Clacton Prepares for War

Clacton-on-Sea - a place for summer holidays. Created in 1871, it was intended to provide holiday accommodation and entertainment for visitors during the summer months. Starting with the pier, then a hotel, and houses, the new resort developed year by year. Hotels, boarding houses, shops and entertainment venues and public gardens were built or created beside the sandy beaches. Each winter, preparations took place for the next year's season. More and more facilities were offered in the ever-growing town. The 1939 summer season was no exception to all the previous seasons.

Pre-war Clacton was a popular seaside resort

The threat of war had been gradually increasing as the decade of the 1930's progressed. The Munich Crisis of 1938 brought both more fears, and then the hope of peace. The holiday business of the town continued for the following season. However from 1937 the Clacton Urban District Council (CUDC) had been receiving directives from both central government in London, and the Essex County Council. These directives asked them to make preparations for a new central Government Act of Parliament, called Air Raid Precautions (ARP).

An advert asking for attendants for air raid shelters

ARP was concerned with the protection of the public from enemy action. The scope included provision of the following:

Air Raid Shelters (first called Trench Shelters)

First Aid Points

Wardens Posts

Rescue Squads

Decontamination Centres (gas attacks were anticipated from the air)

Respirators (gas masks)

The council appointed Mr J T Miller to be the ARP officer. It was his responsibility to organise and implement the ARP requirements. A propaganda week was held during October 1938 to seek volunteers. 385 quickly applied, and more were to follow. A former school in Holland Road, Clacton-on-Sea, once Ascham College, was used as a headquarters and training base.

An advert asking residents of Clacton to collect respirators (gas masks)

The CUDC were also busy identifying the resources available locally should the need arise. These included the number of coaches available from local companies for the dispersal of the public; garages that could be used as decontamination stations for vehicles and casualty accommodation in addition to the Clacton Hospital in Freeland Road. The CUDC also found somewhere to set up decontamination stations for the population if needed. The council also worked out how much water was available in Holland Brook.

ARP contamination squad practising during a pre-war exercise in Clacton (from the Clacton and East Essex Gazette)

During the spring of 1938 when the new holiday was well underway, a Mock Air-Raid and Decontamination demonstration was held on the Old Road Car Park.

The ARP department of the CUDC was also ordering supplies. The Town Surveyor, William Aiston, was receiving advertising material from many different companies. These offered everything from blackout materials, sand bag filling machines, air-raid shelters, air-raid sirens and a variety of other tools and equipment. Early in 1939, an ARP report to the council stated that 70,000 sand-bags had arrived, and were stored at the Palace Theatre. Among other essential equipment delivered to the Clacton council were the cartons for the civilian respirators, (which totalled 25,000); 37 metal stretchers; ten cases of rubber boots, 150 ladders, 500 stirrup pumps, 3,000 buckets and 135 wheelbarrows.

The Palace Theatre

Air-raid sirens were positioned in the town during April 1938. One was on the police station roof. The station was then in West Avenue on the Jackson Road corner. Once in place the sirens were tested - an audible reminder to the townspeople of the worsening situation amid the beginning of another new holiday season. Later in the same year ARP Wardens issued respirators (gas masks) to the population. There were special coloured respirators for children; babies had a respirator, which totally enclosed the infant.

The residents could also purchase items for their own protection. Hodgson & Co. of the High Street, Clacton-on-Sea advertised sand bags, incendiary bomb snuffers and blackout paints and paper for sale. A local builder, C H Chaston of Holland-on-Sea, would supply an air raid shelter to accommodate six to eight persons for £7/6/6d (£7.60p)

Companies offered various ways to try to make shelters more comfortable

Local schools were also making preparations should war come. In 1938 Mr W H Cole, headmaster of London Road School attended an ARP lecture at the Town Hall. Miss Reed of Saint Osyth Road School produced a scheme of protection for the children, as recommended by Senior ARP officers. These officers then visited the remaining schools to provide advice, such as where trenches should be dug.

The pace of preparations continued into 1939. During July on a Saturday evening, a full-scale exercise was staged to test the conveying of messages and response time for an imaginary incident at Clacton Railway Station for the Clacton ARP personnel. A satisfactory outcome was later reported to the council, except for one squad whose vehicle was facing the wrong direction in the road, and consequently arrived late at the railway station!

Enjoying the summer holidays in 1939

The summer season for 1939, once again brought large numbers of families for their week or fortnights holiday into the town. They arrived mostly by the railway or motor coaches. The excitement for the visitors of the pier, the beach and sunshine, theatres and cinema's was prominent during those summer months. This overshadowed the preparations for war, which were quietly proceeding in the town. The publicity department of the CUDC was already planning a new and larger Clacton Official Holiday Guide for the next season of 1940.

On Saturday evening of the 2nd September 1939, it was the final show of the season at the Queens Hall Theatre at Holland-on-Sea. The following day, Sunday 3rd September at 11am, Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. The expected 1940 summer season was not to happen. Wartime conditions and air attacks were to increasingly prevail on the area, and Clacton became a restricted military place.