The Telegraph inside the Sunday, August 3, 2014 first world war part 12: understanding history Sponsored by

the Last in a 12-part series to marK the war’s centenary anthony patricK bishop nigeL Jones r ichards How the war shaped Aftermath and social Myths that served the Allied cause Stalin and Hitler revolution Getty Sponsored by

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shInIng angels The sustaining myths created by propagandists and the need to feel God was on the Allies side. Anthony Richards P4-5

an evIl legacy The conflict was the greatest man-made catastrophe, paving the way for Stalin and Hitler. Patrick Bishop omorrow marks the P6-7

100th anniversary of the leTTers hoMe day Britain entered the A soldier looks forward to seeing the land of First World War – four Antony and Cleopatra cataclysmicT years that left an for the first time. Anthony Richards, P6 indelible mark on nations, societies and many individual lives. arT and poeTry William Orpen s To the In this final issue in the series, we Unknown Soldier in France and Laurence look back not just at what happened Binyon s For the Fallen. but what almost certainly didn’t: the Richard Slocombe, P8 myths that pitted good against evil Nigel Steel, P9 and inspired belief in divine heroIc rIde Richard West was intervention amid atrocities that awarded a posthumous defied human rationale. VC after rallying his men to victory from horseback. We also look at what came next – Michael Ashcroft at how the conflict redefined power P1 0 -11 structures across Europe and led a neW World The war was a catalyst for to the bloodiest century in history. social change, helping The social legacy was also powerful, women win the vote and Ireland independence. from female emancipation to a new And how Britain s Jews kind of class awareness and a rallied to the cause. Nigel Jones, burgeoning remembrance industry. Con Coughlin Our regular features from Imperial P12-13 War Museums include battlefield art, hITler’s War poetry, letters home and Lord How the future Führer was inspired to liberate Ashcroft’s portrait of a VC hero. Germany . Plus your relatives war There are your moving letters from experiences in Postbox. loved ones who fought on the front Zoe Dare Hall line. And while reflecting on the P14-15 forces that shaped the century, IWM podcasT we also consider the role of one Hear IWM s Voices of the disenchanted, opinionated First World War podcasts at www.1914.org/ youth who became a podcasts decorated First World War veteran. His name? Adolf Hitler. Front cover: The Cenotaph, Zoe Dare Hall London; left, US Army Series editor y recruitment poster, ETT

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The sponsor to remember those Heroes, George Cross prestigious award for for the past four decades, Union (IDU) and one of include being Vice-Patron Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC who gave their lives in Heroes and Heroes of courage not in the face of launching, buying, building Britain s leading experts of the Intelligence Corps the conflict. the Skies. In each of the enemy. He currently and selling companies, on polling. Museum, a trustee of Inside the First World Lord Ashcroft has the 12 supplements, owns 14 GCs. Lord both private and public, Lord Ashcroft has Imperial War Museum, War, a 12-part series, established himself as a Lord Ashcroft tells the Ashcroft s VC and GC in Britain and overseas. donated several millions an Ambassador for is sponsored by Lord champion of bravery, incredible stories behind collections are on display He is a former of pounds to charities SkillForce and a trustee Ashcroft KCMG PC, building up the world s First World War VCs in a gallery that bears his treasurer and deputy and good causes. of the Cleveland Clinic an international largest collection of from his collection. name at IWM London, chairman of the He founded in the US. businessman, Victoria Crosses (VCs), Lord Ashcroft along with VCs and GCs in Conservative Party. In Crimestoppers (then philanthropist and Britain and the purchased his first VC in the care of the museum. September 2012, he was the Community Action For information about military historian. Lord Commonwealth s most 1986 and currently owns The gallery, built with a appointed a member of Trust) in 1988. the Lord Ashcroft Gallery, Ashcroft is sponsoring prestigious award for more than 180 of the £5 million donation from the Privy Council and was He is the founder of visit iwm.org.uk/heroes. the monthly supplements courage in the face of the decorations. Three years Lord Ashcroft, was made the Government s the Ashcroft Technology For information on because he wants to enemy. He has also ago, he began collecting opened by HRH The Special Representative Academy and Chancellor Lord Ashcroft, visit promote a greater written four books on George Crosses (GCs), Princess Royal in 2010. for Veterans Transition. of Anglia Ruskin lordashcroft.com understanding of the bravery: Britain and the Lord Ashcroft has been a He is treasurer of the University. His numerous Follow him on Twitter: First World War and Heroes, Special Forces Commonwealth s most successful entrepreneur International Democratic other charity roles @LordAshcroft Sponsored by

legendary ta l e S Saved by a ring of shining angels

Anthony Richards on the myths created by propagandists and the belief that God was on the Allies’ side

