Higher History in Schools Conference
The Impact of the Great War
Dr Irene Maver
Saturday, 9 March 2013
Themes
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Scottish First World War research
The Scottish Press
Localism
Women
Politics
Research
• A rounded assessment of the war only since the 1990s
• Currently two general histories, Scotland and the Great
War (1999) and The Flowers of the Forest (2006)
• But primary source material available in published form,
especially collected letters, diaries and oral reminiscences
• Oral testimony from war veterans pursued in the 1990s
and 2000s, before it was too late
• Two Scottish collections, Voices from the Great War
(2005) and Voices from War (1995)
Alfred Anderson
At the time of the war I didn’t give the reasons much
thought. I was too young for that, and it was a kind of jaunt
for us all. It was a different kettle of fish once we got to the
trenches. I saw fellows I knew dying around me, and all I
thought about was living. I’ve been trying to forget the war
for the past eighty or so years, but wars just keep
happening, and it’s ordinary folk who pay the price.
Max Arthur, The Last Post (2005)
Sources
• Gary Sheffield, ‘journalism constitutes the first draft of
history’
• Digitisation makes it easier to search newspapers,
hitherto a difficult source to deal with
• Letters and diaries also increasingly accessible in
published form
• Contrast between Earl Haig’s prolific diaries, written with
an eye to preserving reputation
• And the ‘diary of a nobody’ style of Glasgow clerk,
Thomas Cairns Livingstone
Thomas Cairns Livingstone
Wednesday, 15 November [1916]: Agnes [his wife] went to
some school at night, where they are teaching war cookery.
Times are hard. Eggs 4d each, loaf 5d each, potatoes about
1/10 a stone.
Thursday, 16 November: Andrew’s wife up in the forenoon
for a ‘heart to heart’ talk. The paper says I’ve to be reexamined, so here’s luck. I’ll be a ‘sojer’ yet. Blast the
Kaiser. Government is going to take control of food. High
blinking time.
Thomas Cairns Livingstone, Tommy’s War (2008)
The Scottish Press
• The press overwhelmingly supported the war effort
between 1914 and 1918
• No real alternative as a conveyor of news
• Radio came to Scotland in 1923
• Cinema increasingly popular, and used by the
Government to sponsor ‘war pictures’ as propaganda
vehicles
Britain Prepared
Britain Prepared: the Great Kinematograph Review
It is surely an error in the programme which tells all and
sundry that ‘it is on seeing these films that one realises the
full effort England has made.’ What about the effort made
by Scotland and Ireland, &c?
Glasgow Evening News, 23 May 1916
Influence of the Press
• J. M. Murdoch editor of the Ayrshire Post
• Noted in 1916 that some 250 newspapers were published
across Scotland
• Only a few – including the Glasgow Herald and Scotsman
– were daily
• Claimed that ‘The local paper stimulates local patriotism,
is a link between the Scot at home and the Scot abroad’
• Highly critical of the incursion of London syndicates into
Scotland, especially the role of the Harmsworth Brothers
J. M. Murdoch
In such a case [metropolitan press syndicates], the
independent views of individual editors and leader writers
would not be forthcoming, but in their stead there would be
the arbitrary trumpetings of the ‘Press Napoleons’; the
hysterical ravings of the paper-made ‘Men of Destiny’, and
such constant and nefarious intrigues and pullings of
political wires as could not fail to generate, sooner or later,
the most violent protests against the abuse of the
newspaper prerogative.
Scottish Review (Summer 1916)
Localism and Community
• Local patriotism a vital point of reference for wartime
Scots, echoing 19th century Liberal values
• 1916 Glasgow recruiting poster – ‘For the good name of
our City and the Honour and Safety of the Empire’
• 65% of Scottish recruits volunteers; 52% in England and
Wales
• Thomas M. Lyon (‘Private Leo’) wrote of his experiences
as a volunteer in the 9th Battalion of the Highland Light
Infantry for the Kilmarnock Standard
Thomas M. Lyon (‘Private Leo’)
In the early evening several mines were exploded near to
our lines, and the sickening heave of the earth that
accompanied these, and the shattering roar that followed did
not tend to soothe our mental agitation. ‘This is pure hell,’
said a white-faced, trembling-lipped boy, beside whom I
once found myself cowering-in against the parapet. And,
‘Well, hang this for a comic song’, said Mac, a seasoned old
campaigner, after he had been blown on his back by the
force of a bursting bomb.
Thomas M. Lyon, In Kilt and Khaki (1915)
The War and Journalism
• Combatants encouraged to write of their experiences for
the Scottish press
• And sometimes the stark reality of war could be presented
• David Shaw’s death in action reported in the Uddingston
Standard in June 1915, along with 48 others
• Served with the 6th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), a
locally raised battalion
• Press reporting helped the community in the grieving
process
6th Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)
The terrible ordeal through which the regiment passed is
brought sharply before the reader, and the ghastly picture is
relieved only by the devotion of the doctors and ambulance
staff, and the unflinching heroism and self-sacrifice of the
wounded, who bore their grievous pain with great fortitude,
and whose desire was that the first attention should be given
to those who were more seriously injured than themselves.
