How were civilians affected by World War 1?
Aim: To revise key details
about the British Home
Front during the First
World War
/
Total War
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What was the Total War?
– A war where the countries drafts all the
people and collects all resources that they
can.
When did this war take place?
– Around 1916
Where did it take place?
– Europe
Why did the Total War occur?
– The war turned into a Total War because
the countries expected the war to be short
so they weren’t prepared for long term war,
when their supplies ran out, total war was
their only option.
What was the significance of the war?
– WWI turned into a Total War which affected
the home front and government a lot.
– It affected women too because with the
absence of men they were expected to take
over more jobs and help out with the war
effort.
– They received the rights to new jobs, to
vote, and the right to apartments.
WWI on the Home Front
• WWI was a Total War – required populations on the home front to
mobilize their resources completely toward the war effort; civilian
population centers also became targets of the war effort – not
since the US Civil War & the Napoleonic Wars had the world seen
such complete mobilization for war
• Mass conscription was carried out by all nations – most European
nations had armies of 1-2 million – eventually over 70 million
would be drafted worldwide – many women would volunteer
services as nurses at home & the front
• Entire economies were geared toward war production – led to
rationing of all sorts of essentials as raw materials & agricultural
products were utilized to feed the war machine – led to increased
centralization & gov’t control of economies
• WWI saw an increase in restrictions of civil liberties – the press
was censored as was speech & mail; due process of law was
suspended for those suspected of treason; German books were
burned, speaking German was banned & lynchings of German-Brits
were interned in Britain and its colonies
• Women played an important role in the war effort – taking up
jobs as men were sent to the home front – over 35% of the
workforce was women in many European nations during the war
War on the Home Front
Government Actions
• Winning new type of war required
use of all society’s resources
• Total war, governments took
stronger control of citizens’ lives
• New controls changes nations’
industries, economies
• Factories produced military
equipment, citizens conserved
food, other goods
Government Control
• Sought to control public opinion
• Censored newspaper reports about
fighting to keep from discouraging
public
• Created propaganda, information
to influence opinions, encourage
volunteers
• Posters, pamphlets, articles about
enemy’s brutal actions
 starter activity
This was arguably the most successful recruitment poster of the War. It shows
Earl Kitchener, the man responsible for getting men to join the army. It uses a
clever visual trick. Can you guess what it is?
Recruitment
• Initial recruitment used
posters, leaflets, etc. to
build an army quickly
• What is the message of
this poster?
• How would this poster
encourage men to join
the army?
Why did people ‘join up’?
Patriotism
• Britain joined the War on 4
August 1914
• People encouraged to ‘do
your bit for King & country’
• ‘King’s shilling’
• Pals brigades (including
villages, football teams,
orchestras, old school
friends)
• Over by Christmas
• By December 1914, 1
million men had enlisted
What is the artist of who made this
poster trying to say?
Propaganda
• Leaflets & posters
• Women were told to encourage sons, husbands &
boyfriends to enlist
• By January 1916, 2.6 million men had enlisted
What do you
think the man
in the poster is
thinking?
Recruitment
• Initial recruitment
used posters, leaflets,
etc. to build an army
quickly
• What is the message
of this poster?
• How would this poster
encourage men to join
the army?
Recruitment
• Women’s organisations tried
to boost recruitment
• White feathers were given to
men as a sign of their
“cowardice”
• The Mother’s Union urged its
members to get their sons to
join up
Recruitment
• Initial recruitment used
posters, leaflets, etc. to
build an army quickly
• What is the message of
this poster?
• How would this poster
encourage men to join the
army?
Recruitment
Recruitment of volunteers to the army, 1914-15
Recruits (thousands)
500
400
1914
1915
300
200
100
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Month
“Recruiting” by E. A. Mackintosh
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‘Lads, you’re wanted, go and help,’
On the railway carriage wall
Stuck the poster, and I thought
Of the hands that penned the call.
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Fat civilians wishing they
‘Could go out and fight the Hun.’
Can’t you see them thanking God
That they’re over forty-one?
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Girls with feathers, vulgar songsWashy verse on England’s needGod-and don’t we damned well know
How the message ought to read.
“Recruiting” continued
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‘Lads, you’re wanted! Over there,’
Shiver in the morning dew,
More poor devils like yourselves
Waiting to be killed by you.
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Go and help to swell the names
In the casualty lists.
Help to make a column’s stuff
For the blasted journalists.
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Help to keep them nice and safe
From the wicked German foe.
Don’t let him come over here!
Lads, you’re wanted-out you go.’
“Recruiting” continued
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There’s a better word than that,
Lads, and can’t you hear it come
From a million men that call
You to share their martyrdom.
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Leave the harlots still to sing
Comic songs about the Hun,
Leave the fat old men to say
Now we’ve got them on the run.
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Better twenty honest years
Than their dull three score and ten.
Lads, you’re wanted. Come and learn
To live and die with honest men.
“Recruiting” continued
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You shall learn what men can do
If you will but pay the price,
Learn the gaiety and strength
In the gallant sacrifice.
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Take your risk of life and death,
Underneath the open sky.
Live clean or go out quickLads, you’re wanted. Come and die.
• What aspects of Home Front changes are addressed in this poem?
• What is the overall message?
Conscription
• Voluntary recruitment was decreasing,
but the demand for troops was
increasing
• Voluntary recruitment didn’t share the
burden between all parts of society
• Conscription introduced in 1916
• All men aged 18-40 had to register
• They could be called up to fight at any
time
Conscription
• The British army had consisted of all volunteers.
• As hundreds of thousands of men were killed or wounded,
more volunteers were needed.
• Due to this the height limit was reduced.
• And the upper age limit increased.
• But the flow of volunteers was not enough.
• In January 1916, the Military Service Act was passed.
• It required all unmarried men between 18 and 41, except
those in exempted occupations to serve.
• On April 26, 1916, the Act was extended to include married
men between the ages of 18 and 41 as well.
Conscription
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Who took practiced conscription during the
time of World War I?
– Europe
When exactly did conscription occur during this
time?
– Between 1890 and 1914
What was conscription?
– Conscription was a military draft which
made European armies double in size.
Why did countries choose to practice
conscription?
– European countries felt the need to
become more powerful because of tensions
tightening between them.
What was the significance of conscription
during this time?
– Conscription, which is an act of militarism,
cause Military leaders to receive more
power and gave countries the means to go
to war.
