The War Against Hitlerism
A ceramic teapot that helped in Hitler’s downfall!
(Displayed at The Beacon Museum, Whitehaven, Cumbria)
In the war against Adolph Hitler and the Nazis even a ceramic teapot played a part. The Second World War was a "People's War" in standing up against Hitlerism and for freedom.
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posted by ritsonvaljos at 4:55 pm
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Additional information
This otherwise ordinary-looking ceramic teapot this item which is on display in The Beacon Museum, Whitehaven, Cumbria had a small, but important part in the ‘War against Hitlerism’. This was recorded for posterity when the teapot was decorated.
This is the proud and defiant declaration on the teapot:
"WAR AGAINST HITLERISM
This souvenir teapot was made for Dyson & Horsfall of Preston to replace aluminium stocks taken over for ALLIED ARMAMENTS, 1939.
THAT RIGHT SHALL PREVAIL"
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On the 'Home Front' during the Second World War - and particularly in the 'Spitfire summer' of 1940 - housewives, workplaces, clubs, societies and church halls donated pots and pans, kettles, vacuum cleaners, hat pegs, coat hangers and other miscellaneous metallic products for the war effort. Although the words painted on the teapot in the above photograph mention the year 1939 it was possibly manufactured in 1940 or 1941.
The donation of metallic household goods for the war effort was mainly an initiative of Lord Beaverbrook's in July 1940. Beaverbrook was a member of Winston Churchill's War Cabinet and the proprietor of the 'Daily Express' national newspaper. Beaverbrook issued the following declaration:
"We will turn your pots and pans into Spitfires and Hurricanes, Blenheims and Wellingtons. Everyone who has pots and pans, kettles, vacuum cleaners, hat pegs, coat hangers, shoe trees, bathroom fittings and household ornaments, cigarette boxes or any other articles made wholly or in part of aluminium, should hand them over at once to the local headquarters of the Women's Voluntary Services ... The need is instant. The call is urgent. Our expectations are high."
It was a grand and popular gesture that met with much public support. People were proud to donate items made aluminium and show everyone was united against Hitlerism. The teapot shown above is clearly evidence of this wartime spirit of defiance.
In retrospect, the considered view is that this initiative did not actually provide very much high-grade aluminium suitable for aircraft production. Nevertheless, it fulfilled the need to show that everyone was personally involved in standing up to Adolph Hitler who at that time controlled much of mainland Europe.
Eventually, as the souvenir teapot forecast: right did indeed prevail. Who could have thought that a even a ceramic teapot played a part in Hitler's eventual downfall!
I have one of these teapots in very good condition is it of any value
Alan harding
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