the ‘boredom and lack of purpose felt by those who were eager to work, but who were kept waiting for months’.^[xlviii]  Some of the men adopted an active approach to their problem and actually went out and found work for themselves, when the employers failed to come to them.  One Estonian man arrived in England on the ‘Westward Ho!’ scheme in May 1947, and was sent to Priory Road Camp near Hull.  After being there for some time without being offered any employment, he and some of the other refugees in the camp decided to go round local farms and find work.  He described the situation:

We landed in Hull – Priory Road Camp that was the first one.  …but…nothing moved so [a] few of us, I can’t remember, six or seven of us, we went round in farms in the summer and the farmers took us on.  We went hay-making and corn-stacking and you know, did some work.^[xlix]

Beginning life as an agricultural worker was very common among Baltic men.  Andrus, a young Estonian man, was one of thousands of young Baltic men who undertook this kind work initially.  Like many of the Estonian refugees, he was familiar with agricultural work, although there were differences in practices and the scale of operations.  According to Andrus, some of the agricultural camps accommodating the EVWs had previously been used by the Land Army during the Second World War.  He described his experiences:

We were simply taking the place of wartime seasonal workers…living in the hostels and so that’s what we did.  We lived there and then the farmers, when they…needed some hands, working hands…they informed the proper authorities and then we were put on the truck, and taken there and brought back in the evening…that was the first summer and then after, the second year I was taken on as a member of the staff of one of those camps and then the third, it was 1949 I think and they closed those camps and so they told us then, ‘Well, that’s it.  We’re closing the camp and you have to find your own way round’, and so we went on our own.  We still had to register with the police, being aliens and…we couldn’t take any job that was not approved by the Ministry of Labour.^[l]

After finishing agricultural work, he then carried out a succession of jobs, including working in the Navy, before gaining a permanent position in nursing, where he remained until he retired.  He described his first experiences of work following the closure of the agricultural camp in 1949:

First year, I went to Derby as a Christmas rush postman, yeah.  Quite a pleasant introduction.  Played music while you worked and while we were sorting out the [mail].  Tended to get lost in Derby a little bit and then one of those textile factories just outside Derby, that was the first job and then that didn’t last.  It didn’t suit me very well.^[li]

Like Andrus, most EVWs only undertook agricultural work for a short period, before moving to other areas of employment, most popularly textile work.  The range of jobs undertaken by EVWs within textiles was enormous and included various types of work in cotton spinning and doubling, woollens and worsteds, hosiery, rayon and silk manufacture, flax manufacture, textile bleaching, dyeing and finishing, and machine work in wholesale clothing.^[lii]  EVWs employed as textile workers had to work long hours and the tasks were usually very heavy, noisy and dirty.  The hours of one Latvian woman who worked in a cotton mill in Rochdale from seven in the morning to five at night, with a lunch break^[liii], were fairly typical, but despite the long hours she reportedly ‘enjoyed’ the work.^[liv]  A young Latvian man, now living in Leeds, began working the night shift at Yates’s Ltd. in Bramley, but could get little sleep in the hostel where he lived during the day and became exhausted.^[lv]  He quickly transferred to a daytime job in another mill.  Frequent switching of jobs and firms was common among those working in the textile mills, since it was an area of severe labour shortage and there were always jobs available if the initial post was unsuitable.

A significant minority of Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian men were engaged as coalminers during their first years in Great Britain in different areas of Britain, including Scotland, the Midlands and the North of England.^[lvi]  Coalmining recruits received intensive training and English language instruction for safety reasons.^[lvii]  As with the other areas of employment, reported experiences of coalmining were variable.  One Latvian felt that coalmining offered reasonable employment: work was in eight hour shifts, and the food and living conditions were good.^[lviii]  However, at Hardwick Camp near Chesterfield, Latvian mining recruits lived 16 to each brick-built barrack, the food was poor and the accommodation was reportedly ‘very cold’.^[lix]  Reports from Baltic refugees in other areas of work, such as forestry, brickworks, steelworks and domestic service were also variable.^[lx]  The refugees tended to describe both the positive and negative aspects of their work: for example, one Latvian woman noted that her work as a domestic was ‘boring and humiliating, but not hard’.^[lxi]  Another Latvian who worked in the building materials industry noted that the work ‘was not easy, but the weekly wages of £4 10 shillings to £8 12 shillings, were considerably more than farm hands received, and less than six months after arrival everyone had acquired suits’.^[lxii]

Some of the refugees who had good English were able to work as interpreters or administrators in the holding camps and hostels. A Lithuanian man worked as an interpreter in an agricultural worker’s camp in Penrith.  He described his experiences:

