SPECIAL weeks were declared in the early part of the Second World War to raise money for the war effort.

The public rallied to support Weapons Week and Warship Week and it wasn’t only the towns that were involved – villages often combined to make their contribution.

Between June 21-28, 1941, villagers in the Wychwood area of Ascott, Milton, Shipton, Fifield, Foxcote, Idbury and Lyneham contributed £39,741 to buy weapons for the British forces.

Woodstock and Chipping Norton joined forces and reached their target of £150,000 to pay for 15 aircraft – five bombers and 10 fighters – while in the Didcot and Wallingford areas, Weapons Week brought in £169,307, more than double what organisers had hoped.

Activities had included country dances, a stage show, a military ball, rummage sale, fancy dress competition, cricket and hockey matches and a Beating the Retreat parade.

Villagers in the Thame and Bullingdon area clubbed together and raised £154,000, including £5,000 from an auction at which there were some astonishing bids.

A tin of cigarettes was sold for £300, a chicken for £250 and a bottle of scent for £200.

Like Weapons Week, Warship Week brought a generous response from the public in many areas.

Oxford, which ‘adopted’ HMS Enterprise, a Royal Navy cruiser, during the war, set a target of £1,250,000 for its week in February 1942 and that was easily reached, with a final total of £1,485,087.

Young and old organised concerts, collections, competitions and a host of other events and raised amounts large and small. The week began with one of the biggest and most spectacular processions the city had seen.

About 3,000 people, 50 vehicles and 10 bands joined the parade.

It took nearly half an hour for them all to pass the dais outside St John’s College in St Giles, where the mayor, Arthur Skipper, and other dignitaries took the salute.

From St Giles, the parade made its way through Cornmarket to High Street, Cowley Road, James Street, Iffley Road and back to St Giles. An estimated 30,000 people lined the route.

Launching Warship Week, the mayor said that many young men were sacrificing life for the cause of liberty and it was the duty of all those left behind to give or lend their all.

He said: “We must be brave, courageous, charitable, generous, true and faithful.”

Events during the week included a boxing tournament, a Town Hall ball, which raised £53 9s 10d, a history of ships exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, daily auctions at the electricity showrooms in George Street, and a model cruiser and poster exhibition at GR Cooper, the St Ebbe’s ironmongers.

Children played their part in raising money.

Pamela Arthurs, 10, and Denis Johnson, nine, of Hurst Street, East Oxford, ran a competition for a parcel of groceries and collected 10 shillings, while Connie Jackson, 12, and June Sloper, 10, of Bridport Street, St Ebbe’s, raised £1 15s with a competition for prizes of cigarettes and artificial flowers.

Everyone was urged to “give every penny, every shilling and every pound” – and they did.