Uddingston Standard, 26 June 1915
Women
• War work and activities frequently reported in the press,
especially unusual roles such as munitions manufacture
• But this was often deliberately exploited, to emphasise the
extraordinary conditions of war
• Voluntary and philanthropic efforts featured prominently in
the press, in order to provide female role models
• However, this could prove counter-productive if too much
moral pressure was exerted on the public
Women as Patriots
War, which has brought work in plenty to the young, has
given its opportunities also to the middle-aged, and they are
doing their best in philanthropic schemes, collecting funds,
entertaining Tommies, sending parcels, knitting comforts,
making bandages, organising concerts, whist drives, sales
of work, and At Homes for the relief funds, visiting and
helping dependents, doing without maids, returning to the
work of the household that the daughter at home may do her
bit.
Glasgow Evening News, 17 June 1916
Lady Lumsden’s Letters
7 August 1915: I am sorry to find there has been no
response to my appeal to get a complete motor ambulance
to bring up cot cases when the trains arrive [at Oldmill, the
local military hospital].
19 July 1916: I am sorry no more school children have
collected even pennies for this [the French hospital at Arc en
Barrois].
Aberdeen Daily Journal, quoted in Sarah Pederson, ‘A surfeit of socks?’
Entertainers
• Dora Sefton was a Glasgow-based music hall entertainer
during the war
• In 1917 she was part of Frances Letty’s short musical
drama ‘Tommies’ Lonely Lassies’, which toured Scotland
• All the performers were wives, daughters or sisters of
combatants
• A forerunner to the Military Wives Choir, but such moraleboosting, all-female ensembles were usual at this time
Tommies’ Lonely Lassies
‘Tommies’ Lonely Lassies’, all dependents of soldiers, now
present their popular vocal and instrumental scena at the
Olympia [Glasgow] next week. Though lonely, these
charming young ladies are far from unhappy. The wouldn’t
be lonely at all, in fact, for on the same bill we find Kevin and
Clyde, ‘those Scotch lads’ with their patter and their
bagpipes, ready to cheer everybody up.
Evening Times, 2 July 1917
Politics
• Politics were complex and highly divisive during the war
• See Iain Hutchison’s chapter in the Macdonald and
McFarland collection for detail
• Concern at the time about the demise of the Scottish
radical press
• The Coalition Government was formed in 1915, and
muted inter-party hostility
• But also heightened divisions within the Liberal Party –
traditionally the biggest parliamentary party in Scotland
Anti-War Sentiment
• Among the main political organisations, anti-war
sentiment was apparent both on the radical wing of the
Liberal Party and in the Independent Labour Party
• James Keir Hardie, the veteran Scottish Labour leader,
articulated strong views against the war
• So too did the radical nationalist editor of the Scottish
Review, Ruaraidh Erskine of Marr
• The Glasgow Evening News called him ‘Germany’s
Gaelic friend’
James Keir Hardie
And when a set of of selfish and incompetent statesmen
have plunged nations into shedding each other’s blood, it is
the worker who is called upon to line the trenches; to fill the
horrid graves of war by tens of thousands; to murder his
fellow worker with whom he has not, and never had, any
quarrel; it is the worker who is commanded under the
penalty of being branded a traitor, to carry woe and
desolation into the hearts of womenfolk and children.
Labour Leader, 25 March 1915
Red Clydeside
• Censorship of Forward in 1916 was more to do with David
Lloyd George’s ego than any subversive behaviour on the
part of Glaswegians
• The Minister of Munitions believed his powers of
persuasion would convince reluctant trade unionists of the
need for dilution of labour
• But he was shouted down at the meeting, and the episode
grew into one of the legendary moments of ‘Red
Clydeside’ militancy
Lloyd George in Glasgow
On rising to speak Mr Lloyd George was received with loud
and continued booing and hissing. There was some
cheering, certainly, and about a score of hats were waved in
the area, but the meeting was violently hostile. Two verses
of ‘The Red Flag’ were sung, before the Minister [of
Munitions] could utter a word. Owing to the incessant
interruption and the numerous altercations going on in the
hall, it was quite impossible to catch every word of Mr
George’s speech.
Forward, 1 January 1916
Works cited
• Max Arthur, The Last Post: the Final Word from our First World War
Soldiers (2005)
• I. G. C. Hutchison, ‘The impact of the First World War on Scottish
politics’, in Macdonald and McFarland (eds), Scotland and the Great
War (1999), 36-58
• Thomas Cairns Livingstone, Tommy’s War: the Diaries of a Wartime
Nobody (2008) (edited by Ronnie Scott)
• Thomas M. Lyon (‘Private Leo’), In Kilt and Khaki: Glimpses of the
Glasgow Highlanders in Training and on Foreign Service (1915)
• Catriona M. M. Macdonald and E. W. McFarland (eds), Scotland and
the Great War (1999)
Works cited (cont’d)
• Ian MacDougall (ed.), Voices from War: Personal Recollections of
War in our Century by Scottish Men and Women (1995)
• J. M. Murdoch, ‘Our newspaper press’, in the Scottish Review
(Summer 1916), 228-45
• Sarah Pederson, ‘A surfeit of socks? The impact of the First World
War on women correspondents to daily newspapers’, in Scottish
Economic and Social History, 22 (2002), 50-72
• Trevor Royle, The Flowers of the Forest: Scotland and the First World
War (2006)
• Gary Sheffield, The Chief: Douglas Haig and the British Army (2011)
• Derek Young, Scottish Voices from the Great War (2005)