ABSTRACT
IT was widely accepted at the time, and has been since, that the ‘Great War’ of 1914-18 marked the end of one era and the transition to another. But the economic and social changes which took place, although marked, and in some cases even revolutionary, were by no means all pervasive, and much that was characteristic of pre-war England survived the cataclysm of war and persisted as a conservative and stabilising influence in a rapidly changing situation. Hence, ‘any analysis of the condition of Britain in the twenties must take into account these two characteristics, stability, more evident in some parts of the national scene than others, but never absent, and change, intruding everywhere, particularly in material conditions, but never all triumphant’. 1 In this respect moral welfare work reflects the characteristics of its time, for while in the work as a whole a new spirit and outlook was evident, and new methods were being evolved to meet new conditions and needs, yet, to some extent and in some quarters, old-fashioned ideas still persisted despite their inappropriateness to the new era.
