Vigils also seem to happen now, never used to - did they?
They only really started with terrorist bombings, like the IRA ones of the past. Before that we had WW2, and when any mass killing took place due to German bombing the Government tried not to let it be generally, nationally known, that it was due to the Germans. Therefore vigils seem not to have taken place, although with the likes of the Coventry Blitz in 1940, the people lined the city streets when dignitaries, including Churchill, visited during the aftermath. Many people also attended the mass funeral.
There is though evidence of Churchill's Cabinet being furious of the coverage given by the BBC of the attack, with criticism of the Government, and talk of "mass hysteria", " terror and neurosis" with many people "in a state of shock". So, occasionally the "stiff upper lip, and attempts by the Government to keep everything under control, failed, in this instance thanks to the BBC! But, this was not over "just 22" being killed, but a true mass killing of 568 people and the destruction of over 40,000 homes, with the heart of Coventry, including the Cathedral, taken out.
Another noteworthy example is the Woolworth's New Cross V2 attack in 1944 when 168 people were killed. The Government covered up the connection with the V2, blaming it on a gas leak, so German intelligence gained no knowledge or satisfaction that one of their rockets had done so much damage. British intelligence was at the time successfully persuading the Germans that their V2's, and previously, V1's were falling to the North of London, so they would adjust their targeting and end up dropping their rockets to the South of London. This ploy proved to be very successful in the main.
So, the lesson to be learnt is that in the past there were completely different reasons for mass killings; a World War when secrecy was vital, and the authorities tried to keep everything "nasty" out of the public domain. Today, with mass media that is no longer possible and, I suggest, with modern generations the death of 22, even one by a terrorist, out of a true "war" situation is absolutely shocking, when with previous generations they had been so used to hearing about thousands being killed, in the case of WWI, 20,000 in one day, that they had been case hardened to take such losses under their belt and keep a stiff upper lip. Therefore how people react now cannot be compared with yesteryear. The times and people were very different.
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