[I] landed in Hull and [I] was in Transit Camp for about oh, maybe a couple of months, and then [I] came to Penrith in western Cumbria and it was [an] agricultural workers camp and…I became an interpreter.  So I never worked on the farm.  I just sorted, tried to sort everybody’s else’s problems you know.  That’s what I did in England when I first came…^[lxiii]

During the first few years of settlement, the patterns of employment shifts among EVWs brought about substantial migration from rural to urban areas.  This was due mainly to the increasing unpopularity of agricultural work and the allure of the towns and cities.  Frequently the move coincided with the transfer from hostel to private accommodation and the refugees’ desire to improve their living and working conditions.  Young male refugees who had spent a year or more in a men only hostel were keen to meet young women from their own nationality.  One Estonian man who came to Britain aged 22 was first employed as a kitchen porter in an agricultural workers’ hostel near Kinross in northern Scotland, before later moving to Bradford, a growing centre of the Baltic communities, where he settled permanently.^[lxiv]  Tannahill summed the motivations for the rural/urban migration:

‘Higher wages, better housing prospects and greater opportunities for meeting their fellow countrymen were the chief attractions’.^[lxv]

EVWs who wished to migrate from rural to urban areas were able to exploit the opportunities offered by the completion of the initial labour contract, which stipulated that the refugees had to work in the specified post for one year, and were thereafter able to change their employment, as long as it was approved by the Ministry of Labour.  Generally, this meant the field of employment was limited to areas of manpower shortage.  There was a degree of misunderstanding among EVWs about the labour requirements, which had arisen from language difficulties and lack of clarity in EVW recruitment literature.  According to Tannahill, some of the EVWs were under the impression that they were required to work in a Ministry of Labour approved post for only one year, and thereafter were free to choose their employment.  Tannahill noted that Ministry of Labour controls were ‘humanely exercised’, and some of the EVWs were allowed to take up employment outside the approved field, once they had completed the initial year of service.^[lxvi]  This is illustrated by the experiences of a young Latvian woman, who had initially been employed as a caterer’s clerk for the National Service Hostels Corporation Camps in Wigsley.  She married her husband in Wigsley camp, and when her husband secured a post working in offices in a large textile firm, she was also offered a position.  Both she and her husband spoke good English.  Her husband had been an interpreter for the Ministry of Labour, during which time he had become acquainted with the personnel manager of one of the large textile firms, who invited both Latvians to work in offices at the firm.  According to the Latvian woman, the Ministry of Labour ‘released me because there again you see they knew my husband, but the Hostels Corporation didn’t want me to go.  They said, “You can’t go.  I mean you came over on that engagement and you have to stay”, but I went to [the] Ministry of Labour in Lincoln, they said, “Yes.  Yes.  We’ll give you a paper…”  So it proves it’s who you know’.^[lxvii]

A majority of the refugees reported that they adjusted to different working practices successfully, and those who had never been employed previously, quickly became proficient in their jobs.  Adjustment was often easier for the younger refugees, who had not yet embarked upon their careers.  The younger EVWs were generally more open-minded about the work available and in a sense, had fewer expectations, having no benchmark against which to base their aspirations.  If the refugees found their initial job unsuitable, they were usually able to find a satisfactory alternative within the Ministry of Labour’s designated manpower shortage areas.  One Latvian girl who worked in a hospital in Britain, having previously been at school when the war broke out in Latvia, found it easy to adapt.  She stated that:

The hospital, it was, I don’t know.  It was something new, but it didn’t worry me, because I wasn’t worried about working, you know.  I could do the jobs.^[lxviii]

The opportunities to restart careers or education were limited during the first years in Britain.  A few of the Baltic refugees were able to continue their education^[lxix], although this was certainly not the experience of the overwhelming majority.  In December 1949, the British Government decided that EVWs who had been awarded open scholarships to Universities and who had worked well for eighteen months could be released from employment to undertake a full-time course lasting two years or longer.^[lxx]  The course had to be approved by the Ministry of Labour and the applicant was required prove that he or she could be self-supporting, while studying.^[lxxi]  By 1950, the numbers able to enter universities was small.^[lxxii]

A few professionals were also able to continue their careers, although again this was also rare.  Latvian dentists were allowed to practice in Great Britain from the start,^[lxxiii] however, the majority of Baltic refugees who remained in Britain had to settle for fewer educational and professional opportunities than would have been open to them in the homeland.

