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
Government Control
• Sought to control public
opinion
• Censored newspaper reports
• Total war, governments took
about fighting to keep from
stronger control of citizens’
discouraging public
lives
• Created propaganda,
• New controls changes
information to influence
nations’ industries,
opinions, encourage
economies
volunteers
• Factories produced military
• Posters, pamphlets, articles
equipment, citizens
about enemy’s brutal actions
conserved food, other goods
 starter activity
This was arguably the most successful recruitment poster of the War. It
shows Lord 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?
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While it is true that the start of World War One was greeted with vast amounts of
patriotism throughout Europe and the Empire, there were those who were pacifists and
refused to have anything to do with the war. The pacifists were few in number (the UK had
about 16,000 in total during the war) and would have had no impact on the number of
fighting men Britain had in the lead up to conscription.
However, despite their lack of numbers, the military and War Office came down on
pacifists were great energy.
In the autumn of 1914, so many men volunteered for the British Army, that the few
pacifists in society were all but overlooked.
As the war would be over by Christmas 1914, most men were more concerned about
missing out as opposed to thinking about those who did not want to fight.
Religion was the main reason why men did not want to join up. Many such as Bert
Brocklesby were very religious.
On the day war was declared he said: “God has not put me on this Earth to go destroying
His children.
Therefore, he refused to have anything to do with the military and the war.
Initially, the most these men could expect were white feathers being given to them and
petty verbal abuse in the street.
However, when it became clear that the war would not be over by Xmas 1914, the stance
taken on pacifists became more aggressive.
As the number of British casualties greatly increased from 1915 to 1916, it got worse. In
public, known pacifists ran the risk of being assaulted and thrown in jail for the most trivial
of reasons.
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.
• The law went through several changes before the war's end
with the age limit eventually being raised to 51.
Conscription
• It has been argued that enforced enlistment was more to do with employment
circumstances, familial circumstances, physical fitness, skills and aptitudes and, to
a much lesser extent religious and political grounds.
• This was vetted very closely by the Tribunals who had to assess a man's fitness
for military service and weigh that against his usefulness to the domestic
economy.
• As one historian has pointed out: "a farm lad, aged 19, might have escaped callup in one part of the country whereas a 40-year old brickie from another part
may have been drafted."
• Conscription caused real hardships for the British people.
• For example, in November 1917 a widow asked Croydon Military Tribunal to let
her keep her eleventh son, to look after her.
• The other ten were all serving in the British armed forces.
• A man from Barking asked for his ninth son to be exempted as his eight other
sons were already in the British Army.
• The man's son was given three months exemption.
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?
King George V, statement issued on 25th May 1916.
• To enable our country to organise more effectively its military
resources in the present great struggle for the cause of civilisation, I
have, acting on the advice of my Ministers, deemed it necessary to
enrol every able-bodied man between the ages of eighteen and
forty-one.
• I desire to take this opportunity of expressing to my people my
recognition and appreciation of the splendid patriotism and selfsacrifice which they have displayed in raising by voluntary
enlistment since the commencement of the War, no less than
5,041,000 men, an effort far surpassing that of any other nation in
similar circumstances recorded in history, and one which will be a
lasting source of pride to future generations. I am confident that the
magnificent spirit which has hitherto sustained my people through
the trials of this terrible war will inspire them to endure the
additional sacrifice now imposed upon them, and that it will, with
God's help, lead us and our Allies to a victory which shall achieve
the liberation of Europe.
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The No-Conscription Fellowship was founded as early as 1914 and it produced the
following leaflet :
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Repeal the Act Fellow citizens:
Conscription is now law in this country of free traditions. Our hard-won liberties have been violated.
Conscription means the desecration of principles that we have long held dear; it involves the
subordination of civil liberties to military dictation; it imperils the freedom of individual conscience
and establishes in our midst that militarism which menaces all social graces and divides the peoples of
all nations.
