On 1 September 1939, two days before World War II was declared, the blackout was introduced across the UK. By January 1942, one in five people had some form of injury as a direct result of the blackout. Road accidents increased dramatically, with 1,130 deaths in September 1939 as opposed to 544 in the same month the previous year. It remained in force for five years until September 1944, when regulations were relaxed to allow a ‘dim-out’.

In Orkney even farming was affected with no lights being able to be shown out in the farms to go about daily winter chores. People would be fined (or imprisoned) for not adhering to the blackout which was to prevent locations of human activity being detected by enemy aircraft.

The Choice: A Fine Or Imprisonment

In 1940 naval officer, Lt Commander Houchen, R.N.R, was fined 10/- , or 7 days imprisonment, for showing a bright light at 11.45pm on April 20th from his upstairs room in the Albert Hotel, Kirkwall. Sentencing Houchen, Sherriff Brown commented that ‘it was rather a nuisance that the Services should be guilty of this offence when civilians were being constantly dropped on for it.‘ Houchen chose to pay the fine.

Also in 1940 Lt. Alfred Pycroft was fined 5/- for breaking Blackout regulations on 18th of June at the Stromness Hotel.

William Innes, a shipwright in Lyness Hoy was fined in 1942 for showing a light from his cubicle. Fined £2 for the offence Innes explained that he was at sea at the time and didn’t realise that he had left the light on ashore.

In 1943 Kirkwall Sheriff Court heard the case of two car offences driven by workers, Government employees, at the camp in the South Isles. Found guilty one man was fined £1 or 10 days imprisonment, and the other man was fined 10/- or 7 days imprisonment.

Civilians were also found guilty. Mrs Peterkin of Heatherlea, Cromwell Road, Kirkwall was fined 15/- for breaking the Blackout on 11th of June 1940.

Stromness Hotel Manager Murdo Grant, was fined £3 for permitting a light to be shown from the hotel on 23rd May 1940. Sheriff Brown was not impressed by his excuse of blaming a chambermaid for not closing the blackout blind before going off duty.

Though Orkney, like everywhere else, did not have outdoor lights, Christmas festivities still went ahead. Orkney was especially busy due to the number of service personnel stationed in the islands.

 It was not until April 1945 that full street lighting returned.