e had a terrible time and at last a company of us was hemmed Scotland, having been observed with snow on their boots, and were on their way into a large chalk pit. We were quite powerless, and heard the to the Western Front to bolster the hopelessly outnumbered British Expeditionary German cavalry approaching. Suddenly I looked up and encircling Force. This desire for an explanation or solution to something disastrous or the top of the pit was a ring of shining angels. As the cavalry unexpected can still be seen regularly today in the conspiracy theories which rushed up, the horses saw them and there was a general circulate after the death of famous personalities such as Diana, Princess of Wales Wstampede. Our lives were saved and the Germans were put to confusion. Seven or world-shattering events such as 9/11. After the immensely popular figurehead soldiers as well as officers saw the angels.” So recalled a wounded British soldier Lord Kitchener was drowned when HMS Hampshire sank in June 1916, some from Mons, some time after the initial battle fought by the British Expeditionary spread the belief that he had survived and was secretly planning for the final Allied Force on August 23, 1914. Or did he? victory. Not too far removed, perhaps, from the legend of King Arthur, sleeping but The First World War generated a number of widely held beliefs that turned out to ready to appear in Britain’s hour of greatest need. be false – and one of the most famous folklore tales is that of the Angels of Mons A supernatural explanation to events can be perceived in the myth of the which, like the most notable myths of the war, emerged early in the conflict. ‘‘Vanishing Norfolks’’. Several hundred men of the 1/5th Battalion Norfolk Such tales were embodied in vivid stories that appeared quickly and developed Regiment became isolated during an attack at Gallipoli on August 12, 1915, which into popular acceptance with such intensity that, even today, many people remain resulted in extreme losses, with many of the bodies failing to be immediately familiar with them. This was an era when the word of newspapers, journals and recovered or identified. A myth grew up after the war which suggested that the men books was widely accepted as truth and the ability to confirm the accuracy of a had advanced into a mist and disappeared, never to be seen again. story was far from straightforward. Many tales were promulgated by word of The popularity of the legend was accentuated by the fact that the 1/5th Battalion mouth, and what may have started as an innocent comment, observation or joke included men recruited from the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. King George V’s could sometimes finish as a widespread acceptance of historical truth. particular interest in the fate of his estate workers, many of whom he knew Despite the apparent veracity of the Angels of Mons anecdote, its origins lie in a personally, kept the story alive and ripe for speculation and later years saw the fictional short story by Arthur Machen calledThe Bowmen. Published on September introduction to the yarn of flying saucers, extra-terrestrial abduction and other 29, 1914, this recounted in first-person style how phantom archers from the Battle bizarre elements. In fact the truth was rather more mundane, as the ‘‘missing’’ of Agincourt repelled a German attack during the British retreat from Mons. Norfolks had already been discovered by a graves registration unit in 1919 and The story hit a nerve and variations on the idea of ghostly intervention soon buried in a mass grave at Suvla. began to appear in print, although this time portrayed as fact. The story of the The First World War is often characterised by the invention and widespread angels provided a comforting and inspiring message that God was on the side of adoption of new technology, and the novelty and uncertainty regarding these the Allies, so religious organisations encouraged the spread of the legend. helped to generate folklore. Zeppelin airships were a particularly fearsome form Linked to this idea of divine intervention was the notion that the Germans were of warfare as they appeared as an ominous and almost mystical threat in the skies a godless nation and enemies of Christianity. Subsequent myths – such as the above Britain. Their ability to travel great distances at high altitude suggested that belief that German troops were raping nuns, bayoneting babies and perpetrating nowhere was safe from the new German menace. Some believed that Zeppelins similar atrocities as they advanced across Belgium – fostered this resentment were landing spies and saboteurs secretly by night, while a more extreme idea while serving as useful propaganda to the British authorities. suggested that a German airship was operating from a secret base in the Lake A small number of atrocities were perhaps inevitable in the chaos of an enemy District. The myth that airships were dropping poisoned sweets intended to kill invasion, but the scale of accusations was out of all proportion. Evidence exists that innocent but sweet-toothed civilians was one which would become more prominent atrocity stories were created and spread by propagandists from both sides. Many during the Second World War. accounts were simply a product of the bitterness and anger fostered by war. Another technological breakthrough was the tank. Public excitement at the new German ‘‘frightfulness’’ was, in the eyes of many, proved in 1915 by the mass use vehicles, following their first use during the latter stages of the Battle of the Somme of poison gas at the Second Battle of Ypres in April, the sinking of the civilian in September 1916, led to various outlandish rumours. Some believed that passenger liner Lusitania in May and the execution of British nurse Edith Cavell in armoured vehicles were being developed which, as large as a house and manned October of that year. For a British population convinced of the inhumanity of by crews of several hundred men, could travel at high speeds. The truth – that the Germany, it took little imagination to add further, fabricated sins to the list. The early tanks were extremely slow, operated by a handful of men and liable to break government saw a useful channel for its propaganda and the officially sanctioned down on a regular basis – was less exciting. Report of the Committee on Alleged German Outrages, published in May 1915, was Following the trial and execution of the exotic dancer Mata Hari in October 1917, full of sensational stories of atrocities committed by German troops, which who was accused of spying for Germany, the rumour persisted that she had research has shown to be at best exaggerated or in many cases fictional. betrayed blueprints for the tank design to the enemy, although there was no One particularly unpleasant myth widely circulated was that the Germans had evidence that this was the case. constructed a ‘‘corpse factory’’ secretly behind their lines, the purpose of which While many of these myths were spread by the British press and those on the was to extract useful body fats from dead soldiers in order to produce soap, home front, there are a good number of stories which appear to have originated fertiliser and animal feed. The extremely unlikely nature of the story did not, from the front line. In an era when the main form of communication with home however, prevent some from believing it wholeheartedly. As late in the war as was by letter or telegram, soldiers on overseas service had to rely on hearsay and October 1918, one diarist noted while marching through Bellincourt: ‘‘Passed over rumour in order to discover the latest war news. Many letters and diaries reveal this the tunnel bridge which contained the Hun Corpse factory. Saw this factory and a desire for news and indicate some of the folklore which quickly sprang to life in lot of naked Hun dead ready for building down into fat.’’ the absence of any concrete evidence. Perhaps the most famous atrocity story appeared in the British press at the Early in the war, many people believed that there had been a cover-up of beginning of May 1915. A Canadian soldier had been seen crucified against a barn particularly disastrous Allied casualty figures. Within days of the declaration of war, door by bayonets thrust through his hands and feet, although no eye-witness thousands of wounded soldiers were believed to have been shipped back to accounts could subsequently be verified or the body located. The myth mirrored Fiction factory hospital secretly at night to avoid a panic on the home front, while some alleged similar allegations from September 1914 that a British officer had been crucified Clockwise from main that there had been a major naval battle off the Netherlands in which the Royal while the story lived on in post-war memoirs by notable authors such as Robert picture: the Angels of Navy had in effect been destroyed. Graves and Vera Brittain. Mons myth had its origins One of the most imaginative trench myths was that a band of ‘‘wild men’’ Recent research has suggested that the incident may in fact have been based in a short story; devils deserters consisting of soldiers from both sides was living in no-man’s land, in on an element of truth, although there remains a distinct lack of certifiable complain to Kaiser some cases underground in caves and deserted trench systems. They would evidence. As the story first appeared days after the sinking of the Lusitania, when Wilhelm II that he has regularly emerge to loot the dead and finish off those who were wounded. There etty public opinion against Germany was at a particularly hostile level, this may left them nothing to do; G was even talk of cannibalism. Such stories may have originated from the occasional well indicate that the crucifixion tale was designed to strengthen anti-German the executed spy Mata cry of wounded men which could be heard from no-man’s land, while the looting feeling. It certainly reinforced the idea that the Germans were both uncivilised and Hari was rumoured to of bodies was commonplace on both sides. opfoto, opfoto, T

anti-religious. have given secret Allied , Modern forms of communication and the wide access to information that we One factor behind many myths was the comforting idea that there was an plans for a giant tank s take for granted today mean that myths and legends are unlikely to be believed as van

external force, either divine or earthly, which would be on hand to ensure victory to the Germans; two E extensively as they were in previous ages. However, the First World War remains a despite any initial defeat. This perhaps helps to explain the widely believed tale works depicting German fascinating snapshot of how myths can spread, aided by the inevitable uncertainty from August 1914 of how many thousands of Russian troops had landed in atrocities against women Mary and confusion caused by conflict. Sponsored by

FROM iwM S ARCHi VE LEttERS HOME ‘Fancy being in the land of Antony and Cleopatra’

From our modern perspective, it is easy to regard the First World War as being an overwhelmingly negative experience for everyone involved. But the evidence of letters written at the time suggests that many servicemen embraced the war, at least initially, as an exciting opportunity to leave home, see new lands and serve their country. One such man was Michael Lennon, who enlisted in his home town of Nottingham before joining the 3rd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers in Cork in April 1915. Writing home to his brother on May 1, he had exciting news:

“It appears to me you need not send the socks I asked for, as I may be going to Egypt next week. I don’t want to take your breath away, but they took mine away, as I had hardly arrived in Cork when I was informed, by one who knows, that I am for the next draft for the Dardanelles which, as the young lady said after waiting 15 years for her boy to propose, is rather sudden. “Fancy being in the land of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, and the crocodiles. I shall not go bathing in the river Nile. All is excitement around me just now, the fellows buying little flags to stick in the muzzle of their rifle, the men going away tomorrow. Over 400 for France, and over 200 for Egypt.”

