(. o tL ý(-ct 5

/ýkOO

IN THE SHADOW OF WAR

Continuities and Discontinuities

in the construction of the

identities masculine of British soldiers, 1914 - 1924

i

W" NLARGARET MILLNUN

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirementsof the University of Greenwich

for the Degree of Doctor of PHosophy

July 2002 ABSTRACT

The upheavalsof the cataclysmof the First World War reverberatedthrough every comer of British society, how society was reconstructedafterwards is the subject of enormouscritical debate. This study examineshow masculinitieswere disrupted and. reconstructedduring and after the war. It is a study of British men, previously civilians, who becameservicemen in the First World War. It aims to map the continuitiesand discontinuitiesin the construction of their masculineidentities during war and in its aftermath in the 1920s. Pioneeredby feminist scholarsconcerned with analysingthe historical construction of femininity, the study of gender relations has becomea significant area of historical enquiry. This has resulted in a substantialbody of historical scholarshipon the history of masculinitiesand the increasingvisibility of men as genderedsubjects whose masculinities are lived and imagined. This thesis is informed by, and engageswith, the histories of masculinities. It also draws on recent historical researchon the cultural legacy of the war. The first chapter explores the subjectiveresponses to becominga soldier through an examinationof personalmemoirs; largely unpublishedsources drawn from memoriesand written or recordedby men as narrativesof their wartime experiences.The subject of the secondchapter is shell shock. The outbreak of shell shock among the troops aroused anxietiesabout masculinity. The competing versionsof masculinitieswhich emergedin military and medical discoursesis examined. Returning to individual memoirs,the chapter examineshow men producedtheir own representationsof the shell shockedman contesting other versions. Chapters3 and 4 focus their attention on the relatively neglectedsubject of ex-servicemen'sorganisations and the collectivities of ex-servicemen.During and after the war a movementof ex-servicemenemerged to campaignfor justice and fair treatment, Comradesh.ip underpinnedthe attempt to forge an ex-servicemanidentity and an examinationof veterans' publications, a largely neglectedsource, has revealedthe tensions and conflicts which contestedthis form of masculineidentity. Masculine identities, as citizens and workers, presenteda challengeto the potential for a unified, apofitical movement. Unemploymentwas a challengeto male identities traditionally securedthrough work and masculinecodes of independence. Unlike many studies,this thesis intentionally straddleswar and peace. It beginsin 1914 and endsa decadelater in a society restoredto peacebut still essentiallyin the shadow of war. CONTENTS

INTRODUCTTON 2

Chapter One 19

'Incidents that haunt me'

Soldiers'Stories

Chapter Two 75

'War makes sane men mad'

Shell shocked soldiers and competing masculinifies

Chapter Three 148

'Soldiers from the war returning'

Comradeship and the imagined community ofex-servicemen

Chapter Four 203

'We are citizens... we are workers'

Broken bodies and the body politic

CONCLUSION 272

BIBLIOGRAPHY 282 INTRODUCTION

The imagesand iconography of the GreatWar of 1914-18still resonatein the

imaginationtoday. Trenchwarfare, gas attacks, barbed wire, poppiesand No Man's

Land are sharedcultural referentsof that war. The pity of war remainsentrenched in

collectivememory. Prior to, and especiallyduring, the eightiethanniversary of the

Armisticein 1998the First World War was subjectedto a new wave of cultural

representationswhen a spateof novels,films, televisiondocumentaries and journalism

appeared.In the 1990sPat Barker'sRegeneration trilogy and SebastianFaulks's

Birdsong (1994) becamebest sellers.In a reviewof the film, YheTrench (1999), the directorialdebut of the novelistWilliam Boyd, the youngmale reviewer wrote 'the I trenchesare scarson the nationalpsyche; the War was the fulcrum of the modernage.

Peoplelike me can't imagineit. "

Yet we continueto imagineit. As recentlyas May of this year,the BBC produceda documentaryseries, Yhe Trench, in which a group volunteersfrom Hun, men betweeneighteen and thirty-eight years of age,volunteered to recreatethe experiencesof the I Othbattalion of the East YorkshireRegiment. The First World War, now in supposedlyauthentically created trenches, was onceagain the subjectof imaginative recreation.The persistenceof suchpopular imaginings have been mirrored in the renewedand substantialbody of academicwriting aboutthe First World War emerging from acrossa rangeof disciplinesfrom military anddiplomatic history, economic, social andgender history to literary andcultural studies.The war andits impactcontinue to be

1 Andrcw O'Hagan, The Daily Telegraph, September 17,1999

2 the subjectsof intensescrutiny and debate, with previouslyaccepted conventions

challengedand revised. The meaningof the war continuesto be a struggleover

representationand a conflict over which dominantmemory of the war remainsin the

collectiveand national memory.

The imageof the soldieris centralto all the popularcultural representations

which are testimony to the persistenceof the imaginings of a powerful form of

masculinity. War has been one of the most gendered of human activities; soldiering one

of the most sexually differentiated. The imaginings of masculinity are central to this

study which explores the lived experiencesof servicemenin the First World War and in

the period immediately following it. Within the extensivebody of historical research

which exists on the First World War, servicemenare ever-presentas objects of study,

their experiencesfiltered through official statistics,surveys and reports. In addition,their

attitudesto war havelargely been represented and refracted through the literary output of, for example,Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owenand Robert Graves. Yet, their presenceas genderedsubjects, their masculinitieshave been largely left unexplored.

This studyaddresses the omissionby makingan examinationof the masculinitiesof servicemenits centralfocus., It exploresthe extentto which the war precipitatedchanges to former codesof masculinity.It aimsto mapthe continuitiesand discontinuities in the constructionof the masculinitiesof British soldiersin the contextof the war but its trajectorymoves into the post war periodof the 1920s.War broughtthe experienceof soldieringto a significant.section of the malepopulation, men who weregenerally

3 2 soldiers 'for the duration only'. The war experiencedid not end with the cessationof

hostilities but was framed in private memories as well as in public representations. The

meaningsthe men sought to give to those experiencesand the dislocations they felt in

their senseof themselvesas men determined the selection of sourcesand how they were

used. I have prioritised the writings, mainly unpublishedand some neglected, of the

unknown men who volunteered for war service and who, on their return, constituted the

body of men known as ex-servicemen. I have also submitted official sourcesand public

documents to new interrogations as to what insights they might yield into the structuring

and restructuring of masculine identities.

In recent years the objective of 'making men visible as genderedsubjectSO and to

interrogatethe constructionof masculinityhas produced a significantcontribution to the

studyand understanding of sexualdifference and its manifestationswhich hasbeen so

muchpart of a feministapproach. For historians,this hasentailed exploring the

historicaldiversity of masculinitiesand their formationwithin specifichistorical contexts.

The collectionof essaysin Manful Assertionsedited by JohnTosh andMichael Roper

(1991) illuminatesthe socialand historical production of, for example,the Respectable

WorkingMan, ImperialMan, the post-warPublic SchoolMan andCompany Man.

Thesevaried masculinities demonstrate the shift in men'sgender identities in different historicalperiods, particularly at timesof socialchange and upheaval, while at the same time they indicatethat malepower is more contingentthan the term patriarchyallows.

2 Estimatesof the percentagevary: JayWinter estimatesthat it wasalmost fifty per cent; otherslike Bourke suggestit wasnearer twenty two per cent. 3 Mchael Roperand JohnTosh (eds),Manful Assertions.*Masculinities in Britain since 1800, London: Routledge,1991, p. I

4 The use of the term masculinifies emphasisesthe plurality and diversity of men's

experiences,attitudes, beliefs and so on andwhich, in turn, are structuredby class,

sexualorientation, ethnicity, age and other categoriesmarking difference. Moreover, in

their analysis,Tosh and Roper argue that masculinitiesare affirmed not only by the social

roles ascribedto men but in their lived experiences,in subjective identities.

The historiography of pre-war masculinity provides a framework for interpretiýg

the changeswar may have wrought on prevailing ideals of manhood. Much of the work

focussed on manlinessas a particular construct of Victorian and Edwardian middle-class

4 manhood, associatedin particular with the public schools. The qualities of physical

strength, enduranceand courage were developed in the new cult of athleticism. Games

played in the public schools had become codified and rationalised, representing an

instrument of discipline for boys learning how to be men with future careersin government, the military and,the administration, both in Britain and in the Empire. While the Iýstoriography of dominant forms of masculinity prior to the First World War are pertinent to this study, elsewhereevidence points to the challengesto hegemonic masculinity at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Competing versions of masculinity are constructed in relation to the 'other, women and other men; normative male heterosexuality always defined in opposition to homosexuality. As

Lynne Segal argues 'masculinity is never the undivided, seamlessconstruction it becomes in its symbolic manifestation'.5

4 See,for example,J. A. Mangan and JamesWalvin (eds),Manliness andMorality. - Middle-Class Masculinity in Britain andAmerica, 1800-1914,Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987 -' Lynne Segal,Slow Motion: ChangingMasculinities, ChangingMen, London: Virago, 1990,p. 108 The rise of an organisedand increasingly assertive ferninist movement claiming

rights to socialand economic independence and political enfranchisementconstituted a

challengeto maleauthority. The challengewas alsotaking placein the family whenthe

authorityof the fatherwas perceptiblyshifted by a seriesof legislativeacts such as the

Married Women'sProperty Acts of 1870and 1882and the Guardianshipof InfantsAct

of 1886.

The sameperiod sawthe emergenceof non-normativemale sex" identities.

Medical,scientific and psychological discourses sought to distinguishthe manlyman

from the homosexual.Changes in the law, notablythe LabouchereAmendment to the

CriminalLaw AmendmentAct of 1885made all homosexualacts, private and public,

illegal. This was most famouslyapplied in the OscarWilde trials which havebeen seen I as a critical moment in the opposition between homosexualand heterosexualidenties.

The apparentcollapse of the boundariesof sexualdifference provoked a constellationof

anxietiesabout what hasbeen termed the troubling'sexual anarchy' of the pre-war

6 years.

With the outbreakof the First World War, genderrelations were reinscribedin

the most traditional ways by calling on perceived age old truths about sexual difference:

men as warriors, protecting the fragile sex thereby appearingto reassertthe sexual order.

The extent to which the war altered prevailing ideasabout gender relations has been a

question explored in particular by feminist historians seekingto analysehow femininity

was disrupted, constructed and reconstructed during and after the First World War.

6 See Elaine Showalter, SexualAnarchy. Gender and Cufture at the Fin de Sikle, Hannondsworth: Pcnguin, 1990;Ed Cohcn, Talk on the WildeSide, London: Routledge,1993 SusanKingsley Kent has studied the restructuring of gender relations in the interwar

period and its impact on the ferninist movement. She argues that the war was conceived

in genderedterms and that, in the post war period, 'sexual conflict and polarization

between the sexesprovided one of the few adequatemeans by which the political, 0 economic and social upheaval occasionedby the war could be depicted. Sexualised

discourseswere appropriated as part of the attempt to re-establishthe gender order and

sexual conflict, based on new discoursesof sexual difference, was apparent, in particular

in the competitive post war labour market. However, Kent's casethat the war was

representedpredominantly through sexual metaphor and imagery is overstated and

predicated on an assumption of monolithic masculinity invested with undifferentiated

power to dominate women. Her reading takes no account of the disruptive effects of war on notions of masculinity which, for example,Elaine Showalter explored in her illuminating study of male war neuroses. The effects of shell shock resulting in male hysteria, she argues, undermined 'an ideology of absolute and natural differences between women and men.'s More fragmentary and contradictory masculinities emerge from Showalter's study.

However, the arguments about the disruption and reconstruction of femininity during the war raise the possibility of different but equally troubling questions relating to ideas of masculinity in the post-war years. The theoretical frameworks for understanding how masculinities are produced have taken account of the institutionalisation of'

7 SusanKingsley Kent, Making Peace: TheReconstruction of Genderin Interwar Britain, Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1993, pp. 9-10 8 Elaine Showalter,7he FemaleMalady, Women.Madness and English Culture, 1830-1980,London: Virago, 1985,p. 168

7 masculinity in relation to the state, the labour market and the family9 and the complex

ways in which dominant definitions of mascufinity are affirmed or contested. Thus, as it

has been aptly summarised,'manliness is a contestedterritory; it is an ideological

battlefield'. 10 David Morgan's argument that 'of all the sites where masculinities are

constructed, reproduced and deployed, those associatedwith war and the military are

some of the most direct"' is pertinent in the context of this study. However, by

exploring some of the contradictions and ambivalencesin military fife he suggeststhat

the linkages between masculinity and the military are, in fact, more tenuous than they

might appear.

JoannaBourke has made a significant contribution to the study of men and the

First World War. Dismemberingthe Male approachesthe interactionbetween

12 masculinityand the First World War 'only throughthe corporealbody'. Inan

exhaustivelydetailed account of the physicaldegradation and mutilation of men,she vividly demonstratesthe damagewrought on men'sbodies on an unprecedentedscale.

The waysin which the malebody was disciplined,inspected and policed by military, medicaland civilian institutions are thoroughlydelineated. She also explores the relationsfiýpbetween the body andthe rnindthrough her analysisof malingeringin

See,for example, P, W. Connell, Gender and Power, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989 10 Nigel Edley and Margaret Wetherell, 'Masculinity, power and identity', in Mairtin Mac an Ghaill (ed.), Understanding Masculinities: Social Relations and Cultural Relations, Buckingham: open

University Press, 1996, p. 106 11 David H. J. Morgan 'Theatreof War: Combat,the Military and Masculinities' in Harry Brod and Michael Kaufman(eds), Theorizing Masculinities, London: Sage,1994, p. 165 12 JoannaBourke, Dismembering the Male: IvIen'sBodies, Britain and the Great War,London: ReaktionBooks, 1996,p. 27

8 relationto war neuroses.A major preoccupationis with the debateabout the

decisivenessof the war in changingBritish societyand as the 'contendingauthorities

wagedwar over the malebody' Bourke arguesthat 'the techniquesused to discipline

menwithin military contextswere appliedto civilianworkers between the wars."' After

the war asthe countryforgot the corporealcrisis, the disabledand maimed found

themselvesoccupying a marginalisedexistence which they sharedwith disabledchildren

andinjured workmen. Nevertheless,Bourke's final conclusionis that 'Military

experiencesled to a greatersharing of genderidentities'. 14 Yet, genderidentities and

indeedmasculinity itself cannotbe fully fathomedonly throughthe body. In Bourke's

analysis,the psychicand socialdimensions of genderand the interactionbetween social

roles,social relations and subjectivities are left unexplored.Similarly, I suggest,the

reiteratedassertion that 'most menreturned gratefidly, and happily, to the domestic

fold'", althoughmodified sometimes to acknowledgethat returningwas not alwayseasy,

alsofails to take accountof the family as a site of contestationand negotiation of

masculinityand femininity. Moreover,increased female emancipation, politically,

sociallyand sexually as well as their increasedpresence in the labourmarket had turned

'home' into a differentspace.

In contrastto Bourke's analysis,Graham Dawson's approach in SoldierHeroes is to interrogatehow masculinitiesare shapedby a rangeof culturalrepresentations which, in turn, constitutesubjective identities. He arguesthat 'masculineidentities are

13 ibid. pp. 30,252 14 ibid. p. 252 15 ibid. p. 167

9 lived out in the flesh,but fashionedin the imagination';the soldierhero beinga powerful

form of imaginedmasculinity. "' Dawsonexamines the imperialistmasculinities of the

nineteenthand earlytwentieth centuries embodied in two popularheroes, Havelock of

Lucknow andLawrence of Arabia. Adopting a Kleinianpsychoanalytical framework, he

exploreshow the imaginingof masculinitiesthrough phantasy organise a senseof self

throughthe interactionof the psychicand socialdimensions of gender. His insightsinto

the processesinvolved in establishinga relativelycoherent sense of a masculineself have

madea complexbut valuablecontribution to the theorisingof masculinities.

Someof his insightshave influenced the way in which someof the sourcesin this

studyhave been used. A further influencehas come from the importantcontribution

madeby historiansof the cultural legacyof the First World War. I-Estorianshave long

debatedthe impactof the First World War on British societytrying to disentanglepre-

war trendsfrom post-wardevelopments and to assessthe extentto which the war

acceleratedor precipitatedchange. Arthur Marwick wasone of the earlyexponents of

the view that the 'deluge' of war fundamentallychanged society after 1918.17I-Es views

havebeen modified in the light of further studiesof classformation and class structure as

well as socialpolicies, standards of living andhealth and demographic changes. The

debatesabout the extentto which war changedsociety have incorporated perspectives on wider culturaldiscourses about how the war wasremembered.

16 GrahamDawson, Soldier Heroes:British Adventure,Ernpire and the ImaginingsofMasculinities, London: Routledge,1994, p. 1 17 Arthur Marwick, War and Social Changein the TwentiethCentury, London: Longman, 1974

10 An earlyand influential work which exploredhow the war was 'remembered,

conventionalisedand mythologised'18 is PaulFussell's Ae Great War andModern

Memory (1975). He arguesthat the war representeda rupturingof pre-warcultural

traditionsand modernism, which had'developedpre war, cameof ageduring the war and

in its aftermath. Fussell identifies the use of irony as an example of a new mode of

expressionappropriate to convey the meaning of war, -in opposition to the traditional

shibbolethsof patriotism and Victorian certainties and ideals incorporatingr), notions of

honour, glory and valour in battle.

In his illuminating study, A War Imagined (1992), SamuelHynes also examines

the cultural legacy of the war in recognition that the war was 'the great military and

" political event of its time; but it was also the great imaginative event'. VAffle stressing the continuities with pre-war traditions, he suggeststhe radical discontinuity between the past and present opened up a spacewhere the Myth of War was created in which:

a generationof innocentyoung men, their headsfidl of high abstractionslike Honour,Glory, and England,went off to war to makethe world safefor democracy.They were slaughteredin stupid battleplanned by stupidgenerals. Thosewho survivedwere shocked, disillusioned and embitteredby their war experiencesand saw that their real enemieswere not the Germans,but the old menwho had lied to them. They rejectedthe valuesof the societythat had sent themto war, and in doing so separatedtheir own generation from the pastand from their cultural inheritance.20

18 Paul Fussell,The Great War andModern Memory, Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1975, Preface 19 SamuelHynes, A WarImagined., Ae First World Warand English Culture, London:Pimlico 1992, P. ix 20 ibid. p. ;di

11 The themes of betrayal and disillusionment formed part of the way in which the

war was mythologised particularly, as Hynes argues,in the late 1920s and the following

decade. Bitterness and disillusionment may constitute powerful and resonant elementsof

a particular imagining of war and its expressionbut they could not preclude others. The

experienceof grief and loss touched millions of individuals while at the sametime its

public expressionproduced a culture of commemoration. Jay Winter's study of

mourning, Sites ofMemory, Sites ofMourning (1995) explores how bereaved

communities expressedtheir grief, publicly and privately in the process of coming to

terms with their loss. Concentrating on the theme of loss, his significant contention is

that 'the Great War brought the searchfor an appropriate languageof loss to the centre

of cultural and political life'. 21 In his detailed analysisof a rich array of European

cultural forms, film, painting, literature and the social practices of commemoration,

Winter dissentsfrým previous debatesabout the 'onward ascent of modernism'. Instead

he points to the enduring appeal of many traditional motifs:

The strengthof what may be termed'traditional' forms in socialand cultural life, in art, poetry,and ritual, lay in their powerto mediatebereavement. Tle cuttingedge of 'modem memory',its multi-facetedsense of dislocation,paradox, and the ironic, could expressanger and despair, and did so in enduringways; it wasmelancholic, but it couldnot heal.22

The need for consolation and the searchfor meaningwas widespread after the

war. The ways in which the war was rememberedwere critical to the mourning process

21 Jay Winter, Sites Sites ofMemory, ofMourning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, p. 5 22 ibid.

12 and actsof commemorationfor both individualsand the nation. Understandingthe

processesof rememberingand forgettingas well asthe mythologiescreated from war

experienceshave therefore been crucial elements in the culturalhistoriography of the

First World War.

The theorisingof masculinitiesand subjective experiences as well as the literature

on memory and commemoration of the First World War have informed this study. The chapters follow a form of narrative following men's journeys to the front and then their return home. I wanted to discover how men representedtheir experiencesand how, in the process, their senseof themselvesas men was reflected. I turned to the written, predominantly unpublished memoirs of ordinary soldiers who served in their varying capacities, mainly on the Western Front. The memoirs were sometimesbased on the diaries which many of these men kept and as relatives frequently preservedtheir letters they too were incorporated into memoirs. Others were personal narratives often carefully constructed from memories, written and revised after the war was over. 'They are self-reflective texts and as suck a rich source for interrogating the ways men recorded their experiencesbut also the languagethey used to representthemselves and their reactions to those experiences. In addition, the sound recordings held in the Sound

Archive in the Imperial War Museum in London provided another rich source. The collection of oral interviews with veterans of the First World War were the result of a project started in 1973. The interviewees were drawn from a range of men of different classesand geographical locations. They were primarily concernedwith men's experiencesof war and their rememberedaccounts, Nevertheless,oral histories are never literal narrations and therefore open to differently - inflected interpretations. The sourcesrepresent, then, personal memories the use of which brings methodological

13 issuesinto play. Thesehave been explored in ChapterOne which examinessoldiers'

storiesand the compulsionto re-tell storiesand to returnto the memoriesof war.

Memorieswere recalledat differentmoments in men'sHe historiesand were therefore

shapedby both pastand present experiences. The meaningsattached to war experiences

andthe languagein which they were expressedraises the questionof interpretation;these

sourcesbear testimony to the emotionallives of soldiers. Languageand memory provide

a way of trying to understandthe dynamicsof subjectivitygiving cluesas to how

masculineidentities were disruptedduring the war. The chosenthemes of the chapter

emergedfrom the sources;going to war providedthe opportunityfor exploringthe

differentmotivations which impelledmen to volunteer,estrangement reflected men's

increasingestrangement from their former selvesand from thoseat homewhile loss

exploreshow menreacted to their perceivedloss of themselves.It alsoincorporates the

profoundsense of lossengendered by the deathof comrades.

A major sourceof disruptionto any coherentsense of masculineidentity waswar neuroses.Chapter Two examinesthe phenomenonknown as shellshock as it was representedin military andmedical discourses. The authoritiestried to contendwith the psychiceffects of war on the troops within traditionalmilitary andmedical terms.

Psychologicalexplanations of shellshockemerged to challengetraditional medical diagnoses.All the texts are opento differentreadings and I haveexamined the waysin which assumptionsabout masculinity are both hiddenand explicit. The equationof male war neuroseswith the hysteriaassociated with femininity,as EWne Showalterargues, disturbedsome traditional assumptions. However, shellshock invoked other disturbing representationsof masculinitywhich alsothreatened traditional assumptions about normativemasculinity. Although the subjectiveexperience of shellshock is rarely

14 accessiblefor it is usuallymediated through those who witnessedits effectsor were

authorisedto dealwith the consequences,the waysin which the shellshocked man is

representedby his fellow menis a centraltheme of this chapter. In order to pursuethis

fine of enquiryI interrogatedpersonal memoirs and some published accounts for what

they might revealabout whether men's perceptions of the shellshocked man chaflenge or

confirmthe categoriesadopted by the military andmedical authorities to accountfor its

incidenceamong certain groups of men.

Most personalaccounts are framedby the eventsof the war itself with little or

cursoryattention given to the post-warperiod. Yet the processof the reintegrationof

meninto societyis critical to an analysisof the re-orderingof genderrelations after the

crisisof war andto the questionto what extentthis representeda transformationin

genderrelations as masculinitieswere reconstructed.In chapters3 and4 the studyturns its focus on collectiveand public, ratherthan individual,identities. During the war, as sick andwounded men were dischargedfrom the army,associations of ex-servicemen wereformed in responseto the problemsassociated with return. In the fight of the perceivedinadequacies in the treatmentof veteransby the stateand voluntary authorities,veterans organised collectively to redresstheir grievances.As manyof the personalmemoirs used here frequently end with Armistice,I foundinstead a little-used andlargely neglected source of materialin thejournalsof the ex-servicemenis organisations,Yhe Bulletin, thejournal of the NationalFederation of Dischargedand

DernobilisedSailors and Soldiersand YheComrades Journal of the Comradesof the

GreatWar Association.In addition,the newspaperdedicated to the causeof ex- servicemen,7he Ex-Service Man aswell as the miscellaneouspapers of, in particular,the

NationalUnion of Ex-Servicernenwere examined.The vQiceswhich emergefrom the

15 ex-servicemen'smovement are never uniform for they represent a broad body of men

with diverseopinions and perspectives.Moreover, in their differencesthey representthe

tensionsand negotiations involved in the struggleto createan ex-servicemanidentity.

StephenWard and GrahamWootton, the official biographerof the British

Legion, have written histories of the ex-servicemen'smovements. 23 Ward's account

appearsin a comparative study of other European and American veteran's organisations

which aimed to look at the impact of veterans on their respective societiesin the

aftermath of war. Whil e Ward concludes that their impact was minimal, Wootton's

argument is that 'they were probably high among the important agents of cultural

24 change...by reconciling change with stability'. Their accounts inevitably do not

addressthe central pre-occupations of this study. Other accountswhich analysethe experiencesof Australian, French and German veteranshave taken a more thematic

2' All three and the in approach. are concerned with attitudes, perceptions memory; ways which war experiencewas mediated by past affiliations and present discontents are given full weight. Prost's examination of the languageof the veteransand their political opinions is particularly resonant with the pre-occupations about gender identity being examinedhere. Prost concludes that the political influence of veteranswas limited and

23 StephenWard, 7he War Generation: Veteransofthe First World War,New York: Kennikat Press, 1975;Graham Wootton, The Official History ofthe British Legion, London:MacDonald and Evans, 1956;Graharn Wootton, The Politics ofInfluence: British ex-&rvicemen,Cabinet decisions and cultural change,1917-1957, London: RKP, 1963 24 Wootton,Official History, p. 47 25 StephenGarton, The Cost of War.- Australians Return, Oxford: Oxford University Press,1996; Antoine Prost,In the Wakeof War.'Les Anciens Combattants'andFrench Society 1914-1939, Oxford: Berg, 1992;Robert Whalen, Bitter Wounds:German Victims of the Great War 1914-1939,London: Cornell UniversityPress, 1984

16 their ambitiousobjectives unmet; more significantwas 'the day-todayevidence of

camaraderieand mutual help. The primeaim of theseunsophisticated and tirelessly

devotedmen was to servetheir comrades.'26 Elsewhereex-servicemen's organisations,

havebeen easily dismissed; 'all theseassociations failed to elicit widespreadsupport in

part becausetheir raison Xgtre was modelledtoo closelyon a rrýlitaristicrhetoric of

mateship'.27 Bourke's dismissalis mainlypredicated on her repudiationof male-bonding

as anythingother than the 'spuriousrhetoric of wartimecomradeshi P. )28

Comradeshipis a centralpre-occupation of ChapterThree which exploresthe

formationof the differing associationsand interrogates the conceptof comradeship

which they all espousedand in which they madeemotional investments. The contention

hereis that comradeshipis a more complexconcept than is sometimesacknowledged;

how it was articulatedin the veterans'movement and the meaningsattributed to it will be examined.The commitmentto their deadcomrades influenced veterans' attitudes to the nation'smemorialisation of the deadexpressed in nationaland local commemorative acts. The ex-servicemen'spublications, especially theirjoumals and newspapers provide the major sourcefor an examinationof their competingrepresentations of the ex- servicemanand questions the maleidentities they conferred.

Someex-servicemen's organisations insisted on their political neutrality. Using someof the samesources, Chapter Four turns the attentionto soldiers'politics; political struggleswithin andbetween the organisationsand in the wider political andeconomic

26 ProsýIn the Wakeof War, p. 148 27 Bourkc, Dismemberingthe Male, p. 155 28 ibid. p. 153

17 context. For the first time in 1918, with the passingof the Representation of the People

Act, previously disenfranchisedmen were incorporated into the national polity as citizens. This gave added weight to their demandsfor justice and for full inclusion in the nation for which they had served in war. The return to the much-heralded 'land fit for heroes' was a paiýl one for many ex-servicemen. Loss, a recurring motif, registered powerfully as veterans sought reintegration into civil society. Re-establishingrelatively securemale identities associatedwith work proved elusive as ex-servicemenconstituted a significant percentageof the unemployed resulting from the end of the post-war boom.

Assumptions about the masculinity embodiedin the men who went to fight in the

First World War, to do their duty for King, Country and Empire, seemedto re-establish traditional notions of sexual difference. The instability, sexual, political and social, of the pre-war years appearedto fade away as the nation harnessedits war effort on all fronts.

However, the war unleashednew uncertainties and openedup new fissures. The search for consensusafter the war was implicated in the reconstruction policies designedto herald the transition to peace. Received ideas about the soldier hero construct of masculinity, like male bodies, foundered in the onslaught of mechanisedwarfare.

Soldiers are the subjectsof this study. The ways in which war disturbed their imagined and lived masculineidentities and how they were reconstructed in the transition to peace are its central themes.

