THE EMPIRE COMES HOME:

THE 1948 LONDON OLYMPICS AND

THE CHANGING FACE OF GREAT BRITAIN

Brigid Flaherty

HIS 288: Historical Methods

3 May 2019

Loras College, Dubuque Iowa

 Flaherty 1

In 1948, London hosted the world at the summer Olympics. These Olympic Games were

the first held since 1936, where they were hosted by Nazi Germany in Berlin; Germany and

Japan were not invited this time. The cities and countryside of Europe lay damaged and ruined

after World War II. Recovery was slow as the aid from the United States’ Marshall Plan started

to make its way across the Atlantic in the spring of 1948.1

After World War II, the sun began to set on the British Empire. More and more countries

pushed for independence- in fact, Pakistan and India gained independence in 1947 and the

Republic of Ireland Act would pass in 1948.2 That May, Israel would declare independence as

Britain sought to avoid trouble in Palestine. Different colonies would begin to follow suit,

seeking their own independence, and in effect many people from abroad would come to settle in

Great Britain.

The 1948 Olympics Games were hosted in a London that was rebuilding from bomb

damage and still rationing after the war. Great Britain’s people were concerned about hosting

such events that might come with a high price tag, while the king hoped that the Games would

restore the spirit of the nation. However, the people’s reservations “did not prevent Britain from

playing host successfully to 57 nations in the Olympic Games.”3 Athletes from all over the world

paraded around the track. England's closest neighbour and former colony joined the procession

as well as athletes from its farthest territories and other nations across the globe. Great Britain

seemed to welcome the athletes with open arms, but what of other visitors from foreign nations?

What of the immigrants who came to make new lives for themselves in the United Kingdom?

1
British Pathé, 1948 A Year Of Great Decision (1948), 1948.
2
British Pathé.
3
British Pathé.
 Flaherty 2

The British people did not welcome them with the same warmth and stood as a paradox: this

great nation could go out to establish an empire around the world, but things changed when the

empire began to come to Great Britain. The sun was finally setting on the British Empire, and the

face of the nation was beginning to change.

The medal count from 1948 began to show a changing world stage. Despite being the

host country, Great Britain’s lackluster performance

“meant that attitudes needed to change if the empire was on the wane was
going to be able to compete on the sporting world stage. Hinted at in the
1948 Games was the political landscape of sport to come: no longer a small
matter of historic tensions between Britain and Ireland and the USA.”4

The Second World War may have ended, but the Cold War was just beginning. Tensions

remained across Europe as well as the Middle East. “Sporting prowess was to become an

important part of the Cold War, and Olympic architecture its battlefield. Though the

International Olympic Committee does not use a ranking system, a medal count has been created

using their data. A simplified graph of this information can be found in the appendix5.

England did not have a strong workforce in 1948. In fact, despite having increased rations

compared to the general population, dockers and miners went on general strike because they

were unhappy with their own work conditions.6 Parts of the country still lay in heaps of brick,

ash, and wood from the German Blitz which killed almost 30,000 people.7 Surveyors created

4
Sefryn Penrose, “London 1948: The Sites and after-Lives of the Austerity Olympics,” World Archaeology 44,
no. 2 (June 2012): 306–25.
5
Appendix, image 1
6
“Split Vote by London Dockers,” Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld. : 1907 - 1954), June 23, 1948.
7
“Bomb-Damage Maps Reveal London’s World War II Devastation,” Science & Innovation, May 18, 2016.
 Flaherty 3

detailed maps of the 1.8 million ruined or damaged buildings, colour-coding them by hand.8

These maps are a primary source presented by National Geographic and one of the coloured

maps can be seen in the appendix.9 It became clear that London could not in any way create

brand new venues or housing for the Olympic Games. Sefryn Penrose’s article, “London 1948:

The Sites and after-Lives of the Austerity Olympics,” published in commemoration of the 1948

London Games and preparation for the 2012 London Games, examines how existing structures

were changed to accommodate sporting events and athletes. “Old stadiums, halls and tracks,

corporate and university sports grounds and army facilities were borrowed and enhanced while

RAF barracks, an army convalescence unit, colleges and local homes were all requisitioned to

accommodate the visiting athletes.”10 No new venues were created, but clearly there was a need

for reconstruction, expansion, and clean-up in London in preparation for the Games. Ironically,

one group that expanded the roads to Wembley Stadium were German prisoners of war who still

were detained in the United Kingdom. Despite the use of German labour in constructing

improved roads for the Olympics, their home nation was not invited.11 However, German

immigrants began to make their way to Great Britain to escape the destruction that had rained

down on their own nation. They are briefly mentioned in a British Pathé production from 1955

which mainly focused on unfriendly sentiment towards the number of West Indian immigrants.