The ultimate destination for Lennon’s draft was Gallipoli, where they arrived on May 30 to replenish the 1st Battalion, which had played such a crucial role in the 29th Division landings the previous month:

“Well Frank, I suppose we are for it tomorrow, if we don’t get shelled on the way. I can only hope that we have all the luck to come through the night and if I should get bowled out — well it can’t be helped. I shall pack up to the place ‘Where falls not rain, nor hail, nor any snow, and where the wind never blows loudly’, but as I have said before, I am looking for something better than that and I shall see you again when the job is done.” tty E

Two days later, Michael scribbled a hasty message home on the back of a biscuit packet: M (MH 34191), G 34191), (MH M iw

“Still in the pink and a bit nearer to the shells that are flying © about. Had a stroll to the top of the hill (and I don’t mean Derby Road) this morning and could see the shots no Holocaust. Its effects are still felt today, for THE AFTErmATH enemies. Russia pulled out of one war only to plunge Soviet Union. Though ostensibly deadly ideological exchanged between the combatants, while the big guns are example in the Far East where territorial tensions Clockwise from top left: into another, as the Bolsheviks took on the old guard enemies, the two systems in fact had much in between Japan and China can be traced back to the delegates from an and imposed communism by force, a struggle that common. The utopias proposed by Hitler and Stalin going every now and again. This is a wonderful place Catastrophe with perceived inequities of the post-war settlement. international anti-war killed seven million people. In the cities of Germany, were, in the view of the philosopher Isaiah Berlin, Frank, like a World’s Fair, with all the men of different The trauma of the war produced wildly differing youth conference; left- and right-wing gangs, often comprising former “something new in human history... a denial of results. In many it generated a revulsion against Mussolini, whose path soldiers, clashed in the streets. common humanity”. nationalities… I only hope that I come back to tell little militarism, manifested in the pacifist movements of to power was fuelled by The break with the past was brutal and emphatic. Thus, said Berlin, a “communist true believer did Frankie all about it.” the Twenties and Thirties. Public intellectuals national resentment at In Russia, the democratic interim government that not even attempt to persuade a bourgeois or aristocrat a poisonous legacy including Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann and Stefan the postwar settlement; replaced the monarchy survived only a few months of the truth of communist principles: they were class Zweig campaigned against conscription, and disabled veterans learn before being bulldozed by the revolutionaries. In enemies, to be re-educated or disposed of. Likewise, Less than a week later, his sense of exhilaration was still evident: women’s groups collected nine million signatures new skills at a London Germany, democracy limped through the Twenties fascists did not deign to reason with Jews, gypsies or for a peace petition in advance of the World factory; Red Army before finally expiring. In the poisonous atmosphere other racial enemies. They were to be extirpated as Disarmament Conference, which opened in Geneva soldiers confiscate generated by the war, notions of tolerance and vermin.” These evil affinities would become horribly “Well, I am still very much alive and doing well. Went up to in 1932. treasures at a Moscow heterodoxy withered and died, but authoritarianism clear when the two countries joined forces to devour political and social landscape was unrecognisable. The conference itself, which ended in failure when monastery; protesters and the cult of strong, hard leadership flourished. Poland in 1939-41. the firing line last Monday, stayed there about 10 hours and The war paved the way The great families – the Romanovs, Hohenzollerns Germany pulled out, was the product of a widespread in Berlin carry the The pattern was set not in a defeated nation but in The war did produce some benign political and then was relieved by another regiment. The return journey for Stalin and Hitler, and Habsburgs, who had loomed over the history of impulse towards global co-operation. This impulse message, we shall fight a technical winner. Italy had entered the war social effects. The participation of women in war was tremendously exciting, as we had to go down a passage the continent for centuries – were swept away, the was exemplified by the League of Nations, created to against any illegal seizure opportunistically but gained a disappointingly small work hastened universal suffrage and in Britain says Patrick Bishop Ottoman empire had collapsed and of the three provide a forum to settle international affairs without of power by Right or Left share of the spoils. Resentment at the ‘‘mutilated women over the age of 30 got the vote in time to take which was almost perpendicular and was 70 or 80ft from emperors who ruled at the start of the conflict, only recourse to war – another doomed enterprise. victory’’ – as the Italian nationalist and poet Gabriele part in the elections of December 1918. This was top to bottom, the shells flying above. One of the chaps who the British sovereign remained on his throne. The optimistic view that nations were susceptible d’Annunzio described the aftermath of war for his some compensation for the fact that many had little he participants in the war entered the fray to Old countries vanished and new ones appeared. to reason and that conflicts could be resolved by talk country – smoothed Mussolini’s path to power and prospect of marriage and family, now that husbands left Cork with us was bowled out, but I am hoping for preserve and, with luck, expand their power Everywhere among the defeated nations there was sat oddly with a pervading strain of disenchantment. the creation of a fascist state. The new outlook and were in short supply. something better than that.” and possessions. They fought not for new turmoil, fear and insecurity. The European victors In Britain, literature, art, fashion and popular culture aesthetic would achieve its most malevolent form in Such benevolent social progress was already well ideas or ways of doing things, but to maintain also faced an uncertain future. The one perception reflected a scepticism towards the conventions of Germany, with its murderous racial theories, exultant under way before the First World War and would have Tthe existing order. The last thing the kings, generals clear to all was that the world of 1914 had now the pre-war era that had given birth to the cruelty and refusal to accept the legitimacy of any arrived without it. But the tempests of malignity that Sadly it was not to be. Pte Michael Lennon was killed in action on June 28, and politicians of Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary vanished irretrievably. catastrophe. Reverence for authority was no longer interests but its own. swept through much of the rest of the century, 1915 — exactly a year after the assassination in Sarajevo which had led to the and Britain wanted was revolutionary change. The war had been the greatest in history and its automatic and reflexive. These perverted values were mirrored in the leaving millions dead in their wake, sprang directly outbreak of war. He is now commemorated on the Helles memorial, along The soldiers who marched off so insouciantly had effects were commensurate with its scale. No conflict Pacific sentiments, though, were patchy. Among from the conflict, making it the greatest man-made with other casualties of the Gallipoli campaign. been largely motivated by an old-fashioned has created such drastic and far-reaching the defeated nations, violence seemed to have catastrophe in history. patriotism that endorsed the fundamentals of the consequences. If the First World War had not become embedded in the collective psyche as an Of the emperors who ruled at the start of societies from which they sprang. But when the happened, it is likely there would have been no intrinsic part of existence, the main means by which £Patrick Bishop is the author of The Reckoning: £Commentary by Anthony Richards, IWM head of documents smoke cleared from the battlefields, the European totalitarian communism, no fascism, no Hitler and men sought to achieve their ends and defeat their the conflict, only the British king survived How the Killing of One Man Changed the Fate of Sponsored by

