Daphne Bead's Life During The Great Depression

Barbara Castle once said: "If you've got unemployment, low pay, that was just too bad. But that was the system. That was the sort of economy and philosophy against which I was fighting in the 1930s." Sadly, this was the reality of most people throughout the time of the Great Depression, which was during the 1930s. Consequently, soon after the Great Depression, WW2 took place. This was the war in which over sixty million people were killed. The war instilled fear in many countries, fear of attack, fear of being bombed. Because of this fear, people begun to prepare for what might come. Bomb shelters were installed in homes, schools, and any other place they could go. Children soon knew the taunting sound of the bomb siren. However, not all people were badly affected by the Great Depression or WW2. Daphne Bead, born in the outskirts of London in 1925, remembered the war rather fondly.

However, Daphne was not affected by it. Her father was an analytical chemist, which left Daphne and her family fairly well off during the depression. But, Daphne did remember people around her being somewhat affected. When Daphne was 13, World War Two started. No one directly related to her went to war but she did say her ex boyfriend did. He became a bomber pilot. During school, Daphne and her classmates would have an amusing time during the bomb drills. She explained that she thought it was fun to miss class. She also remembered the boys in her class, leaving for training for war. She explained that if the boys were old enough, they would go to Cambridge or South Africa for