On this day in Wembury, 15 August 1939
A bright, breezy advert appeared in the Daily Herald promoting Wembury Point Holiday Camp, with its own bathing pool, stables, band and full programme of sports. It urged readers to take advantage of late August and September vacancies, declaring that “September is best, the golden West,” and inviting holidaymakers to stay “on the edge of the sea” at Wembury Point.
What gives the advert an unexpected poignancy is the timing. It was printed on 15 August 1939, just seventeen days before the outbreak of the Second World War. Britain was still officially at peace, and holiday camps were doing everything possible to fill their late-season beds, but tension was already rising across Europe. Many families taking breaks that August had little idea how quickly normal life would be overturned.
Seen now, the advert is a snapshot of Wembury in the final days of pre-war innocence, when the coast was still a carefree holiday setting and not yet linked with the military training, coastal defence works and wartime upheaval that would follow within weeks.
Source, Daily Herald, 15 August 1939.