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Temporary Gentlemen: the Masculinity of Lower-Middle-Class Temporary British Officers in the Firstorld W War

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Temporary Gentlemen: the Masculinity of Lower-Middle-Class Temporary British Officers in the Firstorld W War Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 7-25-2017 12:00 AM Temporary Gentlemen: The Masculinity of Lower-Middle-Class Temporary British Officers in the Firstorld W War Magdalena J. Hentel The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Amy Bell The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in History A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Magdalena J. Hentel 2017 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the European History Commons Recommended Citation Hentel, Magdalena J., "Temporary Gentlemen: The Masculinity of Lower-Middle-Class Temporary British Officers in the Firstorld W War" (2017). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4862. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4862 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract During the First World War, the high mortality rate of officers led to an officer shortage. This, in turn, resulted in the Army promoting officers from the ranks rather than drawing on the traditional supply of upper-middle-class, public-school-educated officers, giving lower- middle-class men the opportunity to obtain temporary commissions. In an effort to standardize the process of granting commissions to rankers, the Army created Officer Cadet Battalions, which offered a four-month crash course in the art of being an officer to candidates recommended by their commanding officer in the field. Drawing on letters, memoirs (published and unpublished), oral interviews as well as troop journals published by Officer Cadet Battalion units, this dissertation explores the masculinity and identity of lower- middle-class ‘temporary gentlemen.’ It finds that, in contrast to negative portrayals of lower- middle-class men in the popular press at the time, which painted them as emasculated upstarts, the lower-middle-class ‘temporary gentlemen’ studied here were confident in their own worth, keen to contribute to the war effort and certain that their contribution would be of value. They fully bought into the upper-middle-class ‘officer and gentleman’ hegemonic masculinity of the public-school educated officer, which was promoted during the Officer Cadet Battalion course they took, and did not attempt to construct an alternative model of masculinity. Nevertheless, they were convinced that they could live up to the hegemonic standard and excel. Keywords Lower middle class, masculinity, temporary gentlemen, First World War, Officer Cadet Battalion, hegemonic masculinity Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Amy Bell, for her guidance and encouragement during the research and writing of this PhD dissertation. Without her expert advice and practical tips I would have got mired in details along the way. I would also like to thank my second reader, Dr. Allyson May, for her helpful comments on the final draft, and my comprehensive exam supervisors, Dr. Monda Halpern and Dr. Jonathan Vance, for helping to guide my scholarship in the early stages of my research. I would like to thank the staff at the Department of History at Western University, especially Kara Brown, the Graduate Program Advisor, for helping shepherd me through the administrative maze of the PhD program. I would like to thank Jane Rosen, Librarian at the Library and Research Room Service of the Imperial War Museum in London, UK, for her assistance with getting the research materials I needed and for making me feel welcome during my time in the archives. I would like to thank my friend and editor, Rhonda Kronyk, for her patience and invaluable help with polishing the final draft, and for helping me finish things on time along the way. I would like to thank my son, Max, who was only three when I embarked on my PhD journey, for keeping me grounded in the knowledge that there is more to life than dusty history books. I would also like to thank my aunt, Joanna Jankowski, for picking Max up from school on days I could not, and my partner, Rod Lehman, for patiently driving me to the library time and time again. Most importantly, I would like to thank my parents, Jacek and Barbara Hentel, for everything they have done for me. Without their moral, logistical and material support I would never have been able to pursue a PhD as a mature student and single mother without losing my mind in the process. Their steady presence, hard work, love, strength and good humour are the bedrock my life is based on, and I can only hope to one day embody the kind of example they have set for me. Finally, I would like to tip my hat to my lower-middle-class family members and ancestors, some of whom I’ve known while others are only familiar faces on sepia photographs. Their striving to better themselves and live fulfilling lives while overcoming hardships is worthy of the highest respect – the same respect I feel for the lower-middle-class men whose stories I tell in this PhD dissertation. ii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iii Introduction ........................................................................................................................ vi Historical background: who were the ‘temporary gentlemen’? .................................. viii Historiography and Theoretical Framework ................................................................ xv Historiography – The Lower Middle Class .......................................................... xv Definition of Class ............................................................................................... xix Methodology – Selection Process ...................................................................... xxiv Theoretical Framework – Through the Lens of Masculinity Studies ............... xxvii Historiography – Masculinity and the First World War .................................... xxxi Historiography – Gentlemanliness ................................................................... xxxiii Sources ................................................................................................................... xxxvii Contemporary Sources – Wartime ................................................................. xxxviii Memoirs and Oral Interviews ............................................................................... xli Conclusion ............................................................................................................... xlviii Chapter 1 The making of “officers and gentlemen” as seen through the lens of officer manuals and Officer Cadet Battalion journals ............................................................... 1 Officer manuals and the “temporary gentleman” problem ............................................ 3 Officer Cadet Battalion journals and how they differed from “trench” journals ......... 11 Messages in the Officer Cadet Battalion journals ........................................................ 15 A closer look at the OCB journals ............................................................................... 16 Chapter 2 Wartime letters of lower lower-middle-class temporary officers .................. 41 How the lower lower-middle-class men of this chapter fit into the larger argument of the dissertation ...................................................................................................... 45 iii A closer look at the lower lower-middle-class men examined in this chapter............. 46 Attitudes toward family ........................................................................................ 47 Advancement as a key motivator .......................................................................... 51 Money and artistic pursuits ................................................................................... 57 Attitudes toward other classes .............................................................................. 62 Endurance and stoicism ........................................................................................ 65 Attitudes toward war and peace ............................................................................ 68 Responsibility ....................................................................................................... 72 Chapter 3 Wartime letters of upper lower-middle-class temporary officers .................. 76 How the upper lower-middle-class men of this chapter fit into the larger argument of the dissertation and how they differ from lower lower-middle-class men ........... 80 A closer look at the upper lower-middle-class men examined in this chapter ............ 80 Attitudes toward family ........................................................................................ 80 Attitudes toward money ........................................................................................ 87 Artistic pursuits ....................................................................................................
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