We re-affirm our determined resistance to all that is established by the Act. We cannot assist in
warfare. War, which to us is wrong. War, which the peoples do not seek, will only be made impossible
when men, who so believe, remain steadfast to their convictions. Conscience, it is true, has been
recognised in the Act, but it has been placed at the mercy of tribunals. We are prepared to answer for
our faith before any tribunal, but we cannot accept any exemption that would compel those who hate
war to kill by proxy or set them to tasks which would help in the furtherance of war.
We strongly condemn the monstrous assumption by Parliament that a man is deemed to be bound by
an oath that he has never taken and forced under an authority he will never acknowledge to perform
acts which outrage his deepest convictions.
It is true that the present act applies only to a small section of the community, but a great tradition
has been sacrificed. Already there is a clamour for an extension of the act. Admit the principle, and
who can stay the march of militarism?
Repeal the Act. That is your only safeguard.
If this be not done, militarism will fasten its iron grip upon our national life and institutions. There will
be imposed upon us the very system which statesmen affirm that they set out to overthrow.
What shall it profit the nation if it shall win the war and lose its own soul?
What Happened to The NoConscription Fellowship?
• The No-Conscription Fellowship was an organisation made
up by members of the Socialist Independent Labour Party
and the Quakers.
• The men who signed the above leaflet were Clifford Allen,
Edward Grubb, A Fenner Brockway, W J Chamberlain, W H
Ayles, Morgan Jones, A Barratt Brown, John Fletcher, C H
Norman and Rev. Leyton Richards.
• All charged under the Defence of the Realm Act.
• They were all fined; those who decided not to pay the fine
were sent to prison.
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.
• One was told that he: “was only fit to be on the point of a German bayonet.”
• 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.
• Herbert Morrison, An Autobiography (1960)
A large anti-conscription conference was held at the Ethical Society's Hall near
Liverpool Street Station, London. There were determined but unsuccessful efforts
to break it up. Toughs who had obviously been encouraged to be present fiercely
attacked us as we emerged, with the City police doing little or nothing to stop
them.
• When conscription came into force in 1917 I duly received my call-up notice. Of
course, there was no question of my being fit for military service because of my
blindness in one eye and it would, I suppose, have been easy to pretend that I
wanted to put on uniform and then allow the medical officers to turn me down,
but I was intent on sticking to my principles. In due course I was ordered to report
before the Conscientious Objectors Tribunal for Wandsworth. Exemption could be
absolute; conditional on taking up some form of national service; or refused on
the grounds that the applicant had failed to prove the genuine nature of his
objection.
• There are many stories of the ruthless and sometimes insulting behaviour of the
members of these tribunals in the First World War when the standard question to
an absolutist (as men who were not willing to help the military machine directly
or indirectly were called) was, "What would you do if you came upon a German
attempting to rape your sister?". However, my inquisitors were both courteous
and fair.
'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
• In his autobiography, Fate Has Been Kind, Frederick PethickLawrence explained why he refused to be conscripted into the
British Army.
It was not until the middle of 1918 that my age group came within
the Conscription Act and I was called up. I was then 46. Believing as
I did that the war could and should be brought to an end by a
negotiated peace, I could not very well go out to fight for Mr. LloydGeorge's 'knock-out blow'. I accordingly went before a tribunal in
Dorking as a conscientious objector. The Clerk to the Council told
the tribunal that he knew I had held my views for a considerable
time, and the military representative said that he did not
particularly 'want this man'. So I was awarded exemption,
conditional on my doing work of national importance, and work on
the land was indicated.
• After Raymond Postgate was sent to prison for refusing to be conscripted, his
sister, Margaret Postgate, became involved in the Peace Movement.
In the spring of 1916 Ray, a scholar in his first year at St. John's College, Oxford,
was called up. Of course he refused to go, thereby reducing his father to
apoplectic fury; and, after he had failed to secure exemption and was brought
before the magistrates as a mutinous soldier, I went up to Oxford be by his side.