After the completion of the initial labour contract, small numbers of Baltic EVWs^[lxxiv] returned to Germany.^[lxxv]  Some had taken up labour in Great Britain on the assumption that it was only a temporary contract and returned to Germany after a year.  Others proved to be unfit for work in England, while some went back to Germany to re-emigrate to Canada with their families.^[lxxvi]  In addition, the evidence suggests that a few of the Baltic refugees returned to their homeland, although the numbers are impossible to quantify.  Tannahill cited the case of an Estonian woman who returned to Estonia, although this was probably an isolated case.^[lxxvii]

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[i] There were three Regional Collecting Centres (RCC), one in each of the three British zone regions of Germany (Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine Westphalia, Land Niedersachsen).  Each had a capacity of 1000.  The actions taken in the RCC’s, included Nominal Rolls, TB Screening, Intelligence, Exits and entries and Passport Control.  (Source:  FO1032/830, 32A, Appendix A to minutes of meeting held at PW & DP Division, Lemgo, 10/3/47).

[ii] The Embarkation Camp had a capacity of 6000.  A small reserve of clothing was held there.  (Source:  FO1032/830, 32A, Appendix A to minutes of meeting held at PW & DP Division, Lemgo, 10/3/47).

[iii] Many of the holding camps were former Prisoner-of-War camps or army barracks.

[iv] Occasionally, the refugees were able to travel directly to a hostel, without going to a holding camp.

[v] The hotel in London used for the temporary accommodation of EVWs was at Hans Place, SW1.

[vi] Appendix F: Letter from E.V.W.S, (1), Burnley, 26.9.1948, Tannahill, J. A. (1958) European Volunteer Workers in Britain, Manchester: Manchester University Press, p 130.

[vii] Tannahill, European Volunteer Workers, p 66.

[viii] Tannahill also noted that after their arrival in Britain, the Cotton Board sponsored an appeal to British workers for spare clothing for the refugees, and the response ‘was considerable’.  Tannahill, Ibid.

[ix] FO945/496, 103A, ’87 D.P. Women Welcome Hard Work Here’, by News Chronicle Reporter, News Chronicle, 22/10/46.

[x] A small reserve of clothing was held at the Münster Embarkation Transit Camp, to provide basic items to those EVWs lacking the essentials.  (Source:  FO1032/830, 32A, Appendix A to minutes of meeting held at PW & DP Division, Lemgo, 10/3/47).

[xi] Appendix F: Letter from E.V.W.S, (1), Burnley, 26.9.1948, Tannahill, European Volunteer Workers, p 130.

[xii] Playback No: 14, First Generation Latvian man.  This represents a 50 per cent increase in pocket money.

[xiii] FO371/66713, WR3329/77/48, Leaflet Issued by WVS about their work with EVWs, September 1947, p 2.

[xiv] Ibid.

[xv] Playback No: 1, First Generation Latvian woman.

[xvi] Ibid.

[xvii] Ibid.

[xviii] This is an English summary of a contribution by the Latvian author Gunārs Priednieks.  ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, English Summaries by Grunts, M. V. & Smith, I. A. (1995) Latvieši Lielbritanijā, Latvian National Council in Great Britain, p 455-56.

[xix] Playback No: 13, First Generation Lithuanian woman.

[xx] Ibid.

[xxi] The Western Morning News, 21/11/46, 216a, Wiener Library.

[xxii] Ibid.

[xxiii] Different holding camps and hostels were allocated to serve designated regions.  For example, EVWs allocated to work in the East and West Ridings were allocated to Full Sutton Camp, Stamford Bridge, Nr. York or to Priory Road Camp, Priory Road, Hull.  (Source: FO945/502, 86A, Allocation of Holding Camps to Regions).

[xxiv] Tannahill, European Volunteer Workers, p 85.

[xxv] Ibid.

[xxvi] Playback No: 08, First Generation Latvian woman

[xxvii] Recreational facilities in the hostels were extremely variable.  While one Latvian noted at Bearley camp, near Stratford-upon-Avon, there were ‘diverse sports activities’, another Latvian noted that in a different camp that although there were sports activities, ‘socially it was rather quiet’.  In another camp for agricultural workers in Hertfordshire, one Latvian reported that: ‘Camp facilities were meagre’, and ‘gambling and drinking were the most popular pastimes at weekends’. These are English summaries of contributions by Latvians in Britain, ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, English summaries by Grunts and Smith, Latvieši Lielbritanijā, p 457.

[xxviii] LAB26/247, ‘English for Foreign Workers’: ‘Report of an Enquiry by one of H. M. Inspectors of School’s during January, February and April, 1949 into the teaching of English to foreign workers, with special reference to the relevant social and labour problems involved’, p 6.

[xxix] LAB26/247, ‘English for Foreign Workers’, op cit., p 7.

[xxx] This was not always the case.  There are many examples where EVWs were welcomed into local areas.  One Latvian remembered how EVWs from a camp near Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, housing EVWs employed in the building materials industry were ‘welcome guests at the local pubs, because they were good spenders’.   English summary of contribution by Arv. Zaķis, in ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, English Summaries by Grunts and Smith, Latvieši Lielbritanijā, p 460.

[xxxi] Tannahill, European Volunteer Workers, p 85.

