News A Short Summary of Both World Wars in Pinner, From The Pinner Local History Society

By Pat Clarke (Member of The Pinner Local History Society)

World War I

The first World War touched the villages of England as no other conflict had before.  Pinner’s war history is the national history writ small, a tale of loss, anxiety, precautions, making-do, endurance and recovery. Reserves were mobilised immediately, then Kitchener called for volunteers, and in 1916 conscription was instituted.  The words “To Berlin” were painted on the horse trough outside The Queen’s Head with an arrow pointing to the recruiting office in the Parish Hall in front of the river at the foot of the High Street.  Families high and low lost sons, including the Heals of The Fives Court and the Hoggs of West House.  More than a score of men of all ranks were decorated or mentioned in dispatches.  There is no full list of Pinner men who were decorated or fell or served, so it is impossible to give a balanced account.

The Great War was the first in British history since 1066 to have had an impact on every section of the population.  Civilians were under attack for the first time and Pinner was no exception. Never before had the country experienced such shortages of manpower and goods – it is said that North Harrow Station had a female member of staff.  Food became short.  Rationing was finally introduced early in 1918 but was badly organised and sometimes supplies of some foods ran out.    Once a baker at 33 High Street ignored the regulation to dilute bread with potato flour. Gentlemen’s wives assumed leadership of the war effort, holding fund-raising events and organising work circles to make  comforts for the fighting men.

Pinner Place, standing vacant, was used as a convalescent hospital, staffed by V.A.Ds, and helpers from Pinner.  Servicemen from all over England and the Empire were cared for and sometimes appeared in Pinner.  In their blue uniforms the wounded would sit on the Parish Hall wall and chat to the locals.

After the war, national shock and relief found expression in public memorials which appeared everywhere.  Pinner commemorated its fallen with an obelisk at the top of the High Street, unveiled in 1921.  There are no exact figures of Pinner’s casualties.  It was later calculated that around 676, roughly one in six, of the men served in the conflict.  About 107 of them were killed, and 39 wounded.

World War II

Every person was involved in the effort.  Most of the able-bodied men were called up into the armed forces while home defence systems were formed, reformed and extended.  Most activities fell within the scope of Civil Defence (CD), originally Air Raid Precautions (ARP); the Home Guard, originally the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV); or the Women’s Voluntary Services for Civil Defence (WVS).

Public air raid shelters were built in several places, notably outside the Queen’s Head and semi-underground in West House Memorial Park. The most favoured sort of home shelter in Pinner seems to have been the cupboard under the stairs, for the children, or the garage, reinforced, because the Anderson shelter in the garden, half underground and roofed with corrugated steel, with bunk beds, was difficult to dig out and nasty to use in the Pinner clay – it tended to fill with water.  The later Morrison shelter for indoor use, made like a steel reinforced table, was better.

Food rationing was more successful in this war. The Pinner Food Office was at 40 Bridge Street. From 1943 British Restaurants were opened, one near the shelters in the Memorial Park, seating 200, and others, at Station Road, North Harrow and in Rayners Lane behind the cinema.  A shilling could buy a three-course meal and a coffee (probably ersatz).  Events to raise money for the war effort were frequent, and especially during the annual War Savings Week.

The war effort involved almost everyone, either voluntarily or by registration.  Nights were particularly demanding.  People who had worked all day took their turn as ARP Wardens. Others who worked in London had to share in the task of fire-watching at business premises there, night after night.  Sixth formers helped fire-watch at school, Scouts and Guides were organised for messenger and first aid work; at 17 youngsters had to join the Home Guard or nursing auxiliaries; at 18 the uniformed services took the fittest.

In time enemy prisoners of war were sent to Pinner, to a tented camp in the (now) Bannister Playing Fields near Hatch End. Another camp was opened later towards the southern end of Rayners Lane. The prisoners were of the sort thought suitable to be used on ‘essential work’ in London.  After Italy surrendered Italians were often allowed out unescorted, and so, towards the end of the war, were some Germans. Some were invited to tea by local families.

When victory came in May 1945 the rejoicing included street parties with dancing in the evening. The celebrations were repeated after the Japanese surrender in August.

There is no precise figure of the war-related dead of Pinner. Bombs fell on Pinner, and many were killed at home during bombing raids from August 1940 to the flying bomb incidents of 1944.  Just as in 1918 there was an urge to create a memorial to the fallen of Pinner, which settled upon the creation of a park which all could enjoy. In the old wartime spirit funds were raised publicly to buy West House and its grounds   In 1947 the purchase was made from Cutler’s, owners of the site, who reduced the price to £14,000, and it was given to Harrow UDC as Pinner Memorial Park.  An illuminated Book of Remembrance was housed in a shrine room upstairs.  And at the southwest corner of the estate a group of bungalows for old persons were built in Dickson Fold whose conifers mark the original edge of the grounds.