Conscription
• Casualties increased
• News returned to Britain of
horrors of trenches
• Conscription introduced for
all men between ages of 18
and 41
• Conscientious objectors
(conshies) given white
feathers
• By 1918 2.5 million extra
men had been enlisted
Why did millions of men feel ‘obliged’ to fight in
the War?
All now depended on how the Somme was
followed up.
Conscription was introduced in 1916.
•Had it been introduced in 1914, which had not been possible,
then death and disablement would have been more evenly
spread.
•While this does not diminish the unquestionable tragedy the
war, the perception of the death toll may well have been less
shocking.
•The British nation had never been so involved in a war before,
•never had it suffered as it did 1914-18,
•but it suffered fewer losses than most of the other combatants.
Conscientious Objectors
• The Military Service Act that introduced conscription put many who opposed the
war into a position of direct personal conflict with the British Government.
• Exemption was allowed on grounds of conscience, and unsympathetic and biased
trials were set up to assess those who claimed conscience as a reason for not
fighting.
• David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, promised the conscientious
objectors a ‘rough time.’
• However, such was the decline in enthusiasm for the war, there were 750,000
claims for conscience exemption.
• Of these tribunals, only 16,500 of the 750,000 were accepted as Conscientious
Objectors.
• The great majority of these men accepted some form of alternative service,
working in hospitals, factories, mines, etc…
• However, over 1000 refused all forms of war service.
• These men were imprisoned, and most were brutally treated, resulting in physical
and mental abuse.
• 70 of these men dies in prison.
'The Ideal' - one of
many cartoon
produced by
COs (1917).
This and several
other were also
produced and
widely
distributed as
postcard
In The Daily Express on July 4, 1916, Lieutenant Colonel Reginald
Brooke, Commander of the Military Detention Barracks for the C.O.s
bragged about how he broke them:
• “Some of the early batches, when nothing could be done with
them, were taken singly and run across the yard to special rooms--airy enough, but from which they could see nothing. They were fed
on bread and water and some of them presently came round. I had
them placed in special rooms, nude, but with their full army kit on
the floor for them to put on as soon as they were so minded. There
were no blankets or substitutes for clothing left in the rooms which
were quite bare. Several of the men held out naked for several
hours, but they gradually accepted the inevitable. Forty of the
conscientious objectors who passed through my hands are now
quite willing soldiers.”
Conscription and Conscientious
Objectors
• Conscientious objectors opposed the war for
political or religious reasons
• They refused to fight, and were imprisoned –
or executed – for doing so
• Others helped the war effort, but not through
military action
– Field hospitals
– Stretched bearers
The Conchies
•Conscientious objectors were people
who simply did not want to fight in World
War 1.
•Conscientious objectors became known
as 'conchies' or C.O's
• They were a sign that not everybody was
as enthusiastic about the war as the
government would have liked.
Over one million
soldiers died on the
Western Front
during World War
One but there were
some men who
refused to go
because they
believed the war
was wrong.
There were several types of
conscientious objector.
• Some were pacifists who were against war in
general.
• Some were political objectors who did not
consider the government of Germany to be
their enemy
• Some were religious objectors who believed
that war and fighting was against their religion.
Groups in this section were the Quakers and
Jehovah Witnesses.
• A combination of any of the above groups.
Quakers were prominent in promoting conscientious
objection, and were ridiculed in the papers.
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“A Christian To A Quaker”
I much regret that I must frown
Upon your cocoa nibs, (reference to
Cadbury chocolate owned by a Quaker
family)
I simply hate to smite you down
And kick you in the ribs;
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But since you will not think as I,
It’s clear you must be barred,
So in you go (and may you die)
To two years hard.
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We are marching to freedom and to love;
We’re fighting every shape of tyrant sin;
We are out to make it worth
God’s while to love the earth,
And damn it, you won’t join in!
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To drive you mad, as I have done,
Has almost made me sick.
To torture Quakers like a Hun
Has hurt me to the quick.
But since your logic wars with mine
You’re something I must guard,
So in you go, you dirty swine,
To two years hard.
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We are marching to destroy the hosts of
hate:
We’ve taken, every man, a Christian vow;
We are our to make war cease,
That men may live at peace,
And, damme, you’re at it now!
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By Harold Begbie
Some conscientious objectors did not want to fight but
were keen to 'do their bit'. These people were willing
to help in weapons factories and some went to the
trenches to become stretcher bearers etc., though not
to fight. Other C.O's refused to do anything that
involved the war - these were known as 'absolutists‘.
What did people think of the
conchies?
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They were treated as cowards
Traitors
Criminals
White feathers were handed
out to young men who had
not joined the army
• They could not get jobs in
factories doing war work
What happened to the conchies?
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Some did war work
Medical services
Support services
Some refused every kind of alternative service
and went to prison. Ten died and 31 went
mad as a result of their experiences
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HAROLD BING'S STORY
There were plenty of protests against war in 1914. Some of the protesters were socialists,
who believed that the working men of the world should unite, not obey orders to kill each
other.
Some belonged to religious groups which forbade taking human life.
Some thought this particular war was wrong, some thought all war was wrong.
Thousands of these varied protesters gathered in London's Trafalgar Square on August 2 to
make their anti-war voices heard.
A 16-year old called Harold Bing was there.
He had walked the 11 miles from Croydon (and walked back again afterwards). ‘
It was thrilling,' he said. Harold and his father were both pacifists (his father had opposed
the Boer War as well), and they both joined the No-Conscription Fellowship.
Harold helped to distribute NCF leaflets from house to house; on one occasion he was
chased by a hostile householder wielding a heavy stick.
After conscription was introduced in 1916, Harold, an 'absolutist' CO, went before his
tribunal.
He was not thought to qualify for exemption.
'18? - you're too young to have a conscience,' said the chairman.
But not, apparently, too young to be sent to war.
A policeman came to his home to arrest him, and he was taken to Kingston Barracks.
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A policeman came to his home to arrest him, and he was taken to Kingston Barracks.
When he refused to regard himself as a soldier, or obey military orders, he was courtmartialled.
The sentence: 6 months hard labour. In the end Harold spent nearly 3 years in prison.
Many COs were given what was called the 'cat and mouse' treatment: at the end of their
sentences in civilian prisons, they were released, taken back to barracks, arrested again for
disobeying orders, and imprisoned once more.
The good thing, as Harold observed, was that each time someone was released, they had
enough time before re-arrest to get hold of newspapers and information which they could
then pass on covertly to fellow inmates. 'I remember there was great excitement when
news of the Russian revolution came through. People thought this would make a great
difference to the war.'
Harold made a difference himself.