The news piece refers to these German immigrants as “thousands of white foreigners including

8
“Bomb-Damage Maps Reveal London’s World War II Devastation.”
9
Appendix, image 2
10
Sefryn Penrose, “London 1948: The Sites and after-Lives of the Austerity Olympics,” World Archaeology 44,
no. 2 (June 2012): 306–25.
11
Mike Thompson. “‘Wembley Way’ Built by German PoWs.” BBC News, March 15, 2010.
 Flaherty 4

15,000 former enemies have made their homes in this country.”12 Their nation of birth was not

invited to the Olympic Games, and many of these immigrants faced hostility in their new home.

Other white migrants that have been studied in post-war Britain were those returning

from the Empire’s overseas colonies. Though they were British, these settlers were returning to a

country that they were often unfamiliar with. While many had left Britain for new opportunities

or had never even been to Britain, many found themselves settling there and wishing to return to

their old lives. Their lives changed drastically, from climate to cuisine to culture, to the citizens

they were surrounded by. It was not a massive influx of settler migrants as seen in other

European colonizing countries, but rather a repatriation of more than fifty-thousand British.13

Though this group did not face any blatant discrimination and racism as Irish, Jewish, Indian,

and Caribbean immigrants did they were often still affected by being forgotten. Despite being

white immigrants and many of them having roots in Britain before moving way to the colonies,

some of these returners faced difficulties. Many were seen as lazy or had to take jobs that were

below their former occupation overseas.

1948 would prove to be an interesting year for Ireland at the Olympics. Some of the

delegates were sent home due to disagreements about Northern Irish athletes, the swimmers did

not have uniforms, and the team barely agreed to march under the sign that read Eire. The sport

of basketball was very new in Ireland, mainly played in Dublin and Cork.14 In 1948, Ireland

would make her first and only basketball appearance at the Olympics- losing every match and

returning their borrowed uniforms to the Irish army upon their return home. While dozens of

12
British Pathé, Our Jamaican Problem (1955), 1955.
13
Elizabeth Buettner, Europe after Empire: Decolonization, Society, and Culture (Cambridge University Press,
2016).

Inside the Games, “Last Remaining Survivor from Ireland’s 1948 Olympic Basketball Team Dies.”
14

December 22, 2013. Accessed March 27, 2019.

 Flaherty 5

athletes made their way to Wembley Stadium, thousands of Irish immigrants made their way to

different parts of London, disembarking from the mail boat that crossed the Irish Sea. Men and

women came as bricklayers, plumbers, nurses, switchboard operators, and general labour

workers to help rebuild London after the war and to build a better life for themselves. “In the

years 1946-51, over eighty percent of Irish emigrants went to the UK.”15 The Irish settled in

communities, filling parishes and creating dancehalls as centres for music and culture. Athletic

teams for Gaelic sports were formed, recipes were exchanged, and stories were told of home.

New songs and ballads were written to transport the emigrants’ minds back to Ireland and ease

the pain of homesickness.16

The Irish immigrant story and experience are deeply examined and brought to light in

John Corbally’s The Othered Irish: Shades of Difference in Post-War Britain, 1948–71.17 In his

monograph, Corbally endeavours to find the difference in the Irish immigrant experience from

other immigrants, but also find how the Irish fought discrimination like those other immigrants

in Britain during the post-war period. In fact, Irish immigrants often worked alongside workers

from different countries who had come to settle in the United Kingdom. More than two dozen

Irish immigrants from the post-war period were interviewed by Kathleen Curran in her book,

Seanchaí, creating a collection of personal stories and experiences. In the prologue, the author

laments the fact that she never asked her immigrant parents, also from Ireland, about their

experiences when they arrived in the United Kingdom.; this regret motivated her to interview

15
Sean Glynn, “Irish Immigration to Britain, 1911-1951: Patterns and Policy,” Irish Economic and Social
History 8 (1981): 50–69.

Ultan Cowley. “The Emigrant Songs Sung by the Irish Men Who Built Britain.” The Irish Times. Accessed
16

March 28, 2019.

John Corbally, “The Othered Irish: Shades of Difference in Post-War Britain, 1948–71,” Contemporary
17

European History 24, no. 01 (February 2015): 105–25.

 Flaherty 6

men and women who had come across the Irish Sea. Many spoke of getting married, raising

families, and working with other immigrants, but some discrimination was also mentioned.