Art of wA r w A r Po EM William Orpen: ‘To the Unknown Age shall not weary them, Soldier in France’ nor the years condemn: ‘For (1921-28) the Fallen’, Laurence Binyon In the prestigious royal Academy summer show of 1923, the celebrated portraitist william orpen unveiled one of the most aurence Binyon wrote one of the best known and most frequently civilian less than a month after the start of the fighting. Born in Lancaster in contentious images of the recited verses of the First World War. Across the world, and particularly 1869, Laurence Binyon was keeper of oriental prints and drawings at the first world war. To the L the Commonwealth, the central stanza of his poem For the Fallen is British Museum when the First World War began in August 1914. He was an Unknown Soldier in France regularly used to proclaim and affirm the resolve of nations and communi- established and well-respected scholar, poet and author. was the culmination of an ties neither to forget nor overlook the effort and sacrifice of the First World Aged 45, Binyon was too old to enlist, but in 1915 he volunteered as an often sentimental regard War generation, as well as their successors in later wars and conflicts. orderly with the French hospital services, a task he undertook again the for the ordinary British Yet few remember who wrote the words. The poem’s smooth, rhythmic following year as the casualties rolled in from Verdun. After the war, Binyon soldier and the artist s flow and formal, elegant language, embody the profound sense of respect, continued at the British Museum until his retirement in 1933. He was own bitterness. admiration and grief that hangs over modern acts of collective remembrance. appointed professor of poetry and literature first at Harvard and then Athens In 1919, at the behest of Yet the poem was not written by a soldier who had seen action but by a and died following an operation in 1943. Prime Minister David Lloyd George and under the aegis of the Imperial war Museum, orpen was sent to the enshrinement of For the Fallen was on his 70th birthday in Allied victory, the Paris written early in August 1939, Laurence Peace Conference, and told September 1914 For the Fallen Binyon explained that to deliver a suitable and as news began to filter the idea for his most permanent memento . through of the fighting With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, famous poem came to Exhausted by war, at Mons and the retreat him on a clifftop at syphilis and alcoholism, that followed. the England mourns for her dead across the sea. Polzeath in Cornwall: orpen initially produced same news provided the stanza they Shall two jaundiced group a dynamic spur to Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, Grow Not old was portraits of delegates at Lord Kitchener s written first and the Palace of Versailles. recruiting drive, with Fallen in the cause of the free. dictated the rhythmical their petty conniving and 33,000 men enlisting movement of the whole self-importance he ridiculed on September 3 alone. poem. the words of by having them dwarfed by Compared to casualty Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal these four crucial lines the sumptuous interiors. levels after the Somme, beat sonorously in To the Unknown Soldier British losses in 1914 Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres. monosyllables, echoing was likewise begun as a were relatively small the solemn, funereal group portrait. Early but still a shock. what is There is music in the midst of desolation drums of the second sketches and recent X-rays remarkable about And a glory that shines upon our tears. stanza. It is this sombre, reveal leading Allied Binyon s poem is that repetitive rhythm that generals and statesmen, it anticipates those invests the fourth including Haig, foch and much higher, later stanza with such Lloyd George posed in the losses and lays down They went with songs to the battle, they were young, enduring power when Palace s Hall of Peace a consolatory read aloud in public. ready to enter its Hall of framework for Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. Mirrors. Even in this earliest understanding them. incarnation there was They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, subversion. for among the living was also the ghostly They fell with their faces to the foe. presence of Britain s war dead. Youthful pilot ace Arthur rhys Davids was They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: seen alongside bellicose Georges Clemenceau. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. Such dissent, however, At the going down of the sun and in the morning paled in comparison to the Binyon s poem was first painting unveiled in 1923. published in The Times We will remember them. Generals, statesmen and on September 21, 1914. heroes were replaced with Its measured, elegiac a single flag-draped coffin tone resonated with They mingle not with their laughing comrades again; flanked by two nameless, increasing power as the In his references to emaciated and semi-nude war evolved. the They sit no more at familiar tables of home; youth and not growing soldiers. the only tangible closing image of stars old, Binyon anticipates result [of the war] is the sparkling in the infinity They have no lot in our labour of the day-time; the sentiments evoked ragged unemployed soldier of the heavens offered only a few weeks later and the dead,o rpen consolation and hope They sleep beyond England’s foam. by rupert Brooke in his offered in summary. to those whose famous sonnets and To the Unknown Soldier husbands, sons, particularly Peace. to nevertheless chimed with brothers and friends But where our desires are and our hopes profound, drive home this point, a reflective British public. were dying in Binyon also includes a with compassion for the increasing numbers. As Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, subtle Shakespearean stoical tommy stoked in a traditional ode, formal reference. when wartime it was summarily and dignified, the whole To the innermost heart of their own land they are known Enobarbus returns to voted picture of the year . poem had spiritual rome in Antony and Yet the embarrassment depth and meaning. But As the stars are known to the Night; Cleopatra he evokes caused by this official its central stanza in with some excitement commission ensured it was particular meant, and Cleopatra s eternal only accepted into the continues to mean 100 As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, youth and beauty: Imperial war Museum in years on, that Age cannot wither her, 1928 once its most everyone, through the Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain, nor custom stale/Her offending features had line that stands at its infinite variety. the been painted over. heart, could together As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, subliminal cadences sound aloud their of Shakespeare add £Richard Slocombe, determination that we To the end, to the end, they remain. further to the power

Senior Art Curator, IWM 4438) will remember them . of Binyon s lines. £to the Unknown Soldier rt in france features in IWM s A M Truth and Memory; First w World War Art exhibition, M (Art.I M

now open at IWM London. w

www.iwm.org.uk I © Nigel Steel is principal historian for IWM s First World War Centenary Programme Sponsored by

