Understanding 1939 Registration Districts

There are over 1400 districts in the 1939 register.

On the left hand side the list is organised by their short code. On the right the same list is repeated, sorted by Registration District. Borough/district.

Those outside of London include various abbreviations after them:

R.D – rural district

U.D – urban district

M.B – municipal borough

C.B – county borough

E.D. letter codes – Enumeration District letter codes are displayed on the transcript and image.

Enumeration Districts – These start in London with AAA, then spiral out to an area corresponding roughly with modern Greater London boroughs, the surrounding Home Counties, an outer ring from Bedfordshire round to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, the North East, the Lake District, Yorkshire, the North West, West Midlands, East Midlands, East Anglia, South West and finally Wales. Within each of these districts the counties are listed alphabetically, not geographically.

London – This starts with the City of London, followed by an alphabetical sequence of all the Metropolitan Boroughs and finally the City of Westminster.

Counties – Within each 'county' the County Boroughs come first, then the Municipal Boroughs and Urban Districts (combined), and finally the Rural Districts. Each section is in alphabetical order.

Yorkshire – This is divided into the three ridings.

Lincolnshire – This is divided into Holland, Kesteven and Lindsey.

Sussex – This is divided into East and West.

Isle of Wight – This is listed on its own, and not as part of Hampshire.

Rutland – This is a county on its own, and isn't lumped in with Leicestershire.

East Midlands – This finishes with the Soke of Peterborough, as though it were a separate county.

Cambridgeshire – Quite a lot of what we consider Cambridgeshire is actually listed as the Isle of Ely.

Birmingham and Bristol – These big cities both straddle county boundaries but are listed only in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, respectively.