MASS-OBSERVATION 1940
LISTENING TO BRITAIN 1940
MASS-OBSERVATION 1940
January 2026
MASS-OBSERVATION[1] operated within the Ministry of Information[2] in 1940. Importantly, Mary Adams, the first Director of Home Intelligence commissioned Mass-Observation to undertake studies in national and provincial morale.
Mass-Observation was founded in 1937 by Thomas Harrison, anthropologist, Charles Madge, poet, and Humphrey Jennings, documentary film maker.
Mass-Observation used a range of experimental and unorthodox techniques to assess public attitudes. Unconventional because it snoot in... Eavesdropping on conversations, and then reporting back on what they heard, and also reporting on the overall behaviour, public opinion, public morale.
We have to step back in time to understand this.
Part I
Shortly before the outbreak of war, the Government enacted the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 (2&3 Geo.6.c.62) enacted on 24 August 1939.
This enabled central government to make Defence Regulations by Order in Council, and these Orders in Council touched every aspect of life, including the lawful restriction of civil liberties, prohibiting seditious speech, anti-war propaganda, as well as individual or collective acts that were prejudicial to the war effort.
As the war advanced and became total war, so legislation kept pace in severity.
Primary legislation that has remained in force and is central to good governance, is The Official Secrets Act 1939. This enabled provisions enacted by Order in Council to be greatly strengthened when a person was suspected of endangering state security on the one hand, and on
the other hand criminalizing acts that were intended to assist the enemy.
The Orders in Council relating to defence were issued in the form of Defence (General) Regulations 1939.
Defence Regulation 18B approved by the King on 1 September 1939 prepared the ground for internment of persons connected to hostile associations in the event of declaration of war.
On 3 September 1939 Great Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. This regulation empowered the Home Secretary to intern individuals, even if they had British citizenship, where the Home Secretary was satisfied that such persons were suspected of being a danger to the state.
DR 18B was amended in 1940 to strengthen these powers during the threat of invasion.
Defence Regulation 39A was approved by the King on 9 May 1940, when Governance was at a critical juncture, 10 May 1940 being the launch by Adolf Hitler of the Blitzkrieg, and by the day’s end the King formally inviting Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, to form a government of national unity under his premiership.
DR 39A was stringent, for it identified certain acts as being seditious. Sedition came in many forms.
· Expressions of anti-war
· pacifism that refused any assistance to the people
· literature and meetings regarded as seditious.
Sedition is defined in the Oxford Dictionary[3] as
1 conduct or speech inciting to rebellion or a breach of public order;
2 agitation against the authority of the state
The Treachery Act 1940 was enacted to strengthen more serious activities that would be regarded as “treachery”, thereby replacing and updating the principle of the Treason Act 1351.
Part II
Conventional surveys ~ polling ~ as we know it today, is by Internet surveys and polls.
So Mass-Observation in a way, we might say, smacked of the tactics of a police state. As I think this through, I think of cafes and coffee houses today, supermarket queues and gatherings. The observer is unobtrusive, sitting quietly, not making notes, probably reading the newspaper or a book, not attracting attention. Their ability is ‘recollection’ ~ to accurately recall information so that, from the Mass-Observation environment (like the bird who flies from the branch back to its nest) the observer can type up the day's report.
How were the reports delivered to Mass-Observation? Where was Mass-Observation based?
Whatever I think, they are doing no different to the polling companies except, with one difference. Today, polling and independent survey is usually by invitation. The addressee can ignore the invitation without fear. We do this every day when we delete unwanted invasive emails.
Conversely, being eavesdropped upon, is a different matter. We enter the outer arena of the spy. We enter into that mystical realm known collectively as Intelligence.
Part III
As a young constable in 1975 I was posted for six months to the Cnstabulary's Collators’ Office. This was the office that collected all the observations by operational police officers walking the beats, driving police cars, and building a comprehensive multi-dimension card index. One dimension might be colour of clothing.
The victim might say “I do remember he was about 20, rough looking and wearing a really bright striped red and yellow jumper. I remember that clearly. Red and yellow stripes... Coz, I asked myself in a fleeting moment, ‘why is that guy wearing that stripy jumper in the middle of summer?’”
As a collator, I’d receive a P115 (a small pocketbook chit) submitted by one of the beat constables who'd seen someone in the High Street; wearing a red polo-neck jumper. Red and Yellow. The constable had not been so interested in the red jumper, but rather the sighting of a known criminal who was, moreover, ‘currently active’, that is to say, known to be up to no good ~ suspected of committing a series of burglaries but not yet apprehended.
This note I merely include because partway through my service in the collators’ office, the office was given a new name - Intelligence. I distinctly remember the transition.
Where are you currently working Ken?
I'd normally reply, “Oh the Collators’ Office at Cheltenham Central.” But how different it sounded when I now said “Oh, in Home Intelligence at Divisional HQs.”
The look of the enquirer was quite different.
30 January 2026
All Rights Reserved
Gloucestershire and Liverpool
© 2026 Kenneth Thomas Webb
[1] M-O
[2] MOI
[3] The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English Ninth Edition 1995 (First Edition 1911)