At that date it needed a fair amount of courage to be a C.O. Though the Military
Service Act allowed exemption on grounds of conscience, it was regrettably vague
in its definition of either "conscience" or "exemption"; and the decision as to
whether a man had or had not a valid conscientious objection, and if he had,
whether he was to be exempted from all forms of war service or from combatant
service only, or something between the two, was left to local tribunals all over
the country, who had no common standard or guidance, and generally - though
not by any means invariably - took the view that every fit man ought to want to
fight, and that anyone who did not was a coward, an idiot, or a pervert, or all
three.
Raymond Postgate continued…
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Objection on religious grounds was for most part treated with respect, particularly if the
sect had a respectable parentage; Quakers usually came off lightly, and were permitted to
take up any form of service they felt able to do; though Quakers who were "absolutists,"
i.e., who refused to aid the war effort in any way whatever, were apt to be jailed after a
long and futile cross-examination by the Tribunal on how they would behave if they found
a German violating their mother. But non-Christians who objected on the grounds that
they were internationalists or Socialists were obvious traitors in addition to all their other
vices, and could expect little mercy. They would be sent to barracks, and thence to prison and then nobody quite knew what would happen to them. There was talk of despatching
them to France, unarmed, and shooting them there for mutiny.
It is almost literally true that when I walked away from the Oxford court-room I walked
into a new world, a world of doubters and protesters, and into a new war - this time
against the ruling classes and the government which represented them, and with the
working classes, the Trade Unionists, the Irish rebels of Easter Week, and all those who
resisted their governments or other governments which held them down. I found in a few
months the whole lot which Henry Nevinson used to call "the stage-army of the Good" the ILP, the Union of Democratic Control, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Daily Herald
League, the National Council of Civil Liberties - and, above all, the Guild Socialists and the
Fabian, later the Labour Research Department.
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John William Graham, Conscription and Conscience (2010)
In this place, alone, you spend twenty-three hours and ten minutes out of the twenty-four
in the first month of your sentence, hungry most of the time. You get little exercise, and
probably suffer from indigestion, headache or sleeplessness. The entire weekend is solitary
until you attend chapel. After the first month you have thirty minutes exercise on Sunday.
You would go mad but for the work. You sit and stitch canvas for mailbags. Your fingers
begin by being sore and inflamed, but they become used to it. At first your daily task can
hardly be finished in a day. You struggle hard to get the reward of a large mug of sugarless
cocoa and a piece of bread at eight o'clock. It will save you from hunger all night, for your
previous food - I cannot call it a meal - had been at 4.15. This extra ration, which varied,
and was not universal, was a war-time incentive to produce work of national importance.
It was cut off as a war economy in 1918.
Except on monthly visits (15 minutes), or if he has to speak to the Chaplain or doctor, or if
he has to accost a warder, the prisoner is not allowed to speak for two years the sentence
usually given to a conscientious objector.
The punishments for breaking a rule, for talking, for lying on your bed before bedtime,
looking out of a window, having a pencil in your possession, not working, and many other
such acts were savage. If those things were reported to the Governor, there would be, say,
three days bread and water and in a gloomy basement cell, totally devoid of furniture
during the daytime. This was famine. In addition, your exercise might be taken away, and
your work in association, your letter or visit would be postponed, whilst your family were
left wondering what had happened, and marks, with the effect of postponing your final
release, would be taken off.
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The case of James Brightmore was even more outrageous. It certainly got more publicity.
Brightmore was a young solicitor's clerk from Manchester. After serving eight months of a
twelve months sentence for refusing to put on the uniform, Brightmore was sent to Shore
Camp, Cleethorpes. Still refusing, he was sentenced to twenty-eight days solitary
confinement on bread and water. According to Army Order X, Brightmore should have
been serving his sentence in prison, but the authorities pretended not to know. There was
no solitary cell in the camp, so the Major had to improvise, like the efficient soldier he was.