V C H E R O I S M

heroic stories £ Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is a Conservative peer, businessman, philanthropist and author. The story of West’s life appears in his book Victoria Cross Heroes. For more information, visit victoriacrossheroes.com Lord Ashcroft’s VC and GC collection is on public display at IWM London. For more information, visit iwm.org.uk/heroes For details about his VC collection, visit lordashcroftmedals.com For more information on Lord Ashcroft’s work, visit lordashcroft.com Follow him on Twitter @LordAshcroft n / © IWM © / n ollectio C shcroft d A d or L the

of y y rtes u o C als d e y, M y, lam y, A y, ett G

Transvaal, on July 16, 1909, and had a daughter. conflict that he received the first of four gallantry decided to accompany the attack to assist in ‘‘The Infantry Battalion had suffered heavy officer Immediately after the outbreak of the Great War, medals for his actions in 1917. On New Year’s Day maintaining direction and cohesion. This he did casualties, and its flanks were exposed. Realising West rejoined the Army through the North Irish 1918, The London Gazette announced he had been mounted, until his horse was shot under him, then that there was a danger of this battalion giving way, Courage on horseback Horse, part of the Cavalry Special Reserve. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). His on foot until the final objective was reached. he at once rode out in front of them under extremely promoted to lieutenant on August 11, 1914, and left citation read: “On April 11, 1917, at Monchy-le-Preux, ‘‘During the advance, in addition to directing his heavy machine-gun and rifle fire and rallied the for France that month. The North Irish Horse arrived his squadron was sent forward to reinforce the right tanks, he rallied and led forward small bodies of men. In spite of the fact that the enemy were close in France on August 20 and was soon involved in the flank of the brigade under very heavy shell and infantry lost in the mist, showing throughout a fine upon him, he took charge of the situation and thick of the action. As part of the British Expeditionary machine-gun fire. By his excellent example, rapid example of leadership and a total disregard of detailed non-commissioned officers to replace officer in the age of the tank Force, they were quickly pushed forward, reaching grasp of the situation and skilful disposition of his personal safety, and materially contributed to the casualties. He then rode up and down in front of the Franco-Belgian frontier in time to relieve the squadron he did much to avert an impending success of the operations. Major West was in them in face of certain death, encouraging the men pressure on the retreating forces. They were involved German counter-attack. He had shown great ability command of the battalion most of the time, his and calling to them: ‘Stick it, men; show them fight, in much of the fierce fighting that followed as the in command of a squadron since July 1915.” commanding officer having been killed early in the and for God’s sake put up a good fight.’ French and British forces fell back towards Paris. West became an acting major in the Tank Corps on action. The consistent gallantry displayed by this ‘‘He fell riddled by machine-gun bullets. The not part of West’s make-up: he always rose to a During the subsequent battles of the Marne and January 18, 1918, and acting lieutenant colonel on officer throughout the operations since Aug 8 has magnificent bravery of this very gallant officer at the Richard West rallied challenge even if it meant risking his life yet again. the Aisne, both the North and the South Irish Horse August 22 of the same year, in command of the 6th been remarkable.” critical moment inspired the infantry to redoubled his men to victory, says Richard Annesley West was born in Cheltenham, were employed in the woods rounding up parties of Light Tank Battalion. He showed bravery for which he However, by the time that both the Bar to his DSO efforts, and the hostile attack was defeated.” Gloucestershire, on September 26, 1878, but his roots German Uhlans, the energetic cavalry units that was rewarded with his second decoration, the Military and his MC has been announced, West had eclipsed By any standards, West’s contribution to the British Michael Ashcroft were Irish. His father was Augustus West, from scouted ahead of the main Imperial Army. Cross (MC). This was announced in The London war effort had been phenomenal. Yet, like so many of Whitepark, Co Fermanagh, who had served as a If accounts from the front line were to be believed, Gazette on November 7, 1918, when his citation stated: his young comrades, he failed to survive the conflict: lieutenant with the 76th Hindustan Regiment. The the British had the better of these exchanges. Capt “During the advance on Aug 8 at Guillencourt, in of some six million men from Britain who served in ew men can have contributed more to the regiment got its name from distinguishing itself in Stewart Richardson, of the North Irish Horse, wrote command of a company of Light Tanks, he displayed He rode up and down in the face of certain the Armed Forces more than 800,000 perished. last year of the war effort than Acting Lt Col Hindustan and was often known affectionately as the to a friend in Belfast: “They run like scalded cats magnificent leadership and personal bravery. He was death, urging them to put up a good fight The Daily Mirror welcomed the news of West’s VC Richard West. His bravery was matched “Seven and Sixpennies” from its number. when they see you and are always in close formation able to point out many targets to his tanks that they with the headline: “Splendidly won VC”, which was only by his leadership skills and as a result The youthful Richard West was educated in Britain: as if afraid to separate. I had a grand hunt after 20 would not otherwise have seen. During the day he above two photographs, one of West and the other of he received no fewer than four gallantry first at Channel View School, Clevedon, then in (there were five of us), and we got four dead, picking had two horses shot under him, while he and his both by earning a posthumous Victoria Cross (VC) his widow. West’s widow received his posthumous awardsF in 1918. Somerset, and later at nearby Monkton Combe up two more afterwards. We came on them round the orderly between them killed five of the enemy and through his outstanding gallantry on August 21 and VC from King George V in an investiture at As the Great War neared its close in the summer of School. After finishing his schooling, West attended corner of a street, and they went like hunted deer.” took seven prisoners. On the 10th he rendered great again on September 2, when he died on the Buckingham Palace on February 15, 1919. Today 1918, there was no doubt that West had more than Uckfield Agricultural College in Sussex. However, if West, who had embarked for France as a lieutenant services to the Cavalry by personally reconnoitring battlefield. His VC was announced in The London West’s grave bears an image of the VC and his “done his bit”. By then, he was the recipient of the he had intentions of pursuing a career as a landowner in C Squadron, served with distinction during the the ground in front of Le Quesnoy, and later in the Gazette on October 3, 1918, only a month and a day gravestone is inscribed with words from the Book of Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and in August and farmer, they did not last long. It was the time of early months of the war: he survived the retreat from day, under very heavy machine-gun fire, rallied and after West had been killed. John: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a 1918 he twice displayed such bravery that he was the (1899–1902) and, like his father Mons and was mentioned in dispatches in Sir John organised the crew of tanks that had been ditched, The second part of his citation, relating to the man lay down his life for his friends.” later rewarded with two further gallantry medals. On before him, West joined the Army. in the saddle French’s first despatch of the Great War. West’s withdrawing them after dark.” action in which he had been killed, read: “On a I purchased West’s medal group privately in 2002, top of these formidable achievements, West was During the war, West served both in the ranks as a Clockwise from main leadership qualities were rewarded when he was Less than two weeks after the action at Guillencourt, subsequent occasion, it was intended that a battalion 16 years after I first started to build my medal mentioned in dispatches three times. trooper in the Imperial Yeomanry and later as a image: British cavalry promoted to captain on November 18, 1915. Shortly West earned a bar for his DSO by displaying further of Light Tanks, under the command of this officer, collection. Such was the quality of his medal group, So, on the first day of September 1918, as he lieutenant in Kitchener’s Fighting Scouts. He training in Picardy in before this promotion, he had been briefly attached courage. This decoration was also announced in The should exploit the initial Infantry and Heavy Tank in general, and West’s VC, in particular, that I paid approached his 40th birthday, West could have been continued his military career in South Africa long 1916; Richard West’s to the North Somerset Yeomanry with the temporary London Gazette on November 7, 1918 when his attack. He therefore went forward in order to keep in significantly higher than the record auction price at forgiven for displaying the instinct for self- after the war was over and it was while serving in the medal group; his grave rank of major. citation read: “For conspicuous gallantry near touch with the progress of the battle, and arrived that time. Today, West’s medal group is on show at preservation and “coasting” the final weeks and country that he is believed to have met his wife, in Pas-de-Calais; Acting Despite serving throughout the war and seeing a Courcelles on Aug 21, 1918. In consequence of this at the front line when the enemy were in process of Imperial War Museums London, as part of the largest months of the conflict. However, coasting was simply Maude Cushing. The couple were married in Pretoria, Lt Col Richard West lot of action, it was not until the final year of the action being fought in a thick mist, this officer delivering a local counter-attack. display of VCs in the world. Sponsored by

