The expression ‘blackout’ to describe the total extinction
of lights was not used during the First World War. Regulation 11 of the Defence
of the Realm Regulations gave the Home Secretary the power to make orders to
reduce lighting, and in general lights were required to be obscured or dimmed,
and only switched off completely in the event of an air raid.
However, the
Chief Constable of Norwich, Mr. E.F. Finch, had met some aviators in the early
part of the war, and they had impressed him with accounts of what they could
see while flying over Norfolk at night. Finch decided that the Home Office
orders were insufficient for his fine city, and so a draconian regime was
introduced requiring a full blackout. This included a prohibition on using
torches and even on striking matches in the street.
The conditions were so
extreme that when the Home Secretary introduced the Lights (East Coast) Order
in December 1915 Norwich was explicitly excluded from it!
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