During the Second World War, LSE, under Director Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders (1886-1966), was evacuated to Cambridge where we were hosted by Peterhouse College. The School continued to teach across the social sciences and courses were shared with Cambridge University and Bedford College. Student numbers fell and for the first time women outnumbered men among the student body.
In London Houghton Street was occupied first by the Ministry of Economic Warfare and then the Ministry of Aviation.
46 members of staff entered war service beginning with the School Secretary, Walter Adams, who worked for the Special Operations Executive and then became Deputy Head of the British Political Warfare Mission in Washington.
At the Economic Section of the Offices of the War Cabinet, Lionel Robbins became Director in 1940 and played a major role at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference.
Former Director William Beverige's The Beveridge Report, published in 1942, became the basis of the post-war Labour government’s legislation programme for social reform.
LSE returned to London in August 1945, marking our 50th anniversary by reopening to students on 29 October.