18 Chapter One

'INCIDENTS THAT HAUNT ME'

Soldiers'Stories

'I, andI expect,those who returned,stiH go throughit at the firesideor in nightmares." So wrote 11iram.Sturdy in his memoirof the First World War. Sturdywas

Scottishbut enEstedat the recruitingstation in Caerphilly,South Wales where he insisted on joining the artillery as a gunner. I-Eswar story, written twenty years after the war, unfolds in carefully crafted hand-written pagesillustrated throughout by simple but evocative water colour drawings. The inability to forget and the involuntary recurrence of war memories, even in the apparent tranquility of the domestic hearth, was a condition

11iram.Sturdy sharedwith many other veterans:

It is now ten yearssince those four yearsof slaughtercame to an end,but thereare incidentsthat standout in my memoryas if they happenedbut yesterday,incidents that standout in everylittle detail, incidentsthat I shallnever forget. In fact, incidentsthat hauntme. 2

The repetition of the word 'incidents' signals the compulsion to return to the war experiencesand to find a way of incorporating them and giving them meaning. The enduring effects of the war experienceare suggestedby their ability to recur as haunting

I Hirarn Sturdy,IWM Con Shelf 2 W. A. Quinton, IWM 79/35/1

19 memories. Shortly before his death in 1974, at the age of seventy seven,Edmund

Blundenpoignantly acknowledged:

My experiencesin the First World War havehaunted me all my life and for manydays I have,it seemed,lived in that world ratherthan thiS.3

Re-rememberingthe war for manyveterans 'became something like a life work'.

This chapter examinesthe stories told by men of a central emotional experiencein their

life histories,that of beinga soldierin the First World War. Memories,for some,

continuedto inhabittheir psycheslong after the war was over. In revealingthe psychic

aswell asthe socialstructuring of memory,the storiesalso reveal the impactof war on individualsubjectivities. For war andthe military representone of the major siteswhere hegemonicmasculinity is constructedand reproduced. Thus men's stories afford insights into the wayswar confirmed,challenged or disrupteda form of hegemonicmasculinity representedin the figure of the soldierhero. The personalstories which arethe subjects of this chapterare not only men's storiesbut specificallysoldiers' stories.

SamuelHynes entitled his study andreflections on men'saccounts of their

4 experiencesin the two world wars andthe Vietnamwar, YheSoldiers' Tale. I-ES concerntoo is with personalnarratives, usually written retrospectively,and how these war memoirsform a particularclass of writing which he distinguishesfrom autobiography,travel writing andhistory while suggestingthey containelements of each.

3 Quotedin Paul Fussell,The Great War andModern Memory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977,p. 256 4 SamuelHynes, 7he Soldiers'Tale: Bearing Witnessto Modern War,London: Allen Lane, 1997

20 Stories are what he finally opted for, echoed by one of his storytellers, Philip Caputo. In

the prologueto his memoirof the war in Vietnam,Caputo points to the complexlayering

in his apparentlysimple story, a story which is sharedby other soldierwriters in different

wars:

This book doesnot pretendto be history. It hasnothing to do with politics, power,strategy, influence, national interests,or foreignpolicy.... It is simply a story aboutwar, aboutthings men do in war and the thingswar doesto them.5

The stories that soldiers tell are as Edmund Blunden wrote 'very local, limited,

incoherent'while RichardHolmes, the military historian,similarly suggests that what is

recalled is not the big picture but 'disconnected snatchesof unrelated events glimpsed

6 over the parapet of a trench, through a rifle -sight or acrossthe tail-board of a truck'.

The desire expressedby Blunden's 'I must go over the ground again" is also what

compels other soldier writers to give form and meaningto these random images. Caputo

also assertsthe validity of individuals to bear witness to their actions in war and the

legitimacyof their stories,perhaps perceived as marginal to or subversiveof the official

public narrativesin cultural circulation. Nationalimaginings at the outbreakof the First

World War invokedthe abstractqualities of the soldierhero or warrior knight,

chivalrous,dutiful andpatriotic, readyto fight and,if necessarydie for King, Country

5 Philip Caputo,A Rumorof War, London: 1ý4acrnfllan,1977, p. xi 6 RichardHolmes, Firing Line, London: Pimlico, 1994,p. 154 7 EdmundBlunden, Undertonesof War, Harmondsworth:Penguin, 1982, p. 8

21 andEmpire. Neverthelessdarker, less readily acknowledged images frequently lurk in oppositionto officially sponsoredmodels of masculinity.

For war demandsof menthat they transgressthe moralvalues of civil society,to engagein violent actsagainst other humanbeings, to breakthe taboo of killing and 'to 8 makeuse of powersthat civil life forbidsto the ordinarycitizen'. The thingswar does to menare to inflict physicalhardship, privation and suffering. And in the process, somethingelse war doesto menis to changethem. SamuelHynes, who was a Marine bomberin the SecondWorld War, emphasises:

No mangoes through a war without beingchanged by it, and in fundamentalways. And thoughthat processwill not be explicit in everynarrative - not all mena' re self-consciousor reflectiveenough for that - it will be there. Change- inner change- is the othermotive for war stories:not only what happened,but what happenedto me.9

SimiýlarlyRichard Holmes, who alsohas personal experience of combat,writes:

Battle is a watershedeven in the lives of thosewho surviveit without visible scars.... Most ex-soldiersremember war with mixedfeelings, aware that it hasaltered the way they look at the world, consciousthat they havefaced perhaps the greatestchallenge of their lives,grateful for someelements of the experienceand profoundlymoved by others.'0

In his study No Man's Land, Eric Leed examinesthe precise ways in which personalities weretransformed by the First World War, how menwere madestrange by their

8 Martin Green,7he Adventurous Male, Pennsylvania:Pennsylvania University press, 1993,p. 4 9 Hynes,Soldiers'Tale p. 3 10 Holmes,FiringLinep. 394

22 experiencesand how they drew on 'the culturalrepertoires of meaningto definefelt

alterationsin themselves."' Soldiers'stories provide a meansof examiningthese

assertionsfor they are concernedwith, andwork through,the relationshipof the pastto

the presentand the interactionbetween public narrativesof war andprivate memory.

Individualreactions to war expressedwithin the narrativesof soldieringalso represent

the struggleto establishmeaning in the processof integratingthe experiencesinto a

senseof self.

The sourcesof the storiesunder consideration are both written andoral, from both working- classand middle-class men with experienceson the WesternFront. Many ordinarymen in the extraordinarycircumstances of soldieringin the First World War kept diaries,wrote letters(albeit censored)and in somecases after the war, wrote their memoirs,sometimes based on their diariesand usually never intended for publication.

Memoirswritten after the war providethe mainsource with someadditional material from lettersand diaries. Somewriters worked andre-worked their personalaccounts long after the war was over, sometimesrevising their viewsas their experiencestook differentshape in their memoriesover time. CaptainDible who servedas a Medical

Officer in the Royal Army Medical Corpswrote his memoirsbased on lettersand diaries aswell as his own recallof events. He wrote the prefacein 1964in which he writes:

11 Eric Leed,Aro Man's Land, Combatand Identity in World War], Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,1979, p. ix

23 This is not a diary; neitheris it a history. It is a seriesof disconnectedmonologues, interspersed with occasional letters;written from time to time and as the spirit movedme; discoursingupon happenings to myselfand those around I have here ideas, me... written my my trials, andmy sorrows- for this is mostly a chronicleof troublesand vain efforts-for my own later amusement.12

Similarly, another memoir was first drafted in 1922, re-written between 1936 and 1937

and then put aside for fifteen years and slowly re-written until it was completed in

January 1960. Although it was never intended for publication it was not destroyed,

neverthelessthere was a hope that it would 'come to rest in some museum or junk-heap,

and there be fingered by searchersfor detail. 13 It ii significant that both these memoirs were written by officers serving as Medical Officers and both, in their different ways,

allude to the fact that they were not combatantson the front line and thus were unable to write, in Gameson's phrase, 'epic accounts', those associatedwith the 'warriors'.

Nonetheless,their memories of war were central emotional experiencesof their lives to which they were compelledto return. Severalof the accountsby menof the rankstestify to the sameprocess of the compulsionto tell their stories,often carefullytyped or hand- written, sometimeswith titles andprefaces as if to constitute'proper' books. Some showevidence of re-draftingor the productionof alternativeversions of particular eventsor responsesindicative of the struggleto find an appropriatelanguage which continuedwell into the post war period.

12 CaptainI H. Dible, IWM Con Shelf 13 CaptainL. Garneson,IWM P.397

24 The other sourceof storiesused here is oral interviewsfrom the collectionin the

SoundArchive at the ImperialWar Museum. The projectto recordmilitary andcivilian

experiencesof the First World War was startedin 1973. Most of the interviewsused

herewere recordedin the 1980sby which time most of the menwere comingto the end

of their lives,being late eightyand ninety year olds. Their memorieswere thereforeof

eventswhich hadtaken place nearly seventy years previously so their recollectionswere

thoseof old menlooking back on their youngpast selves mediated by manyother life

experiences.The directionof questioningwas setby the maleinterviewers with the form

of eachinterview starting with pre-warlife andending with somereflections on the

impactof war. Someof the areascovered therefore had a directbearing on the issues

beingexplored here. 14 While the useof oral history sourcesis usuallymade by the

practitionersinvolving a personalrelationship with the narrator,this was clearlynot the

casehere. However,most of the interviewsused here, are without transcriptsso that the

activeprocess of listeningto the storiesbeing recounted was not mediatedby the written

word andtherefore, importantly, retained what AlessandroPortelli hascalled the orality of oral sources.15 As Portelli argues,transcripts follow grammaticalrules, particularly of punctuation,which 'hardly evercoincide with rhythmsand pauses of the speaking

" The interviews were not at all formulaic and encouraged informants to express far more than the 'facts' of the events of the First World War. Thanks to Peter Hart of the Sound Archives at the Imperial

War Museum, London for discussing his experience of interviewing veterans. The written sources were selected from the collection of unpublished diaries, letters and memoirs held in the Department of Documents at the Imperial War Museum. 3 Alessandro Portelli, 'The Peculiarities of Oral History', History WorkshopJournal, No. 12, Autumn 1981

25 subject'.16 Similarly,silences, body languageand changes of tone andintonation can be

flattenedout in the processof transcriptionwhereas the processof listeningretains a

vividnessand emotional impact for the listener. However,arguments such as Portelli's

are responsesto the critical scrutinywhich hasbeen applied to the useand validity of

oral sourcesin reconstructingthe past,especially the relationof personalreminiscence,

seenas small-scale,to the historians'task of mappinglarge-scale continuities and

discontinuities.The questionof how to readthe storiesbeing told in both the written

andoral testimoniesunder consideration here has entailed engaging with the debateson

oral history andpopular memory which are pertinentto the issuesof memoryand

masculinity.

The soldiers'stories under discussion form part of the genreof war literature

createdduring andafter the First World War. The focusis on 'unknown'soldiers as

opposedto the writers whosework constituteswhat areregarded as the classicsof the genre,for example,Robert Graves'sGoodhye To All Yhat,Edmund Blunden's

Undertonesof War, SiegfriedS assoon's Yhe Complete Memoirs of GeorgeSherston alongwith their Germancounterparts, Erich Maria Remarque'sAll Quiet on the Western

Front andErnst Junger'sStorm ofSteel. Inevitably,the genreof war literaturehas been dominatedby malewriters nonethelesswomen's lives too wereprofoundly affected by the war andsome were equallycompelled to makesense of the catastrophethrough the telling of a personalstory. Vera Brittain's Testamentof Youthis perhapsthe bestknown example,produced by 'a growing senseof urgency'to recordwhat the war meantto her generation.In exploringwhy shechose finally to write her own story,rather than

16 ibid. p. 98

26 pursuing her original idea of a novel or reproducing parts of the diary which she kept

from 1913to 1918,she concludes:

There was only one possible course left - to tell my own fairly typical story as truthfully as I could against the larger background, and take the risk of offending all those who believe that a personal story should be kept private, however great its public significance and however wide its general application. In no other fashion, it seemed,could I carry out my endeavourto put the life of an ordinary individual into its niche in contemporary history, and thus illustrate the influence of world-wide events and movementsupon the personal destinies of men and women. 17

The telling of war storiesstimulated a particularconsciousness of languageand

literature for, as Fussell suggests,'the presumedinadequacy of languageitself to convey

the factsabout trench warfare is one of the motifs of aUwho wrote aboutthe war'. 18He

alsovividly demonstrateshow menof all rankssought, through traditional literature, euphemism,clich6 and jargon to expressthe inexpressible. The struggle to find an appropriatelanguage to reflect the realitiesof warfarealso entailed an engagementwith form. The narrativeor story is a form which shapesand organises experience but it is not merelya reflectionof the real, a literal narration. For storiesare not only told they are lived throughin the imaginationand in the socialand psychic shaping of memory.

Narrativeis an interpretativedevice through which the narratorsdiscover meaning and a senseof themselvesin termsof classand gender as CarolynSteedman's Landscape For

17 Vera Brittain, Testamentof Youth, 1933:London: Virago edition 1978,p. 12 18 FusseU,Modern Memory,p. 170

27 '9 A Good Woman demonstratesin the story of two fives, her own and her mother's.

Steedmanexplores further the uses of narrative as an interpretative device in her analysis

of a nineteenth century radical, John Pearmanwho was a soldier and in later fife, a

20 policeman. I-Esautobiographical memoir is set in the context of other nineteenth

century military autobiographies written by working-class men. Although as she points

out, soldiering was an uncommon experiencein the nineteenthcentury there were more

military autobiographiesthan for example those written by miners or agricultural workers

whose experienceswere far more common.

What, then, is the significance of these soldiers' stories as Steedmancalls them?

Soldiering, she suggests, 'was the most common metaphorical expression of a man's

21 li fe'. In one sensethese stories are gender specific in reverberating with powerful

imaginings of masculinity with, as Graham Dawson defineates,the epitome of manhood

embodied by the soldier hero:

The soldierhero has proved to be oneof the mostdurable andpowerful forms of ideahsedmasculinity within Western cultural traditionssince the time of the AncientGreeks. Nfilitary virtuessuch as aggression,strength, courage and endurancehave repeatedly been defined as the naturaland inherentqualities of manhood,whose apogee is attainable only in battle. Celebratedas heroin adventurestories telling of his dangerousand daringexploits, the soldierhas become a quintessentialfigure of masculinity.'2

19 SeeCarolyn Steedman,Landscapefor a Good Woman,London: Virago, 1986,especially Part One, 'Stories', pp. 3-24 20 Carolyn Steedman, The Radical Soldier's Tale, London: Routledge, 1988

21 ibid. p. 37

22 GrahamDawson, Soldier Heroes:British adventure,Empire and theImaginings ofMasculinities, London: Routledge,1994, p. I

28 The soldiers'stories work within the tradition of romance,of maleromance and

adventure,one which engageswith audienceexpectation. The underlyingnarrative

structureof 'a dramaof alienation,journeying and arrival; and of coursethe compulsion

of conflict'23isprecisely what rendersthese stories their mythicaland metaphorical

qualities. However,these stories may exist as marginalto other storiescentral to the

dominantcultural discoursesand from that conflict emergestories which allow 'the

24 expressionof psychologicalcomplexity to somemen using them'. Forthejoumeyat

the heartof the soldiers'stories is not only an externalone but alsoa psychicone

throughan imaginativelandscape where the soldierconfronts fear, aggression,loneliness andpowerlessness. For Steedman,the powerlessnessof the soldiersand the

25 'something do unacknowledgedrecognition that war was not to with them , was somethingdone to them,means that thesenarratives cut acrossgender and are narratives of classrather than masculinity. However, as GrahamDawson suggests, these stories canbe readas 'class-specificmasculinities' and he fiifther arguesthat in the contrast betweensuffering and privation and the romanceof adventure'the soldiernow appears as a complex,nuanced imaginative figure, andsoldiers' stories as modes for imagining alternativeforms of masculinity'.26 Sincethe soldierhero is a hegemonicform of masculinity,soldiers' stories may reveal the tensionsbetween idealised versions of masculinityand fived experiences.

23 Steedman, Soldier's Tale, p. 37

24 ibid. p. 17 25 ibid. p. 42 26 Dawson,Soldier Heroes,p. 22

29 The 'popular-memory'approach developed by Dawsonand others has offered a

way of understandingthe interactionbetween public narratives of war andprivate

memory. The cultural practiceof composingstories works within public narratives,

sharedimages of the soldierhero, for example,which are in culturalcirculation in the

form of comics,popular fiction and schooltexts. Thesecultural forms often represent idealisedmasqulinities in which the individualmay make investments since 'men may striveto becomethe manthey would like to imaginethemselves to be.127 At another level,the composingof a story of a personalpast involves a striving 'for a versionof the

28 self that canbe lived with in relativepsychic comfort'. In this approach,the act of rememberinginvolved in the structuringof personalnarratives is both sociallyand psychicallysituated.

The 'popular-memory'approach developed and built on someof the early critiquesof oral history. Sincesome of the accountsunder consideration here are oral testimonies,the debatesare pertinent. Critics of oral historypointed to the unreliability of memorywhich implieddistortion or misrepresentationof the 'facts' coupledwith misgivingsabout the unrepresentativenessor atypicalityof the interviewees.In other words, how 'factual' are oral sources?A further areaof criticismquestioned the value of subjective,individual memories set againstobjective historical analyses of the processesof socialchange. In responseto suchtheoretical and methodological criticisms,oral historypractitioners defended their practiceby referenceto the inherent biasin all historicalsources and the necessityfor interpretationand selection in any

'7 ibid. p. 23 28 ibid.

30 historicalwriting. Furthermore,the validity of oral sourcescould be safeguardedby the

checkingof individualrespondents' 'facts' againstother sources.Similarly, the interview

methoditself wasjustified by recourseto methodologiesemployed in other academic

disciplines,for example,quantitative sociology with its samplingtechniques and in the

carefulattention to ensuringthe standardisationof setsof questionsand in somecases,

29 statisticalanalysis of the datagained from the interviews. Utilising theseframeworks, it

was argued,made it possibleto reconstructthe past'as it reallywas'.

However,an earlyradical critique of oral historywas offeredby Luisa Passerini,

herselfinvolved in oral historyin her studyof Turin factoryworkers' attitudesto fascism in inter-war 30 Arguing factual the years. againstthe predominantly useof oral sources, sheasserts the 'peculiarspecificity of oral material'and the useof differentconceptual approachesto revealthose specificities:

Aboveall, we shouldnot ignorethat the raw materialof oral history consistsnot just in factual statements,but is pre- eminentlyan expressionand representationof culture,and thereforeincludes not only literal narrations,but also dimensionsof memory,ideology and subconsciousdesires. 31

By rejecting the idea of memory as simple recall, Passerinisuggested a far more complex reading of oral history sources wl-kh embracesculture, ideology and

29 For an exampleof an early responseto critics, seeTrevor Lummis, 'Structureand validity in oral evidence',in RobertPerks and Alistair Thomson(eds), The Oral History Reader,London: Routledge, 1998 30 Luisa Passerini,'Work Ideologyand Consensusunder Italian Fascism',History TV6rkshopJournal, No. 8, Autumn 1979.

31 ibid. p. 84

31 consciousnessand an understandingof subjectivity.The term subjectivityrefers to

individualityand self awarenesswhile incorporatingthe senseof the subjectas dynamic,

shapedin relationto'particular discourses and practices through conscious and

unconsciousprocesses. Individual memories draw on culturalrepertoires of language

andmeaning which may influencewhat is beingexpressed but alsoon the symbolic

contentof individualdesires and fantasies. Understanding that memoriesare not

necessarilyfixed but are transformedby subsequentexperiences, changes in personal

circumstancesand in individualsubjective consciousness, points not to the 'unrefiability'

of individuals'memories but ratherto the complexlinks betweenthe pastand the

present:

Memoriesof the pastare, like all common-senseforms, strangelycomposite constructions, resembling a kind Of geology,the selectivesedimentation of pasttraces. 32

In the processof sedimentation,some past traces may be deeplyrepressed; traumatic

memoriesof war experiencesfor example.The desireto forget involvesstrategies of

containmentof feelingsof loss,fear andpain which arethen expressed through sHences,

omissions,slips of the tongue,dreams, body languageand so on.

An il-lustrationof how personalstories involve an effort to containsome of the

conflictsof the pastis the work of Alistair Thomson.In his interviewswith veteran

Anzacs(the Australianand New ZealandArmy Corps)Alistair Thomsonsuggests that

acknowledgingpsychological processes led to 'new understandingsof the personal

32 Popular Memory Group, 'Popular memory: theory, politics, method, in P- Johnson et al (cds), Making Histories; Studies in histoiy-writing andpolitics, London: Hutchinson, 1982

32 33 impactof war, andof what could not be publiclyexpressed'. Repressingpainýl,

troublingmemories and past traumas or trying to resolvecontradictions involves an

engagementwith dominantforms of memory. The publicAnzac legend, associated with

Gallipoli, which developed post war was intrinsic to the making of Austrafian manhood

and nation and provided the framework for his veterans' stories. Thomson's study of the dynamic relationship between the legend of the Anzacs, including its recent cultural representationsin films such as Peter Weir's Gallipoli, and veterans' memories shows the power of national myth in the construction of individual memories. Thomson demonstratesthe interactions between public or popular memory and individual memory and the constant negotiation between them. He adopts the 'aptly ambiguous' term ccomposure' to describe the processesof negotiation wl-&h enableindividuals to achieve

34 6an alignment of our past, present and future lives'. However, subjective composure is not just a private process for it dependson social recognition and the confirmation of identity and a view of the world which fits other coHectiveidentities. Soldiers' stories accordingly may be shapedby certain public perceptionsand may differ in what is told to different audiences. Different kinds of recognition also influence which imaginings of masculinities enable some form of subjective composure. The ways in which individual memories draw on cultural repertoires of the meaningof war and secondly, their impact on constructing male identities provide an interpretative framework for exploring the stories told by First World War soldiers.

33 Alistair Thomson,'Anzac Memories:Putting popularmemory theory into practicein Australia', in Perksand Thomson(cds), Oral History Reader,P. 302. 34 ibid. pp. 300-1

33 The following discussionis structuredaround three themes which havebeen

chosenfrom the personaltestimonies as representativeof key momentsin a man'sre-

telling of his experiencesof beinga soldier. As the majority of the narrativeswere

producedby menwho volunteeredrather than being conscripted, the first theme,going

to war, relatesto the motivationsof menas they madethe transitionfrom civilianlife to a

military one. The secondtheme, estrangement, analyses the experienceof beingmade

strangeand the waysin which the familiar andthe known weretransformed. The final

themeaddresses loss. Feelingsof lossrun throughmany of the personalstories.

Unlike the nýineteenthcentury armies engaged in minor campaignsin colonial

wars, the First World War broughtthe experienceof soldieringto a wide cross-section

of men. The enthusiasmwith which thousandsof menall over Europevolunteered was unexpected.In Britain, the causesof political andsocial unrest appeared to be set aside asmen of all political persuasionsand socialclasses flocked to the recruitingstations fired with a commonpurpose. From a societywhich was fracturedand fragmented came a unifying nationalsentiment, a feelingof community.An effectivewar propaganda machinerolled into actionurging mento take up armsagainst the hideous'Huns' in defenceof Belgiumwhich was representedas small,weak and feminine. The propagandaappealed to traditionalqualities of manhood;duty, chivalry,and honour, both in patriotic terms,for the nationand country and in the familial spherefor protectingtheir womenand children. The propagandacalled up the gendered associationsof war reproducingdeeply embedded divisions between masculinity and femininity. For many,intrinsic to the notion of beinga soldierwas, asJ. B. Priestley wrote 'a challengeto what we felt was our untestedmanhood'. Indeed,the propaganda of the recruitmentcampaigns had effectivelyappealed to traditionalmanly imagery-, the

34 subliminalmessage of the now famousKitchener poster Your Countiy NeedsYou was

the injunction- to be a man. The figure of the soldieroccupied a centralplace in the

nationalnarrative of war which calledon traditionsof pastmilitary andimperial glories;

menwere expectedto fight and,if necessary,die for their country. The outbreakof war

in August 1914offered men the opportunityto participatein what RichardHolmes

35 evocativelycalls 'the most passionatedrama of all'. In the first eighteenmonths of the war 2.4 million menresponded to the call andvolunteered.

Contrary to the view that military service was an escapefrom unemployment, Jay

Winter hasconcluded that the earlyrush to enlistwas from menin the most well-paid manualoccupations with evenhigher levels of recruitmentof non-manualworkers:

Unemploymentdid notfill theranks of Kitchener'sarmy, popularsentiment did. Theprotection of 'little Belgium',the defenceof theempire, the need to beseen to bedoing one's militaryduty alongside the men of one'sdistrict or village; thesemay sound like outwornclichds today, but in 1914they hadforce and substance in theminds of ordinarypeople. 36

For example, by mid-1915, over 230,000 miners - approximately one-quarter of the

Durham, Glamorgan workforce - had enlisted, especially from areassuch as and

Northumberland despite their history of pre-war militancy; 'sentiments about nation and empire, rather than discontent, were behind massenlistment in this industry.237 The

3's Holmes,Firing Line, p. 6 36 Jay Winter, 'The Army and Society', in L Beckettand K. Simpson(eds), A Nation in Arms, Manchester:Manchester University Press,1985, p. 197 37 JayWinter, The Great Mar and the British People,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 35

35 responseof the minerswas reflectedin other skilledtrades and by February1915,15 per

cent of the industrialworkforce were in uniform and 'particularlyhigh enlistmentrates were registeredin engineering,chemicals and iron andsteel' ratherthan in the more precarioustrades. 38

Theseskilled men often found themselvesunder the commandof young ex-public schoolmenwho swelledthe ranksof the officer class. A manwho at the ageof twenty was an officer in chargeof a battalionwhich includedmany Durham miners, recalled an incidentin trainingat Blandfordin Dorset:

You can imagineDurham miners didn't needmuch teaching how to dig! I'll neverforget, oneof the otherbattalions challengedour companyto a trenchdigging competition. We didn't say a word, after all they werechallenging us. Whenthe day came,our chapswere pretty well downand out of sight andour challengerswere still scratchingthe surface. We hadto admitthat our chapswere all miners.39

Inculcatedon the sportsfield of his minor public schoolwith notionsof the healthybody as an attributeof manliness,he commentedon the 'physicalunfitness of the troops' he observedduring basic training. A certainpride canbe detectedin the apparenthealth andvigour demonstratedby his companyof minersas they defeattheir opponentswith ease.What could not havebeen anticipated was that this seeminglyinnocent game playedout in Dorsetwould be transformedinto a nightmarewhen faced with the horrors of trenchwarfare.

38 ibid. 39 Arthur Watts,IWM 8278

36 As the military historianS. L. A. Marshallobserved, the averagesoldier goes to

battle, 'the supremelytesting experience of his lifetime,almost as a total stranger.'40 The

unrealityof their visionsof war were probablyshared by the officer andhis menbut their

classposition would haveinfluenced their motivationsfor volunteering.The young

officer would havebeen conditioned by his educationto associatewar with honour,

glory andheroic self-sacrificeand to readilyassume his positionas a leaderof other men.

Patriotismand the power of nationalistand imperialist rhetoric and propaganda also had

its appealfor sectionsof the working classdespite the high level of industrialunrest prior

to the outbreakof war.

Whatwas alsobeing appealed to were specificversions of masculinityassociated

with the skilledworking man. Keith McClellandargues that while work was the place

whereskilled men's identities were partly constructed,collective organisation especially

the tradeunion shapedtheir senseof beingindependent men, sustaining a collectiveand

individualmoral responsibility. Such independence and a cultureof respectabilitywas

maintainedby the ability to supporta wife andchildren, the wife playinga'crucial role in

cultivatingdomestic skills and providinga respectableretreat from the world of labour.'

The call to enlistmay well haveresonated with a senseof moralresponsibility to the

nationcoupled with the desireto protect their familiesand communities and by

extension,small, fen-ýinised Belgium. Perhapstoo a relativelysecure male identity, or at leastmale pride affordedby the masteryof a skill andsome degree of control over their

40 Quotedin Holmes,Firing Line, p. 73 " Keith McClelland, 'NUwulinity and the representativewtism in Britain, 1850-1880',in Hchacl Roperand JohnTosh (eds),Manful Assertions,Masculinities in Britain since 1800,London: Routledge, 1991,pp. 74-87

37 work andworking conditionscould resonatewith publicrepresentations of the soldier

hero as confirming,and conforming to, what it meansto be a man.

Yet while the idealisedsoldier hero was a powerfulimagining of masculinity,

regularsoldiers were frequentlyregarded with contemptand displays of militarismwith

fear. The objectsof the Boy Scoutsmovement which were designedto instil disciplinein

boyswere not alwaysseen in a favourablelight amongthe classesit set out to improve.

It hasbeen argued that organisationssuch as the Boy Scoutsand Boys' Brigadewere

more attractiveto the upwardly-aspiring working classesand lower middleclasses; the 42 'hooligans'or 'rough lads' remainedimpervious to the idealsof Christianmanliness.

