Mass Observation Class Codes etc.,

Mass Observation was founded in 1937 by the anthropologist Tom Harrisson, the poet Charles Madge and the film-maker Humphrey Jennings. Their aim, stated in a letter to the New Statesman, was to create an "anthropology of ourselves" - a study of the everyday lives of ordinary people in Britain.

Harrisson team of observers, diarists and investigators first big project was their study of the life and people of Bolton (the Worktown Project). Investigators went into a variety of public situations: meetings, religious occasions, sporting and leisure activities, in the street, in pubs and at work, and recorded people's behaviour and conversation in as much detail as possible. The material they produced is a varied documentary account of life in Britain. A great deal of it is now held at the University of Sussex.

 Mass Observation continued to operate throughout the Second World War and into the early 1950s, producing a series of books about their work as well as thousands of reports. Gradually the emphasis shifted away from social issues towards consumer behaviour and consumer research In 1949, Mass Observation was registered as a limited company.

 Sussex University gives a key to various 'M-O' codes

“Directs”: responses on a theme elicited directly by M-O investigators from members of the public

“Indirects” = responses on a theme elicited by a M-O investigators in the course of an informal conversation with a member of the public

“Overheards” = snatches of conversation gathered by a M-O investigators without the person being aware of being recorded

“Follows” = descriptions of a person’s behaviour while being followed by a M-O investigator (used mostly in pre-war work)

A simple system of coding was used for visual identification of social class:

A “Rich people”
B “The Middle Classes”
C “Artisans and skilled workers”
D “Unskilled workers and the least economically or educationally trained of our people"

Thus “F30B” refers to a thirty year old middle class woman (F=female) and “M20D” refers to a twenty-year old unskilled man. This code is listed at the beginning of the M-O publication War Factory (1943).

In our recent M-O posting about the Selby Oak by-election the 'inv' notes of an election worker: 'His speech, manner and appearance indicate class V, but he appears to have a position of some importance in the aircraft industry and drives a Vauxhall car.' Possibly a misprint for C or a new category not decoded by Sussex. 

Mass Observation Report - Noel Pemberton Billing

From an archive of material of the writer George Hutchinson relating to his time in Mass-Observation (M-O) - a profile of the 1941 Hornsey election far right 'independent' candidate Noel Pemberton Billing, who in an earlier incarnation in his journal, Vigilante, published a homophobic article, "The Cult of the Clitoris" which resulted in a sensational libel trial. Much on Wikipedia about him and the trial and his friend Lord Alfred Douglas.  It is covered in Philip Hoare's  Oscar Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy, and the Most Outrageous Trial of the Century (1999)

In this report 'inv' = investigator. Note PB's odd clothes--a remarkable collar with points more than six inches long held together by an Air Force brooch. No tie and the monocle lead coming from the tie (see photo.) Also M-O notes his accent (that one would expect to be of the Terry Thomas school) but  which was in fact Cockney. He stood on a policy of aerial reprisals against Nazi Germany but only received a quarter of the vote and the Tory candidate Charles Challen was returned.

HORNSEY BY-ELECTION G. H. 28.5.41

PEMBERTON BILLING
The Independent Candidate.
This report is largely based on daily conversation with and observation of the candidate since last Friday (May 23). It should be read in conjunction with Tudor Jenkins' article in the Evening Standard of May 22, the last page of the candidate’s election address, and CG Gray’s Introduction to his book Defence Against the Night Bomber. (A summary of this book will be submitted later).
Noel Pemberton Billing is 61 years of age–he was born in 1880, in Hampstead. His father was Charles Eardley Billing, of Birmingham–an iron founder. His mother was Annie Amelia Claridge, of Coventry. It appears, therefore, that he is not legally entitled to use the hyphenated surname Pemberton-Billing. That he does so usually–but not always–is, however, quite consistent with his character, as this report will demonstrate.
Oh his birthplace and boyhood he told inv: 'I was born just outside this constituency–in Finchley Road, Hampstead. I went to school at Craven College, Hampstead–and if I give Winston Churchill as much trouble as I gave my headmaster he’s in for a lot. You can get the rest in Who’s Who. '
Who’s Who,  however, provides little information, but the last page of his election address is devoted to a biography sufficient for M-O’s  purposes.
Pemberton Billing is married. According to Who’s Who his first wife, whom he married in 1903, died in 1923. His present wife–to whom Who’s Who does not refer–is probably 45 years of age, a pleasant, plump cheeked, rather stout woman who invariably wears a fur coat.
He has two addresses–25, Chesterfield House, Park Lane, W., and Halliford Court, Walton-on-Thames.
He describes himself as a research engineer.
Appearance, Manner:
Pemberton Billing is well over six feet in height, an erect, impressive figure who very much resembles Conrad Veidt. His short smooth grey hair is brushed straight back and parted in the middle. His cheeks are tanned. He has a distinct–but not disagreeably pronounced–Cockney accent, although, as inv has noted in an earlier report, this is not noticeable except in private conversation. Outdoors and on the political platform he invariably wears a monocle

Mass Observation report Kings Norton 1941

From an archive of material of the writer George Hutchinson relating to his time in Mass-Observation (M-O) this includes 38  letters from Tom Harrisson (some slightly argumental.) Originally a reporter for the Yorkshire Post, Hutchinson was a volunteer observer and later became a paid 'wholetime investigator' and was conscripted into the Navy during this time. He later became a journalist and wrote biographies of Edward Heath & Harold Macmillan.

 This is a classic M-O report, honest, opinionated, dispassionate and with an eye for the telling detail. Later we will put up an M-O profile of the 1941 Hornsey election  far right 'independent' candidate Pemberton Billing, who in an earlier incarnation in his journal, Vigilante, published a homophobic article, "The Cult of the Clitoris" which resulted in a sensational libel trial.

KING'S NORTON BY-ELECTION G. H. 6.5.41

SMITH’S ORGANISATION

A small, red-brick house, one of a long row in a working-class part of Selly Oak, is being used as Smith’s committee rooms. The address is 145, Dawlish Road.
The tenant of the house is M, 45, D–Mr. Lacy, who served under Smith in the last war, and, learning of his decision to contest Kings Norton, immediately offered the use of his house as campaign headquarters.
The house has two rooms downstairs, and probably 3 bedrooms. The front room is used as the office, and in the backroom the candidate and his helpers have occasional meals with the Lacy family.
There is little office equipment. The only things that make this poorly furnished room, with its leather–upholstered sofa, cheap sideboards and two easy chairs, look anything like an office are a typewriter (of Danish make, incidentally) and a few box files.
A number of crude notices are fastened to the window. They read: ‘VOTE FOR SMITH’, ‘ VOTE FOR SMITH: BOMB BERLIN’, ‘YOU CAN VOTE WITHOUT POLL CARD’’.
Personnel
Nominally, Mrs. Smith is the candidate’s election agent. But actually Mr Cronow is the election agent.
Cronow is a tobacco manufacturers’ agent in Birmingham, a Manchester-born man. A tall, burly, vulgar, uneducated fellow, who smokes cigars and drives a nice car, and probably has a good bit of money.