Bournemouth At War / MAYOR'S CHRISTMAS MESSAGE Traditional Cache

Bournemouth has a great history. I have documented many famous people, major events and occurrences in previous geocaching series highlighting the history of Bournemouth. This series focuses on many of the key incidents and stories in the town when Bournemouth was at war. A complete list of all the caches in this series are bookmarked.

1941 saw some of the worst bombing to the town. In December that year, the distraction of Christmas and seeing in the New Year, which all would have been hoping would be better than the last, gave a welcome relief to the tragedy many were enduring throughout the year.



The third wartime Christmas started with a message from the Mayor, who asked everybody to shop early in the day, during the hours of daylight, because the Government had requested that the utmost economy should be exercised in the use of electricity and fuel. Shops were asked to reduce the amount of lighting used.

Toys had almost disappeared - there were few dolls or cuddly toys and stocking fillers were non-existent. No pretty ribboned boxes of chocolates were to be found and under a Government Order wrapping paper was not available. Even the programmes at the Pavilion and other theatres were cut in size and no more town guide books were to be printed. Crackers, too, were not plentiful and the shops that did have them rationed their sales. Because of the clothes rationing any such gifts purchased still needed coupons and people did not want to give up their precious allocation to others. It is not to be wondered at that gift tokens were very popular!

For the first time, thirty 16-year-old schoolboys volunteered to help the Post Office deliver the Christmas post. With the possibility that Christmas cards might be few and far between for the next year, local people sent extra ones. Shopkeepers found that even though there wasn’t the same variety as usual, the demand was still as great. Turkeys and Christmas trees were also in short supply and bakers were not allowed to sell iced Christmas cakes, only plain ones.