Oneman who enlistedat the ageof eighteenin 1915wrote of local attitudesto his pre-

war activitiesat a Boy Scoutcamp:

Theremust have been more than a hundredboys at the camp. We did a lot of work during the day- you couldcall it playingat soldiers. It really was army training for boysand, of course,it wasn't approvedof by a goodmany people for that reason.They thoughtit was turning us into soldiers. Two or threeyears later we wereall soldiersanyway. 43

Nonetheless,many boys and men had a stake in defining their masculinity in the

public representationsin circulation in the call to arms. The war cast its shadow over

42 John Springhall, 'Building characterin the British boy: the attemptto extendChristian manlinessto worldng-classadolescents, 1880-1914', in J. A. Manganand JamesWalvin (eds),Manliness and Morality: Middle-ClassMasculinity in Britain andAmerica, 1800-1940,Manchester: Manchester University Press,1987 43 S. E. Butler, IWM 86/2/1

38 menwho were not combatantswho were too youngto fight. ChristopherIsherwood

was of that generation,yet the war provokedthe questionof identity for Isherwood:

Like most of my generation, I was obsessedby a complex of terrors and longings connectedwith the idea of 'War'. 'War', in this purely neurotic sense,meant, The Test. The test of your courage, your maturity, of your sexual prowess. 'Are you really a ManT Subconsciously, I believe, I longed to be subjectedto this test; but I also dreadedfailure. I dreaded failure so much - indeed I was so certain that I should fail - that consciously, I denied my longing to be tested altogether. I denied my all-consuming morbid interest in the idea of 'war'. 44

Being a soldierwas the ultimatetest andhopefully, proof of a coherentand secure masculineidentity, emphasisedby the useof capitalletters. Yet at the sametime the precariousnessof suchan identity is acknowledgedby referenceto unconsciousdesires, fantasiesand fears. Fearof failure, of not passing'The Test', undermineda man'ssense ofhimself A similarconflict was expressedin a Londonjournalist's memoir published in

1930. On boarda troopshiphe reflected:

I began to think that I was rather a mug for being there. I needn't have been. I had joined rather late, but still as a volunteer... I had no inclination at all for soldiering and privately knew myself to be a coward. Then what was I doing in that rotten cattle-boat, probably on my way to a bloody death? Professor Freud might answer the question. I hated being thought a funk. I had the strongest disapproval of young and fit civilians without dependents,but could not express it while I was a civilian myself I found it very uncomfortable to crawl about in a lounge suit while most men of my age were in khaki. 45

" ChristopherIsherwood, Lions and Shadows,London: HogarthPress, 193 8, p. 16 45 Ex-PrivateX War is War, quotedin Hynes,Soldiers'Tale, pp. 49-50

39 Volunteeringwas not alwaysa matterof free choice,even a reluctantone as in the

exampleabove. Therewas often pressureon mento enlistfrom family, communityand

in somecases, from employers.Although muchof the propagandautilised images of

womento urge mento enlistnevertheless, as Michael Kimmel suggests'manhood is

demonstratedby other men'sapproval. It is othermen who evaluatethe performance...

masculinityas a homosocialenactment is fraughtwith danger.46 Displaying weakness in

the face of other menwas somethingto be feared:

I was loath to go. I hadno romanticillusions. I was not eager,or evenresigned to self - sacrifice,and my heartgave back no answeringthrob to the thoughtof England. In fact, I was very muchafraid, andagain, afraid of beingafraid, 47 anxiousless I shouldshow it.

The competitivescrutiny of other menand the fear of non-conformitywould haveplayed

its part in, for example,the formationof the Palsbattalions, units madeup of friendsand

workmatesfrom the samelocalities or workplaces.However, there. were other

motivationsfor enlistingand accepting the chaflengeof becominga soldier.

Eric Leed arguesthat war was an imaginedliberation from andcounterweight to

industrialisationand the conflictsof economicand social life endemicto the 'machine

age'. Similarlywar alsooffered a releasefrom normaleconomic activity of a commercial

age,'the antithesisof the boredom,materiality and mechanization of everydaylife'. " An

illustrationof Leed's thesiswas providedby a manwho hadbeen a Post Office clerk at

'16 Michael S. Kimmel, 'Masculinity as Homophobia',in H. Brod and M. Kaufmann(eds), 7heorizing masculinities, London: Sage,1994, pp. 128-129 47 Guy Chapman,A PassionateProdigality, London: Mayflower-Delledition, 1967,p. 8 48 Leed,No Man's Land, p. 66

40 the time who recalled,'it was to me a greatrelief to get awayfrom the office, I hated

beingtied to a desk.v49 Moreover, clerical work hadbeen transformed by the perceived

invasionof largenumbers of womeninto an areaof 'women'swork'. Male clerks

experiencedthe processas emasculating." The possibilityof escapefrom the

monotonousroutines of daily work and perhapsdomesticity as well meantthe war could

be imaginedas a releaseinto new freedomsand new challenges.For the call to volunteer

was alsoan invitationto engageimaginatively and concretely in the risks andchallenges

of adventureand in the imaginingsof alternativemasculinities.

The adventureromance takes the soldierhero on his questfrom a safefamiliar

world into the unknown where, having conquered all manner of physical obstacles,

fought valiantly in battle and proved his moral and physical courage, he returns home,

unharmed and triumphant, a hero. In his memoir, John McCauley records his

anticipation of going to war, already imagining himself as a hero of an adventure story:

My own reflectionsthcn were:How romanticit will be,what can war be like? I mightjust be in time to seethe endif I join up at once. My imaginationwas runningaway with me. The spirit of adventureimpelled me, as it did millions of boysand young men like me all over the world. I was gettingelated at the promiseof the greatadventure. I picturedmyself coming back andtelling my friendswhat a gloriousthing war was.31

49 Clifford Lane,lWM 7257 " Meta Zimmcck, 'Jobsfor the Girls: the Expansionof Clerical Work for Women, 1850-1914'in V. John(ed. ), UnequalOpportunities: Angcla Women'sEmployment. in England 1850-1914, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986 51 JohnMcCauley, IWM 97/10/1

41 The senseof excitementand adventure was clearlythe impetusto enlistfor Rowland

Luther, a nineteenyear old from a SouthWales mining town:

The strangething aboutit all was that we knewwe were goingto the front to kill, die or suffer terrible wounds,yet not oneman was dispirited. Tl-ýsindeed was a wonderful army - civiliansturned soldiers in a few months.We were all young-I was nineteen-I do not think therewas anyone over 24 yearsof age,except the Major and Sergeant- Major."

Being awareof the harshrealities of war was not necessarilya deterrentas the

psychologist William Jamesobserved in 1910, 'showing war's irrationality is of no effect

upon [modem man]. The horror is the fascination. War is the strong life; it is life in

53 , The desire to to the mi extremis . go war outweighed even evidenceof what war ght

inflict on men. While in barracks in Shoeburyness,John McCauley met wounded men

returning from the front:

I listenedto their storiesof the horrorsand hardships they encounteredin the fields of Flandersand France.They had seenwar. Their spirits weresubdued. Their harrowingtales left no impressionupon me. My desireto get out to thefront andsee for myselfwhat it was like grew strongerthan ever. '

For young men particularly, the opportunity to leave civilian life for unknown adventures as soldierswas almostirresistible. A manwho joined up at the ageof fifteen and a half

52 p Luther IVM 8718/1 ,owland , 53 Quotedin Holmes,Firing Line, p. 59 S4 JohnMcCauley, lWM 97/10/1

42 relivedthe enthusiasmseventy years later: 'I wantedto be in it, it was something,when

the war startedI wantedto be in it'. "

Adventurestories, especially war stories,were the stapleofjuvenile literature

from the 1870s onwards, aimed specifically at boys and Rimishing their imaginations

with heroic figures. Perhaps going to France held out similar possibilities of adventure as

the Frontier and the exotic regions of the Empire which were the locations of G. A.

Henty's stories, for example. Henty's output was prodigious as were the salesof his

books, each selling about 150,000 copies in Britain alone. He wrote eighty historical

adventure stories for boys as well as contributing to the Boys' Oým Paper. Theclass

readershipof this genre of gender-differentiatedjuvenile literature has been defined by

some historians as lower middle class and upper working class56 and therefore they argue

4id not influence the imaginations of the majority of working-class boys. However,

similar adventure stories appearedin Yhe Gem and YheMagnet which were designedfor a masspopular readership and were full of the exploits of heroeswinning victories, whether at school, in the classroom or sports field or in fulfilling their imperial mission."

There is certainly evidence of a spirit of adventure compelling young men to volunteer from the sourcesbeing used here. A private described'four hundred happy-go-lucky fellows' starting on a great adventure:

53 Joseph Pickardý IWM 8946 m Springhall, 'Building Character', pp. 63-68 57 See, for Kelly Boyd, 'Knowing example, Your Place: the tensions of manliness in boys' story papers,

1918-3 9', in Roper and Tosh (edS), Manful assertions, pp. 146-8

43 War to us was a glorioustlýing, an affair of honourand we discussed(the) future with enthusiasm.Not that we spokeof the battle front, andthe fact that someof us would never comeback for, strangeto say, Us wasnever mentioncd 5'

Some older men especially those vvith families or establishedcareers experienced

a conflict of interest when considering volunteering. At the outbreak of war, Guy

Buckeridge was thirty four years old, unmarried and a member of a 'united family, a little

dull and homely perhaps... life appearedsettled in easypaths. '59 However:

after discussion we all decidedto volunteer, though we were convinced that in the end we should all suffer loss of ordinary opportunity of progress, pecuniary loss and a breakdown of our personal hopes and ambitions. 60

Sadly,their predictionswere correct;a cousinwho lived with themwas killed andthree

brotherswere wounded. Consequently,'none of thesehave since been able to reach

their previousstandard of living.' What was at stakefor a middle-classrecruit was the

potentialloss of earningswhich would threatena middle-classman's status and senseof

independence.The referenceto 'personalhopes and ambitions' emphasise the

importanceof individualachievement in the constructionof middle-classmasculinities.

Moreover,the individualdecision made within the confinesof the family circle contrasts with the morecollective responses found amongthe rtýiinersfor exampleor in the Pals battalions.Although Guy Buckeridgefelt he hadneither experience nor knowledgethat

m W. A. Quinton, IWM 79/35/1 59 Guy Buckeridge, IWM P273 60 ibid.

44 was useful for active service, neverthelesshis senseof duty finally overrode his individual

concernsand he enlistedin February1915.

In the climateproduced by the outbreakof war he may alsohave felt compelled

to prove his manhood, to pass the test. However he experienceda senseof discomfort

when he joined his fellow recruits carrying a suitcasecontaining his belongings:

At that time I felt I was unusualand cursed the suitcaseand all it contained.There is nothinga normalman resents more than appearingdifferent from the acceptedconception of what is correct.61

Under the gaze of the other recruits, he felt humiliated by his attention to his personal

belongings, a fastidiousnessmore associatedwith feminine behaviour. His acute senseof

not conforming to the sharedmanly image of the potential soldier was significant enough

to be recorded in his 'Memoirs of His Army Service in the Great War 1914-18 by Guy

Buckeridge'. Clearly never intended for publication, his memoirs were found after his

death in 1956 but as they were undated it is impossibleto verifý when they were written.

In the process of composing his memoirs he had to explore, and finally express,the tension between his image of himself and what he saw as a 'correct' version of masculinity constituted by the behaviour and attitudes of the other recruits. On occasionshe felt his senseof self threatened by alternative versions of masculinity.

However, his middle-class attributes of self control reassertedhis power over his own actions and gave him a senseof superiority over his fellow working-class recruits. For example, in the midst of the m8l6e of leave takings as men set out for the front 'some

61 ibid.

45 were hysterical,some ribald, somemaudlin, according to the natureof thoseconcerned'

which Buckeridgefound 'very disturbing',he reflected'I haveno useat anytime for

emotion,it seemsto me that one cannever do justice to feefingsand they arebetter left

unexpressed'.62 Nonetheless,the act of writing itself forceshim beyonda merefactual

recordingof eventswhich took placeinto the articulationof the meaningand exploration

of the emotionaland psychic responses engendered by thoseexperiences and finally to

give expressionto them. The awardof a DistinguishedConduct Medal which publicly

affirmedand recognised his contributionin the war andthe privateprocess of recording

his memoirsallowed him to acknowledgeand come to termswith other discomforting

selves.

As arguedearlier, many soldiers' stories are structuredsimilarly to adventure

narrativesbut thereis alsoanother narrative which canbe detected;that of a narrativeof

self or selves,the pre-war,civilian self, the soldieror war self, andthe post-warself

The senseof disruptionand discontinuity is what drivesthe narrativesof soldiers'stories

andwhat distinguishesthem from the Westerntradition of maleautobiography which

Bella Brodzki andCeleste Schenck delineate as the presentationof a unified, transcendentand representative self In their projectto theorisewomen's autobiographicalwritings, they cite the exampleof Barthessubversion of the male autobiographicalform, RolandBarthes par RolandBarthes as a modelof

63 &nonrepresentative, dispersed, displaced subjectivity', morealigned with women's

62 ibid.

63 BclIa Brodzld and CclesteSchcnck, LifelEives, TheorisingWomeWsAutobiography, Ithaca: Comcll Univusity Prcss,1988, pp. 1-6

46 subjectivities.While with a post modemsensibility, it is impossibleto understandfemale

andmale subjectivity as eitherunified or coherent,reading soldiers' stories as disruptive

of a senseof identity pointsto the waysin which war provokedmale gender anxieties.

Being a soldieris a definingmoment in the constructionof self,a particularversion of

masculinitybut alsosimultaneously, because war legitimiseskilling andopens up the

possibilityof the humiliationof beinga cowardit canalso represent a 'potential shameful

momentfilled with meaningsthat must continueto be repressedand distorted if a viable

self is to be maintained.s64 Maintaining a viableor coherentsense of self canbe achieved

65 by forgetting. As Bert Rudgeput it: 'I forgot it all. You hadto go backto work'.

Whenin the interviewsmen were askedto reflect on whetherthe war hadchanged them

somewere certainit had not: 'I don't think it's affectedme much. It's not mademy

characterany different.766 Indeed, some men felt the war hadbeen a positiveexperience,

a rite of passageinto manhood:

I was determiqedto go, I was glad I went, I've never complainedabout being in the war. It mademe a man becauseI was standingon my feet by the time I was fifteen anda half amongstmen and you had to standup for yourself. I hadme fights. 67

However, for those aware of less positive changeswrought by their war experience,the senseof being 'made strange' was profound.

64 StanleyD. Rosenberg,'The Thresholdof Thrill' in Miriam Cookeand Angela Woollacott(eds), GenderingWar Talk, Princeton:Princeton University Press,1993, p. 47 65 Bert Rudge,IWM 85/39/1 66 GeorgeAshurst, IWM 9875 157Joseph Pickard, IWM 8946

47 It is generally recognised that military personnelreturning for combat often feel a

senseof estrangementfrom the civilianworld to which they are returning. The senseof

estrangement,however, could alsobe experiencedin the courseof the war itself

engenderinga senseof discontinuity. In Leed's evocative phrase men were 'made

strange' and this senseof estrangementis a recurring motif in many of the memoirs:

Our entirethoughts and feelingsare completelyrearranged; if I was not afi-aidof beingmisunderstood, I could almost that 'estranged'from the say we are somehow61 menand thingsof our former life.

Severedfrom their pastcivilian lives andsocial and domestic relations, men found themselvesin an alien landscape,literally unimaginableprior to the war. A landscape, moreover,suffused with mutilation,carnage and death:

The wholelandscape is so outsidemy ken that I feel I am not seeingFrance's living face but the nebulouscountry of drearnlife. '9

Although the writer thought later that his languagewas 'approaching the high-flown' he went on to describea 'sense of unease,which was almost overwhelming, derived in part M from the senseof separation from a normally ordered world. War has disturbed the familiar world, even the natural world becomesincoherent and strange as in a scene describedby a correspondent in a letter to his wife:

68 P. Witcop (ed.), Kriegsbriefegefallener Studenten,Munich, 1936,p. 210 quotedin Leed,,Vo Man Is Land, p. 22 69 Captain L. Garneson, IWM P.397

70 ibid.

48 At B. I was strugglingover heapsof stones,bricks etc. and suddenlyfelt myselfheld up by a- a massof snowdrops.It really was the mostpathetic thing I haveever experienced. My groom,who was following me closely,absolutely wept whenI drew his attentionto them,and I had a big lump in my throat myself 71

Sincebeing a soldierconfirms a dominantmodel of masculinity,war allowsthe

opportunityfor mento displaycharacteristics traditionally associated with the feminine

suchas weeping for example.Nevertheless, while the sight of snowdropsprovoked an

intenseemotional reaction in both menthe officer representshimself as a mancapable of

maintaininghis manlyself-control as befitting a manof his classand authority. It is the

groom,the working-classman, probably known asa lad, who is depictedas weeping,

The senseof estrangementfrom their previouslives representednot only a changein external circumstancesbut also a lack of recognition of a previous civilian identity, a senseof discontinuity As one man expressedin terms almost of astonishment,

'hard to believe. Impossible to believe. That other life, so near in time and distance, was something led by different men. Two lives that bore no relation to each other. That was what they all felt, the bloody lot of them.'72

One of the processeswhich attempts to transform civilians into soldiers is military training, especiallybasic training. While its main purpose is to produce effectivenesson the battlefield it also seeksto ensurethat individual civilian values are 'replaced by the

7' CaptainR J. C. Leland, IWM 961511 72 StuartCloete, How YoungThey Died, 1969,quoted in FusselLModem Memory, p. 64

49 group spirit andgroup loyaltiesthat underlieall military organisations.'73 Great

emphasisis laid on virility andan exaggeratedmasculinity which eschewsanything

perceivedas weakness, as 'feminine'. JohnMcCauley vividly describedhis

transformationduring his training:

I hadgrown hard, evenselfish, and tainted with a kind of viciousness.Strange circumstances and environmentwere mouldingme this way and 'I don't carea damn' sort of moodgripped me, and my hold on civilisationand the orderedlife that I had beenused to was weakening.7'

Moreover,the disjuncturebetween the soldierof the imagination- heroic,

masterfiA,a manof action- andthe soldierin the trenchesonly servedto confirm a sense

of discontinuity. Heroic visionsof soldieringand adventure which hadcaptured many

youngmen's imaginations slowly evaporatedin the realitiesof trenchwarfare as men

were renderedpowerless. The mechanisationof warfarewith new weaponsof

destruction,long-range weaponry and high explosiveshells, was ashorrific asit was unexpectedfor the regularsoldiers as well asthe new civilian army. Publicperceptions

of battlebelonged to the pastbut they were the oneswhich would havefiirnished the mindsof manyvolunteers; 'Battles shouldideally be on a humanscale. They shouldtake placein a relativelyconfined space and occupy a limited amountof time. They shouldbe clear-cutin their result anddecided by identifiableacts of heroism. This was how battles were paintedby generationsof war artistsin the greatVictorian andEdwardian

73 Holmes, Firing Line, p. 36 74 john WCaUICY, JVM 97/10/1

50 illustrated press. This is how they were painted in 1914.P75 The industrialised warfare of

the First World War was far removed from the images of battle from the past. As John

Keegan points out, the Battle of Waterloo was a three day ordeal for some regiments

while others experiencedonly one day of battle; battles of the First World War in stark

contrast, could last for months: 76

Trench warfare was far from spectacular; the misery of standing in one spot for weeks on end, never advancing, never retiring, being shelled incessantly and suffering incalculable hardships can never be understoodby those who have never experiencedit. 77

The image of battle as 'spectacular' was in reality replaced by passivity, boredom andwhat could seemlike endlesswaiting for actionoften againstan invisibleenemy:

Such courage and nerve as I possessedwere stolen from me on the blood-drcnchcd plains of northern France. How often do I fccl the loss today? Devil's Trench and many other trenches in France and Flanders have helped to make me a weakling. They took away many of the attributes which contributed to my manhood, sapped up my courage, shatteredmy nerves and threw me back into a 'civilised' world again, broken in spirit and nerve and the coward that I am. 78

JohnMcCauley's anguish at his apparentloss of manhoodwas experiencedboth psycl-kafly and physicafly. Psychic disorientation and disturbancewere rnirrored by a reduction of the physical self, his body. Virility and physical strength were attributes

75 J. M. Bourne,Britain and the Great War, 1914-1918,London: Edward Arnold, 1989,p. 27 76 JohnKeegan, The Face ofBattle, London: JonathanCape, 1976, pp. 302-3 77 Harold Clegg,IWM 88/18/1 78 JohnMcCauley, IWM 97/10/1

51 which embodiedmasculinity and a man's senseof self includesan imageof the body as

potent andeffective. In war, the malebody is alwaysat risk of damage,mutilation or

final annihilation.The loss of masteryof physicalperformance and the loss of self-

control results in a terrifying helplessnessand fear that the senseof malenessis in danger.

The resort to metaphor becomesthe mode of expressionas men felt they were reduced

to animalsburrowing in the earthfor their survival. In a letter to SiegfriedSassoon in

1929,Man Dadd reflectedthat his war experiencewhile being'by far the largest

experienceof my life' was mainly a 'wearisome and beastly one'. 'Beastly' here has

significance for he continues:

For a longtime after I cameback I felt like a crushedreptile that has beenstamped on in the road, but hasmanaged to wigglethrough dust andfilth to safety.79

Eric Leed hasdescribed the battlefieldas a landscapesuffused with ambivalence,both emptyof menand yet saturatedwith men,and citesex-combatants drawing similar animalmetaphors: 'rabbits concealed', 'perfect moles'.'o Hiram Sturdytoo resortsto metaphorto expressthe discordancebetween the fantasiesof the warrior fighting for

King andCountry and being stripped of a senseof self.

No quotingof passagesfrom patriotic speechesor gemsfrom the greatwriters aboutPatris, Paterland or Motherlandthen. All onewants to be is a worm, driven by somestrong force, which will drive onedown, down, down away from these hellishdevices which civilisationhas made. 81

79 Letter from Julian Dadd to SiegfriedSassoon July 7 1929,Siegfried Sassoon Papers, IWM P444/552 go Lecd,No Man's Land, pp. 20,92 81 11iramSturdy, IWM Con Shelf

52 The staticand mechanised nature of trenchwarfare rendered it frequently

impossiblefor mento embodythemselves as powerfulor effectiveagents. Some

historianshave suggested that the dull monotonyof trenchlife, the obedienceto orders

only mirroredmany working-class men's experienceof work andlabour relations. More

so, it hasbeen argued, their low expectations,poor housingconditions, low wagesand

high mortality ratesprepared men for adjustmentto armylife. On onehand, this

argumentignores the fundamentaldifferences between military andcivilian life while on

the other hand,it canbe argued,that it was preciselythese factors which mitigated

againstwell-being and good healthand the necessaryphysical fitness required in army

life. The physicalityassociated with masculinityand the capacityfor physicalendurance

representsa certainclass specific masculinity. Somesections of working-classmen were

unfit beforeever experiencing the hardshipsand privations of trenchwarfare as a

MedicalOfficer observedabout recruits from 'the backstreets of Preston':

The resultsof the enthusiasticand not over-conscientious recruitingwere enough to drive oneto despair. Now, five yearsafterward, I can write down in cold bloodthat I have hadmen sent down in my drafts, passedas fit for active servicein the army by somemember of my own profession who hadopen tuberculous sinuses of bone;tuberculous glandsin the neckthe sizeof walnuts;men lacking three fingerson their trigger hand;men with ankylosedjoints; men, innumerable,with hernia;men with varicoseveins good enoughfor the illustrationof a surgicaltextbook 82

Long periodsof boredomwhen soldierswere immobilised,waiting for actionbut alwaysagainst a backgroundof the noiseof explosionsand artillery fire werejuxtaposed

112Captain J. H. Dible, IWM Con Shelf

53 by the intensityof going on the attackagainst an often invisibleenemy. Not surprisingly,

their emotionswere constantlyin flux often recordedin written andoral memoriesas

contradictionsand inconsistencies. One of Britain's highestscoring ace pilots who was

killed in 1918and awarded the VC a year after his deathwas Lieutenant Edward

Mannock. He combineda fervent socialistoutlook with a virulent hatredof the

Germans.His callousnesstowards the enemyinvolved him in taking enormousrisks

which incidentally,resulted in accusationsof 'non-gentlemanly'behavour that probably

hadmore to do with his classbackground which wasnot the conventionalone of pilots

in the First World War. Despitehis reputationfor courageand for his fearlessexploits,

his diary entriesattest to a man'sinner turmoil ashe strugglesto overcomefear andto

psychologicallyaccommodate his actsof 'murder'. On June7 1917Edward Mannock

recordedin his diary, 'I let him have60 roundsat that rangeso therewasn't muchleft of

him. Roughluck, but it's war andthey're Huns.' Two weekslater havingshot down

anotherGerman pilot, his,diary entry for June20 1917read:

I felt exactlylike a murderer. Ile journey to the trenches wasrather nauseating - deadmen's legssticking through the sideswith putteesand boots still on - bits of bonesand skulls with the hair peelingoff, andtons of equipmentand clothes lying about. This sort of thing, togetherwith a strong graveyardstench and the deadand mangled body of the pilot (an NCO) combinedto upsetme for a few days.93

83 Thanksto PeterHart of the Departmentof SoundArchives at the Imperial War Museumfor information and referencesabout Edward Mannock. Nigel Steeland PeterM. Hart, Tumultin the Clouds.,The British Experienceof the War in the Air, 1914-1918,London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1997,pp. 216-7

54 Decadesafter the war andwith the hindsightof maturityand age, men still

experiencedthe painful contradictionsand complexitiesof their soldieringexperiences:

I hadjust as muchpleasure out of it as what I did the bad times. It's true I sawhorrific scenes,bombardments when bits disciplined of men ... the point was you wereso that you took it all for grantedas if it was a normalthing "

The breakin the sentenceand the inability to describefully what he hadwitnessed

suggestsit was anythingbut 'a normalthing'. The attemptto situatethe extraordinary

circumstancesof war within somemeaningful context was a long term processand not

easilyresolved in the morenormal surroundings of home. Homebecame increasingly

idealisedas the site for the restorationof masculineagency and for the achievementof

someform of psychologicalcomposure.

Soldiersgoing homeon leavemay well haveimagined home as a placeof safety wherenormal values and meanings would be re-establishedwithin a familiar environment andfamiliar socialrelations, far awayfrom the nightmareof the battlefields. Going on leavecould howeverexacerbate the feelingsof discontinuity;'this leavehas been nothing more thana dream. I cannotreally realiseyet that I havebeen at home. How I hate leave. The returningis just too damnable.'85Moreover, the senseof estrangementcould remainwith them evenwhen they were at home. RowlandLuther, who enlistedin

September1914, described his feefingswhen at homeon leavein Waleson Boxing Day

1916:

84 William Holmes, IWM 8868 83 Captain H. J. C. Leland, lWM 96/5/1

55 It was still snowingnext day and I went out to havea look around,but thingshad changedhere too. I calledin a pub or two, but they werealmost empty. Thereseemed no enjoymentanywhere. Many peoplehad lost relations,and food was gettingscarce ... therewas nothingparticularly pleasantabout this leave,except a soft bed,a cleanbody and fTeedornfrom the dangerof gunfire. 86

The image of snow serveshere to heighten Rowland Luther's senseof alienation and

isolation. The imagined warmth and comfort to be found in the familiar surrounding of

home and mining community, especially at Christmas,were lacking. Instead, home too had changedwrith the community also suffering material privations and the personal loss of men at the front. In the face of grief and bereavement,consolation was gained not from human relations but from the provision of basic needs,' a soft bed, a clean body'.

There was also a valued temporary escapefrom the fear of death but which would have to be faced again at the end of his leave.

For SergeantBernard Brookes, the escapewas permanent. Notes compiledfrom my diary.ý A TruePersonal Record of Experiencesas a Signallerin theArmy, at Home andA broad during the EuropeanWar (1914)were written while he was convalescingin

Epsomhospital after being declared unfit andreceiving his dischargepapers. Bernard

Brookesrecords how he broke down when a sheUburst in his trench,flooding it with water and dead bodies. He was taken to a hospital near Etaples where he was in a state of 'semi-consciousnessand could not speak. I rememberthat I cried without ceasing0 andcould not stop myself.'- On beingsent home, he was admittedto a hospitalin Walmer in Kent:

86 Rowland Luther, IWM 87/8/1

56 I couldnot help thinking how very strange(my italics) that lessthan a weekbefore I was in the mostterrible part of the days line in Flanders,and only a few ago in the midstof a ragingbattle, but now I was in Englandat the seasidewhere all was peaceand quietness.87

Here is another example of the recurring motif of strangeness,a rupturing of a senseof

reality and where to position himself in two vividly contrasting worlds. The strangeness

was reinforced by-his inability to stop crying, an inability to feel in control. While men

returning home, temporarily or permanently, experiencedsuch personal discontinuity

they might alsohave appeared strange to thosethey hadleft at home,not leastto their

children. An exampleof the effectsof an unfamiliarfather figure returninghome was discoveredin an oral interviewconducted with a SecondWorld War veteran. Memories of the First World War canresult in trans-generationalhaunting as they arelived through by succeedinggenerations of childrenand grandchildren. Norman Kirby tells of his reactionto his fathercoming home on leaveand walking into the diningroom of their smallterraced house:

I ran andhid behindthe curtain. I could only havebeen a toddlerand I was absolutelyscared to deathof this man becauseI hadnever seen a man like that before,all covered in mud andhe kissedmy mother. He went up to her and kissedher andI cameout from behindthe curtainand - they told me later on -'how dareyou kiss my Mummy.' You know the ideaof him touchingher was awful. Yearslater I thoughtwhat a terrible thing for this man,gone through all the hell of Passchendaleto comehome and be rejectedby this baby.88

87 Bernard Brookes, rvVM PP/MCR/283 88 Norman Kirby, IWM 16084/21

57 While it is impossible to extrapolate from one example,nevertheless it is

indicative of the inherent tensions and conflicts in the process of reintegrating soldiers

into post war society. The process of post war reconstruction took place not only in the

public realm of social and economic policies but also in private, intimate family relations.

Norman Kirby's long account of his childhood and adolescenceis a moving testimony of

the processesby which one man came to terms with his relationship with his father.

