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Second World War children's essays

Essays from the Zuckerman Archive, University of East Anglia, temporarily on loan to the Hull History Centre are now available.

The University of East Anglia has kindly agreed to loan the History Centre their microfilmed set of essays written by school children from Hull during The Second World War. 

The microfilm copies are in black and white and arranged by girls' schools, boys' schools and mixed schools and then alphabetically by surname. The schools covered are:

Chapman Street Boys' School 
Chapman Street Girls' School 
Constable Street Boys' School
Endike Lane Senior Boys' School
Fifth Avenue Senior Girls' School
J. B. Holmes Girls' School
Malet Lambert High School
Newland Church of England School
The Open Air School
Paisley Street Girls' School
Somerset Street School
St. George’s Road School
Thoresby Street Central School
Westbourne Street Girls' School

From Tuesday 9th January 2018, copies of the essays can be requested as follows:

  • The History Centre will provide free of charge one printed copy to the author of the essay.
  • All other enquiries will incur a £10 fee per child. Payment can be made by cheque, made payable to Hull Culture and Leisure Ltd, or by credit/debit card by calling 01482 317500.
  • Essays will only be provided as printed copies; digital copies will NOT be supplied.
  • The name of the child, the school attended if known and the age of the child in 1941/1942 will be required to enable us to search the indexes.
  • We will ask you to complete and sign a declaration to state that you will not use the copy except for private study or research for a non-commercial purpose (unless you are the author of the original essay) and you will not supply a copy of it to any other person.

We anticipate the essays will be in great demand so are asking that you allow 4 weeks for your request to be processed.

The order form (64kb, PDF) can be downloaded here.