7 - British Sunday Schools during the Second World War

Summary

Throughout much of the twentieth century Sunday schools were a significant force in the religious education and formation of British society, exposing countless children to the Bible, hymns, and Christian doctrine. A BBC poll conducted in 1955 found that 83 per cent of those respondents born before 1939 had been involved with a Sunday school or Bible class for several years. Only 6 per cent claimed that they had never attended a Sunday school lesson. Furthermore, these schools were predominantly attended by the working class. Given that the rank and file of the British armed forces largely came from this milieu, this meant that most of them would have attended Sunday school at some point in their childhood. However, despite the important role the schools played in the religious life of early twentieth-century Britain, there has been very little examination of their history and experiences during the Second World War. This chapter provides an overview of Sunday schools during the conflict, arguing that the history of the schools demonstrates the continuing strength of Christianity in British society.

The importance of Sunday schools during the Second World War

Sunday schools continued to play an important role in nurturing and shaping the faith of those who grew up in inter-war Britain. However, due to the dislocation and disruption caused by the war, compiling comprehensive attendance statistics became almost impossible. Clive Field estimated that in 1939 there were 3,743,386 scholars across the Protestant churches, while Currie, Gilbert and Horsley had earlier established that around two-thirds of all scholars attended Nonconformist Sunday schools. However, by 1945 Field estimates that the number of Sunday school scholars had fallen to just over three million. A Mass Observation file report from 1948 concerning church attendance found that four out of five respondents sent their children to Sunday school even though only one out of five attended church regularly. As Field suggested, ‘together with family and school, Sunday schools were thus an important instrument of religious socialization, leaving an inevitable legacy of residual Christian beliefs and values in the lives of former scholars throughout their adulthood.’

This legacy can be seen through a wealth of anecdotal evidence. For instance, the schools are frequently mentioned in oral history interviews. Those conducted by the Imperial War Museum involving those who lived during the Second World War include at least sixty-five which explicitly mention Sunday school attendance in their summary descriptions.