Their relationship was structured, in part, by the father's emotional reactions to the First

World War. He came into his son's life as a stranger and the strangenesswas exacerbatedby the fact that the father was suffering from 'nerves', a condition incomprehensibleto the son. The son related how his father never spoke about the war except, when the son was older, his father recalled a single haunting memory of a single corpse among so many:

This wasthe onething he spokeabout to do with the horror. Therewas a corpse,a man with his headhanging over the parapetwith his mouthopen and he watchedthis corpseturn into a skeleton.They werethere long enoughfor this bodyto decomposebut nobodymoved it and he hadto walk pastthis everyday andhe cameback.... it couldn't havebeen the only corpsehe saw but it was this awful positionwith the mouthopen. 89

The residuesof war experiencewere manifestedin the pronessto anxiety stateswhich affected the rest of his life. Nonetheless,the estrangementbetween father and son was overcome in time and the father's recuperation, five or six years after the war ended, was

89 ibid.

58 dueto 'the wannth of the family. We had a large,family, lots of auntsand uncles and

cousins-music round the pianoand I think the gradualsort of healthinessof a family life

might havehelped'. 'o

Othersývere not so fortunateas intimaterelationships broke down during, and

indeed, after the war. A captain writing to his wife explainedwhy one of his men had

beenso 'strange'recently:

He told me the reason. 11iswife has gone off the rails, and has written saying she wants nothing more to do with him. No wonder the poor devil is worried, and at his wit's end. 9'

The reiteration of estrangementdenotes some of the barriers erected between home and

front, betweenmen and women, between language and experience for how were mento

communicatetheir experienceto thoseat home?Official barriersto communication

betweenhome and front existedin the censoringof letterssent by mento thoseat home but therewas alsoself-censorship:

You liked to get a letter, of course. But the people at home had got no idea of what was going on, and they never will have - it's no good telling them, you couldn't possibly do it. Anyway, human nature won't stand that sort of thing. 92

The interview from which this extract is taken was recorded in 1983. The relationship with past and present consciousnessbreaks through in the languagein the mixing of past

90 ibid. 91 Captain It J. C. Lcland, lWM 96/5/1 92 Clifford Lane, IWM 7257

59 andpresent tenses. The respondentcan tell his story to a memberof staff of the Imperial

War Museumbut showsa reluctanceto shareit with a wider audiencebecause they win

not understandand furthermore should be sparedsuch knowledge. In severalof the

testimoniesthere is evidenceof the gulf openingup duringthe war betweenmen at the

front andthose at home. Representationsof themselvesin the pressas cheerfulTommies

valiantlytriumphing against the Hun was a sourceof anger,contributing to their senseof

estrangement:

the papers at home made us sick with their twaddle about 'Tommy' in the trenches being happy and in good spirits and never grumbling and laughing at danger. We knew different, and many times have we wished that those editors could be dragged from their comfortable offices and dumped among us to share with us the happy life we are supposedto be leading. 93

As menturned inwards, their senseof connectednesswith homeand the homefront becameincreasingly fragile confirming the perception that those at home would never understandthe experiencesof thoseabroad:

To those at home reading the news in their morning papers, this victory will bring great satisfaction. To me it brings nothing but a great weariness and an oppressivesense of the utter stupidity and futility of it all. 94

Conversing,when men returned home they felt unableto understandthose they hadleft behind:

93 W. A. Quinton, IWM 79/35/1 94 CaptainJ. H. Dibble, IWM Con Shelf

60 It is very nice to be at home again. Yet am I at home? One sometimesdoubts it. There are occasions when I feel like a visitor among strangers whose intentions are kindly, but whose modes of thought I neither altogether understandnor altogether approve... Yet I don't think I'm mad, for I find that other soldiers have somewhat the same experienceas myself. 95

Lack of understandingand disapproval was alsofelt in relationto other sections

of society at home. The seedsof discontent and the potential for antipathies towards

other men who were not combatantswere being sown during the war ready to be reaped

in the post war period. Trade unionists were one group of men who becamepart of the

demonology which some soldiers would carry from the front back into their post war

world:

We had aboutfiftcen or twentyWelsh miners come to us. Godknows why... they causeda lot of troublebecause there'dbeen a miners' strike during the latter part of the war andwe in the army didn't think muchabout it, you see. Whenthese fellows weredrafted out it causeda lot of ill- feeling,culminating in physicalfights at times... we chapsin Francedidn't agreewith themgoing on strikeduring the war, interruptingmunitions. 71cre was a lot of ill-feeling aboutit at the time. 96

Most strikes in 1917 and 1918 were prompted by wage claims in the face of

steadily escalatingprices and food shortages,the latter perceived as partly a result of

profiteering. The motivations for the strikes mattered less to the men at the front than

95 This waswritten by PLR Tawneyand publishedanonymously in TheNation, Octobcr21,1916, see Guy Chapman,Vain Glory. 4 Miscellany ofthe Great War 1914-1918,London: Casscll,1937, pp. ix and 377-8 96 LeonardOunsworth, IWM 332

61 what they felt andcontinued. to feel was a profoundlack of understandingand

appreciationof the sacrificesthey hadmade. The homefront at largecame increasingly

to be identifiedwith incomprehensionand a lack of understanding.Charles Carrington,

in a muchquoted extract, expressed a generationof men'sestrangement from thoseat home:

NEddle-agedmen, strenuously as they attempted to deny it, are united by a secret bond and separatedfrom their fellows who were too old or too young to fight in the Great War. Generally speaking, this secret army presentsto the world a front of silence and bitterness which it has been fashionable to describe as disenchantment.97

The cluster of the words 'sHence', 'bitterness' and 'disenchantment' resonate powerfullywith loss,the final themeof this chapter. The inabilityto speak,coupled with bitternessand disillusiomnent suggest a loss of self,the lossof an officially sponsored constructionof the soldierand a lossof sharedbeliefs and values. Loss of faith pervaded I an important book which spoke of disconnection with the past; published in 1922 C. E.

Montague entitled his book Disenchantment. 'Its power lay in the form it gave to recent

English history- to pre-war and post-war, and the gap that the war had opened up. "" He contrasts the cross-classenthusiasm for the war with post-war insecurity and disillusionment:

97 CharlesCarrington, Soldiersfrom the WarsReturning, London: Hutchinson,1965, p. 87 98 SamuelHynes, A WarImagined. TheFirst World War and English Culture, London:Pimlico, 1992, p. 3 10. Hynesargues that while the war is at the centreof the book, it is the lossof Englandand its past values,its betrayal,which is the key motif.

62 It seemshardly crediblenow, in this souredand quarrelsome countrythat so manymen of differentclasses and Idnds, throwntogether at random,should ever have been so simply andhappily fiiendly, trustful andkeen. But they were,and they imaginedthat all their betterswere too. That wasthe paradisethat the bottomfell out of. 99

It was not until the autumn of 1928 that, ten years after the war, a new genre of

war literaturebegan to makeits impactwith soldierwriters finally ableto communicate

their experiencesand find a languageto representthe war. EdmundBlunden's

Undertonesof War was oneof the first to appearin November1928 followed by a

secondwave of war booksin 1929-30. A notablesuccess was Erich Maria Remarque's

All Quiet on the WesternFront, first publishedin serialform in a Germannewspaper and

then in book form in 1929with an Englishedition in March of the sameyear. In six

months300,000 copies of the Englishedition had beensold andin 1930the film was

released. The distinguishing feature of many of these war books was the processing of

personal experienceof individual combatants by confronting and detailing the horrors

and carnage of war. They were the survivors of the world tragedy but they were also its

casualtiesand its victims. Little wonder then they appearedunanimous in their

condemnation of war. Few could have analysedthe nature of that experienceas

eloquently, and elegiacally, as Walter Benjamin:

99 C E. Montague, Disenchantment, London: Chatto and Windus, 1922, reprinted 1939, p. 12

63 Was it not noticeableat the endof the war that menreturned from the battlefieldgrown silent- not richer but poorerin communicableexperience? What ten yearslater waspoured out in the flood of war bookswas anythingbut expericnce that goesfrom mouthto mouth. And therewas nothing remarkableabout that. For neverhas experiencebeen contradictedmore thoroughly than strategicexperience by tactical warfare... bodily experienceby mechanicalwarfare, moral experienceby thosein powei. A generationthat had goneto schoolon a horse-drawnstreetcar now stoodunder the opensky in a countrysidein which nothingremained unchangedbut the clouds,and beneaththese clouds, in a field of force of destructivetorrents and explosions,was the tiny, fragile humanbody. 100

The fragility of men'sbodies in the onslaughtof mechanisedwarfare as told in the war

literaturewas, by the late 1920s,a versionof the story of war that waspublicly

circulated. The genreallowed men to expresstheir feelingsof discontinuityof self, conflicts,fears, tensions and the traumaticdisturbance provoked in their war world.

However,this versionwas contested;by 1930what wasknown asthe war books controversyerupted when somecritics questionedthe validity of individualaccounts which ignoredthe larger,strategic perspective and by doingso presentedthe war as futile, needlesslydestructive of humanlife anddeeply damaging to thosewho survivedit.

The controversyindicated the strugglebetween private memories and those who wanted to preservean official versionof nationalmemory.

The lossand disillusionment of the war itself wasintimately intertwined with the disHlusionmentmany returning soldiers felt asthey soughtto reintegrateinto society after the war. Somehistorians have argued that disillusionmentwas part of the

100 Walter Benjamin, 'The Storyteller' in Illuminations, London: Fontana,1977, p. 84

64 mythologising of the First World War. For example,Joanna Bourke argues that she

doesnot adhereto the disillusionmentthesis, regarding the 'self-procWmedtruth-tellers'

suchas Robert Graves, Edmund Blunden and Wflfred Owenamong others as

unrepresentative. However, the evidence found here suggeststhat disillusionment with

the war was more widespread than Bourke acknowledgesand evident in the ranks and

the officer class. Further, Bourke's claim that the men in her study were 'more likely to

view their surprising survival as a lucky and joyous opportunity to create a sphere of

comfortable domesticity"01 can be modified by some of the evidenceabove. Establishing

'comfortable domesticity' could involve considerabletension and negotiation between

men and women estrangedby war.

Sometimesdisillusionment provided a frameworkfor veteransto articulatetheir immediatepost war feelings;several express a feelingof bitterness:

I alwaysfelt bitter. If it hadbeen.. I learnedit wasa waste, whatthe devil were you doing, Icilling fellows that were nowt to dowith it. We hadnowt to dowith it, it's onlythem in Parliament,we ought to let themhave a battlebetween them. You lostYour patriotism - it wasso stupid. 102

The voice of the angry, anguishedyoung man can still be heard in the short, staccato rhythms, in the unfinished sentence,'if it had been...' What? Worthwhile, meaningful but it was not, 'it was a waste'. Some of the bitterness of youth. was transformed by a determination to work, to overcome the hunifflation, indifference and cost cutting by

101Joanna Bourke, Dismembering the Male: Men's Bodies,Britain and the Great War,London: ReaktionBooks, 1996,pp. 19-20 102Bill Towers,IWM 11038

65 medicalauthorities and in the administrationof pensionsto the war wounded. The

interviewee,Bill Towers had part of his leg amputatedas a result of a war wound. He

was eighteenat the time. Tracesof bitternessstill remainand justifiably so given the

callousnesswith which he was treated. However,disillusionment was not in his casea

lastingsentiment, physical and psychic heafing had taken place:

In 19191 wanted to die. Now I don't want to die, I've enjoyedlife since. I've enjoyedhelping others, I'd do anythingto help anybodyelse, it's beenmy life hasthat, I think.103

Anotherveteran who insistedthat the war 'neveraltered me, it's nevermade me bitter' continuedin the samesentence 'as a matterof fact I think it was a daft excursion,it was absolutelyridiculous. I didn't know what I was fighting for.' 104In contrast,an intervieweereflected on war as a positiveexperience 'it wasan experience- it gaveyou an outlook on life, a broaderone"05 while a railwaybooking office clerk who becamean

NCO felt 'it mademe. I was responsible- it was marvellousreally, I felt I could do any job. 106These men were recallinga pastof seventyodd yearsago. Sincethen other achievementsand events in their life coursemight havemediated earlier discontents.

To what extentthe written memoirswere influencedby the genreof war literaturesignifying disillusionment is a matterof speculation.John McCauley's memoir was rare in that it was published.It was publishedanonymously in theManx Examiner

103 ibid. 104George Ashurs4 lWM 9875 105Horace Calverý IWM 9955 106William Cowley, IWM 8866

66 in 1932 under the title 'A Manx Soldier's War Diary'. His identity was subsequently

revealed; he was a furnacemanworking in the foundry in Douglas, active in the labour

movement ahd an 'enthusiastic worker for the British Legion and Chair of the recently

formed branch'. Self-consciously reflective and literary, it is a powerfW and moving

testimony of a man's struggle to come to terms with his war experienceand in the

process to understand himself. In making public his memoir, his motive was also,

returning to Caputo's phrase, to demonstratethe things war does to mell. Given the date

of publication, 1932, it is possible to speculateon why McCauley felt able to place his

personal memoirs in the public domain, perhapsbecause other accounts of horrors of war and what it does to men were already available for public consumption. The struggle over the cultural representationsof the war intersectedwith political discourses' aboutpeace and disarmament and for example,the role of the Leagueof Nationsin securinginternational peace. John McCauley's narrative is fracturedat pointsby reflectionson theseissues expressing his hopesand desires for internationalpeace. Since he was describedas activein the labourmovement, a further impulseto makepubfic his memoirsmay have been a political one. By detailingwhat happenedto him, how he was changedby the war andhow he cameto perceivethe enemyas menwho sufferedequally he could addressan audiencereceptive to the idealsof internationalpeace. Actively campaigningfor peacewas part of the processof recuperatinghis manhoodwhich he had describedas being'stolen from him', the lossof which he still feels.

Oneof the most agonisinglosses which stayedin the memoriesof menwas the deathof comrades.The homosocialworld of the armyencourages group solidarityand malebonding. It operatesat a military, institutionallevel wheregroup identity and solidarityare necessary for effectivenessin battleand therefore fostered by a varietyof

67 rituals ranging through military uniforms and military training. Esprit de corps maintains

morale. All constructa hegemonicheterosexual masculinity. At the sametime, there

were contradictionsin the informalgroupings of comradeswhere more feminine

characteristicswere displayed in the 'domesticity' of life fived in constant intimacy with

other men, including nurturing, the need for affection, care and concern for:

A soldierspends virtually all his time, awakeand asleep, with his mates;he is with themmore continuously than most menare with their wives. And at critical momentshis life may dependon their fidelity and courage.107

Intenseemotions were provokedby rememberingfellow menwho sharedthe war expenence:

I alwaysremember all thosemates of mine in the trenches. We werejust a bandof brothers,no brotherswere more united,because living as we werewe neverknew whether we weregoing to be Icilled."'

The disbandingof the regiments.at the endof the war sometimesstiffed deepfeelings of lossand separation:

They wereall our friends,men that we had servedwith sometimesfor years. Whenyou havelived with menfor that lengthof time there'sa lot of deepaffection. Most of us werefree to do what we wantedat Staples(sic) andwe alwayswent to the stationto seethe chapsoff. Someof us did a bit of crying particularlythe old soldierswho hadbeen out therefor a long time. "9

107Hynes, Soldiers' Tale, p. 9 108William Holmes, IWM 8868 109S. E. Butler, IWM 86/2/1

68 Loss andgrief were what gavethe notion of.brotherhood its powerful emotionalappeal but alsocompounded the difficultiesof returning:

To identify with the battalionat war and with the narrow circle of one's comradeswas to opena large,vertiginous emotionaldrain, andto begina seeminglyendless process of mourning."O

In the very different circumstancesof peace,the differencesbetween men of class, age, political affiliation and so on made these bonds difficult to sustain but the. memories of comradeshipremained either as the tragedy of war in reflections on the dead or as one of its pleasures,as gratitude to those who helped one's survival. Some men who referred to 'brotherhood' also acknowledged that they did not keep in touch with their comradesafter the war had ended. For men who wanted to forget their wartime experiencesthis was a possible strategy of containment. Maintaining contact with those who sharedthe sameexperiences kept the memories alive, making the process of repressionmore difficult. One example of a cross-classfriendship which endured for a lifetime was probably unusual. The young officer referred to earlier kept in touch after the war with the Durham miner who had been this officer's servant. In five years after the war, the miner who was married with two children had only found work for about six months. The officer meanwhile had returned to the family firm in London:

110Leed, No Man's Land, p. 2 10

69 I askedhim if he would like to comeand work for our companyand he did andwe both carriedon for aboutthirty eightyears until we both retired. I kept in touchwith him sincethen and he only died in Januarythis year (1984). He was a greatchap. 111

The loss of self, a senseof discontinuity, engenderedby the war was a process

somemen reflected on ip their writing trying, throughthe re-tellingof their stories,to

resolve some of the conflicts. WHe some felt the war had made 'men' of them, others

mourned.the lossof their youth as does,for example,the youngnarrator ofAII Quiet on

the WesternFront:

We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress... We arc forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and 112 sorrowful and superficial -I believe we are lost.

What is lost is the adult manrepresented in the gap,a negativespace, between 'forlorn children' and'experienced old men. The Armistice,signalling the endof the war, did not resolvethe senseof loss. Bill Towers,discharged from the armybecause of his severewar woundwas sitting in a cafein Leedson ArmisticeDay:

111Arthur Watts,IWM 8278

112Exich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Folio Society, London, 1966 pp. 59-60, 80

70 My own battery was coming home, passing the Town Rzal and the Lord Mayor taking the salute. It was one of the times life I them God, them saddest of my when saw ...oh all they're all fit and there am 1, a crock and they're coming back and being cheeredand here I am, a wreck. I wish I hadn't been there to seemy particular battery passing.113

At the time, death seemedpreferable to a young man whose physical integrity had been

shatteredby the loss of his leg. His senseof emasculationin comparison with his 'fit'

comradesthreatens to overwhelm him situating him outside and as 'other' in the display

of masculineprowess and heroism in the marching troops. He has to sit, observing.

Like the Armistice,the war memorialhas a symbolicsignificance in someof the

written memoirs. The war memorial is the site for the sharedact of mourning the dead

but also the site for self-reflection, for grieving for a loss of self. RemembranceDay is

alwaysa powerfulreminder of war and loss. JohnMcCauley brings his memoirto its

narrative close on RemembranceDay 1932:

In the Two Minutes Silence I seegreat hosts of phantom figures, the ghosts of yesterday. Tle long line of soldier comrades,such noble comradesthey were, march before my blurred vision. I see them in battalions, brigades, divisions army corps, and I distinctly hear their cry - 'In honouring the dead, forget not the living. Remember us, but remember, too, those who survived. ' 'If ye break faith with us who died, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders' Fields.' 114

113BiH Towcrs, IWM 11038 114John McCaulcy, IWM 97/10/1

71 In honouringthe dead,John McCauley represents war asnoble, memorialising the

braveryand comradeship. He follows the conventionsof public narrativesassociated

with legendsof the return of the deadas ghostlyapparitions and ends with one of the

most popularwar poemsIn Flanders'Rields by JohnMcCrae. Following the disclosure

of his identity asthe authorof 'A Manx Soldier'sWar Diary', he contributedto a section

of theManx &aminer called'Memories'. Again, he writes his reflectionsas he stands with othersat the DouglasWar Memorialbut this time the memorieswhich arerecalled

are of the darkerside of war, his own hauntingmemories of pain andloss:

That is Armistice;it i's ... the greatpurpose of to celebrate peacenot war. Let us hold on to it, it is a greatanchor in this troubledworld.... My mind flashedto 1914,barracks, ships,Le Havre,Rouen, railheads and the final destination front line trenches.Yes, it all camebefore me. Wounded, screamingfor help, deadbodies littered all over the place, mencrying to be shotout of their agony. God what a sight. The maroonwent to endthe two minutessilence. What a sigh of relief to be awakenedand broughtback to civilisation.115

The presentationof competingversions of his war reflectionsindicates the conflicts which, still in the 1930s,engage him in makinghis experiencescomprehensible to himself andhis readership.The struggleto find a form of subjectivecomposure, between past andpresent remains to someextent unresolved despite the attemptto write an endingfor his memoir. 'War memoriesare alwaysagonising' he wrote:

113Win McCauley,PvVM 97/10/1

72 Ile war had becomea thing of the pastuntil the War Memorialwas erected,and I stoodand gazed at the namesof so manyof the menI knew-there were over 400, andI picturedmy own namethere- to what purpose,I do not know. 116

RowlandLuther was alsohaunted by his war memories;he 'crackedup andbecame just

skin andbone: '

My life had been in despair, but by good attention, I picked up again, after being delirious and re-living my life as a 117 soldier

Men returnedfrom the war with somebearing its impacton their fracturedminds andbodies, affording public recognitionof the damagedone to menby war. For asEric

Leed maintains,the Armisticedid not signalthe endof war experience'but ratherthe beginningof a processin which that experiencewas framed,institutionalised, given ideologicalcontent and relived in political actionas well as fiction."" However,the experiencewas alsoframed in privatememories, memories which for manycontinued to hauntthem. The compulsionto re-tell their stories,whether preserved in their own privatememoirs or put into public circulation,is indicativeof the enduringeffects of their war experiences.The popularmemory approach outlined above has shown how individualmemory is structuredby sharedimages of public narrativesof war. The soldierhero was a sourceof imaginingsof masculinity,a powerfulgendered narrative

116 ibid. 117Rowland Luther, rvVM 87/8/1 11" Leed,No Man's Land, p. xi

73 anda dominantform of masculinity.However, the storiesexamined here which reveal someof the pleasuresas well as the pain andgrief of war, suggestthat comingto terms with 'felt alterationsin themselves'not only drawson culturalimaginings but on the individualpsychological and unconscious processes which structurememories and in turn, individualmasculine identities. For somemen, the desireto forget affordedthem the possibilitythat war hadleft themunchanged, for others,the senseof discontinuity anddisruption was profound.

74 Chapter Two

'WAR NUKES SANE MEN MAD'

Shell shocked soldiers and competing masculinities

The term shellshock was first adoptedby Dr. CharlesMyers in an articlein Yhe

Lancet in 1915 to describe the mental condition of men he was treating in a temporary

hospital in France. At its inception the term, with its striking alliteration, appearedto

encapsulateprecisely the cause and effect of a nervous disorder which was afflicting so

many men at the front. Proximity to the physical force of exploding shells caused

damageto the central nervous system, a seemingly straightforward organic dysfunction.

In 1922 the Report of the War Office Committee of Enquiry into 'Shell-Shock' was

published. How then did the certainty of the condition and diagnosisof shell shock

become transformed into the more hesitant and ambivalent 'shell-shock' of the 1922 War

Office Committee?

The question can be answered simply by referenceto Myers's own repudiation of

the term as a 'singularly, ill-chosen' one since a shell 'may play no part whatever in the

causation and that its 'onset so gradual, that its origin hardly deservesthe name of

'shock". ' Or by reference to the War Office Committee which stated that shell shock was 'a grievous misnomer' while having to concedethat it was 'a popular or vulgar term

1 C. Myers,Shell Shockin France 1914-18,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1940, p. 26

75 in v2 that it hadbecome use ,a term the generalpublic would understandsince common

currencyin the nationalpress since mid- 1916.3 Nevertheless, six yearslater the Report

of the War Office Committeeof Enquiry into 'SheH-Shock'began with a long discussion

aboutthe meaningof the word. The very slipperinessof the term andthe uneasewith

which it wasused signifies then a more complexanswer.

Shellshock was an epidemicof male mentaldisorders occurring at a time when

manlyvalues and traditional masculine virtues were evoked and embedded in the

idealisedimage of the soldier. At the centreof the heateddebates about shell shock

were the menwho suffered,some temporarily and some bearing the scarslong after the

war was over, the very antithesisof the manlyfighter. Thusthe debatesover shellshock

were powerfullyinflected by dominantdiscourses about manliness and masculinity; time

andagain the aetiologyof the diseasewas perceivedas inextricably linked to the nature

and characterof the mensuffering from it. For if evenits nomenclatureprovoked

confusionand anxiety, greater gender anxieties arose from the 'paradeof emotionally

4 incapacitatedmen'.

Shellshock, then, provides a lensthrough which to focuson the waysin which

the war disruptedgender relations and traditional ideas about the nation'smanhood. In

her studyof womenand madness, Elaine Showalter devoted one chapterto 'male

2 Report ofthe Report ofEnquiry into 'Shell-Shock,London: HMSO, 1922,p. 4 (hereafterreferred to as the Report) Ted Bogacz,'War Neurosisand Cultural Changein England, 1914-22:The work of the Reportof Enquiry into 'SheU-Shock',Journal of ContemporaryHistory, Vol. 24,1989, p. 234 4 Elaine Showalter,The Fýmale Malady, Women,Madness and English Culture, 1830-1980,London: Virago, 1985,p. 169

76 hysteria'in which sheargued that 'the GreatWar was a crisisof masculinityand a trial of

the Victorian masculineideal'. 5 Drawing paraflelsbetween soldiers rendered powerless

in the trenchesand the confinementof Victorian womenwithin a narrowly defined

femininity, she argues that the war, 'that most masculineof enterprises', feminised its

soldiers by taking away their senseof control. More recently, George Mosse has

identifiedshell shock as a socialdisease, a 'fusion of medicaldiagnosis and social

prejudice'. Suchprejudice was predicatedon not onlYgender divisions, but alsoon

divisionsbetween men for 'war was the supremetest of manliness,and those who were

the victims of shellsho&had failed this test.'6 Thus,he argues,those men suffering from

mentaldisorders were consideredas outsidersand as faures as menunable to fulfill the

idealsof manliness.Crucially in time of war, their failurewas further compoundedby

their apparentinability to undertakeservice for a nationalideal with a commitmentto the

nationalcause. These interpretations of shellshock and its associationswith masculinity

inform this chapter,the aim of which is to interrogatehow the conceptionsand

perceptionsof the rangeof mentaldisorders which afflictedmen during andafter the war

interactedwith the prevailingideas of masculinity.What hasreceived less attention in

someof the historiographyof shellshock was how the combatantsthemselves

constructedshell shock and in so doing, mayhave rejected or revisedsome of the

prevailingdiscourses. Did they generateoppositional or alternativeversions of

masculineidentities?

'5 ibid. p. 171 GeorgeMosse, 'Shell-shock as a SocialDisease', Journal of ContemporaryHistory, Vol. 35, No. 1, January2000, p, 104.

77 The following discussionwill be framedby soldiers'narratives, drawn from the

samesources as in ChapterOne but includingadditions as well as somepublished

sources,in which representationsof shellshock help shapetheir memoriesof war. With

a few exceptions,most of the memoirscontain eye witness accounts of incidentsof men

breaking down or are accounts by those, such as R. A. M. C. doctors who were involved

in the diagnosis and treatment of men in their care. Usually written years after the war,

they are always mediated by time and memory. Nevertheless,in writing about their

individual experienceswhich were subject to revisions and re-interpretations, the authors

open up the possibilities of reading their texts as a working through of the traumas of

war. In the acts of writing and revisiting the often traumatic memories of war, the

rawness and intensity of the experiencegenerated a mode of expressionwhich. was self-

reflective. If as Eric Leed has argued 'the front was an isolated, cut-off world of 7 marginalisedmen among whom all the correlates of identity had turned inward', then by returning to the front in their imaginations, they were confronted again with the fears, desires,pleasures, grief and loss which challengedand in some cases,transformed their senseof self I-ErarnSturdy's bitter assertion 'war makes sanemen mad', that it was the war itself that propelled men to anger, neurosesand in some casesmental breakdown, was highly contentious.

Yet psychic casualtiesin battle were not new, although what was new was the scale of numbers of combatantswho suffered in the First World War. In the seventeenth century the Swiss physician, JohannesHofer identified a state of deep despair which assailedfighting men as 'nostalgia'; 'a continuing melancholy, incessantthinking of

7 Eric Lecd, No Man's Land Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1979, p. 90

78 home,disturbed sleep or insomnia,weakness, loss of appetite,anxiety, cardiac

palpitations,stupor and fever'. 8 During the Napoleonicwars the Frenchtroops suffered

from a similarcondition with comparablesymptoms which they alsonamed 'nostalgie'.

'Soldiers' heart' or the 'irritable heartof soldiers'produced a similarcluster of

symptomsto which the governmentresponded in 1864by settingup a committeeof

threegenerals and two doctors. In an attemptto locatemental disorders within

biologicaland physical events their task was to considera modificationin patternsof

equipmentto avoid the restrictionson soldiers'hearts. SilasWeir NEtchell,a prominent

Americanneurologist known for his techniqueof the rest cure,famously associated with

womenand effete artistic 'types, treatedsoldiers who succumbedto forms of mental

illness,sometimes identified as nostalgia,during the AmericanCivil War while later, the

Anglo-BoerWars and Russo-Japan6se War producedsimilar war neurosesamong

combatants.Nevertheless, despite the recognitionand treatment of mentaland nervous

disordersproduced in the stressof battle, suspicionalways lurked abouttheir potential

for deceptionby malingerers.They could alsobe marginalisedas the patientswere often

designated'insane'9, a diagnosiswhich blamedthe victimsand excluded them from the

ranksof 'normal' fighting men. Howeverevidence from the Russo-JapaneseWar

offeredanother dimension to the understandingof battletrauma. CaptainR. L. Richards

of the US MedicalCorps concluded:

a Anthony Babington,Shell Shock A History of the ChangingAttitudes to WarNeuroses, London: Leo Cooper,1997, p. 7 9 ibid. pp. 34-41

79 A future war will call at leastequally large numbers of men into action. The tremendousendurance, bodily andmental, requiredfor the daysof fighting over increasinglylarge areas,and the mysterious and widely destructiveeffects of modemartillery fire will test menas they havenever been testedbefore. We can surelycount then on a muchlarger percentageof mentaldiseases requiring our attentionin a future war.'O

Captain Richards's prescient comments attributed the effects of new war technology and

ever larger theatres of war as potential contributing factors in mental breakdown.

