THE STORY OF The 1921 Census
The 1921 census was the most comprehensive record made of the population of the UK at that time. Its administrators felt that a new start was needed after the cataclysmic changes of the First World War and the pandemic dubbed the ‘Spanish Flu’. The first words of the report note that “there are but few questions today upon which guidance can be sought of the last Census across the great gulf of War which lies between”.
The census got off to a bumpy start. Schedules were printed and distributed for the planned date of 24 April, but industrial upheaval intervened. The Miners’ Federation planned to strike in protest at a reduction in pay, and hoped to be joined by their allies among railwaymen and transport