He helped to get vegetarian food provided (though unappetisingly) by the prison kitchen,
and additional nourishment (a mug of cocoa) supplied for men who worked overtime.
He also made friends with a few of the kinder warders - helping the daughter of one of
them with her maths homework; that particular warder died soon after the war, and
Harold and some other ex-prisoners set up a fund to pay for the girl's secondary education.
Harold was also one of the men who together created a prison magazine: written on thin
brown sheets of toilet paper using the blunt end of a needle and the ink supplied for
monthly letters home.
• Just the one copy ('different people writing little essays or poems or humorous
remarks, sometimes little cartoons or sketches') was passed secretly from one
prisoner to another.
• In Harold's prison this unique publication was called 'The Winchester Whisperer'.
• The idea was widely copied.
• Wandsworth COs, for example, produced their 'Old Lags Hansard', once with an
apology for late publication 'owing to an official raid on our offices', the editor's
cell.
• A work camp attached to a stone-breaking quarry published 'The Granite Echo',
with copies printed by a supporter in London.
• Harold Bing left prison with his sight damaged by years of stitching mailbags in
dim light, but also having taught himself German and French.
• He wanted to teach, but he quickly found that many advertisements for teachers
said 'No CO need apply'.
• 'And if you did apply, you got turned down as soon as they knew you were a
pacifist.'
• But at last he found a sympathetic headmaster who was willing to employ him.
• As well as teaching, Harold worked as a peace campaigner (often travelling
abroad) for the rest of his life. He died in 1975.
AFTER THE WAR
• No-one was in a hurry to release the COs - certainly not until the
surviving soldiers were brought back from the front, which took
months.
• Some COs went on hunger strike in protest at their continued
detention: 130 were forcibly fed through tubes (as suffragettes had
been) - so forcibly that many were injured by the treatment and had
to be temporarily released.
• Others went on work strikes and were brutally punished for it.
• In May 1919 the longest-serving prisoners began to be released; the
last CO left prison in August.
• Many found that no-one wanted to employ them.
• Those who hadn't done alternative or non-combatant service were
deprived of their votes for five years (though this wasn't always
strictly enforced)
Planned Economies
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What was planned economies?
– An economy controlled by the government, for example, when European governments
decided price of goods, wages of the people, and the rent people had to pay. They Also
Rationed food and materials and controlled imports, exports, transportation and
industries.
Where/ Who used planned economies?
– Europe
When did these take place?
– During WWI
Why were these used?
– Planned economies were set up as a result of Total War and the high demands of the
war.
What was the significance of planned economies?
– The planned economies that the government set up had a large impact on the civilians
at home and caused their support of the war
DORA
• The Defence of the Realm Act
• Introduced on August 8, 1914
• Gave the government powers to
control many aspects of people’s daily
lives
• The priority was to keep industrial
production high, but other things were
affected too
• One of the first businesses it took over
was the railways
DORA
• Mines and railways were
taken over by the
government
• The government had
ultimate control over
them
• This meant production of
coal, and the movement
of trains, would be
prioritised for the war
effort
Licensing
Hours
Dilute Beer
Censorship
DORA
British
Summer
Time
Rationing
Control of
Mines and
Railways
• Ministry of Munitions created in May
1915
• Ministries of Labour, Shipping, and
Food all created in Dec 1916
• In ten years, from 1911 to 1921, the
number of government employees
doubled due to DORA
DORA
• British Summer Time
was introduced
• The government
move the clocks
forward by an hour in
the summer
• This ensured
factories had
maximum daylight,
meaning they could
operate later
Impact on Industry Primary Source from Birmingham in 1918
• “Jewelers abandoned their craftmanship and the
fashioning of gold and silver ornaments for the
production of anti-gas apparatus and other war
materials; old-established firms noted for their art
productions, turned to the manufacture of an
intricate type of hand grenade. Cycle-makers
adapted their machines to the manufacture of
cartridge clips; and railway carriage companies
launched out with artillery wagons, limbers, tanks
and aeroplanes, and the chemical works devoted
their energies to the production of deadly TNT.”
Unions’ Reactions to DORA
• April-May 1917: unofficial strikes broke out
• Resulted in the estimated loss of 1.5 million working
days
• April-July 1918: Engineering Workers Strike in Leeds
and Birmingham
• Government ended the strike with the threat of
conscriptions
• Overall, between 1915-1918, there were 3227 strikes
involving 2.6 million workers
• Estimated loss of 17.8 million working days
DORA
• Licensing hours were
introduced
• Pubs could only open for 2
hours at lunchtime and 3
hours in the evening
• This made sure the
workforce was awake and
sober for factory work
DORA
• Beer was diluted
• The government allowed
publicans to make beer weaker
• This ensured the workforce
didn’t drink so much as to make
them drunk or hung-over while
at work
Leisure and Pastime Changes
• Prohibitions on public clocks chiming in between
sunset and sunrise
• No whistling for taxis between 10PM and 7AM
• Restaurants and hotel dining rooms had to turn
off lights at 10PM
• All places of entertainment had to close at
10:30PM
• British Summer Time was introduced in May 1916
DORA
• Food was rationed
• The government took over
land and used it for farm
production
• This ensured there was
enough food to feed the public
and the army, despite German
U-Boat attacks
• During war, average household
spend 75% of income on food,
fuel, and housing
• Pubs were to close by 10PM
• Weakening of the spirits and watering down
beer
• “We are fighting the Germans, Austrians, and
Drink, and so far as I can see the greatest of
these deadly foes is Drink.” was said by Prime
Minister David Lloyd George
• Spectator sports continued until 1915
• Football or soccer was targeted
• So was hunting and horse-racing
• People still went to the beach but now there
was barbed wire along the beaches and some
piers were cut in half as precautions against
invasion
• American jazz and ragtime became popular
• 150 night clubs operated in Central London by
1915 with illegal liquor sold in coffee cups
• Soho was very popular
• Cinema became very popular---20 million
tickets sold per week
• War Exhibitions were created to communicate
public information on health and hygiene
• Examples: War Exhibits on Houseflies and
Exhibits on Lice
• Church attendance declined
Homefront: Food Administration
a.
Assure the supply,
distribution, and
conservation of food
during the war,
b. Facilitate transportation of
food and prevent
monopolies and hoarding,
and
c. Maintain governmental
power over foods by using
voluntary agreements and
a licensing system.
The “Home Front”
• Brings changes in hair length and
fashions
• World War I innovations
--Chanel #5
--Spam
--Deodorant
• Impact on language and culture
-- “Dud”
-- “Lousy”
-- “Rats!”