Immigrants recalled being mocked or made to feel stupid when they did not know how modern

appliances worked, such as lightbulbs, gas or electric cooking ranges, wireless radios, and

telephones.18 Some immigrants in their interviews recall the harsh signs around town that read

“No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs,” and how it was extremely hard to find lodging at times. 19 Some

boarding houses used beds in shifts or put two boarders in one small bed.

Though there were many new workers coming into Britain helping to rebuild the cities,

there was a housing shortage and this concerned many native citizens.20 In influx of immigrants

from the West Indies arrived on British shores, seeking a better future than one they saw for

themselves back in the Caribbean. The former Prime Minister, Lloyd George, had refered to their

homeland as the slums of the British Empire, and many West Indies immigrants believed that

their children would at least have a better life in Britain.21 The Jamaicans interviewed by a

British Pathé reporter in 1948 assured audiences that they came looking for good work and a

brighter future.22 One man even sings a calypso song about London as his fellow passengers look

on. Some of these immigrants from the West Indies had served in the British military during

WWII; a few had even become pilots in the RAF and fought to protect Britain. Many of the West

18
Curran, Kathleen. Seanchaí : Heartwarming Stories of Irish Immigration to England in the 1950s. United
States: Kathleen Curran. 2018.

British Pathé, Our Jamaican Problem (1955).Curran, Kathleen. Seanchaí : Heartwarming Stories of Irish
19

Immigration to England in the 1950s. United States: Kathleen Curran. 2018.

20
British Pathé, Our Jamaican Problem (1955).
21
British Pathé, Our Jamaican Problem (1955).
22
British Pathé, Pathe Reporter Meets (1948), 1948.
 Flaherty 7

Indies immigrants took jobs that they were over qualified for, though they were happy for the

work.23 Their hard work also raised English cities from the rubble alongside the other

immigrants- though they often faced racial discrimination or passive treatment from British

citizens.

The waves of immigrants from around the globe in England’s post-war years led to many

new questions and issues that the government would have to address. Prime Minister Atlee’s

Labour Government faced new challenges that the end of the war and the waning of the empire

brought. Winston Churchill had led the people in the struggle against the power of Nazi

Germany. After the evacuation of Dunkirk, Winston Churchill addressed the House of Commons

on June 4th, 1940. In his famous speech he confidently announced that the British people would

fight wherever- “we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall

fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills”24. This famous speech concluded

with a call to the new world. Churchill said, “…then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and

guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New

World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”25 In

the war, many looked to the colonies, and even saw them as a hope for help and liberation should

the Axis powers push into Great Britain.

In the work, London 1948: the Sites and After-lives of the Austerity Olympics, Sefryn

Penrose focuses on what became of the places that hosted those international athletes. The article

contains numerous photos from before and after the Games, recreated maps, and charts listing

23
British Pathé, Our Jamaican Problem (1955).
24
“We Shall Fight on the Beaches,” The International Churchill Society, June 4, 1940.
25
“We Shall Fight on the Beaches.”
 Flaherty 8

the venues, date and purpose of construction, and its survival status. The article, written in

anticipation of the 2012 London Games, worked to bring the old venues to light, which added to

a feeling of nostalgia that Penrose mentions. Though a majority of the article simply studies and

goes into detail about the different Olympic venues around London’s metropolitan area, Penrose

does insert a discussion. In the discussion section of the article, Penrose states “…attitudes

needed to change if the empire on the wane was going to be able to compete on the sporting

world stage.”26 The author then goes on to briefly mention different tensions that would come to

light- including Israel and Palestine, as well as Ireland, Britain, and the United States. Beyond

this and lists including rations, new and controversial swimwear, homemade shorts, and art

work- little is said about the people of London themselves. The work, though through, merely

focuses on the physical space and not the people who spent time at or around the venues.

Though no new venues were created specifically for London’s 1948 Games, there were

changes all over the city as different parts of the urban landscape began reconstruction after

suffering through German air raids in the Second World War. “In the years 1946-1951, eighty

percent of Irish immigrants went to the United Kingdom.”27 Many of the men who came to

rebuild Britain were Irish immigrants from all different parts of England’s oldest and closest

former colony. Glynn’s work exposes that most of these men came and found work as labourers,

brick layers, carpenters, or other construction workers. However, women also immigrated to find

work in factories, cafes, shops, and as clerks and secretaries. Sean Glynn, in his work Irish

Immigration to Britain, 1911-1951: Patterns and Policy, delves into different reasons that people

emigrated from Ireland to Great Britain and some of the beliefs they held before and after

26
Sefryn Penrose, “London 1948: The Sites and after-Lives of the Austerity Olympics,” World Archaeology 44,
no. 2 (June 2012): 306–25.
27
Glynn, “Irish Immigration to Britain, 1911-1951.”
 Flaherty 9

emigration. The relationship never truly changed between the colonizers and colonized, Glynn

hints, but the relationship did evolve. Glynn’s valuable work is very detailed with statistics and

breaking down numbers concerning the immigrants, as well as general patterns of the

relationship between the immigrants and their new home country. However, he does little to

study specific neighbourhoods, cultural centres, relationships with other immigrants, or the

personal aspects of the immigrant story.

