Fleetwood Autograph Album of drawings and poems 1917-1920

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iBase ID

265319

Title

Fleetwood Autograph Album of drawings and poems 1917-1920

Description

This is a small autograph album with a number of hand coloured drawings, poems and signatures by various people from Fleetwood, dating from 1917-1920 and reflecting local attitudes toward the end of the First World War.
Some of the writings directed at women, possibly meant to be humorous at the time, can be seen as unpleasant today.
For example, women should 'stay at home', this was written just after the war when unemployment was high and the returning troops were vying with women to get any employment. Also women are 'breaking hearts in being such flirts', this poem suggests they were not doing any real work, just giving out the 'giddy glad eye' to the men passing by! The latter, is from a poem about Robertson's of Fleetwood and discusses women working there, during the First World War. Robertson's was a renowned engineering firm, best known for their expertise in winch making. During the Second World War, they helped convert trawlers for use by the Admiralty. The drawing of a munitionette standing on a box of highly explosive materials just to get away from a mouse though, is still hilarious today, even if rather demeaning!
From the contents of some of the messages, the owner of the book and recipient of the poems and drawing would appear to have been a young local woman who did not join the WAAC, the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps, during the war.
The album was donated by Mrs Tancock in 2011 and is now in the collection of Fleetwood Museum

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