-- “Gas Attack”
Rationing
• In April 1917, German U-Boats
were sinking one in every four
British merchant ships
• Britain was running out of food
Rationing
• In 1917 voluntary rationing began, led by the
royal family
• In 1918 compulsory rationing began
– Sugar
– Butter
– Meat
– Beer
• Efforts to control Food Consumption:
• Dec 1916: Lunches in public eating places were
restricted to two courses and dinners to three
courses
• Fines were introduced for feeding pigeons and
stray animals
• Food Control Campaign of 1917:
• One Ministry of Food Leaflet introduced the
public to “Mr. Slice o’Bread” proclaiming that
48 million slices of bread were wasted every
day
• “I am the ‘bit left over’; the slice eaten absentmindedly when really I wasn’t needed: I am the
waste crust.
• If you collected me and my companions for a whole
week, you would find that we amounted to 9,380
tons of good bread---Wasted.”
• It was similarly claimed that a teaspoon of
breadcrumbs saved by every person every day would
amount to 40,000 tons a year.
• “Government Bread”:
• Reducing the amount of white flour and
substituting other grain or potato
• Long queues or lines for food led to people
taking off from work to wait in line, crowds
bordering on riots, changing clothes and
appearance to try to get seconds, etc…
• Inflation skyrocketed: 80% increase on wheat
and 40% on meat just within the first year of the
war
• Diets of ordinary families changed
throughout the war:
• 1914: oatmeal was the cheapest
• 1915: beans and rice
• 1916: lentils and oatmeal
• By 1918: sorrel, dandelion leaves and nettles
were substitutes for vegetables
• Official Government Rationing:
• Began in 1917
• Sugar rationed first
• Then meats and fats
• Weekly Ration: 15oz beef, mutton, or lamb,
5 oz of bacon, 4 oz of fat, and 8 oz of sugar
• Coal Rationing began in Oct 1917
• 200 hundred weight a week for up to four rooms
• 300 hundred weight a week for up to five or six
rooms
• The Total War led to many Welfare Programs being
passed:
• Health of Munitions Workers Committee of the
Ministry of Munitions provided for factory
inspectors and 900 canteens created to feed the
workers---sausage and mash, mince and mash,
stewed fruit, and milk pudding
• The Maternity and Child Welfare Act was
passed in August 1918 to provide services
for mothers and infants under the age of
five
• Extension of government provision of
school meals for the needy for the whole
calendar year
• Rents and Mortgage or Rent Restriction
Act of 1915 eased the pressures of
housing shortages
DORA
• Newspapers and radio
broadcasts were censored
• The government could
control what people heard
about the war
• This made sure the public
continued to support the war
effort by only hearing good
things
Propaganda
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What is this?
– These were ideas spread around to
influence public opinions or to go
against a cause. It is a method that
the government used to create
enthusiasm for the war also.
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When did this occur?
– August 1914
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Where did this take place?
– In Europe
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Who used propaganda?
– The European government
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What is the significance of using
propaganda?
– They used it because before the wars
it stirred up national hatreds.
WW I Propaganda - The Poster War
• Propaganda - the spreading of ideas,
information, or rumor for the purpose of
helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a
person.
– A deliberate attempt to influence individuals by
leading one to behave “as though his response
were his own decision.”
• In war, it’s used as an instrument for maintaining unity,
good will and a common purpose:
– Maintaining and boosting the morale of soldiers.
– Unifying society at home in support of the war effort.
Propaganda & WWI
• WWI was one of the 1st wars in which a
massive propaganda campaign was
unleashed – usually to gain support for the
war and/or demonize the enemy
• Germany faced an onslaught of negative
propaganda – stemming from their illegal
invasion of Belgium (and treatment of
civilians) – “savages” “barbarians” and
“Huns” were often-used phrases
• Propaganda was used to sell war bonds,
persuade volunteers/recruits and to
demonize the enemy (justify the war effort)
• Germany (and Adolf Hitler) would learn
the lessons of “winning the propaganda
war” at home and utilize it effectively in
WWII
• The propaganda that “Germany started
WWI” would be critical in the post-war
agreements & shaping of the post-war
world
• Propaganda was used to stimulate or
revive national morale and damage the
enemy
• Propaganda was used in the church, in
classrooms, in the cinema, in music halls,
in postcards, in cartoons, in porcelain
figures, in jigsaw puzzles, children’s toys,
and even in Christmas decorations
• Example: Christmas scene that had a
trench scene with a tank
The following posters are divided
into three parts:
• Propaganda symbols
• The use of the soldier on the battlefront as
a universal propaganda image.
• The home-front, especially the evolution
in the portrayal of women.
Propaganda Symbols
• Identify and vilify the enemy.
• Glorify the Allies
• Portrayal of Women as Victims.
Britain 1917
Artist: David Wilson
USA
1917
One last effort & we will get them.
Artist: Unknown
France 1917
USA
1918
Sottoscrivete al Prestito
Subscribe for the Loan
Artist: Giovanni Capranesi
Italy 1917
Canada
1918
Liberation Loan France 1918
The use of the soldier on the
battlefront
• Defender of Civilization
• Heroes
• One who always does his duty despite
hardships.
They Shall Not
Pass
France
1918
We Will Get Them
France 1916
Zeichnet 7. Kriegsanleihe - Wiener Kommerzialbank
Translation: Subscribe for the 7th War Loan
Alfred Offner 1917 - Germany
Canada
1917
Offering the Army
and Navy
Germany 1916
For The Supreme
Effort
France 1915
USA
1917
THE HOME-FRONT
• Evolution in the portrayal of women.
–Shifted from one of women as victims
to a more positive image:
• As care givers.
• Factory workers in jobs formerly held
by men.
USA
1918
USA
1918
USA 1918
The Frenchwoman in War-Time.
Artist: G. Capon - France 1917
Censorship
• British journalists were expelled from France
in August 1914
• Official Press Bureau allowed only six war
correspondents
• Persuaded writers, artists, and intellectuals to
publish materials in support of the war:
Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
Thomas Hardy, and HG Wells
Propaganda and Censorship
• All news was tightly controlled
(censorship)
• Reports aimed to:
–Maintain morale
–Encourage civilians to support the war
effort
–Create hatred and suspicion of the
enemy
• Newspapers, radio broadcasts, films and
even board games were used
The Home Front and Censorship
• Censorship
– Not told about high
death toll
– Romanticized the
battlefields
“soldiers have died a
beautiful death, in noble
battle, we shall
rediscover poetry…epic
and chivalrous”
The Home Front
• Censorship
“Newspapers described
troops as itching to
go over the top.”
