World War 2 Eighty Years On - The 1939 Register for Eton Wick

With in a month of the Declaration of War by Neville Chamberlain in 1939 a record of every household in the UK was taken. The Register was taken on 29 September 1939 and the information was used to produce identity cards and, once rationing was introduced in January 1940, to issue ration books. Information in the Register was also used to administer conscription and the direction of labour, and to monitor and control the movement of the population caused by military mobilisation and mass evacuation. The Register was designed to capture the details of every member of the civilian population – military personnel were not recorded. It contains details of around 40 million people, recorded in more than 65,000 volumes (transcript books). 

A house in Prospect Place

The enumerator for Eton Wick recorded the names and details of 1,294 people in 313 households. Emma Woolhouse was the oldest person living in the village, she was 94 years old. Emma's first two homes in the village after marrying Thomas Woolhouse was at 8 and 2 Prospect Place. The 1939 Register records that the 10 houses that made up Prospect Place were empty.

The youngest child on the Register was Joan Tarrant who was 1 month old.

It should be noted that the 1939 Register recorded Eton Wick and Boveney New Town as one community following the Local Government Act of 1933 that brought to an end the separate councils for the two neighbouring communities and created Eton Urban District Council.

The Register includes the extra war time duties that residents had volunteered for. There are a number of closed records in the 1939 Register that has been released by the National Records Office. Local research has been able to add a further 13 names to the information available in the Register. 

You can view a transcription of the 1939 Register for Eton Wick by clicking on this link. or pasting this URL in to your internet browser: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1F18eOrMdf9OV_HyEbC1Sq2zOqg8YGpuxTzLX4FIdTO4 

Given Name	Surname	Extra duties
William	Akers	Auxiliary Fireman Eton UDC
George	Ball	Special Constable
Henry	Barton	Auxiliary Fireman
George	Batt	Police Messenger
Harry	Batt	Special Constable
John	Bell	Special Constable
John	Bidmead	Auxiliary Fireman
Charles	Bond	Ambulance Driver
Frank	Bond	ARP messenger
Albert	Bond	ARP Warden
Eddie	Bond	Police Messenger
Ernie	Bond	Police Messenger
John	Bow	Ambulance Services First Aid Service Merthyr
Laura	Bow	British Red Cross Nursing Services Merthyr
William	Brown	ARP
David	Bryant	Police Messenger
Edwin	Buckland	Special Policeman
Harry	Burfoot	Rescue and Demolition
Alice	Burfoot	Womens Volunteer Service
Harold	Carpenter	Auxiliary Fire Service Eton UDC
Henry	Carpenter	Auxiliary Fireman, Pump operator
Arthur	Chamberlain	ARP Air Raid Warden
Millicent A	Chantler	Red Cross Nurse
Henry	Chantler	Air Raid Warden Eton UDC
Sylvia	Chew	ARP Ambulance Driver
Joyce	Chew	ARP Ambulance Driver
Archibald	Chew	ARP Joint Committee Evacuees
Miriam	Chew	Red Cross Civil Nursing Reserve
Annie	Chew	Womens Volunteer Service
Arthur	Codd	ARP Eton UDC
William	Collyer	ARP Windsor Castle
Harriett	Cook	Air Raid Warden Eton UDC
Albert	Cooley	ARP Road Repair Squad
Peter	Cooley	St John's Ambulance Nobel's Slough DIY Military Hospital
Ernest	Drake	ARP Senior Warden
Walter	Elkins	ARP Warden
George	Eyles	ARP Warden (W. Thrupp Chief warden)
Douglas	Eyles	Police Messenger
Harry	Friend	Special Constable
Bob	Friend	Special Policeman
Mary	Graham	ARP First Aid
William	Graham	ARP Warden
Arthur	Gregory	ARP Warden Eton
Arthur	Grubb	ARP Emergency motor driver
Lavina	Hammerton	Red Cross Nurse
Robert	Heath	ARP Services Somerset CC
George	Hedges	ARP Stretcher Bearer
Albert	Hood	Ambulance Driver
Lilian	Husted	Red Cross Nurse Enrolled for training
George	Jacobs	Demolition Squad(?)
Marion	Johnson	Air Raid Warden
Henry	Johnson	Auxiliary Fireman
George	Kelley	Special Constable
Peter	Kemp	Sgt. RAF VR no. 74097
Arthur	Lane	Special Constable
Norman	Lane	Special Policeman
Jane	Mc Millan	Red Cross Nurse
Frederick	Mead	Air Raid Warden
George	Mills	Retained Fireman Eton RDC
Richard	Mitchener	Auxiliary Fireman Reading
Thomas	Morrell	Rescue and Demolition Slough Borough Council
Albert	Morrell	Special Constable
Reverend	Morris	ARP Warden
Maurice	North	Auxiliary Fireman
John	Oxlade	ARP Rescue and Demolition
James	Pass	ARP Decontamination
Albert	Prior	Rescue and Demolition Eton UDC
John	Prosser	Special Constable
Ernie	Prosser	Special Policeman
Robert	Pulvertaft	Emergency Medical Service
Caroline	Schafran	Helper under evacuation
William	Swain	Auxiliary Fireman
Reginald	Talbot	Auxiliary Fireman Eton UDC
George	Tarrant	Special Constable
Ernie	Thomas	Special Policeman
Florence	Thurston	British Red Cross Nursing Auxiliary
Robert	Weatherall	Air Raid Warden Part time Eton Urban and South Bucks Councils
Ken	Weller	ARP Messenger
Hubert	Wells	Eton Fire Brigade
Edward	Wilkinson	ARP Warden
Harry	Wilson	ARP messenger
William	Woolhouse	ARP
Ernest	Woolhouse	ARP Demolition Eton Wick

This article includes information from The 1939 Register, Frank Bond's articles in Our Village and Round and About Eton Wick: 1939 - 1945.