Nevertheless,warnings were not heededfrom suchpredictions for, asW. H. R. Rivers

observed:

the medicaladministration of our own andother armies was wholly unpreparedfor the vast extentand varied forms in wl-&h modemwarfare is ableto upsetthe higherfunctions of the nervoussystem and the mentalactivity of thosecalled uponto takepart in it. "

The consequenceswere that in the earlymonths of the First World War soldierssuffering

from shellshock were diagnosedas insaneand dispatchedhome to mentalhospitals.

However, as the incidence of shell shock increasedso too did the controversies with which it was surrounded;shell shock itself becamea battlefield.

As the early trickle of casesturned into aflood after the Battle of the Somme in

MY 1916, the incidence of mental breakdown took on epidemic proportions. In 1916, shellshock accounted for nearly40% of casualtieson the battlefields.By the endof the

10 CaptainR. L. Richards,'Mental and NervousDiseases in the Russo-JapaneseWar, 'Military Surgeon,Vol. 26,1910, p. 177quoted in Babington,Shell Shock,p. 38 11 W. H. R. Rivers,Instinct and the Unconscious,Cambridge: University Press, 1920, p. 2

80 war, 80,000cases of war neuroseshad passedthrough army hospitals. 12 The

unprecedentednumbers of psychiccasualties could not be ignoredsince they threatened

the demandsfor manpoweras well as military disciplineand order. The banningof the

word shellshock as a medicalterm by the Army Medical Servicesin 1917did nothingto

resolvethe confusionor the condition. Furthermore,cases of shellshock were stiUa

significant presencein the inter-war years. A year after the War Office Committee was

established,65,000 ex-servicemenwere. still drawing disability pensionsfor neurasthenia,

9,000 of whom were still undergoing hospital treatment.13 In March 1939, some

120,000 ex-servicemenwere either receiving pensionsor had received a final award for

war-related psychiatric disability. 14

Shell shock was disruptive; it challenged military, medical and administrative

authoritiesas they were forced to manageincapacitated men. In the process,the

practicesinvolved in diagnosingcauses and symptoms, providing treatment and care and

administeringpensions came under scrutiny. Thesepractices were derivedfrom setsof

differing andoften competingassumptions about for example,mental illness, military and

medicalprofessionalism and army discipline. Underpinningthem all were assumptions

aboutnormative masculinity. Shellshock profoundly challenged these assumptions and

subjectedthem to changeand revision. Yet it was not simplythat the exigenciesof war

demandedand produced responses to the incidenceof shellshock, rather it was that theseprocesses constituted the diseaseand were implicatedin its aetiology. For

12 Showalter,Female Malady, p. 168 13 Bogacz,'War Neurosis',p. 227 14 Babington,Shell Shock p. 121

81 example,Martin Stonehas examined how the 'clinical phenomena'of shellshock and the

gsystematicnature of its reproduction as a set of illnesses'" were 'constituted by military

socialrelations'. 16 Chris Feudtner has argued for an analysisof shellshock as a 'disease-

system'whereby various elements come together to constitutethe disease.He identified

thesecomponents as rangingfrom 'the bodiesand minds of soldiersto the theoriesand

practicesof doctors,to wartimepolitics and socialattitudes. ' Moreover,the conceptof a

diseasesystem allows for a considerationof the waysin which it is 'interactiveand

dynamic'and how shellshock was 'continuouslycreated and recreated'. 17 The primary

contextin which both writers were engagedwas an explorationof the legacyof shell

shockand its impacton conceptsof mentalillness, its treatmentsas well as developments

in civilianpsychiatry. However, they both point to a further significantelement which

canbe identified;inscribed on the imageof the shellshocked soldier was a set of

anxietiesabout masculinities.

The mechanisationof warfare with new weapons of destruction, long-range

weaponryand high explosiveshells, was as honific asit wasunexpected for the regular

soldiersas well asthe new civilian army. The constantprocess of attrition on the bodies,

mindsand spirits of menwas recordedby manymen who laid claimto their authorityof

knowledge,legitimised by their experienceswhich setthem apart fi7orn those who neither

15 Mirtin Stone,'SheUshock and the Pyschologists'in W. F. Bynum,Roy Porterand NEchael Shepherd,The Anatomy ofMadness. - Essays in the History ofPsychiat?y, London:Tavistock, 1985,p. 258 16 ibfd. p. 242 17 Chris Feudwer,' "Iýfinds the Deadhave Ravished": Shell Shock,lEstory, and the Ecologyof Discase-Systerns',History ofScience, Vol. 31,1993, p. 381

82 knew nor understood,especially those at home. What the soldiersknew was that the

effectsof servingin the trencheswith their 'incalculablehardships' could resultin

temporaryor permanentmental breakdown. However, even when war neuroseswere

acceptedand mental wounds recognised alongside physical ones, arguments stiff raged

abouttheir aetiology. Nevertheless,twenty yearsafter the war Hiram Sturdyremained

adamantthat 'war makessane men mad'. Heroic visionsof soldieringand adventure

which had capturedmany young men'simaginations slowly evaporatedin the realitiesof

trenchwarfare as menwere renderedpowerless. The imageof battleas 'spectacular'

was in realityreplaced by passivity,boredom and what could seemlike endlesswaiting

for actionoften againstan invisibleenemy. Worse, they felt strippedof their masculine

selves,reduced to animalsburrowing in the earthfor their survival. Onecombatant

wrote 'we were washedout things. With nosesto the cold earth,like rats in a trap, we

waitedfor the next moment,which might landus in eternity.' W. N. Maxwell quoted

this in hisA PsychologicalRetrospect of the Great Warpublished in 1923;he followed it

with his own reflectionof how 'all the dignity andpride of manhoodis castaside at such

a time.' War not only strippedmen of their humanitybut alsoof their imaginedsoldierly

identitiessupposedly constituted by military serviceand joining the army. However

manymen found that beingsoldiers did not conferon themthe masculinequalities they

had anticipatedbut insteadthe war unmannedthem. I-EramSturdy's memory was of hun-ffliationand emasculation:

83 How degradingand unmanly(my italics) werethe positions that onewas forcedto get into, to keephanging on to that little bit of breathand now, that it is all over, I twist my face whenI seeall the splendourof uniforms,glistening bayonets, everythingpointing to the gloriesof soldiersand soldiering, to the youngignorant mind, at our day, whenwe are supposedto rememberthe menwho for yearswere forced to live like beastsof thejungle. "

Since war transgressesnormal categories of experience,thought, attitudes and

human relations, men could feel that they had no recourse either to their civilian identities

sp the capacity for self-recognition could sometimesonly be expressedthrough metaphor

to ensuretheir psychic survival. For psychic survival was continuously threatenedby the

conditions of war. Physical fatigue, lack of sleep, mud, lice, filth all contributed to the

stressesof the combatantsbut it was the static nature of warfare which confined and

enclosedmen in a nightmareworld in which they were immobilised:

To be confinedto a trench,within view of the enemy,day andnight for weeksat a stretch,during the severedays of 19 winter, was enoughto lower the spirits of the stoutestheart.

As Leed argues 'it was precisely the memory of having inhabited for an unimaginable time a landscapesaturated with invisible men and controlled by an unapproachable 20 technology that remained the longest with many combatants'. The immobilisation of men in the trenches, a feature of static trench warfare, provoked profound anxiety which

18 JUram Stardy, IWM Con Shelf 19 W. A. Quinton, IWM 79/35/1

20 Leed, No Man's Land, p. 20

84 wascompounded by the dangersof shell-fire. It took its toll on men'scapacity for

mentalendurance, and for some,destroyed it.

The languageof battleand the fight againstthe enemywas appropriated as men

fought againsttheir own mentalterrors asthey tried to maintaintheir own psychic defences:

This was not our idea of fighting. To be kept like prisoners in our own trench and be pounded day and night by high explosives, without any chanceof retaliation, reducedthe 'fighting' part of the businessto a farce.... far better if we went over the top and got to grips with the enemyman to man. That would be fighting but one could not fight these shells that screamedand crashedamongst us, or t1iisgas that could choke the life out of a man in a long drawn out agony. The biggest fight was not fighting the enemy,it was the fight within ourselves.- "nie fight to keep our reason.- The fight to keep ourselvesfrom going stark raving mad, as we had seenone or two of our comradesdo. "

While the military and medical authorities struggled to come to terms with mental

breakdown, the combatantsidentified its aetiology and its manifestationsas they

witnessedfellow soldiers succumbto what they themselvesfeared, 'going stark raving

mad'. The term shell shock would have dramatically resonatedwith their reactions to

the incessantbombardments and the other strains of war, a profound emotional

disturbance. Other accountsconfirmed Sturdy's assertionthat it was the nature of the

war itself and the intolerable pressuresimposed on their bodies and more so on their

minds that made men 'mad'. An R. A. M. C. Captain recordedhis 'vivid memories' of shelling: 'the noise is entirely outside my experienceand I do not know how the Infantry

21 W. A. Quinton,IMM n913511

85 standits continuity...and still staysane'. 22 Moreover, there were other terrors in the

unpredictabilityof the weaponryand nature of First World War warfare,being buried

alive for exampleand especially gas attacks. W. A. Quintonrecalled the reactions

following a gasattack:

Next moniing we were all nerves, fearing another gas attack. We watched the wind anxiously. There is no doubt about it, every man jack of us were absolutely terrified by the thought of it. I have seenthe faces of men with iron nerve turn a sickly white when some fool has hissed out, gas! '

Loneliness,especially when carrying out dutiesalone, exacerbated fear andcontributed

to men'sloss of nerve,a shamefulstate not readilyadmitted and sometimes possible to

recordonly in retrospect.For example,Harold Clegg'sduties at onepoint involved

carryingrations from the cookhouseto the front line; he recordedthe eventsof one dark

night:

I completelylost my nerve,the heavyshelling and loneliness contributedto it I suppose...That wasthe only time my couragegave way; I emptiedout the tea and returned,telling nobodyof my action.2A

Similarly,another ex-serviceman alluded to his lossof nervebut evenwriting ten years after the war was over was unableto acknowledgeits full impact:

22 Captain L. Gameson, IWMP. 397 23 W. A. Quinton, IWM 79/35/1 24 Harold Clegg, IWM 88/18/1

86 The feelingone can havewhen alone under shell and rifle fire is onethat drivesmen mad. I had this experience,(long after I had beenhardened to the firing line) andI neverwanted it again.25

In the midst of all the conflicting evidencegiven to the War Office Cornmittee of Enquiry

into 'Shell-Shock', some military witnesses acknowledged the nature of warfare as '

conducive to men breaking down, thus confirming the soldiers' accounts of shell shock

as a gradual process of attrition. Colonel J. F. C. Fuller, DSO, Deputy Director of Staff

Duties (Training) argued that it was not sudden danger that produced shell shock but

'prolonged danger in a static position, where the man cannot get away from it. It is the wear and tear and slow sapping of his nervous power. P26Similarly, Lieutenant-General

Sir John Goodwin, Director General, Army Medical Service, testified on a point about which he felt very strongly, 'that men should not be left too long in any lonely position or in a lonely nature of employment. It is very trying indeed for them.v27 Thus there was a recognition of the effects of the external and physical conditions in which war was conducted on men's mental capacity for endurance. Emotions which contributed to men's senseof 'going mad' and in some cases,to their mental collapse were identified as

'the that happenedto the Front 29 How strange things men's nervous systemsat . men coped with such emotional turmoil and how in turn it was perceived and managedby the

25 W. A. Quinton, IWM 79/35/1 26 Report,p. 28 27 Report,p. 15 28 W. N. Maxwell, A PsychologicalRetrospect of the Great War,London: Allen & Unwin, 1923,p. 99

87 armyand medical establishment was critical in the interpretationsof shellshock and of

the menwho sufferedfrom it.

From the outset,the aetiologyof shellshock was contentiouswithin both the

military establishmentand the medicalprofession. However, some commentators,

predominantlya smallgroup of psychologistsincluding C. S. Myers, William McDougall

andW. H. R. Riversý9shared an understandingwith the menof how the war tested

men'sendurance in terrifying ways; 'War imposedon a multitudeof mena moral strain

which, in respectof intensityand duration, has never been equalled in civil life or in

previouswars, saveonly in rare cases.*30 Others argued on the samelines, for example,

in an articlein the Lancel in 1915,Dr. D. Forsythwrote that the 'intenseststrain' of the

presentwar, unlike previouswars, was shell-fire:

The detonation, the flash, the heat of the explosion, the air- concussion,the upheaval of the ground, and the acrid, suffocating fumes combine in producing a violent assault on practically all the sensessimultaneously... experiencehas shown that a high degreeof nervous tension is commonest among men who have, perforce, to remain inactive while being shelled.31

C. Stanford Read supported the view that 'enormously high explosives, poisoned gases and liquid fire' as well as aerial bombing and trench strategy 'added so greatly to the

29 Myers and McDougall were Rivers' studentsand workedtogether in the field of experimental psychologyat Cambridgeas well as going on an anthropologicalexpedition together in 1893;see Richard Slobodin,W. H. R. Rivers, Stroud: Sutton, 1997,pp. 18-24 30 William McDougall,An Outline ofAbnormal Psychology,London: Methuen, 1926,p. 2 31 Dr. D. Forsyth, 'FunctionalNerve Disease and Shockof Battle', TheLancet, December 1915, p. 1399

88 mentaland physical strain of the combatants'.32 The observationsof this group of

psychologiststhat the underlyingcause of shellshock was psychologicalwas fiercely

contestedas othersinsisted it was physicalin origin.

Early in the war influentialneurologists such as Sir FrederickMott attributed

shellshock to the commotionaleffects of explodingshells which causedphysical damage

to the centralnervous system while other physicalcauses such as the power of the blast

from explodingshells or the inhalationof poisonousgases were alsoproposed. For

others,the causewas far more simple,shell shock victims were malingerers,a view that

somemilitary personnelmaintained throughout the war, andafter. For example,a

Lieutenant-Colonelgiving evidenceto the War Office Committeeon 'Shell Shock' assertedthat 'many casesof neurastheniaand shellshock were skrim-shankingof the worst kind.P33 Similarly, William McDougall who was stationedat Netley Hospital wheremost of the casesof shellshock were sentin the earlydays of the war was confrontedby suchattitudes: 'in the earlydays of the war I hearda medicalofficer of the rank of Generaldeclare emphatically that everycase of 'shell shock' shouldbe shot forthwith as a malingerer.That remarkexpressed very well a prevalentmedical

s34 attitude.

CaptainJames Dible who servedas a RMO with the Loyal North Lancashire

Regimentexpressed this commonsentiment when he wrote 'I cannotabide these neurasthenicpeople. R. A. M. C. officerscall them 'Skrimshankers'...No doubt they

32 C. StanfordRead, Military Psychiaoy in Peaceand War, London:IL K Lewis, 1920,p. 24 33 Report,p. 16 34 McDougall,Abnormal Psychology,p. 2

89 suffer,and their own woesare very real to themselves:all the samethey exasperateme

beyondendurance. "' The fragmentary,self-reflective fonn of his writing revealedhow

his attitudeschanged during the courseof his war servicein the R. A. M. C. andhow he

too cameto an understandingof how the strainsof war couldwear mendown

psychologically:

Men accustomedto what the Englishman has fought for generations,personal freedom, are suddenly deprived of this greatest of possessions. They are being worked sevendays a week for long periods without rest or change. The strain is wearing tempers thin and the breaking point is often very near.36

Personalfreedom was of coursefar lessavailable to his working-classpatients for whom

long hoursand working a sevenday week would not havebeen unfamiliar. Prior to the

war, CaptainDible hadheld junior hospitalposts in Medicineand Surgeryin Glasgow andin 1914was a junior demonstratorin pathologyat the Universityof Sheffield.His memoirof his servicewith the R. A. M. C. with its sometimescontradictory attitudes pointsto the dilemmasfacing military physicianscharged 'to act as disciplinarygate- keepers.They were caughtin a potentialdouble bind: to distinguishbetween neurotic andmalingerer forced them to choosebetween their medicalcalling and their military duty.v37 Dible encapsulatedthis dilemmaas he negotiatedthe 'debasingidea pervading everyonethat the men 'go sick' to escapeduty. ' Despitehis personalantipathy to neurasthenics,he neverthelessreffised 'to co-operatein schemesfor catching

35 Capwin 1. IL Dible, IWM Con Shelf

36 ibid.

37 Feudtner, 'Minds', p. 396

90 scrimshankers,because in the eventof a mistakesuch shocking miscarriages ofjustice

238 would occur.

Indeed,miscarriages ofjustice did occur andsubsequent research into courts-

martial and the imposition of death sentenceshas provided substantialevidence that in

many casesshell shock accounted for casesof desertion, leaving a post or cowardice.'9

The death penalty was also the subject of enquiry and concern during the war and in the

immediate aftermath; Philip Snowden, the Independent Labour Party M. P., raised

questions in Parliament and a committee convened to examinemilitary justice reported in

1919.40In the House of Lords debate in April 1920 when Lord Southborough proposed

his motion to establisha committee of investigation into shell shock the question of

possible injustices relating to the 346 executions were also raised by him, Lord Home

and Viscount Haldane, particularly in the early part of the war when shell shock was little

41 The debate the treatment from understood. about unjust of soldiers suffering shell

shock being brought before the firing squad focussed on the differencesbetween civil

andmilitary law in regardto definitionsof insanitywhile alsobringing into questionthe

abilitiesof medicalofficers to report on men'smental states. The dilemmain which

CaptainDible found himselfwas echoedby anotherMedical Officer servingwith the

45th Field Ambulanceand Royal Field Artillery; CaptainGameson recorded his

38 CaptainIH Diblc, IWM Con Shelf 39 For specificcases see Gerard Oram, WorthlessMen: Race,-eugenics and the deathpenalty in the British Army during the First World War, London: FrancisBoutIe, 1998;A. Babington,For the Sakeof Erample, London: Paladin 1983;Babington, 'Shcll- Shock' 40 Oram, WorthlessMen, p. 19 41 Hansard,House of Lords, 28 April 1920,Vol. 39, cols. 1094-1105

91 reflectionson appearingat a court-martialto give evidenceon behalfof a 'boy' accused

of cowardice:

As an ordinaryM. 0., with no experiencewhatever outside hospital,I was inexpertin both the thorny matterof mental statesand the techniqueof presentinga case...which is not to saythat medicalevidence with all its demeritswas useless, it Some,by only that was not soughtas a matterof routine... no meansnecessarily blimps, would haveno quarterat any price. They would shootevery deserter mitigating circumstancesor not. To menof this stampmedical officers wereintruders. 42

For what medicalofficers intruded upon werethe disciplinaryprocedures of the

armywhich underpinnedits military ethosand its organisationalpractices. Shellshock

exposedthe contradictoryposition in which manymilitary physicianswere positioned

sincemost, like manyof the menthey treated,had no previousexperience of military service4' andmany, like CaptainGameson, had little or no experiencenor knowledgeof mentalillness. Yet they could be calledupon to hold the balancebetween life anddeath.

As they mediatedbetween men suffering from shellshock and military authoritieswho resistedacknowledging its existence,some military physiciansfbýnd themselvesin conflict with the valuesand attitudes prevalent in the army. Theseattitudes and values hada long tradition;moreover the new armiesof volunteersand, later, 'conscripts were unknownquantities.

42 CaptainL. Gameson,IWM P.397 43 By July 1915,a quarterof the medicalprofession had joined up; for an accountof the creationand work of the CentralMedical War Committee,see J. Winter, The Great [Far and the British People, London: Macmfllan, 1985,chapter 5.

92 At the outbreakof the First World War, the British armywas facedwith

inculcatingmilitary valuesamongst a wide cross- sectionof civilian volunteers.The

British army,unlike most of its Europeancounterparts which hada long tradition of

conscription,had alwaysrelied on volunteers. SinceBritain's imperialstrength and her

nationalsecurity lay in the Royal Navy, the armywas a relativelysmall volunteer force.

Their trainingequipped them for overseaswars by which the Empirewas maintained;

most of the commandersin the First World War hadlearrit their craft in the campaignsof

the Sudanand SouthAfiica. 44 The effectivenessof the armywas maintainedby

adherenceto certaintraditions. For example,recruitment was on a local basis,thus

loyalty andesprit de corps were fosteredin local regiments,often namedafler individual

counties.Regimental names and histories were a sourceof pride andattachment through which menwere expectedto be loyal to their particularregiments and their leadersas well asto the armyin generaland to their country.

Loyalty betweencomrades was alsoencouraged as a part of the network of loyaltiesupon which morale,a key featureof armyethos and tradition, depended. IEgh moraleamong the troops was consideredcritical to successin warfare. In 1914,faced with the needof increasedmanpower to supplementthe existingarmed forces, Lord

Derby andLord Kitchenertapped into existingloyalties to work, town, countyand communitythrough the formationof the 'Pals' battalions.Morale andesprit de corps would be forgedfrom existingallegiances as the battalionswere madeup of friendsand workmatesfrom the samelocalities or workplaces.The ideawas enthusiastically received;for example,Manchester was to raisefifteen battalions in all, Hull raisedfour

44 Oram, WorthlessMen, p. 25

93 andeven Accrington, a smallLancashire cotton town raiseda completebattalion. 45

Despitethe shortagesof weaponryand uniforms made from Post Office blue serge

giving the menthe resemblanceof convictsrather than soldiers,the strategyof highly

localisedrecruitment contributed to the moraleamong volunteers. Tradition alsohad a

powerfulinfluence on the commandstructure of the armywhich I M. Boume has

depictedas 'fundamentallyhierarchical and dependent for its successupon the initiative

anddriving power of thoseat the top.' The most seniorofficers had all attendedthe

most prestigiouspublic schoolssuch as Eton, Harrow andWinchester and rigid divisions

basedon rank mirroredthe classdivisions and socialhierarchy of civilian society. The

structurediscouraged initiative andin commonwith manyBritish civilianinstitutions, the

armywas 'deeplyrooted in culturalvalues which emphasisedclass distinction, hierarchy

anddeference. 16 Classdistinction and hierarchy were alsoinflected by traditional

assumptionsabout masculinity, the hegemonicmasculinity forged in the public schools andon its playingfields.

The British army,then, was dominatedby tradition but in the periodfollowing the Anglo Boer War andthe emergenceof modemwarfare it hadbeen facing challenges.

One of thosechallenges centred on tacticsin the faceof increasedfirepower with new weaponrywhich was more efficientand destructive. T. H. E. Travershas examined in detailthe ensuingdebates in the military. He concludedthat the army,in defenceof tradition andwith a resistanceto innovation,refused the needfor a changeof tacticsand insteadgave the highestpriority to 'the moral andpsychological qualities of the

45 John Stevenson,British Society1914-45, London: Penguin,1990, p. 51 46 J. M. Bourne,Britain and the Great War, London:Edward Arnold, 1987,pl7l

94 individual247 He for the topic the Journal the Royal UnitedService . cites, example, of of Institute prize essayfor 1913:'How canmoral qualitiesbest be developedduring the

preparationof the officer andthe manfor the dutieseach will carry out in warT For, as

TraversVividly illuminates, many army officersfelt that thosenecessary qualities were

beingeroded and undermined as the virility of the nation seemedto be in decline.

Politicalunrest in the forms of socialism,trade union agitation,demonstrations of the

unemployed,women's suffrage activities all pointedto socialand political disorderwhich

threatenednational stability. However as Traversdemonstrates, with referenceto

Baden-Powell'sScoutingfor Boys,Edwardian conservative fears were castin termsof

the lack of individualmoral qualities:'loss of manlinessand military qualities,decline of

patriotism,agitators, invasion fears, hooligans, loafing andlack of discipline'. Nowhere

was this morein evidencethan in football crowdswhere: -

thousandsof boys and young men, pale, narrow-chested, hunched-upmiserable specimens,smoking endlesscigarettes, numbers of them betting, all of them learning to be hysterical the being the hysterical .... worst sound of all scream of laughter (my italiCS)48

The image of the crowd as feminine, hysteria being a condition primarily attributed to women, drew on discoursesof crowd sciencenotably the popular work of the French anthropologist Gustave Le Bon. Le Bon argued that the crowd's psychology was characteristicOy feminine: 'like women it goes at once to extremes'. For Le Bon

47 T. IL E. Travers, 'Technology,tactics and Morale: Jeande Bloch, the Boer War, and British Military Theory, 1900-1914',Journal ofAfodern History, Vol. 5 1, No. 2, June 1979,p. 276 48 P, Baden-Powell,Scoutingfor Boys, London, 1908,quoted in ibid. p. 280

95 womenwere constitutionallyweak and hystericalwhile alsoin the imagesof the

tricoteusesand petroleuses, represented as agentsof revolutionaryanarchy. Thus,

accordingto Le Bon, the crowd was an ominousforce from which irrationalforces were

unleashedand in which personalcharacteristics vanished and the rationalindividual

regressed,'a throw back to the evolutionarypast. '49 Fearof the mob was not a new

phenomenonbut asDarýel Pick hassuggested the crowd 'becomesa sociological

categoryin the understandingof society. This was no longerin responseto a specific

threat(some isolated strike or riot), but a commentaryupon modernityitself andthe

supposeddangers of socialismand mass democracy'. 'o

Concernabout the inherentirrationality of the crowd resurfacedwith mass

mobifisation;the volatflity andunpredictabifity of the crowd wasnot just femininebut

constitutedby non manlymen: those of poor physique,the physicallyand mentally unfit,

non independentwage earners. There were alsodeep suspicions in the armycommand

aboutthe patriotismof the working classeswho would comprisea massarmy. In the

pre-warperiod, military commentatorsshared a pessimismwith other pol.itical and social

commentatorsabout national decline, the crisisin the socialorder andthe declineof the

racewith its implicationsof evolutionaryregression, as mapped on the bodiesof the

'miserablespecimens' of Baden-Powell'sdepiction. For the military leadersthe question focussedinevitably on the restorationof the military qualitiesof the nation;how were masculinequalities to be fosteredto counterthe threats,return orderto the nation and

49 Daniel Pick, FacesofDegeneration, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp 90-93 -'o ibid., p. 223

96 restoremilitary strength?The answerslay in the impositionof disciplinethrough

'education,national service and moralreform. 51

Like other conservativeelements in society,solutions to political and social

problemswere castin termsof moral reform with the emphasison the individual,a legacy individualism. of Victorian Individualmoral reform, as encapsulatedin Baden-

Powell's doctrine'to form characterin boys - to makethem manly, good citizens',

dependedon self-disciplineand self-control,for only with self-controlcould the

individualconsciously steel himself to self-sacrificeand death on the battlefield.52

Characterwas the meansby which a man exercisedhis innatemental power over his

thoughtsand actions while will-power confirmed'the specialdignity of manand his

moralnature. P53 Lord Moran, authorof 77ieAnatomy of Courageand a medicalofficer

in the First World War, definedwar as the ultimatetest of characterwhen he argued;'I

contendthat fortitude in war hasits roots in morality;that selectionis a searchfor

character,and that war itself is one more test - the supremeand final test if you will - of

04 character.

Ted Bogaczhas suggested that the decadeand a half prior to the First World

War was 'the high water mark of the celebrationof characterand the will' with the

public schoolsdedicated to promotingsuch qualities in their malepupils. Thus the

advocatesof nationalservice and moral reform lookedto military trainingto inculcate

charactercoupled with will-power and self-controlin the 'lower orders'of mento

51 Travers, 'Technology, p. 280 52 Baden-Powell,'Scouting for Boys', quotedin ibid. pp. 280-1 53 Bogacz,'War Neuroses',p. 230 -" Lord Moran, The Anatomy ofCourage, London: Constable, 1945, p. 170

97 producenot only manlycitizens but alsomanly fighters. Someworking-class

masculinitieswere resistantto change;shell shock was the evidenceof this andhelps

explainmilitary attitudes,antagonism and confusion towards shell shocked soldiers.

Suchmen were perceivedas lackingthe very qualitieson which the notion of manliness

depended-courage, duty, self-sacrificeand loyalty, in sum,they lackedcharacter.

Labelledas cowards,deserters, malingerers or insane,their individualpathology

renderedthem failures. As such,in the earlypart of the war they could be disposedof by

beingdispatched home to asylums,undergoing severe disciplinary measures including

courts-martialand, in somecases facing the firing squad.Practices in the army,based on

tradition and shapedby pre-war discoursesof masculinities,provided the mechanisms

which were at first deemedsufficient to control the casesof shellshock in order to

maintain military efficiency and rid the army of 'worthless' men from its ranks.

Howeverthere was an inherentcontradiction between the emphasisand reliance

on individualcharacter and the military ethosof moraleand esprit de corps. The

initiation processof becominga soldierentails breaking down a senseof individualityin

order to promotegroup loyalty. 'The new recruit is first stripped,literally and

metaphorically,of his civilian identity. He is examined,allocated, uniformed, tagged and

numbered.Foul-mouthed and brutal NCOs then rob him of the last vestigesof

individualismand humiliate him into submissionand conformity. '55 This popular

representationof the transformationof the civilian into a soldiercontains some kernels of

truth for part of the purposeof basicmilitary trainingis to replaceindividual values by

5,5Boume, Great War, P. 217

98 the group spirit and group loyalty. 56Despite efforts to forge group loyalties, for example

in the formation of Pals' Battalions mentioned earlier, the massof civilians who made up

the army did not necessarilyunderstand nor share military values, afler all they were only

soldiers for the duration:

They hadtheir traditions,their codeof honour,their moral judgements...the manwho heldas a firm article in his creed the inalienableright of refusingwork or going on strike soon learnedto submitto conditionsand make a joke of matters in life have his fiercest which civilian57 would aroused resentment.

