Preparing the British Fire Service for War: Local Government, Nationalisation and Evolutionary Reform, 1935-41
Titel:
Preparing the British Fire Service for War: Local Government, Nationalisation and Evolutionary Reform, 1935-41
Auteur:
Ewen, Shane
Verschenen in:
Contemporary British history
Paginering:
Jaargang 20 (2006) nr. 2 pagina's 209-231
Jaar:
2006-06
Inhoud:
The nationalisation of the British fire service in 1941 has conventionally been interpreted as an administrative revolution by contemporaries and historians alike. The destructive ferocity of the Blitz, particularly its concentration on London and major provincial cities, was indeed the catalyst for major restructuring, highlighting serious inadequacies in the effectiveness of local fire protection. However, the decision taken by Herbert Morrison, the home secretary, was founded on reforms implemented on an ad hoc basis since the mid-1930s. Like other areas of civil defence, reform was piecemeal and the result of increasing co-ordination by policy-makers and professional stakeholders. This paper explores those reforms, arguing that nationalisation was a staging post in the evolution of the fire service from a heterogeneous collection of fire brigades to a co-ordinated system of fire defence.
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