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This chapter focuses on attitudes towards sexual morality – particularly infidelity – in civil defence and highlights the gulf that could exist between public representations and individual attitudes and experiences. Civil defence offered increased opportunities for romantic encounters, with men and women working closely together, often in the blackout, and with unpredictable working hours offering convenient alibis. There were fears that the conditions of work in civil defence could corrupt individuals, and the experience of intense fear and boredom as well as the regular social events held at the post could all facilitate the development of these relationships. In wartime popular culture sexual morality was closely policed, but within civil defence communities infidelity was generally tolerated by colleagues. Because the maintenance of the community at the civil defence post was usually prioritised over policing the morals of personnel, couples were rarely criticised or ostracised in the way that they were in popular culture. When colleagues did disapprove, it was generally because of the poor quality of a couple’s work or because they were not sufficiently discreet and were thus putting the reputation of the post at risk.

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Creating the people’s war

Civil defence communities in Second World War Britain

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