Jokes,satire, parody and irony were often deployedto counterthe attemptsto inculcate

military valuesand to makebearable some of the harsheraspects of armylife. Although

an editorialin 1918in Ae WipersTimes, one of the trenchmagazines, commented

'rememberthat the hilarity was more often hystericalthan natural' neverthelessfierce

resentmentwas alsoexpressed against the disciplineimposed. Discipline was oneof the

principalfunctions of the army's commandstructure, the ordinarysoldier receiving his

ordersfrom his superiorsdown a chainof commandthrough which behaviourwas

prescribedby laws andregulations. 5'

it hasbeen argued that disciplinein the British armywas particularly harsh; its

most extremeform demonstratedby the army hierarchy'sdefence of the deathpenalty as

a deterrent. Men could be executedfor sleepingon post, strikinga seniorofficer,

quitting a post, cowardiceand the most commoncrime, desertion. Malingering, shirking

m Richard Holmes, Firing Line, London: pimlico, 1994, p. 36 57 Nbxwell, Psychological Retrospect, p. 157

58 Bourne, Great War. P. 217

99 andother seriousoffences were punishableby the notoriousField PunishmentNo. I in

which a manwas lashedto a gun wheelby his wrists andankles. For manysectors of the

civilian populationthis form of military punishmentwas tantamountto torture andthere

were manyprotesting voices raised against its appropriatenessfor a volunteerand

conscriptarmy. " Within the armyitself, harshdiscipline was deeplyresented for as

CaptainDible observed'officers andNCOs are often unableto differentiatebetween

disciplineand tyranny. '60

Tyrannicalacts by thosein authority sometimesled to eruptionsof angerand violencewhen men were shamedand humiliated. In one examplea man,feeling he had beenmade a fool of by an officer in front of the othermen, had attackedthe officer with

bayonet. Explaininghis he 'he felt 61 Here is the point of a rage, repliedthat mad'. anothermeaning of Sturdy's assertionthat 'war makessane men mad'; uncontrollable temperand violent ragecould violate a man's senseof himself After violently attacking an officer who 'found fault with everything'the soldierreflected 'never have I felt like

62 this" addingto his feelingsof alienationand disassociationwith his previousself The senseof loss of individualityreinforced by severediscipline was deeplyfelt and contributedto men'sloss of self-esteemand powerlessness:

" For a full discussionof public protests,see Joanna Bourke, Dismembering the Male: Male Bodies, Britain and the Great War, London: ReaktionBooks, 1996,pp. 100-102 60 Captain J. H. Dible, IWM Con Shelf 61 Maxwell, PsychologicalRetrospect, p. 7 62 Mram Sturdy,IWM Con Shelf

100 Thereis a feelingof hatredand bitterness creeps up, of the helplessnessof we men,here we are, now for yearsutterly hopeless.If you useyour own thinking or kick againstcast iron rulesyou're floppedas flat as a pancake.0

It was not only the disciplinary codes which undermined self-esteem. Despite the

ideologies of shaping and promoting character by meansof military training, in practice

the duties of the rank and file soldier required little more than being able to respond to

orders. The process could be humiliating and destructive of self- assertion-and initiative

as Sturdy's colourful simile implied. For' all these things take down your pride, make

you feel small, and in some ways fit you to accept the role of cannon-fodder on the

64 battle-ground'. It could also be part of the cumulative processby which men broke

down. The interaction between individual subjectivities and the requirements.and ethos

of the military authorities produced a tension between men's conception of themselves

and the military demandsof being a soldier and 'it is against the background of this

tension that we must understandwar neurosis as an attempt, through the neurotic

symptom, to repudiate a role that, objectively, was self-destructive. 6'

When C. S. Myers first investigated casesof breakdown of soldiers he assumed

that they were organic in origin but finally concluded that 'the close relation of these

casesto 'hysteria' appearsfairly certain.766 As already mentioned, Myers sharedan

understanding with a group of psychologists that the aetiology of shell shock was

63 Mram Sturdy, IWM Con Shelf '64 StephenOrahaniA bivatein the Guards,London: Macmillan, 1919,p. 58 6s Lecd, AroMan's Land, p. 112 66 C S. Myers, 'A Contributionto the Studyof Shell Shock', Ae Lancet,February 1915, p. 320

101 psychological,a resultof unconsciousmental conflict. However,for manyin the army

commandthe useof the term hysteriaraised the spectreof the volatility of the crowd

constitutedby an undisciplinedrabble of menwho were likely to infect othersby their

unrestrainedbehaviour. The removalof men sufferingfrom shellshock because of fears

that they would contaminatethe rest of the armyhad its roots in late nineteenth-century anxietiesabout the residuum'scontagion of the respectablepoor andre-articulated in the newerdiscourses based on crowd psychology.The deepsuspicions of military commandersabout the quality of the new recruitsto the armywere confirmedby the perceivedpresence of menunable to performtheir military andnational duties.

Moreover they challengedand disrupteddisciplinary codes by which the armymaintained moraleand esprit de corps andin so doing threatenedthe beliefin the power of military training to promotenational and racial regeneration.As importantly,they wantedto

'make men' from the weaklingsand wastrels they perceivedin their army.

However,the army's implicit faure to manageshell shocked soldiers was exculpatedby medico-psychiatrictheories which were similarlyinflected by moral conceptsand traditional Victorian andEdwardian values in languageinvested and shot throughwith representationsof normativemasculinity. When Myers andothers proposedthat symptomsof shellshock had similaritieswith hysteriaand neurasthenia they encounteredprotests and hostility from othersin the medicalprofession for both conditionswere 'neglectedand despised' by neurologistsand psychiatristsý7.

Traditionallyhysteria had been associated primarily with women,equated with their emotionalconstitutions and above all their sexualitywhich wasregarded as dangerous.

67 McDougall, Abnormal PsycholoV, p. 33

102 Male neurasthenicswere classifiedas unmanly and effeminatewhile insanitygenerOy

carried the stigma of pauper lunacy.

In the continuingsearch to understandthe causeof shellshock, and locate it

within an individual'sresponsibility, some psychiatrists turned from 'commotional'

explanationsof shellshock to personaland fanidly histories, pre-war mental deficiencies

or moral invalidismas explanatorytools; in short,they blamedhereditary taint. The

irony did not escapeW. H. R. Rivers,well known for his pioneeringwork at

CraiglockhartHospital:

It would be humorousif it werenot pathetic,that manyof thosewho objectmost stronglyto Freud'sview concerning the unconsciousindividual experience in the productionof abnormalbodily andmental states should be the loudestin the appreciationof the part takenby ancestralexperience for which they usethe term, too often the shibboleth,heredity. 68

The concept of heredity not only infused medico-psychiatric languagebut was

powerfully inflected in debatesand theories propounded by fears of national and racial

deterioration. In the 1880s the theory of hereditary urban degenerationgained sway

amongst many middle class social reformers and social commentators. Fears of

demonstrations,riots and the emergenceof socialism, particularly in London, focussed

attention on the urban poor and the extent of urban poverty. The causeswere seento

reside in the process of physical degeneration,which also implied mental and moral

68 W. H. R- Pivers, 'Freud's Psychologyof the Unconscious',The Lancet, June 16,1917

103 degeneration,and which was fosteredin the pathologyof the city andmapped on the

bodiesand minds of its inhabitantS.69

The fear of urbandegeneration 'found its apotheoSiS270in the contextof the

revelationsabout the poor physiqueof potentialrecruits for the secondAnglo- Boer War

when,for example,in 1899over threehundred out of everythousand were rejectedas

physicallyunfit. As manypotential recruits were drawnfrom urbanareas, the spotlight

againfocussed on the stuntedlives andphysiques of urbanslum dwellers who appeared

to be proliferating. Among them,high fertility rateswith the reproductionof physical

andmental deficiencies from one generationto the next appearedto representa

regressiveevolutionary model, threatening the 'Imperial Race'. The earlydisasters of

the Boer War alsofuelled anxieties about the links betweenmilitary performanceand

power andthe stateof healthand vitality of the civilianpopulation, particularly the

virility of the urbanpoor. In 1903W. Taylor, the Director-Generalof the Army Medical

Service,raised the connectionpointedly in his question:

But the want of physique, thus shown to exist with regard to a large section of the community, is not only serious from its military aspect, it is serious also from its civil standpoint, for if these men are unfit for military service, what are they good for? 71

69 See Gareth Stedman Jones, Outcast London, 1971, Ilarmondsworth: Penguin, 1984, particularly

chapter6 70 Pick, Degeneration,p. 202 71 Memorandumof the Director-General,Army Medical Service,on the PhysicalUnfitness of Men Offering Themselvesfor Enlistment in the Army, London: HMSO, 1903,p. 3, cited in Oram, Worthless Men, p. 75

104 The implicationof coursewas that thesepuny menwho madeup the ranksof the

chronicallyunemployed, underemployed and unskilled casual poor were a financial

burdenon the state,unable to fulfill their manlyduties either as soldiersor workersand

completelylacking manly independence. At a time whenBritain's economic.position

wasbeing rivalled by competitionfrom Germanyand the United Statestheir presence

alongwith vagrants,criminals, alcoholics and the other categoriesof the 'unfit', evenif it

was' a phantomarmy 7ý neverthelessraised the spectreof imperialdecline.

The Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration establishedin 1904

in responseto the findingsof the inadequaciesof potentialrecruits heard several

hereditarianopinions about degeneration. However, they were generallyrebutted by the

environmentalistview that conditionsof fife in the slums,especially over-crowding, were

the causeof poverty andmalnutrition. Yet asDaniel Pick hasobserved, wl-ffle the

Committeemay have abandoned degenerationism, its recommendationswere based on 'a

immutablyfeckless hopeless vision of an and stratumof the poor'73, personsof the

lowesttype. While a myriadof voluntaryorganisations and local andnational bodies

soughtto alleviatesocial problems after havingidentified the need'to take chargeof the

lives of those,who from whatevercause, are incapableof independentexistence up to

the standardsof decency'.74 Physical and mental deficients and stunted townsmen

continuedto hauntthe mentallandscape of manywithin the army; 'the stereotypeof the

72 StedmanJones, Outcast London, p. 336 73 Pick, Degeneration,p. 186 74 ibid. p. 186.For an excellentdiscussion of the importanceof motherhoodin debatesand practices, seeAnna Davin, 'Imperialism and Motherhood',History WorkshopJournal, No. 5, Spring 1978,pp. 9- 65

105 degeneratecity-dweller formed by the Boer War crisisremained part of the collective

mind-setduring the First World War'75, and indeed into the post war period. In his

evidenceto the War Office Committeeon 'Shell Shock', GeneralLord Home opined

that 'minersand agricultural labourers, and men who lived open-airlives, suchas

shepherdsand game keepers were lesslikely to the disorderthan the clerk or the

artisan.06 In July 1916the CommandingOfficer of the 5th Royal Warwickshad

complainedabout the 'large percentageof utterly uselessmen' in his battalionfollowing

the captureof a Germantrench which was then almostre-captured when many of his

detachmentwere incapableof usingtheir rifles or their bayonets.His view was endorsed

by his Brigadierwho referredto them as 'wasters' while higherup the armyhierarchy the

CorpsCommander recorded in a minutehe sentthat 'thesemen are degenerates.They

are a sourceof dangerto their comrades,their battalion,and the brigade.977 The fact

that manyof the volunteersreceived inadequate training and were issued with defective

weaponrycould be discountedby the army commandbfinkered by its suspicionof the

new army, classprejudice and its adherenceto the belief in character.

In manyquarters of the army suchsoldiers compounded their failureto conform

to the ideal of the manlysoldier by their apparentrefusal to adaptto the armyand to war

for the assumptionwas that the 'normal' man,the manof character,could endureall the

horrors of war. For example,Bogacz cites a psychologistwho aslate as 1917 maintainedthat menfrom public schoolswere lessprone to shellshock 'for they hadhad

75 Orarn, Worthless Men, P. 76 76 Report, p. 16 77 Quoted in Babington, Shell Shock, p. 76

106 the benefitof that 'atmosphere...in which characterand manliness are developedside by

sidewith learning'and which 'seemsto preventneurasthenia. P78 Implicitly, andmore

often explicitly,men perceived as lackingthe necessaryqualities of characterwere

labelledcowards. However,there were critical voicesraised in opposition,for example,

W. H. K Riversin his article"War Neurosisand Military Training" cited insufficient

trainingas a causeof the prevalenceof nervousdisorders:

Thereis little questionthat oneof the chief causesof the greatprevalence of nervousdisorders in the presentwar is that vast numbersof menhave been called upon to endure hardshipsand dangers of unprecedentedseverity with a quite insufficienttraining. 79

While recognisingthat changesin traininghad occurredin responseto the nature

of modemwarfare, he neverthelessrecommended that for the ranks,'the encouragement

of independenceand less mechanical training' would 'diminishthe occurrenceof suggestionneurosis'. In the caseof officerswith anxietyneurosis he arguedthat 'much could be donein the preventionof anxietyneurosis if the commandingofficer and battalionmedical officer were alive to the conditionsupon which this statedepends. '

Thus interventioncould occur at an earlierstage preventing the lossof 'manya valuable career'." He reiteratedhis viewswhen appearingas a witnessbefore the 'Shell Shock'

Committee.

78 Bogacz, 'War Neurosis, p. 231 79 W. H. R. Rivers, 'War Neurosis and Iýfilitary Training', Mental Hygiene, Vol. 11, No. 4, October 1918 go ibid. pp. 18-19

107 His viewswere supportedby other military men,signifying a shift in some

quartersat least;Lieutenant-General Sir JohnGoodwin supported Rivers's view that

troops 'who hadbeen rushed through a short period of trainingwould be muchmore

liableto breakdown. ' Nevertheless,even where there was a recognitionthat shellshock

resultedfrom mentalconflict thereremained the implicit assumptionthat, with adequate

training,'normal' menwould adaptto the army andendure all the exigenciesof war. In

1920,after all his experienceat Maghull and Craiglockharthospitals, Rivers wrote of

how military training 'should bring the soldierinto sucha statethat eventhe utmost

horrorsand rigours of warfareare hardly noticed,so inuredis he to their presenceand so

absorbedin the immediatetask presentedby his military duties.'s, Eventhe most

enlightenedand humane psychologists such as Rivers were working insidethe military

macl-ýinewith its requirementsof military efficiency.

Amongother witnessesto the 'Shell-Shock'Committee the old guardwas

representedby Brevet Lieutenant-ColonelViscount Gort of the GrenadierGuards who

assertedthe beliefthat disciplineand drill would effect strongmorale and esprit de corps

in the faceof which 'shell shock' would be practically'non-existent'. While arguingthat

'the manwith 14weeks training had not beentaught to control himself he nevertheless

concludedthat 'he was probablya Yahoo beforehe was takeninto the armyand he

could not get his nervesunder restraint. ' The fault lay not with the armybut the

hereditarydispositions of individualmen for:

81 Rivers,.Instinct, p. 210

108 Lord Gort thought that a large number of the men who two or three years after the war were still suffering from 'shell shock' symptoms were probably bordering on lunacy before.82

Similarlythe languageof degeneracywas invokedby oneMedical Officer called

asa witnessat the court-martialof a manwho had deserted.In the M. 0. 's view the

manwas 'a pitiful degenerate'and his diary recordedthat 'I went to the trial determined

to give him no help of any sort, for I detesthis type.s83 However, he later reflectedon

whethercowardice ought to be considereda crime;a questionhe found difficult to

resolvewhen 'so manysplendid fellows lay down their lives so bravely'." Cowardice

alsotransformed 'already poor specimensof manhoodinto somethingtoo horribly neara

beast'.85 According to somecommentators, such 'types' hadtheir failureto conformto

the manlyideal visibly inscribedon their bodies,for example,Major E. Barton White, R.

A. M. C observed:

Whenpassing through the wardsand gardens of the Mental Division onedid not find the majority of the patientsthe well-built, symmetricallyfeatured and intelligentlooking youthsthat might havebeen expected. True, therewere manyof thesebut the largenumber of obviouslycongenitally deficientcaught the eyefirst... the appearanceof their degenerativestigmata has beenpitiable in uniform."

62 Report,p. 50.1 93 Harold Dearden,Medicine and Duty, London: Heinemann,1928, p. 154 84 ibid. p. 170 85 ibid.

26 'Abstract of a Reporton the Mental Division of the WelshMetropolitan War Hospital, Whitchurch, Carda Sept.1917- Sept. 1919', Journal ofMental Science,October 1920, pp. 440441

109 The discourse of degeneration and the notion of 'type' was called upon to identify and

distinguish certain categories of men susceptibleto shell shock. Adherence to the notion

of 'type', whether degenerate,physically, mentally or morally deficient effectively

constructed groups of marginalised men, groups which George Mosse identified as

'outsiders', those placed outside the confines of establishedsociety and seenas a menace

to its norms.87

Classwas a crucialfactor in this constructionof othernessand was implicatedin

the diagnosisand treatment of mensuffering from shellshock but so too was ethnicity.

For manyMedical Officersand psychiatrists the symptomsof shellshock bore a marked resemblanceto their 'despised'diagnostic categories of hysteria,neurasthenia, nervousnessand insanity. Further,these classifications were alsoarticulated within the discoursesof degeneracyand national deterioration which imbuedcertain racial groups with characteristicswl&h determinedtheir degeneracy.In the late nineteenthcentury immigrantsto Britain's cities addedto fearsof deterioration;the Irish andJews especiallywere perceived as degeneratetypes. One witness to the Interdepartmental

Committee on physical deterioration declared that 'Jews have been shown to be an exceedingly degeneratetype in Europe'and 'there is a high percentageof insanity among

Jews, much higher then among the surrounding gentile races, 88while another witness clearly thought he was expressinga common senseassumption when he stated that during the Boer War 'Jews weren't worth their salt'. Another group 'not worth their salt' were the Irish; the high levels of lunacy among the Irish being 'a legacy of mental

'7 Mosse,'Shell Shockas a SocialDisease', pp. 102-103 88 Quotedin Winter, The Great Mar and the British People,p. 15

110 weaknessdating from the sufferingsof the famineyears', according to a contributorto

the Lancet in September 1914.89The enduring representation of the Irish as children

inevitablycontributed to the perceptionof their unreliabilityas soldierswhile their

predisposition to break down in war was supposedly destinedby their heredity. The

marginalisation of certain groups of men whose masculinity was suspect,mainly among

the urban working classesand specific ethnic groups, neverthelessincluded some middle-

classmen whose effeminacy precluded them from the ranks of the manly.

Effeminacywas frequentlyattributed to artistic, or 'imaginative'types, those

who failed to demonstrateappropriate manliness. Their lack was perceivedin opposition

to a constructionof middle-class masculinity defined in medical,religious and familial,

amongothers, discourses as married, industrious and in possessionof a healthybody capableof reproduction.The homophobiaaroused by the so-calleddecadents of the

1890swas recreatedin the faceof shellshocked men. Suchtypes continued to hauntthe mentallandscapes of manyin the military and medicalauthorities; 'the type of manmost liableto breakdownis the manwho is probablycalled 'neurotic'; a manwho hasthe artistic temperament,a manwho is more emotionalthan the averagetype of man'.90

Even sympatheticobservers such as the AmericanJohn McCurdy wrote of how a young soldierwho hadnot exhibited'neurotic symptoms'prior to the war nonetheless'showed a tendencyto abnormalityin his make-up'for not only was he 'tender-hearted'but also:

89 Quotedin Bourke, 'Effeminacy,Ethnicity and the End of Trauma:The Sufferingsof 'Shcll-shocked' Men in GreatBritain and Ireland, 1914-39',Journal ofContemporaryHistory, Volume 35, No. 1, January2000. Seealso, G. Oram, WorthlessMen, The Irish Question,pp. 60-73 90 Report,p. 26

III Socially,he was rather self-conscious,inclined to keepto himselfand he had not beena perfectlynormal, (my italics) mischievousboy, but was rathermore virtuous than his companions.He had alwaysbeen shy with girls andnever thoughtof gettingmarried. 9'

The constructionof normativemasculinity in the contextof soldieringwas

founded on notions of self-control, manly duty, courage but'also implicitly invoked

efficiency as a normative value. The categorisation and classification involved in

identifying 'types' were borrowed from medical and psychiatric diagnostic tests but were

also influenced by the requirements of military efficiency. In the History of the Great

War it was stated that while psycho-neurosescannot be ignored:

the subjectis, however,so boundup with the maintenanceof moralein the army that everysoldier who is non-effective owing to nervousbreakdown must be madethe subjectof carefulenquiry. In no caseis he to be evacuatedto base unlesshis conditionwarrants such a procedure.92

All psychiatrists and psychologists with their differing medical theories and practices

were nonethelessimplicated in maintaining fighting efficiency among the troops.

Whatever their notion of cure they operated within military social relations for as Martin

Stone suggests'fitness for duty was the criterion of therapeutic success'.9' His view is

supported by Chris Feudtner who observesthat the restoration of distressedmen to

91 John T. MacCurdy, WarNeuroses, Cambridge: University Press,1918, pp. 7-8 92 W. G. Macphersonet al., History of the Great War,Based on Official Documents,Afedical Services, Diseasesof the War, Vol. 11,IA)ndon, 1923, p. 11 93 Stone,'Shell Shock', p. 264

112 healthand manly self-control which 'led to the 'efficient' return of manymen to battleis

a final bitter andtragic twist to the tale.v94 Moreover, in the all-maleinstitution of the

army,shell shock aroused strong emotions in the personalencounters between men as

they cameto termswith the phenomenaof other menbreaking down.

Clinicaljudgements were madeunder pressure of military efficiencybut also I reflectedtheir own attitudesto other menwhose masculinities were measured against the

doctorsassumed hegemonic masculinity. Forcedto makejudgements about men's

mentalstates particularly between the genuinesufferer and the possiblemalingerer meant

that amongmilitary medicalofficers suspicionand contempt vied with compassionand

understanding,punishment with cure. Thosejudgements were alsopredicated on shared

notionsof manlinessfrom which certaintypes of menwere excluded and which

seeminglyprovided explanations for their failure in the supremetest of war. Expressions

of personalantagonism towards men sufferingfrom shellshock continued after the war;

for instance,Bogacz has commented on the occasionalirritation andexasperation

expressedby witnessesto the War Office Committeeas well asthe socialand class prejudicesof someof the membersof the Conunittee.95 The evidenceof the fifty-nine witnesses,including army officers,regimental and battalion commanders, medical officers,neurologists, psychologists, Ministry of Pensionsofficials and six menwho had sufferedor were still sufferingfrom war neuroses,"6far from providingclarification aboutthe distinctionbetween courage and cowardiceonly servedto illustratehow

94 Fcudtner,'Nfinds'. p. 405 95 Bogacz,'War Neuroses',p. 236-7 96 Bogacz,'War Neuroscs'lp. 238

113 troublingand vexed the questionwas. For implicatedat the heartof the questionwere

fundamentalassumptions about traditional masculinity wl&h appearedto be under

threat.

In his analysisof the image of manlinessas an ideal, George Mosse has pointed to

the importanceof the unity of body andmind wherebybodily integrity was maintainedby

emotionalself-control, thus giving the image'itscohesion. The ability of manto be in

control of himself,Mosse argues was evenmore of a necessityin war when duty and

sacrificefor a higherideal, the nation,were demandedfor 'this idealin its harmonyand

rigidly controlledpower stood for nationalstrength, dynamic and purpose. '" The image

of the shellshocked soldier was the betrayalof all theseideals; a manin the uniform,

literally andmetaphorically, of nationalservice who hadcompletely lost control of

himselfand his emotions. Onewitness to the War Office Committeegrappled with the

vexedquestion of masculineself-control, the 'linchpin of maleidentity'". He statedthat

a maninstinctively masks his emotionsalmost as a matterof routine. In trifling

everydayaffairs this is involuntaryand automatic with a negligibleexpense of nervous

energy'. Nervousenergy was critical becauseit waswhat determinedwill-power and

self-control. Using an economicmodel, he madethe analogybetween a man'sstore of nervous energy and a current and capital account at the bank. The continuous crises of war 'without intervals for replacing spent energy exhauststhe capital account and you get a run on the bank, followed by loss of control, hysteria, irresponsible chattering, mutism, amnesia,inhibition of the senses,acute mania, insensibility etc. with the

97 Mosse, 'Shell-shock', pp. 10 1,105 98 Feudtncr, 'Nfinds', p. 403

114 diagnosisof nervousbreakdown or 'shell shock'.' He tried to definewhat sort of man

was susceptibleto breakdown-'brooding, introspective, self-analysing'- while

simultaneouslyarguing that ' 'shell-shock'is born of fear... M menknow fear. Some

concealit betterthan others. A few bury it out of sight,but it is thereall the same.99

SquadronLeader W. Tyrell's evidence,based on his serviceon the WesternFront

as a Regimental Medical Officer and subsequentlyas a Field Ambulance Commander,

was not based on the study of any clinical works on the subject but 'notes [which] are

crude, unrevised and unedited. They leave much unwritten. I have not the languageto

describethe things which I have seen, experiencedand now know. '100 His evidence,

with examplesfrom his own experiences,was often contradictory as he sought genuinely

to understand the aetiology of mental breakdown whether in the individual man's will-

power or in the conditions of war as exemplified in 'fatigue, mud and cold, misery and

monotony, nauseatingenvironment etc. ' He also looked to the military itself in terms of

leadership,morale and esprit de corps and to the responsibilities of Medical Officers for

detection, diagnosesand treatment and their difficult role in distinguishing between

malingerers and genuine casesof breakdown. As he recognised,the pursuit of military

efficiency, underpinned by military discipline, could have fatal results:

" Report,p. 30 100 Notesattached to written evidencepresented to the Committeein the Tyrell Collection:papers of Air Vice Marshall Sir William Tyrell, IWM 68/84 Box 29. The paperscontain newspapercuttings, reviews of fiction and clinical works relating to shell shock,the psychologyof fear etc. which demonstratea continuing interestand researchinto the subjectlong after the war ended. I

115 He hadseen cases of an emotivestate in the form of irresistiblefear of danger,associated with crisesof terror andanxiety at the front, leadingup to desertionfrom postof duty or recklessbehaviour; one of whom,a regularserving non-comrnissionedofficer, with an excellentpre-war character,was eventuallyshot as a persistentdeserter. 101

Clearlydeeply troubled by suchinjustices, he neverthelessconcluded that ' in my

experience,every man executed by order of courts -martial was given every loophole of

escape.' This evidencehas been quoted at length since it encapsulatesthe ambivalences

andcontradictions within the debatesabout shellshock and implicitly, aboutmasculinity;

W. Tyrell's final summarywas that 'the whole questionof shellshock appears to me at

one andthe sametime to be childishlysimple and profoundly complex'. 102

However,another perspective on this complexissue can be viewedby turning to an examination of the ways in which the authors of memoirs and diaries representedshell shocked men. In the process of negotiation with military and medical discourseswhich constituted particular forms of male subjectivity, the personal accounts frequently resist and challengethose representations. What was most shocking to the writers was that any man could, often without warning, break down, regardlessof rank, physical strength or perceived qualities of bravery:

101Report, p. 33 102Notes attached to evidencegiven at Conunitteeinterviews, TyreU CoHection,IWM 68/84Box 29

116 Anothergunner and I almostcarried one of the Ayrshire farmersto a dressingstation, muttering, slavering and shakingfrom headto foot. A big strongman of the soil. He was shelteringfrom oneone of thosehell spasmsand a shell burieditself, almostat his feet andit was duringthat few secondsinterval, waiting, on the explosionwaiting to be hurledup into the air in pieces,that brokeJock. He collapsed,fell over at the knees,shivering and muttering..."

In anotherincident following a terrific bombardment,I-Eram Sturdy recalled a manfalling

to the ground,'foaming at the mouth,jabbering, and [who] startsto tear at himself

Thoseround him are on him in a few secondsfor although this wasthe first we had seengo like that, we had heardof this kind of caseand whenone has beenunder terrific shellfire,he knowsthe symptomsalright, as mostof us at timeshave had to fight againstthis madnesscaused by pure unadulteratedfear. '04

Similarly, witnessing an officer who had 'completely lost control', an R. A. M. C Captain

reflected:

Atkinsonwas a very braveman; andhere I am on a matter aboutwhich I know a greatdeal. He was physicallybrave in a way I neverwas, nor couldbe nor am. Becauseof this the incidentwas significant.'O'

In his book of memoirs published in 1932 Arthur Osborn, a regular soldier and

doctor who had served in the Boer War evocatively entitled one chapter 7he Shape that

10311iram Sturdy, IWM Con Shelf P 104Hiram Sturdy,IW Con Shelf P 105Captain L. Gameson,IWM P.397

117 Walkethat Noonday. In it he describeda numberof incidentsof shellshock he had

witnessedas well as recordinghis reflections. In one suchincident he recordeda

Colonel(acting Brigadier) sobbing uncontrollably, 'shaking and twitching all over; yet

'he was one of the bravest men I knew: '

Highly thought of by both Divisional and Corps Commanders,his was an heroic case of endurance. Certainly he was of the bull-necked type, probably well- endowedwith vigour and with good nerves."

