Secret war work of South Leeds firm

Christmas will soon be on us and some may be wondering what gifts to buy especially for children. Perhaps you may consider buying a Monopoly board game, originally printed by Waddingtons on the Wakefield Road at Stourton.

Monopoly was invented by an American Quaker Elizabeth Magie in 1903 which she called “The Landlords Game”. Her intention was to try to discredit the property giants of the USA and it became very popular. This drew the attention of the American company, Parker Brothers who took over the game in 1933 calling it Monopoly. The game was an immediate success in the USA.

Parker Brothers sent a sample game to Wadingtons in 1936. Waddington’s boss Victor Watson enjoyed playing the game with his son so much that he made one of the first and very unusual transatlantic telephone call to Parker Brothers. They were so impressed by that call, they granted licensing rights to Waddingtons for them to print Monopoly in the UK, and, at the time, the British Empire apart from Canada, and also countries in Europe including Germany.

My paternal Grandfather was American. He was a highly qualified engineer and was invited by his American cousin Charles Rogers to manage the American Screw Company on Kirkstall Road. After a buy-out by a major engineering firm it became the British Screw Company but my grandfather stayed on and married a Leeds girl.

My grandmother had relatives living outside of Leeds and when the First World War broke out and when she went to visit them, she had to report to the local police station as she was married to “an alien”! That did not stop until the USA joined the War in 1916.

The upshot of having an American grandfather is that I have inherited an original Parker Brothers 1933 Monopoly set.
There were always American relations visiting Leeds and my grandfather was given a set. It is very tattered now after four generations of my family have played with it. Its condition was not improved by all the children in my street, despite having a Monopoly set of their own, loving the novelty of playing on a board which had American place names on it and using dollars.

“Community Chest” is interesting as it was introduced during the great 1930’s American depression to relieve the hardship of its destitute citizens.

With the outbreak of World War II, MI9 (Military Intelligence tasked to assist evaders and escapees) contacted Waddingtons and asked them to make Monopoly sets for British prisoners of war. Concealed in the Boards were maps and recommendations of escape routes and miniature metal files.

The boxes of Monopoly money contained German Deutschmarks and other European currencies mixed in with the Monopoly money, and some of the counting tokens were made of gold which could be used for trading or for bribing assistance. Miniature compasses were also included.

At first, these wartime Monopoly sets were sent to prisoner of war camps by valid charities such as the Red Cross.
But it was soon realised that these bona fide charities which did do very useful and appreciated deliveries to prisoners, could be discredited with the enemy. So MI9 invented bogus charities to send the board games.

Waddingtons were also responsible for printing on very fine thin silk, which had never been done previously. They printed silk maps of areas of Germany which could be squeezed into buttons on the uniforms of the air crew. As with the Monopoly boards, care had to be taken to ensure that the air crews had the correct map area in which they were operating or imprisoned.

Much fun can be gained by playing Monopoly with friends and relatives. Above all it is a shared social activity which can never be achieved by looking at computers or iPads.

Knowing of Monopoly’s wartime work adds an extra layer of excitement.

This post was written by Hon Ald Elizabeth Nash

Photo: Shutterstock

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