Hebden & Variants Family Website
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1939 - 2000; World War II to the Present Day |
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Unlike the War of 1914-1918, which
for the most part, was fought on a strip of land little more
than ten miles wide across France and Belgium, The Second World
War was truly just that. Fighting spread across the whole of
Europe, Asia and the Far East. Troops from all parts of the
British Empire and later America were enlisted in the struggle,
culminating in the surrender of Germany in May 1945 and of Japan
in August 1945.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) lists 33 Clan members as casualties of the conflict on its site, and names and details are listed on the Data Pages. Some of the Graves and memorials to the fallen are shown on the Graves and Memorials page. The new Labour Government which took office after the war set about introducing the proposals in the report by the distinguished economist Sir William Beveridge, which laid the foundations of the Welfare State and the National Health Service which was introduced in 1948. |
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 (Above) The Skylon and the Dome of Discovery. One of the main exhibition halls which housed the British exhibits at the Festival of Britain in 1951. The Royal Festival Hall is the only surviving building from the festival site |
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The demobilisation of the armed forces and the return to peacetime operations brought about a sudden increase in the population. Children born in the period after the Second World War became known as "Baby Boomers" or "The Bulge". In the period from 1946 to 1950, births of the Hebden clan were up by 22% on the period 1939 to 1945. The post-war years brought a period of austerity, with food rationing only coming to an end with sweets (1953) and meat in 1954. In the meantime, the national spirit was revived with the opening of The Festival of Britain in 1951, and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953, which ushered in the "Second Elizabethan Age". The Swinging 60's followed, with fears of nuclear war, "Ban The Bomb", and the Vietnam War in 1965. This gave way to the seventies and "Hippies", Flower Power, Free Love and the drug culture. The greater take-up of University education, job and career mobility and housing costs were (and still are) factors in the continuing dispersal of Hebden Clan members. Hebden Clan Trends Since 1950 - 2005 all surnames in the clan have produced balanced numbers of males and females at birth, so even in a society where formal marriages are declining, the surname status should remain the same - in a partnership the mother will provide the surname for her children, unless the father accepts paternity. The threat to continued survival of the names is in the general decline of the family unit at a time when rearing children is no longer seen as a priority in a more materialistic adult society. |
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