“Government reported
to the press that life
in the trenches
promoted good
health and clear air”
Propaganda and Censorship
• The film, The Battle of the Somme, was
filmed in 1916
• The Battle was a disaster for the British
Army
– Failed objectives
– Enormous causalities
• What can the film tell an historian about the
use of propaganda in WW1?
BATTLE OF THE SOMME
MOVIE
• For the first time the home
front in Britain was exposed
to the horrors of modern war
with the release of the
propaganda film, The Battle of
the Somme which used actual
footage from the first days of
the battle.
• The film spanned five reels
and lasted 63 minutes .
• It was first screened on 10
August, 1916, while the battle
was still raging.
• On 21 August the film began
showing simultaneously in 34
London cinemas.
Battle of the Somme Video Clips:
http://www.encyclomedia.com/videobattle_of_the_somme.html#moretext
Battle of the Somme Film
• Created by Malins and
McDowell- who were sent to
the British Fourth Army to do
some general filming.
• Ended up turning into a
documentary of the Somme
offensive.
• On July 1, Malins filmed the
famous scene of the explosion
of a large British mine under the
German Hawthorn Redoubt.
Battle of the Somme Film
• The film caused awarenessmost notably from some
faked scenes of men falling
dead and wounded.
• Led to the establishment of
the War Office Cinema
Committee in November
1916.
• Eventually war films were
replaced with newsreels.
SOMME MOVIE CONT…
• The film was screened for British
soldiers at rest in France where it
provided new recruits with some idea
of what they were about to face.
•
Soldier's main complaint was failure
of film to capture sounds of battle.
However, as a silent film, the titles
could be remarkably forthright,
describing images of injury and death.
• The film was shown to British public as
a morale booster and was favorably
received.
•
British public's response to film was
enormous with an estimated 20
million tickets being sold in two
months. On this basis, The Battle of
the Somme remains one of the most
successful British films ever.
Effects of the Battle of the Somme
• The film, The Battle of the Somme, is
seen by historians as a propaganda
triumph
• People at home felt they could see
how their efforts were helping the
troops
• Although it showed some casualties, it
also showed advancing troops, helping
morale
Propaganda and Censorship
• The film, Britain’s Effort, was created in 1917
• What was its purpose?
Propaganda and Censorship
• It is hard to measure how effective
propaganda was
• BUT
– Support for the war was reasonably constant
• Only really changed with the enormous causalities at
the Battle of the Somme in 1916
– People read lots of newspapers, and watched the
films, so they were being exposed to it
Effects of Propaganda
• The Parliamentary Recruiting Committee
(PRC) eventually printed almost 6 million
posters and over 14 million leaflets at a
total cost of £24,000.
• For every PRC leaflet produced in 19141915, at least ten had been produced by
the three main political parties during the
1910 election campaigns.
• Propaganda was certainly not the most
significant factor in Germany’s defeat.
The Brown Family’s Four War Christmas
• What is happening in each frame?
• Explain why these things are happening,
based on what you know about life on the
Home Front
Women
and the
War
Effort
Key points
Before the war, the most common
employment for a woman was as a
domestic servant.
However, women
were also employed in what were
seen to be suitable occupations e.g.
teaching, nursing, office work.
Key points
When war broke out in August 1914,
thousands of women were sacked
from jobs in dressmaking, millinery
and jewellery making.They needed
work – and they wanted to help the
war effort.
Key points
Suffragettes stopped all militant
action in order to support the war
effort.
Obstacles They Still Faced
• In 1914, Dr. Elsie Inglis offered to raise an
ambulance unit to help the wounded soldiers.
She was told by the Ministry of War…”My
good lady, go home and sit still.”
• But despite this view, women played a vital
role in winning the war.
Key points
At first, there was much trade union
opposition and the employment of
women had not increased
significantly before the summer of
1915. In July 1915, a ‘Right to
Work’ ,march was organised by a
leading suffragette, Christabel
Pankhurst.
Key points
The introduction of conscription in
1916 led to an increase in the
number of women employed in all
sectors of the economy.
“War Girls” by Jessie Pope
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
There’s the girl who clips your ticket for the train,
And the girl who speeds the lift from floor to floor,
There’s the girl who does a milk-round in the rain,
And the girl who calls for orders at your door.
Strong, sensible, and fit,
They’re out to show their grit,
And tackle jobs with energy and knack.
No longer caged and penned up.
They’re going to keep their end up
Till the khaki soldier boys come marking back.
“War Girls” continued
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
There’s the motor girl who drives a heavy van,
There’s the butcher girl who brings your joint of meat,
There’s the girl who cries ‘All fares, please!’ like a man,
And the girl who whistles taxis up the street.
Beneath each uniform
Beats a heart that’s soft and warm,
Though of a canny mother-wit they show no lack;
But a solemn statement that is,
They’ve no time for love and kisses
Till the khaki boys come marching back.
War on the Home Front
Women in War
• Millions of men at battle
• Work on home front done by women
– Some worked in factories, producing war supplies
– Others served as nurses to wounded
• Contributions of women
– Transformed public views of women
– Helped women win right to vote
Women on the Home Front
• Women took war
factory jobs
• Received lower
wages than males
• Food shortages
made running a
household difficult
Women and Jobs
• Women were asked to
take over jobs that had
not been available to
them before
• Women were employed
in jobs that had once
been considered beyond
their capacity.
• Jobs included:
–
–
–
–
Chimney Sweeps
Truck Drivers
Farm laborers
Factory workers
Key points
Many women were paid good wages,
especially in munitions factories, but
in most cases they were paid lower
rates than men.
Improved wages did permit greater
independence for some women.
Key points
Women became more visible in the
world of work. They were seen to be
doing important jobs.
Women and Work
• The place of
women in the
workforce was far
from secure
• Both men and
women expected
that many of the
new jobs were
only temporary
• This was evident
in the British
poem “War Girls”
written in 1916
• “There’s the girl who clips your ticket
for the train,
• And the girl who speeds the lift from
floor to floor,
• There’s the girl who calls for orders at
your door.
• Strong, sensible, and fit.
• They’re out to show their frit.
• And tackle jobs with energy and
knack.
• No longer caged and penned up,
They’re going to keep their end up
• Till the khaki soldier boys come
marching back.”
