Word: demobbing
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Another Telegraph correspondent suggested that it was merely VIPS (the wartime phrase for Very Important Persons) spelled backwards. "With demobilization, the term came into civvy street [and] received its demob suit with all its original connotation-that of a person having a good time at the expense of others." Gossip Writer Charles Graves claimed: "My deep research into the source of the word shows that it was originally used colloquially by race-gangs [for] a shady character who lives by his wits, but without the physical or mental courage to show violence or turn burglar." A bookish reporter...
From Blues to Khaki. Once it was a standing joke that Harrow men could get into Magdalen only if there weren't any Eton men on the waiting list. Now undergraduates come from all over, wearing the new uniform of corduroy trousers, Army shirts and "demob" jackets. It is no longer possible to tell a poet from, a Blue (a varsity athlete) by his dress...
...Government's dampening answer to the "demob" cry came from pale-eyed, mild-mannered Minister of Labor George Isaacs. The Government, he said, would stick to a modified version of the plan drafted by his potent predecessor, Ernest Bevin, six months ago: 1,110,000 men would be released this year, "specialist workers" could go at once. The rest would have to wait...
...Great Letdown." From the forces came a full-throated roar of anger. Protests began to deluge M.P.s and party organizers. Wrote a sergeant from Germany: "This demob news shook the boys more than anything." Embittered Tommies, watching boatloads of G.I.s heading home each week, took to advertising in their home papers for jobs. The Government was likened to Ethelred the Unready (see cut). Stocky, quick-firing Garry Allighan, Labor M.P. for the blitzed Gravesend dock area, staggered out from under 2,000 demobilization letters a day to cry: "You must solve this-or have revolution. It's serious...
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