The 3rd June marks exactly 100 years to the day since David Lloyd George, the country’s then new Minister of Munitions, delivered a rallying speech just a few hundred yards from the Museum of Science and Industry, to a gathering of Manchester’s engineers and industrialists;
‘Our country is fighting for its life; our country is fighting for the liberties of Europe… I would almost say that at the present moment, everything depends on the workshops of Britain… I know something of the adaptability, the skills and the resourcefulness of Britain’s engineers. I am here to ask you to help us equip our armies with the means of breaking through the German lines… and I know you will do it.’
It was as a result of Lloyd George’s desperate wartime appeal to the city’s makers and most eminent scientific and engineering minds, following the 1915 ‘Shell Crisis’ that the region turned much of its manufacturing workforce and output to the war effort.
The stories behind this innovation race are brought to life in the museum’s current First World War exhibition, The Innovation race: Manchester’s Makers Join The First World War which opened to great acclaim in March to tie in with this year’s 100th Anniversary of the establishment of the Ministry of Munitions.
On display in the intimate and atmospheric space of the Highlights Gallery are over 30 unique and seldom seen artefacts, photographs and documents largely drawn from the museum’s extensive and previously hidden paper archives, illustrating how all levels of society – from female factory workers to eminent engineers – were affected by and responded to Lloyd George’s munitions appeal.
As The Innovation Race exhibition curator, Katie Belshaw explains:
“The Ministry of Munitions was set up to coordinate production and Manchester responded to Lloyd George’s call to arms with vigour. Hundreds of businesses became controlled establishments, making shells, fuzes and guns, as well as clothing and armour. An army of new workers flooded into the factories. Thousands of women replaced men who went to fight. Some men who were highly skilled or unfit to fight stayed behind making munitions alongside the women. Our own business archives here at the museum reveal how the pressures of the First World War transformed factory life and the city. And it is great to see so many people visit our exhibition, engaging with these real life stories of Mancunian invention and innovation, and having this timely opportunity to see much of our paper archives for the first time.”
The Innovation Race: Manchester’s Makers Join the First World War continues at the Museum of Science & Industry until April 2016. Admission is Free. Suitable for ages 9+