[xxxii] English summary of a contribution by Imants Bērziņš, ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, English Summaries by Grunts and Smith, Latvieši Lielbritanijā, p 456.

[xxxiii] English summary of an article in Londonas Avize (5/3/48), ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, ibid., p 457.

[xxxiv] Tannahill, European Volunteer Workers, p 66.

[xxxv] LAB26/247, ‘English for Foreign Workers’: ‘Report of an Enquiry by one of H. M. Inspectors of School’s during January, February and April, 1949 into the teaching of English to foreign workers, with special reference to the relevant social and labour problems involved’, p 5.

[xxxvi] Playback No: 08, First Generation Latvian woman.

[xxxvii] Ibid.

[xxxviii] Tannahill, European Volunteer Workers, p 67.

[xxxix] Ibid.

[xl] Playback No: 02, First Generation Estonian man.

[xli] Ibid.

[xlii] Ibid. p 85.

[xliii] LAB26/247, ‘English for Foreign Workers’, p 2.

[xliv] Ibid.

[xlv] Working in Ammunitions Depots was fairly rare among the EVWs, but illustrates the range of miscellaneous jobs undertaken by Baltic refugees. ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, English Summaries by Grunts and Smith, Latvieši Lielbritanijā, p 460, describes the case of one Latvian who was sent along with a group of other EVWs, to work at the Royal Army Central Ammunition Depot (CAD Bramley) near Basingstoke, where they worked for the Royal Engineers and Sappers, earning £3 10 s per week.

[xlvi] See for example the life history of an Estonian man, BO 127/01, BHRU.

[xlvii] Playback No: 05, First Generation Latvian man.

[xlviii] English summary of extracts from the diary of Augusts Butka, ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, ibid., p 456.

[xlix] Playback No: 21, First Generation Estonian man.

[l] Playback No: 16, First Generation Estonian man.

[li] Ibid.

[lii] Tannahill, European Volunteer Workers, p 38.

[liii] A Latvian woman reported that lunch breaks were usually half an hour or three-quarters of an hour.  BO 060, First Generation Latvian woman, BHRU.

[liv] BO 122/01, First Generation Latvian woman, BHRU.

[lv] Playback No: 06, First Generation Latvian man.

[lvi] None of those whom I interviewed had been employed in coalmining.

[lvii] One Latvian EVW reports that some of the courses lasted over three months. (English summary of contribution by Arnold Muižinieks in ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, translated by Grunts and Smith, Latvieši Lielbritanijā, p 458.

[lviii] Ibid.

[lix] English summary of contribution by A. Kazaks in ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, ibid., p 458.

[lx] See the contributions by Latvian EVWs collected in the chapter ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, Ibid., pp 453-465.

[lxi] English summary of contribution by Jautrīte Svenne in ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, Latvieši Lielbritanijā, p 461.

[lxii] English summary of contribution by Arv. Zaķis in ‘In the Mirror of the Past’, ibid., p 460.

[lxiii] Playback No: 19, First Generation Lithuanian man.

[lxiv] BO 127/01, First Generation Estonian man, BHRU.

[lxv] Tannahill, European Volunteer Workers, p 72.

[lxvi] Ibid.  (Tannahill notes that during 1949, almost 800 men and 300 women from the EVW population were placed in employment outside the ‘approved field’ of undermanned industries’, Tannahill, European Volunteer Workers, p 53)

[lxvii] Playback No: 08, First Generation Latvian woman.

[lxviii] Ibid.

[lxix] For further information, see Tannahill, European Volunteer Workers, p 73.

[lxx] Ibid.

[lxxi] Ibid.

[lxxii] In the eighteen months following this ruling, 44 applications from among all EVW nationalities were received, the majority accepted.  I do not have figures for the numbers of Baltic applicants, although from this figure it is likely to be no more than a handful.  (Tannahill, ibid., p 73).

[lxxiii] Tannahill, ibid., p 82.

[lxxiv] The Control Commission noted on 21 April 1948 that it was mainly Balts who returned to Germany. (FO1006/513, no 167, CCG, Lübbecke to PWDP, Land Schleswig-Holstein, 21/4/48).

[lxxv] Initially, there was some confusion about the right of EVWs to re-enter the continent.  A Tripartite Agreement covering the three western Allied zones of Europe was negotiated in early 1948, which gave individuals the right to return to Germany within 18 months of leaving.  No formal instrument regulating return to Austria ever existed.  Each case was dealt with on an individual basis, and eventually, authorities worked to the same rules as in Germany.  (Tannahill, European Volunteer Workers, p 40).

[lxxvi] The Control Commission states that one woman returned ‘to join husband for emigration purposes’.  Ibid.

[lxxvii] Ibid., p 98.

ed.