What was the National Savings Movement and what was its role in the Second World War?
There is a great deal of scattered information to be found online relating to the National Savings Movement and its role during the Second World War. However, no single website has attempted to accurately explain the workings of the Movement in any detail or record its efforts during WWII. Over time, information has been copied by people from various sources and inserted into other articles without the proper fact checking, taking it on face value and therefore repeating the same mistakes and perpetuating a false narrative. The National Savings Campaign was probably the largest Civil Defence initiative of the war and the least known about. I have spent a number of years researching the National Savings Movement, using primary material that was published during the war. Along with the documentation I have collected myself, I have created this website and written the books below in order to record for the first time the complete, correct, history of this incredible 'organisation of the people,' which by December 1944 had raised £8.5 billion for the government.
The Beginnings
The National Savings Movement began in 1916 during the First World War. To put it simply, it was another source of money that the government could draw on in order to finance the war. The idea was that the people could save their spare cash and the government would guarantee them a good return in interest, plus they would be able to draw out their money when they liked. The savings were invested in Savings Stamps, Savings Certificates and Bonds, which could be bought at the Post Office or other Selling Centres. They could also put their money into Post Office savings accounts or accounts at any Trustee Savings Bank. The government had access to all of the money invested in this way, but savers also had access to their money if they needed to withdraw it.
Once started, the National Savings Movement remained in place after the war, (the government withdrew all admin support in 1974 which finally forced it to close down). This helped the government, but it also helped ordinary people as many had never had savings. This allowed them to build up pots of money for the future, the longer they left it invested, the more interest they would accrue. National Savings helped kickstart the savings habit which proliferated across all age groups. Babies received gift cards containing savings stamps at birth for example, others received them as birthday and wedding presents etc.
What was more Important than Weapons?
There were other reasons to encourage saving. If people are saving then conversely, they are not spending, and this helps to keep inflation down. In wartime inflation can run riot and saving helped to keep a lid on it. Also, if people are not spending then the shops always have stock to sell instead of ending up with empty shelves through panic buying and hoarding. The fewer articles people bought meant that valuable raw materials were not wasted in replacing these consumable items, and could be used more directly for the war effort instead. Also, valuable space was not taken up in cargos ships bringing in unnecessary items when the space could be used to transport war materials.
The other, less tangible benefit derived from these savings campaigns was the great sense of patriotic togetherness engendered by millions of people working hard in a common cause. Every man, woman and child could get involved in this ‘essential’ activity. It was seen as the one thing that civilians could do on the Home Front to help the war effort in a practical way while their loved ones in the armed forces were risking their lives. These campaigns built morale, especially when they succeeded beyond all expectations. Anyone could start up a local savings group, some groups had very few members, others had hundreds and included families, whole streets, factories, schools and villages. Anyone who could knock on someone’s door and sell them a savings stamp was in!
The Savings Weeks
Although people continued to save through National Savings every day, there were also special savings 'Weeks' that were arranged each year in order to give them a boost. The National Savings Committee organised these Weeks, but they left it to the Local Savings Groups to make arrangements at local level and manage the Weeks themselves. This meant organising events, some big like military parades, some small like whist drives in the local village hall. Each area across the country was given its target for the week. Small villages were given small targets of a few thousand pounds. Large cities were tasked with raising millions. This was all in just one week. The National Committee gave the Groups a period of months from which they would choose the date to hold their Week. In this way not all Weeks were held on the same dates. The different weeks and their periods were as follows:
-
War Weapons Week: 16th September 1940 to 28th June 1941 (nine and a half months).
-
Warship Week: 18th October 1941 to 28th March 1942 (just over six months).
-
Wings for Victory Week: 6th March 1943 to 3rd July 1943 (four months).
-
Salute the Soldier Week: 25th March 1944 to 29th July 1944 (four months).
-
Thanksgiving Week: September – November 1945.
Because of the long gap between the end of Warship Week and the start of Wings for Victory Week, the National Committee ran a ten-week campaign in the summer of 1942 called Tanks-for-Attack. This was an opportunity strictly for small savers to raise enough money to name a tank after their town or Group. There are separate pages on this website covering each of the savings weeks.
The Full History of National Savings
in World War Two
The three books below cover the full story of National Savings during World War Two. I have written them after carrying out years of research and collecting an enormous amount of documentation and paperwork produced by the Government, the National Savings Committee and the various Savings Groups during their long campaign. There are many hundreds of documents illustrated in these books which help to explain how the whole campaign was carried out and how great was the effort made by the people of Britain to support their government and their armed forces.
These books are not available in the shops but can be bought from me on request.
Specific Subjects
I have created the four books below which focus on specific subjects covered in the three main books.
Each one is about 70 pages long and covers the complete story of one Savings Week. This makes buying my books a little cheaper if you don't want to pay for the larger books which are around 200 pages long and consequently cost more. You can purchase these other books at a lower price and build up the complete story over time. Just like the longer books, these are A4 size and in full colour.
Shortly I will be adding more separate books covering how the Savings Movement worked in general, including types of savings books and certificates, a database of posters and additional subjects until the story is complete in this series. The Three main books are still the best way to access the whole story if you don't want to buy these books piecemeal.