The Irish immigrant story and experience are deeply examined and brought to light in

John Corbally’s The Othered Irish: Shades of Difference in Post-War Britain, 1948–71. It is one

detailed study on a single group of immigrants as they try to fit into Britain- a changing society

at the time, even if the British citizens did not see it that way. As mentioned previously, Corbally

endeavours to find the difference in the Irish immigrant experience from other immigrants, but

also find how the Irish fought discrimination like other immigrants to Britain in the post-war

period. Corbally points out that in the recent decades there have been many studies attempting to

reconcile Irish immigration and the post-war experience in Ireland and Britain. However, he also

states that none of the scholars who had done this research were historians, and all the

researchers were Irish or of Irish-descent. “Studies of race relations focused on people of colour

reveal the Irish also lived in the same parts of town as other immigrants.”28 Corbally finds

evidence from different studies to discover patterns not only in general Irish immigration, but the

way they lived their lives alongside other immigrants and how their relationship with them began

to evolve. Though there are numerous statistics like Glynn’s work, Corbally seems to remove the

John Corbally, “The Othered Irish: Shades of Difference in Post-War Britain, 1948–71,” Contemporary
28

European History 24, no. 01 (February 2015): 105–25.

 Flaherty 10

stiff writing of policy and pattern towards a narrative of immigrants –mainly the Irish- trying to

find their place in a new country.

Other white migrants that have been studied in post-war Britain were those returning

from the Empire’s overseas colonies. Though they were British, these settlers were returning to a

country that they were often unfamiliar with. Their lives changed drastically, from climate to

cuisine to culture. It was not a massive influx of settler migrants as seen in other European

colonizing countries, but rather a repatriation of more than fifty-thousand British. Elizabeth

Buettner, in Europe After Empire29, lays out differences in settlers returning ‘home’ to the power

that had encouraged living and working abroad or even providing them with a job there in

Chapter 5. Though this group did not face any blatant discrimination and racism as Irish, Jewish,

Indian, and Caribbean immigrants did they were often still affected by being forgotten. This

chapter in Buettner’s work is a brief comparison between other colonizing powers and the return

of settlers. More detail on the British return would be an interesting comparison to other

immigrant experiences in England at the time.

Other migrants from the overseas colonies came to call Britain home after the Second

World War. Parts of the world that were once under the control of the British Empire now faced

decolonization as the importance of issues at home grew. In Race Relations in Post-War Britain,

the argument is made that the Caribbean and African colonies were forgotten or pushed aside

despite the large numbers of immigrants coming into England at the time. These black

immigrants faced racism and discrimination through the terms immigrant and coloured.30 The

signs which read “No Negroes, No Irish, No Dogs” excluded them from housing, jobs, and other

29
Buettner, Europe after Empire.
30
Caroline Knowles, Race, Discourse and Labourism (London: Routledge, 1992).
 Flaherty 11

opportunities. These signs are also mentioned in Corbally’s work as he compared the struggle of

the immigrant groups. “Skin was widely considered a sign of an alien status”31 and thus the

immigrants were categorized incessantly as foreigners with their own music, food, and culture.

In a Britain that was quickly changing after WWII, this indicator came “…to signify community

tensions.”32 This source gives some valuable insight into the debate over skin colour and race,

but overall focuses heavily on the role of the Labour party in how the policies and relationships

developed. What details are given are important, but one must find them buried in the rest of the

work as it relies almost completely on Labour’s action. Unlike Glynn’s work, the policy that it

focuses on is very specific and does not focus on the people affected but rather what actions were

taken by the government.

In her book, Whitewashing Britain33¸ Kathleen Paul opens with a discussion of Prime

Minister Atlee and his Labour government’s determination to hold onto the British Empire. The

author points to moments in history shortly after the war where Commonwealth countries, such

as Canada and Australia, remained loyal to Britain in the Commonwealth but turned to the

United States for more support. The United Kingdom faced a dilemma of holding onto its

overseas territories, a shortage of a labour force and hosting a changing population at home.