SOcial legacy

n December 1918, a month after the end of the But it took the war, when women quit domestic the war had seen the state assume a more intrusive new society wave of strikes in 1921, and the continued rise of the war, Britain and Ireland went to the polls in a drudgery to replace absent men in offices, factories role than free-born Britons had ever known. In the Main images from Labour Party to a point where it formed its first general election. The aristocratic Irish and as farm workers, to impress the political class last two years of the war, millions had been left, Irish revolutionary government in 1924. The General Strike of 1926, Sense of loss revolutionary Countess Constance Markiewicz with the moral, as well as the political, imperative to conscripted to fight and die for their country after the Countess Constance though disappointing to those who hoped Britain made history as the first woman to be elected grant those who had saved their country in its hour supply of volunteers dried up. Millions more were Markiewicz; a woman might emulate the Russian Revolution of 1917, gave toI Westminster – except she was unable to take her of need the power to choose who ruled them. It directed into war work, and unheard-of impositions votes for the first time notice that the organised working class was a force And the ‘‘Glorious Dead’’ were reverentially seat because she was in a British prison for organising helped, of course, that the suffragette leaders that would last for the rest of the century limited pub in 1918; the Chelsea that could no longer be ignored. remembered each November around the Cenotaph Irish resistance to military conscription. Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst had instantly opening times (because war workers were thought to Arts Ball in 1926. Below, This was a lesson taken especially to heart by the in Whitehall. The determination that the conflict as brave new Not that the Countess would have taken her seat if called off their campaign and switched their spend too much time drinking) and introduced a Labour poster for moderate-minded Tory Prime Minister Stanley would truly be, as another writer, HG Wells, called it she had been free. Along with the 72 Sinn Fein male formidable energies to speak and work in the British Summer Time to squeeze more work into the the 1924 election Baldwin, who, though an industrialist himself, had “the war to end all war”, fuelled the rise of pacifism, comrades elected with her, she refused to recognise national cause as soon as war was declared. hours of daylight. protested that the post-war Parliament had been a tenderness towards defeated Germany and a London’s right to rule Ireland, and as a proud Similarly, it was the war that transformed the Irish State intervention in people’s lives, and the dominated by profiteers: “Hard-faced men who national reluctance to admit that another, still greater veteran of the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule, struggle. The moderate Irish nationalists, keen, like mobilisation of its resources for military and looked as though they had done well out of the war”. war, was coming. world is born as soon as she was released she helped set up Dail the suffragettes, to impress the ruling elite with their industrial purposes, had a knock-on effect politically Baldwin also said he had thought the miners’ union Meanwhile, young people who had missed the war Eireann, Ireland’s own Parliament in Dublin. patriotism, joined the Army in droves to fight in – as did the camaraderie of the trenches, where leaders, whose militancy had triggered the General and who could afford to, were determined to have a The granting of the female franchise and Ireland’s France for the rights of small nations such as officers and other ranks had met and mingled in Strike, were the most stupid men in the country – good time. The antics of this spoilt, self-indulgent eventually successful armed struggle for its Belgium – and Ireland. Their departure left the field conditions of enforced, life-threatening intimacy. until he met the mine owners. ‘‘Brideshead generation’’ who, bored by the war that independence from Britain were two of the most in Ireland clear for the extreme Irish republicans, for Deference and the unthinking acceptance of God- The war cast a long and dark shadow across the their elder brethren had fought, fornicated their way important legacies of the First World War, and both whom ‘‘England’s difficulty was Ireland’s given class divisions and social rank had less power Britain of the Twenties and Thirties. Each town and around London’s new nightclubs through the jazz events were directly attributable to the conflict itself. opportunity’’. These militants set about organising when you had seen your betters defecating into a every village raised a memorial to the sons and age, fuelled by cocaine and cocktails, were savagely Before the war the suffragettes – including the the Easter Rising, and Britain’s decision to execute mess tin, screaming their lives out with their entrails fathers who would not return. One of the war’s satirised by Evelyn Waugh in his novel Vile Bodies Ireland, the rights of women and Countess – had struggled in vain in a campaign its leaders transformed them into martyrs and led to caught on barbed wire, or had your own life saved by anonymous unknown soldiers, “known unto God” in (1930). Waugh, whose own elder brother Alec became class attitudes were transformed as characterised by increasingly desperate acts of widespread popular support for armed struggle that a man you might have patronised with a meagre tip the phrase coined by Rudyard Kipling (whose only a prisoner of war after being captured in 1918, little violence to convince the male political establishment had been absent in 1914. before the war. son, John, was one of their number), was brought knew that within a decade, he too would be putting millions mourned, says Nigel Jones that women were worthy of the vote. In Britain itself, the enormous effort that had won One political consequence of this was a post-war home to rest among kings in Westminster Abbey. his life on the line for his country. etty G

