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Undergraduate Honors Theses

2021-12-15

A Language Analysis of the London, Harrow Obituary From 1940 A Language Analysis of the London, Harrow Obituary From 1940

to 1950 to 1950

Michaela Rappleyea

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Honors Thesis

A LANGUAGE ANALYSIS OF THE LONDON, HARROW OBITUARY FROM 1940 TO

1950

Advisor: Jamin Rowan

Honors Coordinator: Alan D. Manning

ABSTRACT

A LANGUAGE ANALYSIS OF THE LONDON, HARROW OBITUARY FROM 1940 TO

1950

Editing and Publishing

Bachelor of Arts

London during World War II and in the first five years following the war. During the war, both

the length and content of the obituaries was significantly different, as the subjects and manner of

death during those years was also significantly different. During the post-war years, the subjects

and content followed a lengthier format and were generally for older community members who

died of natural causes. This change in structure was affected by the nature and frequency of

death. The tone of the writing was also affected by the war and the affect it had emotionally on

British citizens. Those obituaries written during the war were of a more memorial nature and

were shorter due to the overwhelming frequency of deaths that occurred. Post-war obituaries

were longer and were able to focus more on the individual due to the changing nature of most

people’s lives at that point.

chaperoning the most interesting and unfortunately short study abroad to the London Centre.

Thank you to Dr. Cynthia Hallen for helping me get started in this process and encouraging me

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

Overall Results

War Years

Post-War Years

Comparisons

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Introduction

Death is always a difficult subject to write about. A good friend once told me that the end

always feels unnatural to us because we are beings of eternity and we aren’t made for endings.

Regardless of one’s belief system, it is a fact of life that people do not enjoy goodbyes,

temporary or permanent. An obituary is not the final farewell for most close family members, but

members. The Oxford English dictionary describes an obituary as “a notice of a death, especially

in a newspaper, typically including a brief biography of the deceased person” (Oxford English

Dictionary).

In a paper on guidelines about writing obituaries, author Grzegorz Cebrat advised that

“Such a notice does not only provide the information about the deceased and his/her postmortem

celebrations, but also may help its author(s) express feelings of loss and grief resulting from

death and provide psychological closure by the actual process of writing a death notice.

Furthermore, its publication establishes a community, which helps the bereaved family feel

connected to other people that the deceased was related to” (104).

But how do you express to someone the impact they made on others, the things they

your own words? There are both conscious and unconscious choices that must be made by the

writer in order to make an attempt at summarizing a human life.

In his study of Malawian obituaries, linguist Alfred Matiki noted that the many features

Generally speaking, the most common phrase was in loving memory, followed by age, followed

by a residence or length of stay in the area. This basic formula for an obituary follows the

ranking employee of the Kodak Factory (which was housed in the area and where many

community members earned a living). The obituary detailed his long work history and eventual

rise through the ranks of the company. Other important positions that were deemed noteworthy

were priests, the local organist at a church, and the Vice President of the local boys school.

This pattern of preference for the influential was indicated by the frequency of words like

member, service, and was a part of, which were always closer to the top of the word lists. It

shows a life of achievement, of dedicated service, and even in some cases just a general sense of

likabillity. Any kind of involvement in local activities was preferable to speak about, specifically

if it was clerical or academic. Not surprisingly, in a time where patriotism became publicized,

any kind of support for the government was a good sign and heralded by the papers. A man

the subjects change dramatically.

much of the reading I did in preparation for my research. Most of the time periods that others

chose to research did not have such a high mortality rate among young people, so there were no

entries that were even a little similar.

Obituaries for soldiers were usually brief, featuring the country and estimated day of

death, the rank of the young man; sometimes this information was followed by a brief poem or

message from the family. These messages and poems were significantly different from any of the

writing that followed and were most often filled with metaphors for life rather than more

biographical information. In a similar study done on Kenyan obituaries, Ondimu noted that “the

use of metaphors to refer to death...shows how human beings have still not accepted the reality

of death and they try to soften it by use of positive concepts.” (2014).

Mum, Dad, Ella And family).

Povey. – In Proud and loving memory of a dear son and brother, Flying Officer Eric Albert

Povey, Navigator, reported missing when his Lancaster Bomber failed to return from air

operations over Hamburg on August 3, 1943, Ever in our thoughts. We cannot say, we will not

say that he is dead: he is just away. With a sunny smile and a wave of the hand he has flown on

into an unknown land. – Mum, Dad. Hilda and Clifford, 90, Norton Road, Wembley.

The first two entries are both excellent examples of a typical obituary for a soldier but

also of the types of metaphors that many writers employed during war time. The concepts of

being brought to rest by God brings to mind much softer images of death. Rather than putting it

bluntly, the writers tried to remind the reader of a greater plan in place by calling a recollection

of the of the grieving process. The concept of an unknown land also presents the uncertainty that

the family is facing as their belief systems were likely being challenged. There is hope there but

meant that the family usually had no body to bury. This is what is referred to by phycologists as

an ambiguous loss. “Ambiguous loss is a loss that occurs without closure or clear understanding.

This kind of loss leaves a person searching for answers, and thus complicates and delays the

process of grieving, and often results in unresolved grief” (Pauline Boss, 1999). With no body to

bury and only a telegram to break the news, many of these families were left reeling in the wake

of their sons’ deaths.

The most popular phrase throughout the years was in loving memory, and it is especially

important here. It shows a commitment to a loved one and keeping their legacy alive. In a study

about sociocultural norms in obituaries, Ahmed Jibril Tanimu states, “[Obituary] presupposes

that living humans attempt to maintain certain fantasies and construct mental images to keep the

one another.

Another intriguing pattern I noticed was the dates of the deaths that were sometimes

of metaphors used in other entries. In this case, though, we can assume it is to help soften the

sting of ambiguity as much as the bitter loss.

Example of an obituary of a young man who wasn’t pronounced dead until two years

later

Looking at the data from the n-grams for the pre-war years, the n-gram ‘killed in action’

ranked the fifth most frequent phrase used in 1945, and the word killed was the fifth most used

word total for obituaries in 1940 -1945. The specific district that I researched, Harrow, seems to

have been mercifully spared from the first Blitz in 1941; however, it was not so lucky the second

Obituary for an entire family killed during an air raid

The same family killed during air raid, but submitted by different family members

Entries for family members killed by enemy action followed a similar pattern to soldiers, as

their deaths were contributed to by the same enemy action. The same patterns of metaphors

about death follow here, with various concepts as seen above, like resting and being called home.