Army Bureau of Current Affairs

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A medical officer giving a lecture on plans for a post-war health service during an Army Bureau of Current Affairs course at the American University of Beirut
Dutch soldiers of the Princess Irene Brigade participate in an ABCA-moderated discussion in August 1943

The Army Bureau of Current Affairs (ABCA) was an organisation within the

current events, citizenship
, and post-war reconstruction.

In August 1940, Lord Croft, Under-Secretary of State for War, had sought the advice of Dr Tom Jones – renowned for his commitment to adult education – about supplying 'mental stimulant' to troops. "TJ" had immediately recommended his protégé William Emrys Williams, who was thus appointed director of the new unit. Both the ABCA and the Directorate of Army Education (run by Lt Col Frederic William Duffield Bendall) came under the Director-General of Welfare and Education.[1]

Williams insisted – despite some controversy – on the right to education, in particular in current affairs, for servicemen and women, and ran the ABCA for the duration of the war. For this role, he became known as ABCA Bill.[2]

The ABCA was a programme of general education for citizenship for servicemen and women: officers attended courses on conducting discussions groups, and these were started as hourly sessions each week.

Beveridge report. It met with resistance from Winston Churchill
, who felt it was a poor use of military time.

The organisation is sometimes regarded as a factor in the landslide

nationalisation and social justice
. The service vote in the election that followed is said to have been the most dramatic reflection of the public mood, with as many as 80% of soldiers voting for the Labour Party according to some sources.

After the war and under the auspices of the

Carnegie Trust, Williams transformed the ABCA into the Bureau of Current Affairs, moving their offices to Piccadilly in London and continued their activities in peacetime with the assistance of several ABCA contributors including the artists James Boswell.[2]

ABCA pamphlets and publications

Main article: List of Army Bureau of Current Affairs publications

See also

Notes

  1. ISBN 0-7083-1138-5
    .
  2. ^ a b Shuel, Sal. "ABCA – Army Bureau of Current Affairs". Retrieved 27 February 2017.
  3. ^ "THE STORY OF THE ARMY BUREAU OF CURRENT AFFAIRS [Main Title]". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 27 February 2017.

External links

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