1921 Revisited
By the time the Varsity Match moved to Twickenham in 1921 the Victorian era was well and truly over and the ‘roaring twenties’ underway. Adoption of the motor car as the principal mode of transport and the development of movies, records and radio as forms of mass entertainment made this “ an age of modernity” in many minds. Even so, there are huge differences to how we live today…
By 1921, Britain’s population had increased to 42 million – with two more million women than men. (Due – in part – to the slaughter of British troops on the battlefields of World War One.)
That conflict had only ender three years earlier but – in 1921 – the seeds for the next one were already being sewn. In this year, Hitler was elected President of the National Socialist Party (Nazis) whilst in Italy Mussolini proclaimed himself Il Duce of the National Fascist party.
There was also political turmoil at home with a national coal strike resulting in rationing and the declaration of a national state of emergency.
Things were also pretty depressing on the sports front with England losing the 1920/21 Ashes series in Australia. Their final defeat in March this year gave the Aussies a 5-0 series win – the first time a Test team had ever been whitewashed in that way.
On a brighter note, one of the world’s brightest-ever minds was recognised in 1921 when Albert Einstein won the Nobel prize for Physics. (Not, however, for his theory of relativity.) Another award-winner this year was Queen Mary who was presented with an honorary degree by Oxford. (Not newsworthy now of course – but back then it was the first ever degree to be awarded to a woman by the university.)
Another first that year was the introduction of motorbike patrols by London police. (Ninety years later they’ll be helping direct traffic around Twickenham on Varsity Match day!)
But we also lost something as well. Sunday postal collections and deliveries were dropped in 1921.
Something that hasn’t stopped on Sundays, of course, is television’s addiction to detective series. And perhaps the most enduring icon which links 1921 to the present day belongs to the world of fiction. In 1921 Agatha Christie wrote a story called ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’. The Belgian sleuth who solved the riddle was one Hercules Poirot – still appearing on small screens most weeks in the present day!