united front Festubert in France. Born in Kensington in 1887 and Cambrai by overwhelming his German captors and Jewish Legionaries on educated at Rugby School, de Pass was from a then capturing all their nearby defensive positions. Jews rally to serve country that gave them sanctuary camels at Giza in Egypt Sephardic Jewish background, and his father was Nor was it only in the realms of gallantry that prominent at the Bevis Marks Synagogue in London’s British Jews made a distinctive contribution to the East End, the oldest Sephardic synagogue in Britain. war. One of the more vivid descriptions of life in the to Roz Currie, curator of the impressive exhibition Another poster was even more explicit: “Since the After training at the Royal Military Academy at trenches was provided by Marcus Segal, a 2nd Con Coughlin on how For King and Country?, which runs at the Jewish days of Oliver Cromwell, Great Britain has meted out Sandhurst, de Pass was stationed in India with the Lieutenant in the 16th Battalion King’s Liverpool Museum London until August 10, the war gave the fairest treatment politically, socially and in every 34th Prince Albert Victor’s Own Poona Horse. Regiment, who joined the British Expeditionary the community launched British Jews “an opportunity to repay their loyalty to way to Jews. Now is the time for Jews to reciprocate Like many Indian regiments, the Poona Horse Force in September 1916. Britain by serving in the Armed Forces”. and show the old spirit of the Maccabees is not dead. sailed for France at the outbreak of war, and it was In numerous letters home, he chronicled the a recruitment campaign To start with, many within the Jewish community, Every able-bodied unmarried Jew between 19 and 45 during a campaign at Festubert that de Pass lost his everyday activities of soldiers on the front. “I have particularly those who had fled the anti-Semitic should join the British Army.” life. The citation for his award describes what had a fine game of football and, apart from a few he outbreak of the First World War provided a pogroms in Tsarist Russia, were reluctant to fight in a Some of those who opted to fight joined Jewish happened: “In entering a German sap and destroying kicks on the ankle, I had a glorious game,” he writes unique opportunity for Britain’s disparate conflict in which Britain and Russia were allies. But units such as the Zion Mule Corps, a labour battalion a traverse in the face of the enemy’s bombs and for in one letter. In another he refers to the camaraderie Jewish community to demonstrate its loyalty as the war progressed and conscription was of Jewish refugees that helped to supply the front subsequently rescuing, under heavy fire, a wounded among the frontline soldiers. “I have met men galore Tto king and country. British Jewry had been slowly introduced, there was a sharp uptake in the number lines at Gallipoli, or one of the three battalions of the England has man who was lying exposed in the open”. De Pass I know out here and it makes matters very much re-establishing its position in British society since of Jews in military service, so that by the end of the newly-formed Jewish Legion, which recruited Jewish died the following day from the injuries he sustained jollier.” But like so many of his comrades, Segal did the 17th century, when Oliver Cromwell welcomed war around 41,000 British Jews had been in action. soldiers from America and Britain to help defeat the been all she during his act of heroism. not survive the conflict, being killed by a shell at the Jews back following their expulsion during the Much of this was due to the peer pressure that had Ottoman empire in Palestine, thereby clearing the Other Jewish winners of the VC included Pte Jack Arras in June 1917. Middle Ages. By 1914, Britain’s Jewish community been brought to bear by the “settled community”: way for the creation of a Jewish homeland as outlined could be to White (Weiss) from Leeds who, serving with the 6th These are just a few examples of the exhibits that had grown to around 300,000, their numbers boosted Jewish families who had lived in Britain for a century by the 1917 Balfour Declaration. King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, masterminded have been on display at the Jewish Museum London’s by East European immigrants fleeing persecution or more. To persuade their reluctant co-religionists But the majority served in conventional British the Jews; the a daring rescue operation for a pontoon that was excellent tribute to the contribution of British Jews to during the 1880s. to do their duty for the country, posters appeared in military units, with a number of Jews distinguishing stranded in mid-stream and coming under heavy the war effort, demonstrating how so many repaid Before the outbreak of hostilities with Germany, Jewish neighbourhoods of major cities such as themselves by winning honours, including a clutch Jews will be German machine-gun fire. Capt Robert Gee, of the their debt to their adopted homeland. many Jews had never been given the opportunity to London, Manchester and Leeds bearing the slogan: of Victoria Crosses. The first Jewish Victoria Cross all they can be 2nd Battalion The , won both the repay their debt to the country that had provided “England has been all she could be to the Jews; the was awarded to Lt Frank de Pass for his actions on Victoria Cross and the for various acts £Con Coughlin is The Daily Telegraph’s them with sanctuary in their hour of need. According Jews will be all they can be to England”. November 24, 1914, on the Western Front near to England of heroism, including escaping from captivity at Defence Editor Sponsored by