Becausehe wasan officer andalso had the supportof a sympatheticMedical Officer

who intercededon his behalfwith the DivisionalCommander, the manwas granted six

monthsleave. He recoveredand returned to gain 'further promotionand distinction'.

The outcomeof a caseof shellshockthat CaptainGameson dealt with wasmore

uncertain;he was calledto attendto a young soldierfollowing a shellattack. The

'youth' was not hurt andhad helped with a manwho hadbeen wounded. The boy was

'classedas normal' and 'had alwayscome up to scratch'and had witnessed his friends

beingwounded before. Yet accordingto CaptainGameson, for whom 'the sceneis still

most vivid to me', this 'stray incidentbroke him' andhe foundhim 'gibbering'. For muchof the night the boy sat on his bunk grippinghard to an upright andshouting.

None of the othermen complained as CaptainGameson 'quite completelyfailed to comfort him' until, after an injectionof morphine,'this ratherhandsome undoubtedly intelligentchild had drowsedinto a restlesssleep. P107 Gameson's compassion for the boy

106 Arthur Osburn,Unwilling Paysenger,London: Faberand Faber,1932, p. 293 107Captain L. Gameson,IWM P.397

118 is evident,but his feelingsof guilt for his inadequacyboth as a doctor anda manin

providingcomfort are impliedin the final sentencesof his account,'I did not hearof the

boy again. I haveno record of his name. I cannotremember what diagnosisI sentwith

him.' While thereis narrativeclosure, the feelingsremained unresolved but registeredin

the vivid memoriesof the event.

The languageused to describethese eye witness accounts is of significancewhen

subjectedto further scrutiny. The 'brave' man in these accounts as in others is

positioned within the dominant pre-war codes of masculinity and the soldier hero but is

also simultaneouslydissolved by the actions of 'sobbing, 'muttering', 'slavering' and

'twi .tching'. The writers of the memoirs quoted above challengethe notion that the men

afflicted by shell shock were to blame becauseof some inherent weaknessor more

simply, becausethey were cowards. They eschew moral judgements and write from a

position of compassionand understanding which collapsesthe categoriesof cowardice and courage. They knew how close to completely losing their nerve they had been; for them men who broke down were not cowards but other men pushedbeyond the point of endurance.

One interpretation of the resistanceto the traditional imagery of the heroic and courageous soldier is that by the time many of these memoirs were written, in the late

1920s,there were other 'anti-war' narratives in public circulation within a general climate of disillusionment, exemplified by C. E. Montague's Disenchantment published in 1922. This afforded a spacefor representationsof men who were the victims of a war which provoked intense physical and mental suffering and intolerable ordeals. While the outcome was not necessarilycomplete breakdown nor permanentincapacitation they nonethelessindicated how men were pushed to the limits of their endurance- and

119 beyond,the point at which mendid breakdown. The rawnessand intensity of the

writing in the descriptionsof menbreaking down suggeststhat theseepisodes continued

to be troubling,traumatic memories. At the point of breakdown,the soldierwas

representedas not only unmannedbut reducedto a level of instinctualprimitivism. The

terror of thosewitnessing the appallingspectacle of breakdownwas mirroredby the

terror of the victim as mind, body and speechlost all coherence:

Drivenmad with terror, slobberingand moaning, he clawed and scrabbledviolently in the mud. It was like a terrified andoverrun fox going to ground,trying to dig his way back to safetythrough the very bowelsof the earth. Ifis behaviour was lessthan human. Extremeterror had drivenhim back througha thousandgenerations to somepre-human form of life.108

Howeverthey namedthese inner terrors - loss of reason,madness, loss of nerve-what

they wereremembering was the removalof 'the military maskof masculinitydesigned to "09 containfear andto suppressemotions contravening endurance of war. Without that

'military mask', menbecame incapacitated and broke down. The imageof the unity of body andmind referred to by GeorgeMosse is fracturedand in so doing,the boundaries betweendominant forms of masculinityand subordinatemasculinities are rendered unstable,allowing a spacein which alternativeversions can be generatedand articulated.

In anotherexample, Captain Leland's letters poignantly document his struggle againstlosing his nerve;as a professionalsoldier and an officer he hadmuch to loseas he

11 Osburn, Unwilling Passenger,p. 291 109Eric Leed, 'Fateful Memories:Industrialized War and TraumaticNeuroses', Journal of ContempormyHistory, Vol. 35, No. 1, January2000, p. 95

120 triedvaliantly to concealwhat he sawas weakness from other officersand the menfor

whomhe hadresponsibility. I-Es letters to his wife are riven with the conflictsof duty,

responsibilityand settingan examplewith his overwhelmingdesire to escape,to return

home. Leaveprovides no respite;'I hateleave. The returningis just too damnable.' A

furtherresponsibility was to assurehis wife, despiteconfiding to her all his fears,

sleeplessnessand 'awful dreams',that he would hangon, be all right. In one letter, he

confidedto his wife:

They havestarted bombing again, damn them, and the place is rocking,and so is my hand. I am losingmy nerve. It is no usepretending that I am not... whenI saw someof our own mengetting the wind up, it pulledme togetherand I was alright again."0

Four dayslater, he describedthe effectsof beingunder shell bombardment compounded

by takingno offensiveaction, illustrating again how staticwarfare so disempoweredmen

by.breaking down their psychicdefences as apprehensionturned to fear andthen

frequently to terror:

Whenyou haveto sit placidly in the back areasand receive in an equallyplacid manner,High Velocity shells- thenthe nervegoes. Mine hasquite gone and I acknowledgeit. Yet whenI go up to D. H. Q and seethese smug looking Staff Officers I do pull myselftogether. "'

Sadlydespite all his efforts to 'pull himselftogether', Captain Leland finally succumbed andwas admittedto PalaceGreen hospital in London,one of the privatehomes founded

110CaptairL Lcland, IWM 96/51/1 111ibicL

121 by Lord Knutsfordf6r officerssuffering from shellshock. His correspondencewhich

chartsone officer's journey throughmental anguish towards breakdown ends here

leavingthe questionof his recoveryunanswered.

CaptainLeland provides an almostclassic case study confirming the

psychologists' view that war neuroseswere the product of mental conflict. WhHst

utilising Freud's concepts of mental conflict, the unconscious and repression,they

repudiated their associationswith infantile sexual impulses. Instead, they focussed on the

impulse of another instinct 'one even more ftindamental than that of sex - the instinct of

self-preservation'.112 The roots of the conflict lay between the instinct of self-

preservation, fear and duty and causedthe 'Eight into illness', the desire to escapefrom

the intolerablesituation of the war. Since'fear andits expressionare regardedas

113fear hadto be Many testify to how reprehensible' , repressed. of the personalaccounts the symptomsof fear could be detectedeven in the bravestof menas well as how, in

orderto fight, indeedsurvive, fear hadto be repressed.The resultof this centralconflict

wasthe arrayof symptomsand somaticdisorders constituting shell shock and

furthermore,since the conflict wasunconscious therefore the symptomswere not willed by the patientbut expressionsof unconsciousrather than rational or willed processes.

In the circumstancesof war it was the emotionof fear which wasidentified in the aetiologyof shellshock,fear of courseis inevitablein war, a normaland necessary responseto dangerand the overwhelmingmajority of soldiersexperience fear beforeand during battle. As RichardHolmes states 'fear is the commonbond between fighting

112Rivers, Instinct, p. 5 113Rivers, 'War Neurosis',p. 27

122 114 men'. As discussedearlier, many writers analysedhow conditionsat the front - the

incessantnoise, shelling, artillery fire and an often invisibleenemy - inducedfear. The

staticnature of warfarewhich imposedlong periodsof inactivity,combined with the

men'sinability to respondwith someform of manipulativeactivity, deprivedthem of

their defencesagainst fear andprovoked a 'prominentcondition for the occurrenceof 115 neurosisin some form or another'. Fearing fear itself was a torment; fear of the

unknown left men prey to irrational fears and imaginings:

Every return to the trenches was a new battle for the individual Tommy. It mattered little to him what was going on at other parts of the Front. His fight was chiefly against the fears within himself... The magnitude of a great battle stirred his blood, but there were many long and lonely hours of sentry vigil at night, when in his imaginings, phantasmagorial Jerrics swarmed across No Man's Land in fearsome numbers.116

However, the nature of fear was more complex than a single responseand adaptation to the external terrors and threats associatedwith industrialised warfare. A major fear was showing fear which was seenas a source of shame,a stigma to be borne in the face other men and therefore to be concealedat any cost. For measuringa man's masculinity against other men and to be found wanting, threatens a man's senseof himself Showing signs of fear was also to show weakness,a failure to possessmanly virtues, especially those associatedwith emotional self-control, for as Elliott Smith and T. H. Pear, writing in 1917, observed 'the suppressionof fear and other strong emotions is not demanded

114Holmes, Firing Line, p204 113RcpoM p. 58 116George Coppard, With aMachine Gun to Cambrai, London: RMSO, 1969, p. 117

123 only of menin the trenches.It is constantlyexpected in ordinarysociety'. '" In time of

war it was permissiblefor mento expressfear and evenmilitary menpublicly confessed

beforethe War Office Committeeto suchfeelings and a recognitionof it amongall ranks

of men. Brevet ColonelG. C. Stubbs,DSO, of the I st SuffolkRegiment stated while

youngsoldiers had the ideathat fear shouldnot exist he thought'I was in an awful funk

tlie whole time, andI think most peoplewere'. He was supportedby Lieutenant-Colonel

J. S. Y. Rogers,late RegimentalMedical Officer, 4th Black Watchwho argued'I think

everyman, no matterhow braveat the fi7ont,has experienced fear. You cannotavoid it

with the variousthings that are going on.' SquadronLeader W. Tyrell stated

unequivocallythat 'ýhell-shockis bom of fear. Its grandparentsare self-preservationand

the fear of beingfound afraid."18 W. N. Maxwell concludedthat 'fearlessnessas a

psychicalexperience was practically unknown. '"9

Fearof death,military commentatorshave observed is lesspronounced than fear

of beingwounded or mutilatedwhile fear of beinga cowardconstituted a major conflict.

For while therewas almostunanimity that feelingsof fear werepermissible, there was far more equivocationabout the managementof thosefeelings. Brevet ColonelG. C.

Stubbssuccinctly summed up the situation;'it is not cowardlyto be afraid,but it is cowardlyto let fear get control of your actions. 'In this equation,being afraid was a sharedcommon experience, whereas being a cowardwas an individualfailing which 'if revealedwill call down ignominyupon his headand disgrace him in the eyesof his

111Elliott Smith and T. H. Pear,Shell-Shock and. Its Lessons,London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1917, p. 7 118Reporý p. 31 119AI&xweH, Psychological Retrospect, p. 60

124 fellows. He must save his self-respect and self-esteemat all CoStS..s120 To show

cowardice threatened public recognition of what was manly, especiallyin time of war

when masculinequalities of mastery, courage and endurancewere particularly invoked.

Masculine self-identity, however, was also structured by men's imaginingý of the soldier

hero; hence the psychic conflicts and fears engenderedby the attribution of cowardice.

In many of the memoirs under consideration here the evidencepoints to how powerfWly

the fear of beinga cowardwas internalisedand the intensefeelings generated continued

in the postwar constructionof war memoirs. In hisA PsychologicalRetrospect of the

Great War W. N. Maxwell attributedthe following wordsto a soldierwho after a few

daysat the front 'could do nothingbut lie and quake'until 'he sayshe took himselfin

hand:'

He summonedthe whole strength of his manhood to his aid, feeling that if he lived, he would be ashamedto stand before his fellow-men, a coward, and that if he died, he would be ashamedto come before his Maker, a coward. His self- respect was the triumphant factor that entered into the act of 121 Will th at Put f car away fr 0M him.

Whateverthe individual'sexpressions of fear of beinga cowardthey haveclearly been overlaid by the moral and religious sentimentsof the author who was an army Chaplain.

However,such certainties embedded in the cleardistinctions between courage and cowardice were precisely those which were obfuscatedby shell shock and the debatessurrounding it. An anonymouswitness, a regimentalmedical officer, to the War

120W. TyreU,evidcnce to Rcport 12, AUXWCII,PsDxhological Retrospect, p. 130

125 Office Conunitteeprovided a full accountof his breakdownduring which he could not

control his tearsand cried for a week. Nevertheless,after six monthshe returnedto the

front 122 where 'I had no difficulty whateverin controllingmyself - not the slightest.' In

the eyesof the Committeethe 'coward' was recuperatedas a 'gallant officer' becausehe

hadrecovered his self-controland gone on to performhis military duties. Millais

Culpin'sopinion based on his experiencewas of 'meetingmen with a history of threeor

four yearsof strenuouswarfare before their breakdownleads me to believethat

everyone,subjected to sufficientof the terrors of modemwarfare, would eventually

reachthe limits of physicaland mental endurance'. 123 Culpin's opinion was subjectto

contestationbut could be accommodatedwhen men successfully managed to win their

'individual psychologicalbattle' andconform to the imageof the good soldier.

The debatesabout the causesof sheflshock focussed primarily on the emotionof

fear, an emotionwhich was sanctionedwithin military discoursesand legitimate in time

of war. At the sametime it blurredthe clearcut distinctionsbetween courage and cowardice as the War Office Committee had to admit in conclusion to their report, 'in many casesit is extremely difficult to distinguish cowardice from neurosis since in both fear is the chief causalfactor. ' 124The efficient managementof fear was also implicated in the discussion about military training, morale and esprit de corps as well as practical considerations of leave, rest from military duties and general physical conditions. Such discussionscentred on the army as a public institution but the army was also a space

122Quoted in Bogam, 'Way Neuroses',p. 247 123 ?*Uais Culpin, Psychoneurosesin War and Peace,quoted in MaxwelL PsychologicalRetrospect, p. 150

124Rcpor4 Appendix A, p. 223

126 wherethe boundariesbetween public andprivate intersected, a domesticspace where

menworked, ate and slepttogether with the everpresent possibility that they would die

together. In the absenceof women,consolation and comfortwere to be found from

other men,nurturing and sustainingeach other throughtheir terrifying ordeals. In such

an intense,highly chargedatmosphere there were the inevitableantagonisms which could

eruptbetween men divided by class,status, religion, politics andethnicity. Army

discipline,as we haveseen, sometimes provoked rage and violence. While somemay

havefound pleasureand excitementin combatand Bling, 125others found the

transgressionof civilian taboosa sourceof conflict anddistress. Arguably then, fear

could be publiclyarticulated and legitimated within the emotionalvocabulary allowed in

the constructionof masculineidentity. However,although the firnitingnotion of self-

control andthe suppressionof emotionmight be sustainablein civilianlife but war

experiencelived out in an intensehomo-social world provokedother strongemotional reactions.In turn they contributedto the processesof mentalconflict identifiedin the aetiologyof shellshock.

As manyof the personalmemories struggle to expressthe conflicts,pain and desires engenderedby their emotional reactions to their war experiencesthey echo

Freud's observation in relation to war neurosis that 'the thing feared is after all an inner foe'. 126These inner foes took a variety of forms and manifestations,some of which were observed by the more psychoanalytically-orientatedpsychologists. Scenariosof familial

125Bourke, 'Effeminancy,Ethnicity and the End of Trauma', p. 57 126S. Ferenczi,K. Abrahamet al., Psychoanalysisand the WarNeurosis, London: InternationalPsycho- analytical Press,1918

127 relationshipswere re-enacted in the orgapisationof the armycommand structure.

Rivers,for example,observed how the relationshipbetween an officer andhis men

resembledthat of a father and son; someofficers being 'actuated by interestwhich could

not be greaterif thoseunder his commandwere his own children.p127 In Rivers'

interpretation,the fatherfigure was benignbut the conversewas the tyrannicalfather

representedby the officer who 'found fault with everything'and aroused hostility and

'feelings of bitterness and hatred'. 128

Comradeshipand the closeemotional bonds which wereforged between men

could neverthelessbe a sourceof mentalconflict. Accordingto C. StanfordRead:

It is highly probablethat the herdingtogether of menso closelydoes tend to lightenup latenthomosexual trends, resultingperhaps in definitehomosexual acts or leadingto mentalconflicts which in their resolutionmay produce abnormalmental symptoms. 129

The relationshipbetween war andhornoeroticism has been the subjectof much

analysis130 and certainly in someof the personalaccounts there are examplesof tendernessand kindness as well as expressionsof love towardsother men for the homosocialworld evokeddesires and prohibitions. Comradeshipwith andloyalties to other menwere often intenseand the bondswhich were establishedbetween 'brothers'

127 Rivers, 'War Neurosis'. p. 38 128 11iram Sturdy, lWM Con Shelf 129 Read, Military Psychiatry, p. 12 130 See, for example, Adrian Caesar, Taking it like a man: Suffering, sexuality and the War Poets,

Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993, and Paul Fussell, 7he Great War andModern Memory,

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975

128 and'comrades' were frequentlyrecalled and recorded post war with a deepsense of loss,

Onewriter describinghow everyman had a 'chum' claimedthat 'such comradeshipcan

neverbe foundin civilian life. He went to describehow he andhis friend were inseparable:

Sharingeverything, down to thelast cigarette-end, the last armybiscuit, the last bit of coverunder an enemy bombardment,can you wonder when I saywe almost loved eachother. Facing hardships and death together day after day,brings out that something in a manthat lies dormant in lif 131 themonotonous round of everydaycivilian e.

However,in relationto the subjectof war neurosis,the feelingsaroused in heterosexual

menfor other menmay well havebeen disturbing or threateningto a man'ssense of his

sexualidentity. Nonetheless,such bonds of love andfriendship were crucialfor men's

psychicsurvival but whenthese bonds were cruelly andtragically severed as they were,

for exampleduring the severelosses of the Pal's battalionsat the Battle of the Somme,

the strainsimposed on the survivorswere immense.

The deathsand mutilation of one's comradeswere unbearabletraumas among the many horrors and privations of war. For, as Eric Leed argues,there were psycl-ýc dangers in identification with the men of one's unit contributing to a loss of self for 'to identify with the battalion at war and with the narrow circle of one's comradeswas to open a large vertiginous emotional drain, and to begin a seeminglyendless process of mourning'. "2 After the Battle of the Somme death was omnipresent:

131W. A. Quintoa,IWM 79/35/1 132Lced, No Man's Land, pp. 2 10-11

129 The sightof the deadlaying aboutus, andthen as the weathergrew warmer,the terrible, indescribablesmell as they rotted,formed pan of our everydaylives. 133 '

In a numberof lettersto his wife, CaptainLeland describes the impactof so many deaths:

About the only friend I everhad out herehas just died. Five wholemen out of thirty two. Not a bad record. That is ours, And they saythe war is won. Do not takethe slightestnotice of anythingyou readin the papers. They lie. Everyword.

Five monthsearlier he hadwritten:

Onehas grown into sucha statethat nothingseems to affect us as it should. We are alwaysmourning someone or other. The Angel of Deathhas been very busy lately.134

The exigenciesof war, however,inhibited the normalprocesses of mourningwhich often

involve 'gravedepartures from the normalattitude to life', a painfWmood and require

time for the mourningprocess to be worked through.135 Adrian Gregoryhas shown that,

in order to maintainnational morale during wartime,extravagant mourning on the home front was prevented'forcing prominentpeople to mournfor only a shorttime in public andwith as stoic an attitudeas they could muster.' 136 The maintenanceof army morale was evenmore imperative;men were expectedand encouraged to represstheir

133W. A. Quinton, IWM 79/35/1 134Captain Leland, IWM 96151/1 135S. Freud,Mourning andMelancholia, 1917,Vol. 11, London:Pelican Books, 1984, p. 251-267 136Adrian Gregory,The Silence of. Xfemory, Oxford: Berg 1994,p. 21

130 experience,'to put it out of your mind, old fellow, anddo not think aboutit. Imagine

you are in your gardenor home.' In his evidenceto the War Office Committeeof

Enquiryinto 'Shell Shock' W. H. R. Riversdenounced such platitudes:

If you think about the experienceswhich men went through in France, seeing their friends at their side with their heads blown off and things of that sort, the processof repressionis altogetherunsuitedfor an experienceof that kind, and yet that processwas going on on an enonnous scale.117

The admonition'to forget aboutit' preventedexpressions of grief andloss which would

havebeen detrimental to army morale. W. H. R. Rivers'sstatement was a comparatively

rare acknowledgmentof the emotionalimpact of the deathsof comradesand how the

feelingsgenerated rnight alsobe constitutiveof neuroseswhen any expressionof them

was activelydiscouraged. In 1918in an arficlein the Lancet "' Rivershad utilised

Freud'sconcept of the normalprocesses of repressionby which certainpainfiil memories

wereburied in the unconsciousand forgotten while alsoarguing that in the specific circumstancesof war suchmechanisms only contributedto the 'maintenanceof neurosis'. I-Escontention was that painftil memories,while not beingdwelt on, should be faced.

T he conflictsinvolved in the psychicprocess of repressionproduced altered statesof niýindand mood. Oneresult was that manymen, like CaptainLeland, found themselvesgrowing 'callous' or falling into a stateof misery,'no, not misery-

137Report. p. 58 138W. It R. Rivers, 'The Repressionof War Experience',The Lancet, Fcbnkizy 2 1918,pp. 173-177

131 melancholy'.139 The samestate of mind was found amongstthe Frenchtroops. The

Frenchpoilusidentified le cafard, a word with no linguisticequivalent in Englishand

thereforeuntranslatable but which refersto a deepmelancholy, an overwhelmingsense

of depressionand misery. StephaneAudoin-Rouzeau's study of Frenchtrench

journalismshows how the term first appearedin January1915 and remained prominent

until the endof the war andargues that 'this multiform, endemicand intangible cafard

was a misfortuneagainst which nothingwould prevail'.140 As suchit was a term which

conveyeda rangeof feelingsexperienced by combatants,from, for example,

disappointmentover delaysin receivingletters, or the despairwhich could assailmen

unpredictably'when you feel invadedby a mysteriousterror of the unknown' or worse,

the feelingsinduced by omnipresentdeath when 'everyoneturns in on himself,few words

are exchanged;everyone looks into his own depths,seeking the mentalstrength to fift

himselfabove this overwhelmingatmosphere of death.' 141While arguingthat le cafard

'doesnot of itself sumup the whole of the soldiers'mental universe' Audoin-Rouzeau's

analysisnevertheless points to the multi-facetednature of psychictrauma which many combatantsexperienced at timesduring the courseof the war. Nevertheless,the introductionof the conceptof unconsciousprocesses met with a hostilereaction.

Freud'stheories of the unconsciouswhich increasinglyinformed the debates about shellshock once again raised antipathy among other groups of psychiatristswho againrejected the 'Teutonic science.When Ernest Jones, one of Freud'smost energetic

139Captain Leland, IWM 9615111 11 SteplianeAudoin-Rouzeau, Men At War 1914-18:National Sentimentand TrenchJournalism in France during the First World War, Oxford: Berg, 1992,p. 55. Seealso Translator's notes. 141ibid. pp. 54-55

132 advocatesin England,wrote of how the war had confirmedFreud's view of the human

mindas 'containingbeneath the surfacea body of imperfectlycontrolled and explosive

forces' andthat 'the manhoodof a nation is in war not only allowed,but encouragedand

orderedto indulgein behaviourof a kind that is throughoutabhorrent to the civilised

mind,to commitdeeds and witness sights that are profoundlyrevolting to our aesthetic

andmoral disposition,' he was accusedof impugningBritish manhood.In the first

MaudsleyLecture delivered in 1920,Sir JamesCrichton- Browne responded directly to

Jones'sarguments that 'all sorts of previouslyforbidden and buried impulses, cruel,

sadistic,murderous and so on are stirred to greateractivity: 9142

that is, as regards our men, at any rate, a gross libel and a cruel insult to those of us who have graves in France and Flanders to tend Our the top, ... men went over or suffered long-drawn out misery in the trenches in no spirit of wanton aggressionand brutality, but for self-defence,for the protection of those united to them by family affection, by fhendly association, patriotic sentiment or for righteous conviction. The flame of modem knight-erranty was lambent among them.143

Inveighing against subterraneandevilry'which Jones had argued led to the intrapsychical conflicts and were the causeof all neurotic disorders, Crichton-Browne countered with the suggestion that in almost all casesof war neuroses 'strong psychopathic tendencies had existed before the war. ' The concept of the unconsciousflew in the face of traditional beliefs about will power, the crucial mechanismby which a man exerted self

142Ernest Jones,'War Shockand Freud's theory of the Neuroses'in Fcrenzi,Abraham et al., Psycho- analysis and the WarAreuroses, p. 47 143Sir JamesCrichton-Browne, Joumal ofMental Science,Vol. LXVI, No. 274, p. 231

133 controlfor 'the presenceof theseconflicts absolved the soldier,releasing him from the

responsibilityfor his unsoldierlyconduct, "44that is whenhe manifestedsigns of shell

shock. If a man'sactions were propelledby the unconscioushe could not be held

responsiblefor actionsover which he had no control. Thusthe seeminglyfixed

categoriesof cowardiceand courage were destabilised,categories which were crucialin

framingmany of the debatesabout shellshock and which informedthe institutionsand

socialpractices which managedthe mensuffering from it. Graduay, however,

psychologicalexplanations of shellshock were acceptedby the military who were forced

by sheernumbers of shellshock casualties to respondin alternativeways.

The exampleof CaptainLeland's final breakdownand his admissionto a hospital

for officersis significantfor more than its illustrationof a processof gradualbreakdown

andthe intenseconflict betweenfear and duty. The fact that he was a regularsoldier and an officer throws fight on one of the reasonsfor the army'schange of attitude.

Traditionalmilitary valuesand codes of conductwere put underthreat as the incidence of shellshock among officers became apparent; in. 1917,for example,the ratio of officers to menat the front was 1:30, the ratio of officersto menin hospitalsfor war neurasthenicswas 1:6.14' Army statisticsrevealed that officerswere twice as likely to breakdown asmen of the ranks. Experiencedsoldiers, regulars, officers and NCOs too were succumbingto war neuroses,men who 'beyondthe slightestdoubt hadbeen normallymen of steadyand fearless character"46while others were known for their dare-

144Fcudtncr, 'Minds', p. 394 145Bourkc, Dismemberingthe Mate, p. 112 146George Rutherford Jeffrey, 'Some Points of Interestin connectionwith the Psychoncurosesof War', Journal ofAfental Science,Vol. LXVI, No. 273, April 1920,p. 132

134 devilryand their valiantbehaviour. Was the peakof the nation'smanhood also to be

foundwanting, to be labelledas cowardsand transferred to asylumsor worse,put before

a firing squad?

The stigmatisinglabelling which attributedneuroses to certaintypes of 'useless'

menwas difficult to maintainin the face of menof the socialclass which aspiredto and

hadbeen trained for the idealsof manlyduty andself-control. Moreover,as Stonehas

pointedout the military authoritiescould no longerrely on their usualdisciplinary

proceduressince it would havebeen 'a rather difficult, andin manpowerterms,

inefficientbureaucratic enterprise to court-martialall thoseconcerned. ' 147 In 1916

CharlesMyers was promotedto Lieutenant-Colonel'Consulting Psychologist' and by

the middleof that yearhe had seen'upwards of two thousandcases of 'shell shock'.148

After the Battle of the Somme,particularly when the Palsbattalions suffered massive

casualties,shell shock became a major problemand a military crisis;in the summerof

1916a GeneralOrder went out underthe heading'Officers - FitnessFor Duty',

expressingconcern within the High Command:

Instanceshave recently come to notice where an officer without any dcfinite manifestations of a physical disability or injury, has assertedhis inability to perform military duty, on the ground that he is the subject of defects in health or temperament the be to ... officer will required sign a written statementclearly setting forth the history and present particulars of the condition which brings his capacity, 149 physically or temperamentally into qucstion.

147Stone, 'Shell Shock', p. 250 148Myers, Shell Shock in France, p. 17 149Quoted in Babington, Shell Shock; p. 76

135 'Temperament'was clearlya military euphemismfor mentalincapacity which

demonstratesthe reluctanceto seethe inability to 'perform military duty' as anything

otherthan a derefictionof that duty. Howeverby the endof 1916under Myers's

direction,Advanced Neurological Centres were establishednear the front line for the

treatmentof psychologicalcasualties and provided for the observationand examination

of individualcases and their treatmentas well as maintainingarmy discipline;army drill

andmarching were includedin the regime. ChrisFeudtner has observed that 'permitting

psychologicalmedicine to adjudicateresponsibility was, for the military, both effective

andpalatable because it allowedthem to retaincontrolof the menas patientsand to

maintaina senseof discipline.'150 In 1917a GeneralRoutine Order on the 'Classification

and disposalof officersand other rankswho without anyvisible wound becomenon- effectivefrom physicalconditions claimed or presumedto haveoriginated from the effectsof British or enemyweapons in action"s' in which the diagnosis'shell shock' was bannedand replaced by the bureaucraticterm Not Yet Diagnosed(Nervous? ). On receiptof the order, CaptainGameson of the R. A. M. C reflectedon the ambiguitiesand ambivalencesexpressed in its contents;he agreedon the necessityof identifying malingerersas 'it was a soundmove to preventabuse of the diagnosis'but, on the other hand,'we seemedto be getting dangerouslynear the abuseof preventingthe diagnosis'.

