The wars at the beginning of the century highlighted the problems in the health and education of the English population. After the First World War, the government set up administrative departments for food, transport, law, engineering, medicine, agriculture, education and religion.

During the Second World War, and despite rationing, many women and children were better fed than they were before the war. This was due to canteen meals, their own wages and a ration system based on nutritional requirements. After the war, Social Services, the National Health Service, and child allowances, were set up.

Between the First and the Second World Wars, ‘suffragette’ women won the right to vote, although they would not be socially accepted by all men until the Second World War, when women became indispensable workers replacing the men fighting away in France.

Wars devastated the male population, but also changed the philosophy of the men who came back alive from the trenches. Life was seen as short, and freedom became a very important principle.

Diagram of some key events of the Twentieth century (or list of key events; both links open in new windows).