The 1930s began in New York on the 29th October 1929 with The Wall Street Crash. The ripples spread our across the world. Britain, like The States, found itself with a severe economic crisis and a large number of unemployed.
The 1930s ended on the 3rd September 1930 in Berlin where the German Foreign Office were informed that we were now at war.
In between these two dates Britain experienced the fall of the 1929 Labour Government and the construction of a National Government led by Labour. The Government faced numerous Hunger Marches but no Communist Revolution; instead the political threat arose from The Far Right as Oswald Mosley fronted British Fascism. The rise to power of Hitler in 1933 began slowly to awake feelings of 'Oh, no not again!' as the threat of war intensified for the rest of the decade.
In the midst of the growing international crisis, Britain had a full blown constitutional one concerning the new King, Edward VIII, outwardly because of his desire to marry a twice married divorcee, Wallis Simpson, but really because The Establishment feared his pro Nazi sympathies (they were to spend part of their honeymoon at Berchtesgaden as guests of Hitler).
After a last attempt to placate Hitler at Munich in 1938 we found ourselves again at war in September 1939. After the so called Phoney War ended, and British Forces were defeated in Norway, hope arrived in the form of Winston Churchill in May 1940
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