Women and Work
• At the end of the war,
governments would quickly
remove women from the
jobs they had encouraged
them to take earlier
• The work benefits for
women from World War
One were short-lived
• By 1919, there would be
650,000 unemployed
women in Great Britain
• Wages for women who
were still employed were
also then lowered
• In some countries, the role women
played in wartime economies had a
positive impact on the women’s
movement
• The most obvious fain was the right
to vote given to women in Germany,
Austria, and the USA immediately
after the war
• In Britain, women over the age of 30
were given the right to vote and be
elected to Parliament in 1918
• Many upper and middle class
women gained new freedoms as
their young women took jobs, got
their own apartments, and became
independent
Upper and Middle Class Women
• Women’s Police Service
• Women’s Patrols Committee of
the Nation Union of Women
Workers
• Women’s Emergency Corp
• Women’s Volunteer Rescue
• Queen Alexandra’s Imperial
Military Nursing Service
• Territorial Force Nursing Service
• Voluntary Aid Detachment
(VADs)
• VAD---74,000 women
• First Aid Nursing Yeomany (FANY)
Motor Ambulance Drivers in France 1917
Poster from WWI
calling on women
to do their patriotic
duty by fulfilling
their 'role' in the
home and industry.
Women's Police Volunteers © Imperial War
compare notes with a police Museum Q31088
constable.
Motor Ambulance Drivers in France 1917
A Woman Ambulance Driver
Red Cross Nurses
Women in the Army Auxiliary
• Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp (WAAC) was for
working and lower middle class women
• Formed in March 1917
• 41,000 women volunteered
• Women’s Land Army (WLA)
• Opened to all classes
• Formed in March 1917
• 16,000 women
• Paid less than unskilled male agricultural workers
• Overall by end of the war, 260,000 women were
farming and producing food for the soldiers and
home front.
Working in the Fields
• WLA Handbook reminded its members:
• “that they were doing a man’s work, and so
you’re dressed rather like a man, but
remember just because you wear smocks and
breeches, you should take care to behave like a
British girl who expects chivalry and respect
from everyone she meets.”
• The Times in July 1917 described the WLA
women as:
• “the land women, bronzed, freckled, and
splendidly healthy.”
Munitions Workers
Women in Munitions
• 947,000 women were employed in munitions
work
• 300 lost their lives to TNT poisoning and from
explosions in the factories
•
•
•
•
•
Munitionettes:
Primarily for lower middle class and working class
Women in worked in the munition factories
Shift work and very long hours
Horrible working conditions: badly ventilated, poorly lit, and overrun
by rats
• One women working in a munitions factory in Lanchashire walked
three miles to and from work, worked 12 hour shifts, and shared a
room with five other women
• Whereas in 1914 there were 212,000 women working in the
munitions industry, by the end of the war it had increased to 950,000.
• Christopher Addison, who succeeded David Lloyd George as Minister
of Munitions, estimated in June, 1917, that about 80 per cent of all
weapons and shells were being produced by women.
• In World War I Britain, about 1 million mostly lower-class
women worked in munitions jobs.
• They were called “munitionettes” or “Tommy’s sister.”
• Unlike nurses, the munitions workers could not profess pacifism
since their work directly contributed to the fighting.
• In fact, in 1918, Scottish women working at a shell factory
raised money and bought a warplane for the air force.
• However, the munitionettes’ main motivation was financial,
contrary to the popular belief that it was patriotic.
• The women found the wages “at first livable and later lucrative.”
• Compared with domestic work, war work “offered escape from
jobs of badly paid drudgery.”
• However, although they earned more than they would have
doing women’s work, the women received nowhere near the
fortunes they had been led to expect when deciding to take war
work.139
Edward Skinner, For King and Country (1916)
“Munition Wages” by Madeline Ida Bedford
•
•
•
•
Earning high wages? Yus,
Five quid a week,
A woman, too, mind you,
I calls it dim sweet.
•
•
•
•
We’re all here today, mate,
Tomorrow---perhaps dead,
If Fate tumbles on us
And blows up our shed.
•
•
•
•
Ye’are asking some questions--But bless yer, here goes:
I spends the whole racket
On good times and clothes.
•
•
•
•
Afraid! Are yer kidding?
With money to spend!
Years back I wore tatters,
Now---silk stockings, mi friend!
•
•
•
•
Me saving? Elijah!
Yer do think I’m mad.
I’m acting the lady,
But----I ain’t living bad.
•
•
•
•
I’ve bracelets and jewellery.
Rings envied by friends;
A sergeant to swank with,
And something to lend.
•
•
•
•
I’m having life’s good times.
See ‘ere, it’s like this:
The ‘oof come o’ danger,
A touch-and-go bizz.
•
•
•
•
I drive out in taxis,
Do theatres in style.
And this is my verdict--It is jolly worth while.
“Munition Wages” continued
•
•
•
•
Worth while for tomorrow
If I’m blown to the sky,
I’ll have repaid mi wages
In death----and pass by.
• What is the message of this poem?
• What does it tell us about the dangers of the
work women did during World War One?
• The women working in factories began to play
football during lunch-breaks.
• Teams were formed and on Christmas Day in 1916,
a game took place between Ulverston Munitions
Girls and another group of local women.
• The munitionettes won 11-5.
• Soon afterwards, a game between munitions
factories in Swansea and Newport.
• The Hackney Marshes National Projectile Factory
formed a football team and played against other
factories in London.
•
“Women At Munition Making” by Mary Gabrielle
Collins
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Their hands should minister unto the
flame of life,
Their fingers guide
The rosy teat, swelling with milk,
To the eager mouth of the suckling babe
Or smooth with tenderness
Softly and soothingly,
The heated brow of the ailing child.
Or stray among the curls
Of the boy or girl, thrilling to mother
love.
But now,
Their hands, their fingers
Are coarsened in munition factories.
Their thoughts, which should fly
Like bees among the sweetest mind
flowers,
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Gaining nourishment for the thoughts to be,
Are bruised against the law,
‘Kill, kill.’
They must take part in defacing and destroying
the natural body
Which, certainly during this dispensation
Is the shrine of the spirit.
O God!
Throughout the ages we have seen,
Again and again
Men by thee created
Cancelling each other.
And we have marvelled at the seeming
annihilation
Of Thy work.
But this goes further,
Taints the fountain head,
Mounts like a poison to the Creator’s very heart.
O God!
Must It anew be sacrificed on earth?
• Blyth Spartans Munition Girls - Munitionette Cup
Winners 1918
• Vaughan Ladies in 1918
Women and girls working at a
Scottish sugar refinery.
