(Above) Cecil Beaton Tyneside Shipyards (1943). A boy working as a caulker looks towards the camera
Outdoor Exhibition: Tyneside Shipyards, 1943: Photographs by Cecil Beaton at Imperial War Museum North, Manchester, June 12 2010 - July 20 2011
Visitors to Salford Quays, the former beating heart of the Manchester Ship Canal, are to be treated to a set of iconic images that recall the role of shipbuilders and the ship building industry in World War Two.
The images hanging on the outside of Imperial War Museum North are by the famed photographer Cecil Beaton and capture Tyneside shipyards during wartime as men, women and even children toiled to produce ships for the war effort.
Standing five-metres tall, the images will be the first thing most visitors see as they arrive at the Museum, which is using the dramatic shots to mark the start of a season of nautical themed events and exhibitions.
(Above) Cecil Beaton Tyneside Shipyards (1943). A cargo ship under construction on the stocks
Beaton was, of course, best known as a fashion and society photographer who went on to snap the likes of Mick Jagger and Audrey Hepburn, but during the Second World War he worked as a documentary photographer for the Ministry of Information.
His shots of Blitz ravaged Londoners and other home front subjects, including his famous dockyard series, became some of the defining images of the war.
Highlights of the IWM North display include a female welder in Tyneside, standing proudly in front of an enormous, half built vessel. Alongside two imposing images of ships under construction is the evocative photograph of a young boy, hard at work with ripped clothes and a face blackened by dirt.
(Above) Cecil Beaton Tyneside Shipyards, 1943. A study of a young woman welder
In 1939, British shipbuilding was a dying industry. Many yards had shut during the Depression and skilled workers were lost to other jobs or the Armed Forces.
To fight the war and to bring in vital imports by sea, Britain needed more ships and the workers to build them. By the time Beaton arrived on Tyneside in 1943 the industry was at its peak, with more than 270,000 people working in British shipbuilding - almost double the 1939 figure.
Although no longer a working port in the Second World War, Salford Quays, then the Port of Manchester, was also a busy hub for merchant ships bringing in their vital cargoes from overseas.
Images © Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum’s major exhibition, All Aboard: Stories of War at Sea, opens on July 17, and promises a voyage of discovery through some of the most momentous events in British history, from the First World War to the present day.
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