Cicely Mary Hamilton (née Hammill)

This portraitback to top

This charcoal drawing represents Cicely Hamilton later in life, probably shortly after the Second World War. At this time Hamilton was editor of the press bulletin of the British League for European Freedom. She is portrayed wearing the masculine-style of dress she had adopted as a young woman. She is depicted as a ‘grand dame’ of the feminist movement of the first half of the twentieth century, whose plays, novels and journalism continued to promote female equality into the 1930s. In her 1935 autobiography, Hamilton was critical of her earlier belief in the perfectibility of human beings but not of her commitment to feminism or of her decision to remain unmarried.

Events of 1945back to top

Current affairs

Despite Churchill's popularity during, and indeed after, the War, Clement Attlee wins a landslide Labour victory in the general election. Labour's success was due to its promise of a better society through the Welfare state, and was demonstrative of the public's desire for a new and better post-War society.

Art and science

Noel Coward's Brief Encounter is released. The film, based on Coward's play, Still Life, is about the love affair between two married people who meet at a railway station. Conscious of the risk of being caught the couple decide to break off their relationship to protect their marriages.
George Orwell publishes his satirical novel Animal Farm, as an allegorical critique of Soviet Totalitarianism.

International

A war on two fronts finally proves too much for Germany as allied forces push from the East and West. On the 30th April Hitler committed suicide and Germany soon surrendered to Soviet troops. Victory in Europe was announced on the 8th May. War in the Pacific continued until America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing 214,000 people, and ending the war with Japan.

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