© Imperial War Museum
Q28345
• Hazards:
• TNT poisoning
• The chemicals attack the red corpuscles in the
blood and the tissues of organs like the liver
• Their skin became jaundiced due to the toxin and
their skins turned yellow
• They became known as “Canaries”
• Health Effects: loss of memory, sight disorders,
convulsions, delirium, and death
• 109 women died from this
• Hazards Continued:
• The ‘dope’ varnish applied to aircraft
canvas caused many women to collapse
unconscious.
• An explosion at the National Filling
Factory near Leeds killed 35 women in
Dec 1916.
• Other explosions:
–Nottingham July 1918---35 dead
–East London in Jan 1917---69 dead
French Women Factory
Workers
Working conditions: unionism and pay
• Trade unionism proved to be the second legacy of the
war.
• Female workers had been less unionised than their
male counterparts.
• This was because they tended to do part-time work
and to work in smaller firms (which tended to be less
unionised).
• Also, existing unions were often hostile to female
workers. World War One forced unions to deal with
the issue of women's work.
• The scale of women's employment could no longer be
denied and rising levels of women left unmarried or
widowed by the war forced the hands of the
established unions.
• In addition, feminist pressure on established
unions and the formation of separate
women's unions threatened to destabilise
men-only unions.
• The increase in female trade union
membership from only 357,000 in 1914 to
over a million by 1918 represented an
increase in the number of unionised women
of 160 percent.
• This compares with an increase in the union
membership of men of only 44 percent.
• However, the war did not inflate women's wages.
• Employers circumvented wartime equal pay
regulations by employing several women to
replace one man, or by dividing skilled tasks into
several less skilled stages.
• In these ways, women could be employed at a
lower wage and not said to be 'replacing' a man
directly.
• By 1931, a working woman's weekly wage had
returned to the pre-war situation of being half
the male rate in more industries.
• Germany:
• In World War I, when the expected quick victory
turned to protracted war, German women
entered industrial jobs (about 700,000 in
munitions industries by the end of the war),
• and served as civilian employees in military jobs
in rear areas (medical, clerical, and manual labor;
women trained for jobs in the signal corps late in
the war but never deployed).
• German women won the vote after World War I,
and some kept their jobs in industry.28
German Women Factory Workers
Key points
The armed forces also employed
women, but the jobs were mainly of
a clerical and domestic nature.
The wartime
employment of
women
became a
staple subject
for humour.
© Imperial War Museum
For Recruitment
• Women played an important role in
persuading men to join the army.
• In August 1914, Admiral Charles
Fitzgerald founded the Order of the
White Feather.
• This organisation encouraged women
to give out white feathers to young
men who had not joined the army.
• The British Army began publishing posters urging men to
become soldiers.
• Some of these posters were aimed at women.
• One poster said: "Is your Best Boy wearing khaki? If not,
don't you think he should be?"
• Another poster read: "If you cannot persuade him to
answer his country's call and protect you now, discharge
him as unfit."
The Mothers' Union also published a poster.
• It urged its members to tell their sons: "My boy, I don't
want you to go, but if I were you I should go."
• The poster added: "On his return, hearts would beat
high with thankfulness and pride."
• Baroness Emma Orczy founded the Active Service
League, an organisation that urged women to sign
the following pledge: "At this hour of England's
grave peril and desperate need I do hereby pledge
myself most solemnly in the name of my King and
Country to persuade every man I know to offer his
services to the country, and I also pledge myself
never to be seen in public with any man who,
being in every way fit and free for service, has
refused to respond to his country's call."
Financing the War
• Russia:
• During World War I, some Russian women took
part in combat even during the Czarist period.
• These women, motivated by a combination of
patriotism and a desire to escape a drab existence,
mostly joined up dressed as men.
• A few, however, served openly as women. “The
[Czarist] government had no consistent policy on
female combatants.”
• Russia’s first woman aviator was turned down as a
military pilot, and settled for driving and nursing.
• Another pilot was assigned to active duty,
however.32
• The most famous women soldiers were the “Battalion of Death.”
• Its leader, Maria Botchkareva, a 25-year-old peasant girl (with a history of
abuse by men), began as an individual soldier in the Russian army.
• She managed (with the support of an amused local commander) to get
permission from the Czar to enlist as a regular soldier.
• After fighting off the frequent sexual advances and ridicule of her male
comrades, she eventually won their respect – especially after serving with
them in battle.
• Botchkareva’s autobiography describes several horrendous battle scenes in
which most of her fellow soldiers were killed running towards German
machine-gun positions, and one in which she bayoneted a German soldier to
death.
• After two different failed attacks, she spent many hours crawling under
German fire to drag her wounded comrades back to safety, evidently saving
hundreds of lives in the course of her service at the front
• . She was seriously wounded several times but always returned to her unit at
the front after recuperating.
• Clearly a strong bond of comradery existed between her and the male soldiers
of her unit.33
Russian Women Soldiers
• The battalion was formed in extraordinary circumstances, in response to a
breakdown of morale and discipline in the Russian army after three
horrible years of war and the fall of the Czarist government.
• By her own account, Botchkareva conceived of the battalion as a way to
shame the men into fighting (since nothing else was getting them to
fight).
• She argued that “numbers were immaterial, that what was important was
to shame the men and that a few women at one place could serve as an
example to the entire front….[T]he purpose of the plan would be to
shame the men in the trenches by having the women go over the top
first.” The battalion was thus exceptional and was essentially a
propaganda tool.
• As such it was heavily publicized: “Before I had time to realize it I was
already in a photographer’s studio…. The following day this picture
topped big posters pasted all over the city.”
• Bryant wrote in 1918: “No other feature of the great war ever caught the
public fancy like the Death Battalion, composed of Russian women. I
heard so much about them before I left America….”35
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The battalion began with about 2,000 women volunteers and was given equipment,
a headquarters, and several dozen male officers as instructors. Botchkareva did not
emphasize fighting strength but discipline (the purpose of the women soldiers was
sacrificial).
Physical standards for enlistment were lower than for men.
She told the women, “We are physically weak, but if we be strong morally and
spiritually we will accomplish more than a large force.”
She was preoccupied with upholding the moral standards and upright behavior of
her “girls.”
Mostly, she emphasized that the soldiers in her battalion would have to follow
traditional military discipline, not elect committees to rule as the rest of the army
was doing.
“I did not organize this Battalion to be like the rest of the army. We were to serve as
an example, and not merely to add a few babas [women] to the ineffective millions
of soldiers now swarming over Russia.”