youry letters from the front left, a series of embroidered postcards sent home from sunny Post box France by ern Hamblin, who was serving with the We have received a magnificent postbag and royal engineers; below W HAt DID you D o IN tH e WAr? inbox of letters and documents in response to left, a cross at lochnagar our request for readers First World War family mine crater on the memories, for which we give our sincere thanks. somme battlefield, and Here are just a few of the many fascinating female munitions stories we would like to share with you. workers at Woolwich Something to fight for: how Germany’s Arsenal, where lillian standen worked defeat inspired hitler’s rise to power the crack, crack, crack of Embroidered the machine guns; the souvenirs trees, mostly only half standing, the ground full of of war shell holes and here and he assassination by a Serb of the “When I was confined to bed, the idea ronald Davey from there little crosses telling Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand came to me that I would liberate Germany, Chipping Norton, you that underneath there, t was the red rag needed to spur that I would make it great. I knew oxfordshire, encloses a there lies those who have one particular bull called Adolf Hitler into immediately that it would be realised.” series of embroidered fallen [in] the conflict... action. A dislike of foreigners, particularly The end of the war left Hitler uprooted postcards sent to his your reference to the Slavs, had already taken root in the and in need of a new focus. He became an father s Aunt Fan setting sun I was most mind of this disenchanted, orphaned intelligence agent for the Reichswehr (Mrs F ling) from a charmed with dear. yes, it 25-year-old painter. Now he had (Germany’s newly-formed military royal engineers soldier, is the same sun which you something to fight for. organisation), tasked with infiltrating the ern Hamblin, based in see in our garden, which I Rejected by the Austrian army as unfit German Workers’ Party. So inspired was sunny France . see here on the battlefield, for service, he applied to join the Bavarian he by founder Anton Drexler’s anti- the cards are striking in and what is better still, as army in August 1914, despite not being a communist, anti-Jewish doctrine that he their upbeat tone and you say, it is the same God German citizen, and within two months of joined the party and developed his own scarcely mention the war. that has us in his keeping. starting training saw combat near Ypres anti-Semitic ideology, announcing in Dear Mrsling, you will I do not know that I have against the British and Belgians. September 1919 that the “ultimate goal gather from this that I am anything further to Hitler was primarily a message runner, must definitely be the removal of the Jews somewhere near mention dear just now, a relatively safe post, based at regimental altogether”. civilisation at last. A very but I am glad you are headquarters several miles from the He politicised the party and began to nice country district and keeping well and I am the Western Front, although he witnessed win mass public support, hefty donations splendid weather too. same. Kiss my little pet various landmark battles at Ypres, Somme, and a reputation as a powerful orator. He the periodicals arrived [his six-year-old son Fred] Arras and Passchendaele. In the Battle of found a willing audience for his views that quite alright, thanks very for me. God bless you all Ypres in October 1914 – which became the Jews were to blame for Germany’s much. Hope you are well. dears, John known in Germany as the ‘‘Massacre of political instability and economic woes. In the pink myself. yours the next day, says Mrs the Innocents’’ – nearly half of the 20 Soon after, he renamed the party the sinc, eH, reads one from De smet, he was carrying infantry divisions were killed in 20 days, National Socialist German Workers’ Party July 11, 1917. rations up to the men in and Hitler’s company was reduced from and adopted the swastika as its emblem. Another sent from the front line when a shell 250 to 42 by December. The next decade saw Hitler’s rise to somewhere in France, burst just over his head He was decorated twice for bravery, Chancellor of Germany and, after the 4/2/16 , reads: Dear Mrs and killed him instantly. He with the Iron Cross, Second Class in 1914 death of the president, Paul Von ling... thank you so much suffered no pain and and the Iron Cross, First Class in 1918 – Hindenburg, to self-appointed ‘‘Führer’’ for the pudding. It was top wouldn t have had time to the latter honour rarely bestowed upon a lance corporal. Hit in – leader and supreme commander of every Nazi paramilitary hole ... I see the hounders realise that he was hit . the thigh by an exploding shell in his dugout at the Battle of the organisation. By 1939, he had promoted himself to ‘‘First Soldier have been over your way Somme in October 1916, Hitler was sent to Munich but he of the Reich’’, in command of Germany’s armed forces and again with their Zepps. demanded to return to his comrades at the Front. intent on world domination. The First World War changed the let s hope we shall be A mother’s In October 1918, he was wounded again, temporarily blinded lives of all who served in it. For Adolf Hitler, it proved to be the giving em something to in a mustard gas attack. While recovering from his wounds, he seedbed for his patriotism, xenophobia and lust for power that occupy their time over stoicism learnt of Germany’s defeat and subsequent loss of territory would also change the world in the 20th century. here before long. Glad to Betty rennid from resulting from the Treaty of Versailles. At that moment, he said, Zoe Dare Hall say I am quite well.... ern. oakington, near Cambridge, writes: During the First World War, my mother, Mrs lillian standen, was a forewoman at Woolwich Arsenal. At the time, she was engaged to my father and they were married on one of his annual seven days leave in 1917. Workers at the Discover the story of the conflict at Woolwich Arsenal were screened on arrival at work IWm’s new first World War Galleries to ensure that they weren t factory each day. After the three brothers fought in you got out of life what you The lasting received flesh wounds was again suffering shell- carrying any metal objects. war, my father came home the second World War, but put into it. I m sure mum during bombing (hand- shock. the only anecdotal on one occasion, a girl was severely shell-shocked I was an evacuee. was no different to lots of damage grenade) training. explanation of this event found to have her keys in which lasted until he died in We weren t a wealthy other young women in the Bruce Margrett from In Arras, his battalion was that he issued a week A final love her pocket. she was 1970. Mum nursed him family, but we were taught First World War, but she Polegate, east sussex, was twice engaged in or more of the rum ration o mark the start of the Centenary and loss, but also of endurance and reprimanded, but because back to health and went on honesty and respect and passed on to us a sense of writes about the support as the front line to the men before they of the First World War, IWM innovation, duty and devotion, letter home mum was the forewoman to have four children. My brought up to know that loyalty and stoicism. psychological damage his was pushed beyond the went over the top. TLondon has opened new, comradeship and love. Visitors see Bernice De smet from and responsible for the father Archibald Margrett, German Brown line. He was today, some argue we permanent First World War Galleries. what life was like at the front, and st Albans, Hertfordshire, girls, she was the one known as Jimmy, suffered given a 10-day leave ticket are failing in the support of Visitors can discover the story of the experience the sights and sounds of a encloses a letter sent by who was punished. after serving in the war. to return to england. the our soldiers who return war through the eyes of people in recreated ‘‘trench’’, with the Sopwith her grandfather, Pte John Her punishment was Jimmy gave himself leave ticket records the emotionally damaged from Britain and its empire, both on the Camel fighter plane and Mark V tank James Hoyle of the First to be sent to another without restraint to the reason as shell-shock . war, when we have better home front and the fighting fronts. looming above them. They can learn of east lancashire regiment, munitions factory near conflict in France and Before the end of June, he understanding of They will see how the war started, why the terrible strain the war placed on to his wife Nell the day Bristol for a number of carried the scars for the was back with his Battalion post-traumatic stress it continued, how the Allies won and its people and communities and will be before he was killed in months. each weekend she rest of his life. In December in France, moving to disorder and the science global impact. able to consider some of the questions action in France on June would travel back to 1916, he was posted to Wyschaete near ypres. of nervous diseases. Jimmy gave Drawing on IWM’s First World War and choices, ordinary and extra- 23, 1917, aged 31. london to her widowed France with the 8th on November 11, recovery for First collections, the richest and most ordinary, that people of Britain and its yes, my dear, I can mother (mum s brother Battalion, east lancashire 1917, he was found to be World War soldiers was a himself comprehensive in the world, visitors former empire had to face in this first believe you when you say was killed at the battle of regiment, who were in the suffering from debility and matter of years of self-help. will see more than 1,300 objects on ‘‘total war’’. that nature is so very the somme) and return to Festubert area. After trench fever. And on June And on some occasions, a without display, many of which have never The ground-breaking new First beautiful at present [in] the Bristol on sunday evening. serving for only a few 24, 1918, he was brought damaged personality can been seen before. They range from World War Galleries are part of the dear homeland. It is so in Not one for wasting weeks, he was promoted to in field (on the battlefield) relapse. During the second restraint in weapons, uniforms and equipment to wider transformation of IWM London, some parts of France, but time on train journeys, lieutenant and, aged 20, before a court martial to World War, Jimmy served France and diaries and letters, keepsakes and which includes a newly configured where we are just now you mum managed to crochet leading what would face charges of desertion, in the Home Guard as well trinkets, photographs, film and art. atrium with iconic large-object displays do not hear much of the her curtains and table normally be 60 men in four disobedience and as working in a bank. carried the Each of the objects on display gives a and a number of new exhibitions, singing of the birds but covers, some of which I still platoons. they manned the miscellaneous offences. When the family were y voice to the people who created them, public spaces, shops and cafés.

rather the constant roar of have. on her return to AM front line in loos, retiring the register is marked evacuated, they heard of scars for used them or cared for them and reveal the artillery, the hurtling london, the Zeppelin raids to rebruviette behind acquitted, insane at the him digging a trench in the stories not only of destruction, suffering £Find out more at iwm.org.uk shells flying through the air had begun, but this didn t Arras for training. on time of commission of garden at home and the rest of on their mission of death, stop her cycling to the Al Getty, March 25, 1917, he offence , evidence that he standing guard overnight. his life