Wartime books

In February 1943 a successful appeal was launched, by the Lord Mayor, to collect a quarter of a million books in 14 days. Of the 261,175 collected, 225,000 were good only for salvage, 24,000 were sent to the troops serving the World War II and 2,700 were allocated to local libraries which had lost their stock in the Blitz. All those sent to the troops had a slip inside them bearing the good wishes of the people of Portsmouth.