When most of the women rebelled against her harsh rule, Botchkareva stubbornly
rejected pleas from Kerensky and others – including direct orders from military
superiors – to allow formation of a committee.
Instead she reorganized the remaining 300 women who stayed loyal to her, and
brought them to the front, fighting off repeated attacks by Bolsheviks along the way.
The battalion had new uniforms, a full array of war equipment, and 18 men to serve
them (two instructors, eight cooks, six drivers, and two shoemakers).36
• Other women’s battalions were formed in several other cities – apparently less
than 1,000 women in all – but they suffered from a variety of problems, ranging
from poor discipline to a lack of shoes and uniforms.
• These other units never saw combat.
• There was not another offensive before the Bolsheviks took power in October
and sent most of the women soldiers home, telling them “to put on female
attire.”39
• The Battalion of Death, then, never tested an all-female unit’s effectiveness in
combat.
• Nonetheless, on one day in 1917, 300 women did go over the top side by side
with 400 male comrades, advanced, and overran German trenches.
• The women apparently were able to keep functioning in the heat of battle, and
were able to adhere to military discipline.
• These women were, of course, an elite sample of the most war-capable women
in all of Russia.
• Nonetheless, they did it – advanced under fire, retreated under fire, and helped
provide that crucial element of leadership by which other nearby units were
spurred into action, overcoming the inertia of fatigue and committee rule.
• The Battalion of Death did this not as scattered individual women but as a
coherent military unit of 300 women – instructed by Botchkareva that “they were
40
Spies
 “Mata Hari”
 Real Name:
Margareetha
Geertruide
Zelle
 German Spy!
After the War
1
Women were expected to give way to men returning
from the forces and return to pre-war ‘women’s
work’.
2 The assumption that ‘a woman’s place is in the home’
returned.
3 The percentage of women at work returned to prewar levels.
4 More women than before worked in offices.
After the War
5 Shorter skirts and hair became fashionable.
6 Women went out with men without a chaperone.
7 Women smoked and wore make-up in public for the
first time.
8 In 1919: being female or married was no longer
allowed to disqualify someone from holding a job in
the professions or civil service.
•
Internment of Enemy Aliens
• On October 22, 1914, in response to press campaigns calling for the
round up of enemies at large on the home front, the British Cabinet
ordered the arrest of unnaturalized male Germans, Austrians, and
Hungarians between the ages of 17 and 45.
• Internment camps were set up all over the mainland and on the Isle
of Man.
• But this was not enough, and after the sinking of the Lusitania, the
press called for more.
• Propagandists like Horatio Bottomley lashed out at the local
Germans.
• The press campaigns incited riots and looting of German shops and
property in Britain.
Horatio Bottomley wrote:
• “I call for a vendetta---a vendetta against every German in Britain---whether
naturalized or not…You cannot naturalize an unnatural abortion, a hellish freak.
But you can exterminate him.
• We have been very patient---patient with the Government, patient with the
enemy…thousands and thousands of German savages are roaming at large in our
midst---and all the time our brave and honourable soldiers are being asphyxiated
in the trenches; our wounded are tortured; prisoners are being starved and
insulted; unfortified towns are being bombarded; peaceful civilians---old men,
women, and children---are being murdered; trawlers and merchant vessels are
being sunk; and now comes the crowning infamy of the Lusitania…
• I should welcome the formation of a National Council of Righteous Retribution---a
National Vendetta, pledged to exterminate every German-born man (God, forgive
the term!) in Britain---and to deport every German-born woman and child…
• As regards, naturalized Germans they should be registered, made to report
themselves every day, and compelled to wear a distinctive badge.”
• In John Bull on May 15, 1915
Internment
• Distinguished men with German connections
were hounded by the press---even Lord
Haldane, simply because he had been partly
educated in Germany.
• He had been Minister for War until 1912, remodelled the army and founded the
Territorials.
• Yet he was victimized by the press until a
formation of a coalition government in May
1915, when he was removed from office.
The Alien Presence---German
Detainment Camps
• Many precautions were taken against aliens--resident foreigners even though they posed
little threat to national security
• There were 35,000 Germans in Britain---the
third largest immigrant group after the Irish
and the Jews
• The German immigrants became the object of
public suspicion and attack due to the imperial
struggles in South Africa and the more recent
naval arms race and spies scare
“The Half-Man” by William Watson
•
•
•
•
Sparing not age, sparing not youth,
They tore their way with wolfish tooth
Through human homes, through human hopes:
Not men, not men, but lycanthropes!
•
•
•
•
Thus do not the fabled monsters rear
Their heads anew; thus reappear
Old Shapes that free us and appal;
And the Half-Man is worst of all.
The Alien Presence
• The spy scare continued until 1915 with many
people caught up in wild rumors and false
accusations
• The Daily Mail advised its readers that if a waiter
serving them appeared German, but claimed Swiss,
they should demand to see his passport
• Because of the fear of spies using carrier pigeons,
the DORA required owners to have a permit for
homing pigeons
• In reality, some 22 known German spies were
rounded up in 1914, and 11 were executed
The Alien Presence
• However, the public increasingly demanded the
internment of aliens
• This led to 30,000 interned mostly on the Isle of
Man under the Alien Restrictions Act of August
1914
• Fueled by many stories of German atrocities in
Belgium and elsewhere, actual or supposed
Germans were subjected to harassment
• There were at least 7 deaths in the East End riots in
May 1915 following the torpedoing of the Lusitania
• Even dachshunds, the Germanically named dogs,
The Alien Presence
• Air raid by the zeppelins also increased anti-German
feelings
• They even went after people with German
surnames who had lived in the area for generations
and had Cockney accents
• There were large scale demonstrations against
enemy aliens in a number of cities in 1918
• And a petition was signed with 1.2 million
signatures
• Orchestras began to avoid German composers
• The German measles became known as the Belgian
The Isle of Man
• The Isle of Man was used by the British Government for the
internment of enemy aliens during both World War One
and World War Two and there is still a great deal of
interest, primarily from family historians who had relatives
or friends detained in the camps.
• During 1914-1919 there were two large camps on the
Island at Douglas and Knockaloe near Peel.
• The first was a requisitioned holiday camp whilst the
second was purpose built using prefabricated huts and
even had its own railway link.
• Large numbers of internees were held for up to five years
until the camps finally closed in 1919.
The Alien Presence---Jews
• Jews also came under physical
attack in East London in 1917
in the belief that they were
dodging conscription