He had a deep hole dug in the parade ground, coffin shaped, and into this young
Brightmore was inserted. For four days he stood ankle-deep in water, then a piece of wood
was lowered for him to stand on, but that sank into the water, which now stank, and in
which a dead mouse floated.
One day it rained heavily. Some of the soldiers took him from the hole and put him into a
tent where he slept the night. He remained there all the next day, and then the Major
became aware of it, and he was roughly wakened and thrust down the hole again, and a
black tarpaulin pulled over it to keep out the rain. He was kept there for a week, the Major
calling on him during the day to jeer, telling him on one occasion that his friends had been
sent to France and shot, and that he would be in the next batch.
One of the soldiers who had been reprimanded for taking Brightmore out of the hole,
realising that there was no intention of releasing the youth, tore open a cigarette packet
and passed it down with a stub of pencil, suggesting that Brightmore write to his parents.
He did so, and the soldier added a covering note, saying that the hole was twelve feet
deep. They were under orders not to take any notice of the boy's complaints, but "the
torture is turning his head." At that time Brightmore had been in the vertical grave for
eleven days.
• Brightmore's parents took the letter to the Manchester Guardian, which
published it with a strongly worded editorial. Within forty minutes of the paper
arriving at the camp, Brightmore had been taken from the hole, which was hastily
filled in. The major and a fellow officer were dismissed from their posts for
disobeying the Order.
• The third case of Court Martial did not involve a young man, but the mature and
articulate C.H. Norman, a writer on international politics and founder-member of
the No Conscription Fellowship. He came up against the out-spoken sadist Lt. Col.
Reginald Brooke, Commandant of Wandsworth Military Detention Camp, who
declared that he didn't give a damn for Asquith and his treacherous Government.
He would do what he liked with his prisoners.
• C.H. Norman thought differently. When he went on hunger strike he was badly
beaten, tied to a table and a tube forced up his nose and down into his stomach.
Through this, liquid food was poured. Then he was forced into a straitjacket
fastened so tightly that breathing was difficult, and he suffered a spell of
unconsciousness. He was bound in the jacket for twenty-three hours, during
which time the Col, called on him to jeer. Norman was not an inexperienced
adolescent: he brought a civil action against the Col., who was court martialled
and sentenced to be dismissed from his cherished position where his sadism (for
it could have been no less) had free play.
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John Taylor Caldwell, Come Dungeons Dark: The Life and Times of Guy Aldred (1988)
The treatment of nineteen-year-old Jack Gray was in blatant defiance of the Order. On 7th
May 1917 he arrived at Hornsea Detention Camp. Refusing to put on the uniform he was
abused and tormented for the rest of the day. Live ammunition was fired at his feet, his
ankles were beaten with a cane, his mouth was split open by a heavy blow from a
sergeant. Next day the process was continued. Then his hands were bound firmly behind
his back and his ankles tied together. A rope was fastened to his wrists and pulled tight to
the ankles. In this position he had to stand for several hours, then a bag of stones was
fastened on his back and he was beaten round the training field till he collapsed. There
were other brutalities inflicted on Jack which we will not detail, but of such a nature that
eight of the soldiers refused to take part, leaving themselves liable to severe penalties.
The torture which broke the boy's resolve was when he was stripped naked and had a rope
tied round his waist. He was then thrown into the camp cesspool and pulled around. After
the second immersion the rope had so tightened round his waist that he was in great pain.
Still the treatment continued "for eight or nine times", said a witness at the subsequent
court martial. Someone, transported into ecstasies of sadistic excitement at the sight of
the lad's muddy, filth-encrusted body, got an old sack and making holes for arms and head,
forced the youngster into it for further grotesque immersions. Then Jack Gray gave in,
promising to fight for England and save the world from the barbarity of the Hun.
The local M.P. forced an Enquiry. The officers responsible were censured. Nobody was
allowed to see the report of the Enquiry.
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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
• 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
DORA
• 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 hungover while at work
DORA: 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
spent 75% of income on food,
fuel, and housing
DORA
• 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
absent-mindedly 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
• “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