Harkness – MacGillivray Stories

The National Registration Act 1939

The National Registration Act 1939¹ was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. The initial National Registration Bill was introduced to Parliament as an emergency measure at the start of the Second World War. The Act established a National Register which began operating on 29 September 1939 (National Registration Day). It consists of a system of identity cards, and a requirement that they must be produced on demand or presented to a police station within 48 hours. 

Repeal of the Act²

On 21 February 1952, it no longer became necessary to carry an identity card. The National Registration Act of 1939 was repealed on 22 May 1952. The last person prosecuted under the Act was Harry Willcock. Even after the National Registration system was abandoned in 1952, the National Registration number persisted. Eventually, it was used within the National Health Service, for voter registration, and for the National Insurance System.

Harry Willcock and liberals

The case of Harry Willcock is very interesting; it asserts the idea of liberal freedoms in the United Kingdom. Lord Goddard of the High Court expressed the following:

“This Act was passed for security purposes; however, it was never passed for the purposes for which it is now apparently being used. To use Acts of Parliament passed for particular purposes in wartime when the war is a thing of the past—except for the technicality that a state of war exists. It tends to turn law-abiding subjects into lawbreakers, which is a most undesirable state of affairs.

Furthermore, in this country we have always prided ourselves on the good feeling that exists between the police and the public; such action tends to make the people resentful of the acts of the police; it also inclines them to obstruct the police instead of assisting them. For these reasons I hope that if a similar case comes before any other bench of justices, they will deal with it as did the Highgate bench and grant the defendant an absolute discharge, except where there is a real reason for demanding sight of the registration card.”³

¹ It consists of a system of identity cards, and a requirement that they must be produced on demand or presented to a police station within 48 hours. 

² Ibid. 

³ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Willcock