Paul’s early chapters in the book focus on the perceived problems of a declining native birthrate

across Great Britain and an increase in the number of immigrants. The government was then

faced with questions concerning citizenship versus subjecthood, and who could qualify for

certain statuses in the United Kingdom; would new citizenships conferred upon immigrants give

31
Knowles, "Race, Discourse and Labourism".
32
Knowles, “Race, Discourse, and Labourism”.
33
Kathleen Paul, Whitewashing Britain: Race and Citizenship in the Postwar Era (Cornell University Press,
1997).
 Flaherty 12

them a connection to their homeland or simply confuse them? Clearly the population was

changing, and the government was hoping to shape how it was changing and what exactly the

population would come to look like or what status the citizens held. Paul’s work not only

examines the government’s policy (and the preceding policies), but also how the immigrants fit

into English society through racism, discrimination, and living as a second-class citizen.

The government’s actions during and at the end of WWII are also examined in Louise

London’s Whitehall and the Jews. This piece “…is the most comprehensive study to date of the

British response to the plight of the European Jewry under Nazism.”34 The work gives a detailed

and personal account of struggles in a new country. However the preface clearly states “My

parents came to England as Jewish refugees.”35 This gives the author some credibility and

personal experience with the topic, but may also point to bias within the piece. England also had

a complicated history concerning the illegal entry of Jewish refugees to Palestine, so there may

be perspectives that are forgotten or pushed aside. More research into this relationship and the

relationships between Jewish refugees and immigrant groups would be interesting and valuable.

State practices changed as England turned from a massive empire to a smaller

commonwealth. However, laws and acts still often favoured native born British citizens over

immigrant populations. It also led to the forming of a national identity, where for the first real

time some citizens were forced to ask ‘What makes someone British?’ Many of these immigrants

had lived in British territories or colonies and some even had citizenship, but where did they fit

in the nation? Immigration and National Identity: Constructing the Nation, by Roxanne Doty,

34
Louise London, Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees, and the
Holocaust (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
35
Louise London, Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees, and the
Holocaust
 Flaherty 13

plays close attention to the changes that the United Kingdom went through as many new

immigrants came to call that nation home. It includes an analysis and the discussion of the

Commonwealth: both the immigration from the Commonwealth countries and former colonies as

well as right-wing anti-immigrant sentiment. Though other sources mention this anti-immigrant

sentiment it is rarely under its own subtitle. This work gives a broad overview of the changing

face of Britain.

As London was prepared to welcome thousands of foreign athletes in 1948 for the

Olympic Games, the English people seemed more hesitant to welcome foreigners seeking to find

a new life. Though there were differences in how the immigrant groups were treated, most faced

at least some discrimination or difficulty fitting into Britain’s society. Though there was no legal

segregation or racial laws, many people of colour faced hardships in British neighbourhoods and

cities.36 Germans and Irish, though white, were seen almost as second class citizens. Even those

who had been born in Britain and returned from the colonies overseas were not welcomed with

open arms. The changing face of Britain had many facets, and the setting of the sun on her

empire had a major impact on her population. It is clear to see today that the immigrants played a

major role in the rebuilding of British cities after the war, as well as laying the foundation for

many parts of British society used by citizens today, like the National Healthcare Service.37 The

number of studies of immigration to post-war Britain are growing as time passes. The

immigrants left their mark on the United Kingdom, and immigrants today continue to do so. The

impact that immigrants had on post-war Great Britain is becoming clearer with more research.

However, more research on the impact of the government and England’s status quo on

36
British Pathé, Our Jamaican Problem (1955).
37
The Guardian, “How Migrant Workers Helped Make the NHS | Society | The Guardian,” accessed March 28,
2019
 Flaherty 14

immigrants remains to be studied in depth. One valuable resource that may soon disappear are

the immigrants that lived this experience in post-war Britain. Efforts should be made to connect

with these citizens who were vital in the creation of today’s United Kingdom, no matter their

background. They arrived seeking a better life and contributed to the rich fabric of Britain’s

society as a whole.
 Flaherty 15

Appendix

Image 1: Above, a compiled medal count- information compiled from The Official Report of the
Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad. Britain, though the host, was twelfth over all.

Image 2: Below, one of the maps created by surveyors to show the extent of damage to London’s
buildings. Black, for example, is completely destroyed. Full maps and keys found on National
Geographic.
 Flaherty 16

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“Bomb-Damage Maps Reveal London’s World War II Devastation.” Science & Innovation, May 18,
2016.
British Pathé. 1948 A Year Of Great Decision (1948), 1948.
———. Our Jamaican Problem (1955), 1955.
———. Pathe Reporter Meets (1948), 1948.
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