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Army Bureau of Current Affairs — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Bureau_of_Current_Affairs
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-11-09T22:58:19.612Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: fba8cd82dc8046eb594bce91f8feb1cc81beca05b255d808d5b463a4aff24639
Stable URL of this page: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_fcffb4bb2630

How to cite

Army Bureau of Current Affairs — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Bureau_of_Current_Affairs (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_fcffb4bb2630 (Metraipolis archive dc_fcffb4bb2630, sha256 fba8cd82dc8046eb594bce91f8feb1cc81beca05b255d808d5b463a4aff24639)

BibTeX

@misc{dcfcffb4bb2630,
  title = {Army Bureau of Current Affairs — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Bureau_of_Current_Affairs},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_fcffb4bb2630; sha256 fba8cd82dc8046eb594bce91f8feb1cc81beca05b255d808d5b463a4aff24639},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Bureau_of_Current_Affairs. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

The Army Bureau of Current Affairs (ABCA) was an organisation within the British Army during World War II to promote discussion among soldiers about 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. Jones 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. 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". The ABCA issued pamphlets in units and promoted discussions, for instance about post-war reconstruction and the 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 Labour Party victory in the post-war general election in 1945, a charge that was refuted by General Ronald Adam, the Adjutant General, who had overall responsibility for the Bureau. Nonetheless, ABCA organisers and teachers predominantly seem to have been left-wing, as were the soldiers who attended the classes, and classes became dominated by discussion of 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.

Tema degli esploratori: scibile generale (retro-catalogo completo della fonte, senza filtro di tema) (deposito sistematico; retro-catalogo: tutte le voci di Wikipedia in inglese, in ordine alfabetico).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «Army Bureau of Current Affairs» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Bureau_of_Current_Affairs
Wikidata Q4794103: «organisation set up to educate and raise morale amongst British servicemen in World War II» (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4794103
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Bureau_of_Current_Affairs?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1359218527, consultata il 2026-11-09T22:55:02.342Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: 41ee4ae5b7bdfff3fd3bcc7c3a35662943b7874d630a6f615ef5b8d443729738