He alsofelt that the primaryconsideration was 'almostentirely economic' because the

'grave concernabout those cases under review was solelydue to the fact that they might

150Feudtner, 'Nfinds', p. 398 151General Routine Order No. 2394 dated17/6/17 a copyof which is in CaptainGameson's memoir, CaptainL. Gamcson,IWM P.397

136 well be long, intractable-and expensive'.He was referringhere to the troubledquestion

of pensionawards which he hadpreviously noted in relationto the designation'wound'

or 'sickness':'once a manhad been officially labelledW he was in a muchbetter

bargainingposition than onemarked 6S9.152 Nonetheless, he concludedthat the G. R. 0.,

however'strangely worded, represented the first tentativefoundations of an

understandingpsychiatric approach to 'N' or nervouscases generally. It may,perhaps,

be regardedas heralding the neutraltwilight which precededthe tardy dawn.'

Undoubtedlymedical men like Myers andRivers contributed to the emerging

'tardy dawn' with their psychologicalunderstanding of shellshock which however

reluctantly,many in the army commandgradually came to accept. This was partly, as

Martin Stone,suggests because the psychological'fix' 'combinedboth military and medicalconcerns in a mannerwhich valorisedthe importanceof bureaucratic efficiency"" sinceit incorporatedboth disciplineand therapy, prevention and cure. The notion of efficiencywas alsobound up with the conceptof manlyduty andwhile the languageof psychologycreated 'the ideologicalsocial havens for_shell shocked soldiers

(which paralleledthe institutionalhaven of the mentalhospital). 154 The useof termssuch as shellshock or war neuroseswere certainlymore palatable than malingering or cowardice. Howeverthe languageused in the diagnosesand the practicesinvolved in differing treatmentswere powerfullyinflected by class. The personalaccounts have

152After the war CaptainGamcson 'spent much time on the voluntarywork of helping neglectedmen to substantiatetheir claims on the Ministry of Pensions,and sometimesof getting increasedthe pittances they were alreadyreceiving'. CaptainGameson, IWM P.397 153Stone, 'Shell Shock', p. 256 134Feudtner, 'Minds', p. 399

137 indicatedthat, at the point of breakdown,men of all rankswere reducedto the same

levelof lossof control. Yet classdistinctions framed and informed the diagnosesof men

sufferingfrom war neuroses;hysterical symptoms such as mutism, paralysis, blindness

andcontractures of the arms,legs, hands and feet appearedin the rankswhile the officer

classmanifested symptoms associated with neurastheniaor anxietyneuroses such as

insomnia,depression, amnesia and nightmares. As EWne Showalteraptly pointsout

'this extraordinarilytidy distributionof symptomsand diagnoses is consistentwith late

Victorianmoralistic and class-orientedattitudes to hysteriaand neurasthenia in women$

andsuggests that military doctorswere reluctantto applythe femininelabel of hysteria

to menof their own class.155 Hysteria not only imputedunmanly behaviour but also

cowardicewhereas anxiety neurosis or neurastheniadid not. In his discussionof the

'very unsatisfactorystate' of the nomenclatureRivers proposed that evenfor the private soldier,suggestion neurosis was a better term sinceit was 'Veryunlikely to acquirethe inconvenientassociations which havebecome a; tached to hysteria.' 156

The explanationsfor the divisionof symptomsalong class lines were soughtboth in classbackgrounds and in the different responsibilities and duties inherent in the army's command structure. Although the flight into illness resolved the conflict between fear and duty the process of repression operated differently in the two groups. The moral standardsof public school education equipped the officer 'successfully to repress,not only expressionsof fear, but also the emotion itself while the private soldier with 'his simpler mental training' and 'less complex and varied mental life' was 'more likely to be

55Showalter, Female Malady, p. 174. m Rivers, 'War Neurosis',p. 25

138 contentwith the crudesolution of the conflict betweeninstinct and duty which is

providedby suchdisabilities as dumbnessor the helplessnessof a limb.' 157

Followingfrom theseeducational differences were the differencesin war work; as

Riversand others noted the dutiesof the rankswere to obeyorders and to submitto

prolongedmechanical drill. Officers,on the other hand,had the responsibilitiesof giving

orders,taking responsibilityfor their menand, aboveall, settingan example,in John

MacCurdy'swords in order 'to inspirethe menbeneath them with courageand

enthusiasm'.'" Having to 'appearcalm andunconcerned in the midst of danger'

produceda stateof persistentanxiety aggravated by the fact that 'the officer is lessfree

to employthe picturesqueor sulphurouslanguage by which the Tommyfinds a safety

valvefor repressedemotiorL'159 The imageof the officer fulfils the idealof the soldier

hero definedby his classand a specificconstruction of masculinityyet at the sametime,

Riversrecognised how the deferenceand lack of initiative expectedfrom the ranks contributedto war neurosisas they hadto restrain:

the expressionof sentimentsof dislike or disrespect for those of superior rank, and these restraints becomeparticularly trying when those'who are disliked or despisedare the instruments by which the many restrictions of military life '60 are imposed or enforced.

157ibidL

1-58WcCurdy, WarAreuroses, P. 21 159Rivers, 'War Neurosis', p. 13

160ibid. p. 14

139 After all, in the army, 'a self-assertiveman is a mutinousman"" andElaine Showalter

rightly pointsout that by turning their angerand hostility to their superiorofficers in

uponthemselves, the mendefused mutiny. Shellshock then may have served 'a

functionalpurpose in Military life.' 162

However,in termsof military efficiencyand the needfor manpower,shell shock

was dysfunctional in removing men from the fighting fines. These considerationswere

brought to bear in the treatment of men suffering from war neurosesand most historians

agree that in the range of therapeutic treatments offered they were all ultimately coercive

in that their aim was to heal or cure men and in so doing, restore their capacitiestq fight.

Earlier it was contended that the army reluctantly came to accept psychological

explanationsof war neurosesbut when turning to the subject of treatment the opposition

to the psycho-therapeuticdoctors emergesagain, a psychological approach to treatment

remaining anathema*tomany neurologists working in army hospitals. C. S. Myers was so disillusioned with the medical authorities that he left his post as consultant psychologistand refused to give evidenceto the War Office Enquiryinto 'Shell Shock'.

Many neurologistswere asylum-trained doctors and held fast to their familiar,civilian classificationsof mentaldisorders. Their professionalism,as well as their methods,were challengedby, amongothers, C. StanfordRead who wasin chargeof 'D' Block, Royal

Victoria Hospital,Netley wheremany of the earlycases of shellshock were sent.163 He felt that comparisonswere difficult to makebetween mental disorders in war andpeace

161Maxwell, P*chological ReIrospect,p. 154 162Showalter, Female Malai64 p. 175 163Despite enquiries, it appearsthat no recordsof the hospitalexist for the periodof the First World War

140 andspecifically argued that manyregarded as mentally defective were more likely to

havebeen manifesting early symptomsof shellshock. Further,he argued,loss of

memorywas a very commonsymptom of war neurosesand amnesiac fugues which were

constantlyseen in the fi-ontline hadbeen often wrongly interpretedas desertion.His

criticismalso extended to the lack of insufficientskilled psychiatrists in War Mental

Hospitals;'medical men with insufficientor no experiencehave had tasks given themfor

whichthey were in no way fitted.' 164The theoriesheld by the Ekesof C. StanfordRead

informedtheir therapeuticpractices and necessarily differed from thoseof the doctors

whomhe criticised. Similarly,the classdivisions on which the symptomologywas based

wasreflected in the differencesbetween disciplinary treatment and suggestive

psychotherapy,a term adoptedfor a form of psychoanalysisas developedby Freud.

However,there were more variationsin treatmentthan these two extremesimply as

manyphysicians were eclecticin their therapeuticregimes.

In order to restoremen's loss of physicalcapabilities manifested in the symptoms

of mutism,paralysis and contractureof the musclesspecial exercises were devised.

Within a frameworkof military discipline,wiH power andself control hadto be summonedto return the body to functionaland military efficiencyas outlinedin a booklet entitledDaily Drillfor the Voice. A Book ofExercisesComposed to Help Men

PhoseSpeech Has BeenAffected by Shell Shockor Other Cases,published in 1917.

In somecases rest andquiet surroundingswere recommended but therewas alwaysa fear that this would leadto laziness.Moreover it hadnot provedeffective; after rest

164Read, Military Psychiatry,pp. 53,58 165Quoted in Bourke,Dismembering the Male, p. I IS

141 curesand a return to duty manymen had broken down again. The treatmentprogramme

involvedin re-educationincluded work for not only did it ensureagainst a man

languishingin idlenessit alsoprovided 'a usefulgauge of his progresstowards active

166Thus into his duty in the citizenship'. a manwas re-educated an awarenessof manly

present- andfor the future. Therewas anotherimpetus in ensuringmen were engaged

in usefulwork andthat was to preventthem from morbidlydwelling on their

experiences,the suspicionbeing that shellshocked men were eithermalingerers or that

they would becomefixated in their symptomsslowing their recovering,or worsetheir

case.becoming intractable.

While the rankswere encouragedback to work, officerswere treatedin 'Special

hospitalsfor officers' with facilitiesdeemed appropriate to their classposition. Palace

Greenhospital to which CaptainLeland was admittedconsisted of thirty threesingle bedroomswith 'plain grey walls with no picturesor ornamentsor anythingelse to distractthe attentionof the tired mento whom completeand absolute rest of body and mind is the first essentialof recovery.' Therethey ate aloneand were allowedone short '6" walk alonein KensingtonGardens during their threeto four week stay. In other billiards 'full [was hospitalsactivities such as and croquetwere encouragedand scope... 16' to be] given for individualdevelopment and personal tastes'. The purposeof the therapywas to explainto the patient'the mechanismof his retardedmental process'.

166H. Crichton-Mllcr (cd.), Functional NerveDisease, London, 1920,quotcd in Fcudtncr,'Minds', p. 401 167Lord Knutsford's 'Special Hospitals for Officers', 77teLancet, 1915, Vol. 2, quoted in Babington,

Shell Shockp. 54 168trichton-Miflcr (cd.), Functional Nerve Disease,quoted in Feudwer,'Nfinds', p. 402

142 Despitethe classdistinctions drawn between symptoms and forms of treatment,the

elementof persuasionwas commonto both, demonstratingto the patienthis individual

failing and enablinghim to regainself-control. Despitethe adoptionof psychological

explanationsand language, the underlyingassumption was that recoverydepended on a

man'swill power oncehe was madeto understandhis affliction throughrational

processes.

The most extremeforms of disciplinarytreatment operated within a similar

framework;men could be relievedof their symptomsby a stimulus/responsemechanism.

Major W. I Adie M. D explainedthe successof his useof etherand pricking the larynx

with a pin in 'curing' patientsof mutism. In his evidenceto the War Office Comýnittee

he concludeqthat 'there was no doubt in my own mind that thesecures were

permanent."'9 Punishmentwas alsoevident in the other extremeform of treatment,

'faradization'or electricshock treatment associated particularly with Dr. Lewis

Yealland,most of whosepatients came from the ranks.170 Yealland saw the 'flight into illness' as subversiveand his patientsas malingerers.Such practices were used in other armiesand in Germanydrew the wrath of psychoanalysts.Freud declared:

It did not aim at the patient'srecovery, or not in the first instance;it aimed,above all, at restoringhis fitnessfor service. HereMedicine was servingpurposes foreign to its essence.the physicianhimself was undermilitary conuriand and hadhis own personaldangers to fear - lossof seniority or a chargeof neglectinghis duty- if he allowedhimself to be led by considerationsother thari thoseprescribed for him."'

1" Report,p. 18 170For an accountof Yealland'smethods, see Showalter, Female Malady, pp. 176-8 171S. Freud,Memorandum on theElectrical Treatment of WarNeurotics, 1920, quoted in Babington, Shell Shock,p. 66

143 Ernst Simmeldescribed such treatment as torture and 'an inversionof the fundamental

principles'of Freudiantheory sincethe doctorsresorting to suchmethods 'make a

torture of the treatmentin order to force the neuroticto 'flee into health."172 He

identifiedother torturesin 'dark rooms' and 'prohibition of letters', a view echoedby

Riversin his critique of institutionalpractices which forbadepatients to talk abouttheir

experiences.As we haveseen, Rivers had used the Freudianconcept of repressionto

explainthe causesof shellshockand it alsoinformed his practiceof suggestive

psychotherapyor abreactionwhich encouragedmen to facetheir traumaticmemories,

ratherthan repressthem. In the processthe patientwould arrive at a deeper

understandingof himselfand begin to restorehis masculineself-esteem. The impactof

psycho-therapeuticideas was not insignificant,by the endof the war at Maghull military

hospitalfifty R. A. M. C officerswere receivingtraining in techniquesof 'abreactive'

psychotherapy,including dream analysis. "' In other military hospitalscreated from countyasylums similar practices were introduced. Yet while therewere significant improvementsin the understandingand treatment of shellshockeven the most radicaland compassionateof physiciansworked within a set of assumptionsabout masculinity and manliness:

True, manly and firm sympathy is, I hold, the greatest have in therapeutic measurethat we such cases... although sympathy must be shown, he must be induced to face his illness in a manly way. '74

172Ferenczi, Abraham et al., Psycho-analysis and the War Neuroses, p. 43 173Stone, 'SheU Shock', p. 243

174Jeffrey, 'Some points of interest', p. 140

144 He alsohad to facehis responsibilitiesas a man;McDougall felt that 'if the

patienthas a strongsentiment of patriotismor of family pride' it wasnecessary to point

out to him 'how his disorderrenders him a mereburden on his countryor on his

family.9175 Trapped within the military machinewhich requiredthe return of healthymen

to the front andwithin their own idealsof masculinity,the psycho-therapeuticafly

orientedpsychologists ended up conformingto the ideathat menmust endurethe

unendurablein war. In 1917Rivers wrote 'it is characteristicof the painfiýlexperience of

warfarethat it usuallyhas a good or evena noble side,which in his conditionof misery

the patientdoes not seeat all, or greatlyunderestimates'. 176As with others,Rivers

offeredno critique of the war itself but carriedout his dutiesby aidinghis patients

towardsachieving fitness for duty. His later pacifistdreams occurring during his

treatmentof SiegftiedSassoon were evidenceof his own unresolvedconflicts. His war experiencesas those of manyother menreturned to haunthim in the post war years.

Hiram Sturdy'sassertion that 'war makessane men mad"'n wasthe startingpoint of this chapterand in the sameway'as many combatantshad the compulsionto return to their war experiences,so the conclusion returns to Sturdy'sstatement. The madnesswas shellshock produced by the unbearablehorrors and intensestrains of the war which drove mento the limits of their endurance.Yet as manyobserved, what was most surprisingwas that moremen did not breakdown. Thosewho did succumbto a variety of war neuroses,however, provoked anxieties in a numberof ways.

175McD ougall,. AhnormaIPsvchoIqV, p. 472 176Rivers, 'Freud's Psychology' 171Iliram Sturdy, IWM Con Shelf

145 The armyhigh commandhad relied on the notion of 'character'in the face of

moderntechnological warfare. The pre-war codesof masculinityconstructed on

conceptsof characterand will power falteredin the faceof the increasingincidence of

shellshock amongst the officer class. Their predominantlypublic schooleducation and

trainingrendered them no lessinvincible to war-inducedmental disorders than the men

of the ranks. The War Office CommitteeReport of 1922conceded that 'any type of

individual'might sufferfrom war neurosesand that 'it is extremelydifficult to say

beforehandwhat type of manis most likely to breakdown. ' At the beginningof the war

'worthless'men were deridedand discarded as discoursesof degeneracy,heredity and

urbanpathology provided legitimization for positioning certain types of menas failures

with their congenitalinability to conformto standardsof manlinessand manly duty. By

the endof the war, therewas little doubt that shellshock was no respectof classor type;

in modernwar everyman was liableto breakdown.

The languageof degenerationand tainted heredity was partly displacedby the languageof psychologyand psychoanalysis. Mental conflictswere identifiedinstead in the aetiologyof shellshock and concepts of the unconsciousand repression competed with traditionalnotions of will power and self control. Fault linesopened up in the pre- war certaintiesof the distinctionsbetween insanity and sanity, normality and pathology and evenmore so betweencourage and cowardice. The ambiguitiesand contradictions in the conclusionsof the War Office report were testimonyto the fracturingof somekey notionsin the constructionof masculinityfor they arguedsimultaneously that 'the military aspectof cowardiceis justified' while 'seemingcowardice may be beyondthe individual'scontrol'.

146 Ultimately,no cleardefinition of cowardiceemerged. What continuedto surface

in the aftermathof warwere numbersof shellshocked ex-servicemen to add to the

thousandsplaced in hospitalsduring the war; othersbeyond the reachof official statistics

carriedtheir traumasback to their homesand families.

By turning awayfrom the public discoursesaround shell shock tothe memoirs

andmemories of ex-servicemenwhat is revealedis the emotionallife of the soldier. The

rangeof tone, the powerfuluse of metaphorand alliterationand in somecases, the re-

workingsand revisions of the narrativeindicates the struggleto find a language

appropriateto conveythe intensityof the emotionalreactions to the war experience.

The rangeof emotionsrepudiates the notion of self-controlas bitterness, anger, loss, tendernessand compassion all find expression.Here we find critiquesof the war andits conductbut more sigi-Eicantlyits impacton malesubjectivities. The experiencesof beingsoldier did not conferor confirm the stableidentity imagined in the ideal of the soldierhero; instead many of the conflictsidentified in shellshock are worked through, consciouslyand unconsciously, and in the processof writing, remembering,and forgetting. Whetherthey resultedin alternativeversions of masculinitylived out in the new political andcultural landscape of the post war yearsremains a questionto be explored.

147 Chapter Three

SOLDIERS FROM THE WAR RETURNING

Comradeship and the imagined community of ex-servicemen

The front cover of the first edition of Ae Ex-ServiceMan carriedan illustration

of an immediatelyrecognisable cultural figure:-an 'old soldier. 1 An agedman, disabled

by blindnessand wearing tattered 'civvies' to further signifyhis poverty,he is holdinga

tray on which he offers a numberof smallworthless items for sale. 11iswar medalsstand

out againstthis displayof poverty,destitution and neglect. The captionunderneath proclaims'NEVER AGAIN! NEVER AGAINI' The intentionsbehind the publication of a new newspaperwhose constituency was addressedin its title were thusmade clear.

The expresseddetermination was that the fate of returningsoldiers of previouswars, discardedand neglected and left to the mercyof public pity andprivate charity, would not be repeatedafter the GreatWar. Moreover therewas a resolveto organiseagainst its repetition. Elsewherein anotherjournal for ex-servicemen,Yhe Comrades Journal, the publicationof the Comradesof the GreatWar Association,its ChairmanLt. -Colonel

Wilfred AshleyM. P. reiteratedthe sametheme when he wrote 'after former wars the

Servicemen have been forgotten and neglected. We look to this,organisation to prevent sucha calamityhappening again. 92

TheEic-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 8, September11 1918 2 The ComradesJournal, FebnL%y1919

148 The abjectrepresentation of the ex-serviceman,ignored by the societyfor which

he fought, was the completeantithesis of heroic military masculinityin which the

triumphantreturning warrior was the final part of the narrative. If the repetitionof the

pasttreatment of dischargedservicemen was feared,nevertheless there was an optimism

that the presentcircumstances would be controlledby the menthemselves, by sheerforce

of numbers:

A 'grateful country' might forget these men, even as it forgot the 'handful of heroes' who fought in our previous wars'. But there's no 'handful' now, it's a matter of millions. 3

I These were not the old soldiers of past conflicts and campaigns,a lower order of

men who were despisedand easily castigated -asoutsiders, drunks or villains. The

returning massarmy was comprised predominantly of volunteers and conscripts, soldiers

'for the duration only' for whom demobilisation meant the desired return to Blighty, to

home and the resumption of their civilian status as workers, to their communities and

their familial roles as fathers, husbands,brothers and sons. Nevertheless,the recurring

juxtaposition of the discarded and abject individual of past conflicts and the returning

heroes of the present war were indicative of the tensions and ambivalencessurrounding . the return of ex-service men.

In earlier chaptersthe written and in some examples,recorded memoirs of men serving in the armed forces during the Great War have been interrogated for what they revealed about its impact on male subjectivities. The meaningsattached to manhood and

7he Ex-ServiceMan, Vol. 1, No. 8, Dccember18 1918

149 maleidentity were broughtinto questionby the psychicand social disruption which

occurredwhen vast numbersof previouslycivilian mentook up armsas soldiers.

Significantly,most of thosememoirs ended with the Armisticeor at mostthe processof

demobilisationwhich returnedmen to their former existencein civilian society. While

the Armisticeprovided a senseof an endingthere was no necessaryclosure. Yet the

immediatepost war yearswarrants little or at most brief examinationin manyof the

memoirs.Based on his evidenceof Australianveterans, Stephen Garton argues that 'the

4 post war yearsare a hiatus,an abyss. Nevertheless,the experienceof war dominated

manypost-war lives whether inscribed on bodiesas physicalwounds or as psychic

woundsfrom which hauntingmemories disturbed and disrupted the present,invoking a

senseof estrangementand dissonance. One ex-servicemencharacterised it as living in a

gmentalinternment camp. 5

While personalmemoirs throw shardsof light on individualprocesses of integrationinto civilian society,some of the problemsand contradictions are further revealedby focusingon the collectivity of veteransand their public expressionin the activitiesof their organisationsand through their publications.This chapterinitially examinesthe formationand purpose of ex-servicemen'sorganisations and their objectives.All attemptedto harnessthe collectiveentity of ex-servicemenand to lay claimto speakfor them andto representtheir interests.Veterans organisations were concernedat onelevel with the practicalproblems involved in the returnto civilian societyand the practicesof the bureaucraticsystems which developedto aid

" StephenGarton, The Cost of War.- Australians Return, Oxford: Oxford University Press,1996, p. 19 5 CharlesCarrington, Soldiersfrom the WarsReturning, London: HutcWnson,1965, p. 252

150 resettlement.Demobilisation schemes, pensions for the disabledand for dependentsof

menkilled, trainingand unemployment assistance, employment policies all becameissues

for which veteranscampaigned in order to obtainrights andjustice for themselves,the

disabledand the dependentsof the dead. The languageand rhetoric used in the various

publicationsproduced by differentorganisations will be examinedto explorehow ex-

servicemenwere represented.The classtensions within the organisationswere

implicatedin the notionsof masculinitycentred on the identity of ex-servicemenwhich

emerged.The chapterwill analysehow thesewere articulatedand at times,contested.

The conceptof comradeship,critical to the ideologyof the veterans'movement, will also

be interrogated.

The transitionfrom serviceman to civilian raisescritical questionsabout the

impactof the war on a generationof veteransand in turn, of their impacton the society

to which they returned. However,veterans did not constitutea homogenousgroup; they

were dividedby class,political allegiances,pre-war experience and occupation, age,

geographicallocation, military statusand indeed, differing experiences of the war itself.

Nevertheless,the intensityof the war experiencewas pivotal representinga rupture

betweenpast and present selves. What their paststatus as servicemenconferred on them

was, in BenedictAnderson's phrase, to be part of an 'imaginedcommunity' of ex-

servicemenwho had servedtheir *country, a communitywhich incorporatednot only the

living but alsothe dead.6 Veteransinvested meanings in the imaginedidentities within

that communityto give shapeand direction to their livesas well as to providemeaning to

6 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Refelections on the Origin and Spread offationalism, London: Verso, 1991

151 their pastexperiences at war. The term ex-servicemanconferred a sharedidentity based

on pastwar service;it representedan identifiablegroup of menc1aiming special interests

andjust treatmentin recognitionof the servicesthey hadrendered for their country. The

constructionof this sharedidentity was fragile,while the processof definingthemselves

asex-servicemen imposed boundaries and limitations..Even when the soldierlyself was

relinquished,the experienceand memories of war were powerfullyincorporated into the

returnedsoldiers' identity shapingtheir responsesto the cultureto which they returned.

As they tried to reinscribeand repositionthemselves in relationto womenand to other

menin the post warvyOrld'the complexitiesof any such.identity asit is lived ouýamidst

the contradictorydemands and recognitions generated by actualsocial relations'7

emerged.Furthermore, the impactof war on the subjectivitiesof veteransmarked by

their experiencesset them apartfrom thoseat homi. - It alsogave them claim to special

statusand to a particularmale identity which sometimeschallenging existing forms of

hegemonicmasculinity.

Kaya Silvermanargues that historicalevents which 'sometimesmanage to.

interrupt or even deconstitute what a society assumesto be its master narratives'

precipitate Iýistorical trauma'. - She suggeststhat disruption such as that engenderedby 8 the First World War, has ramifications extending beyond the individual psyche. When

the Armistice was declared on November 11 1918 and hostilities suspended,the nati on

looked forward to the restitution of peace and normality. Behind the public victory

GrahamDawson, 'The Blond Bedouin' in Mchael Roper.and John Tosh (eds),Manful Assertions: Afasculinitiesin Britain since 1800,London: Routledge,1991 a Kaya Silvennan,Male Subjectivityat the Margins, London: Routledge,1992, pp. 52-55

152 celebrationslay enormous private grief, the total military dead numbered 722,785.9 Over

514,000men under thirty hadlost their lives. Deathand loss touched every part of the

nation. Disturbanceswere felt deepwithin the nationalpsyche in the aftermathof war

producing,it could be argued,a stateof nationalpost-traumatic stress. What such

disturbancessignalled was the instabilityof former codesof masculinity.Was the heroic

masculinity associatedwith the soldier assimilableto post- war representationsof the ex-

serviceman? In her analysis of interwar culture and national temperament,Alison Light

identifies a strongly anti-heroic mood 'as characterisingthe after-mathof war [which]

made a lasting and deep impression right across cultural life and idioms at home'

reflecting 'a move away from formerly heroic and officially masculinepublic rhetorics of

national destiny.' The process, she argues, 'shook to the core former definitions of

sexual difference' producing a realignment of sexual identities.10 In her view,

conventional masculinity was threatened and rendered vulnerable, not least by increased

female emancipation, pol-itically, socially and sexually. Men returned from the war then

not only to a society in Nýhichthey had to negotiate their role in relation to women and

other men but also to one coming to terms with public and private loss on an

unprecedentedscale. Ex-servicemen were engagedin their own recuperation, botý

physical recovery and social re-integration, as well as dealing with personal economic

and psychic losses.

9 Estimatesof the war deadvary considerably-,the figure usedhere is taken from J. Winter's exhaustivedemographic study, see L Winter, The Great Mar and the British People,London: ?&cmillan, 1985,pp. 68-9 10 Alison Light, Forever England. Femininity, Literature and ConservatimnBetween the Wars, London: Routledge,1991, p. 8

153 Veterans'organisations; appealed to the pastmeaning, of fraternity,the

homosocialbonds of the brotherhoodof the trenches:

The front line was a chargedemotional environment of deep masculinebonds, bonds of suchintensity it is not surprising that menhungered for themafter the war. But these intensitieswere also fiielled by anger,resentment and fiustration, muchof it directedat the homefront "

Comradeshipwas a key word in the ex-servicemen'slexicon and was frequently invoked

as the affective tie which had bound men together in the past, forged in their experiences

at the front. When faced by the 'chasm of imminent annihilation' comradeshipprovided,

men with 'the comfort of being in the company of friends, of having those beside you

who sharedyour thoughts and fears... someonethere to protect you if you stumbled or

mourn you if you fell'. 12 Eloquent testimony to the intensity of the emotional

commitment to one's pals is found in many soldiers' memoirs, encapsulatedin, for

example, Guy Chapman's reflections on demobilisation:

Looking back at those firm ranks as they marched into billets, I found that a body of men had become so much a part of me that its disintegration would tear away something I cared for more dearly than I could have believed.13

!1 StephenGarton, 'Longing for War: Nostalgiaand Australian returnedsoldiers after the First World War'. in Timothey Ashplant, GrahamDawson and Michael Roper,The Politics of WarMemory and Commemoration,London: Routledge,2000, p. 236 12 Garton, Cost of War,p. 50 1 13 Guy Chapman,A PassionateProdigality., Fragments ofAutoblography, London: Ivor Nicholsonand Watson, 1933,Mayflower - Dell Paperbackedition, 1967.-p. 33

154 Substantialhistorical evidence attests to the importanceof smaU,informal friendship

groups,the 'trench households'bound by 'ties derivingfrom sharedexperience, values,

trust andreciprocal services' which sustainedmen in combat.14 Loyalty andmutual

dependencewere crucialin maintainingmorale and to eachman's survival when facing

the dangersof life anddeath. Comradeshiptherefore registered powerfully when

invokedas an organisingprinciple of ex-servicemen'sorganisations, the foundationstone

on which thoseorganisations were built. It alsoaddressed the psychicneeds of menas

they struggledwith their individualadjustments to their return andto maketheir

experiencesmeaningful. For some,the identity of an ex-servicemanwas repudiatedin

the desireto renewtheir fivesas civiliansand forget their war experiences.For others,

the identity of the ex-servicemangave them a senseof belongingto a fraternitybased on

the positivememories of war, of comradeship.However, the conceptwas riven with

paradoxesand open to conflictingmeanings in the waysit was evokedand reinterpreted

in the present.How comradeshipwas inflectedwas critical to the structuresand

practiceswhich developedin the variousorganisations, both in providingshared aims

andin formentingdivisions.

Like their counterpartsin Franceand Germany,the formal associationsof British veteranstook shapeduring the war. The first waveof returnings oldiers were menwho were dischargeddue to woundsor ifl-healthwhich renderedthem unfit for further service. The unpreparednessof the governmentto dealwith the casualtiesof war was

14 Tony Ashworth, 'Trench warfare 1914-1918', p. 155 see also for example, J. K Bourrie, Britain and the Great War, 1914-1918, London: Edward Arnold, 1989; Richard Holmes, Firing Line, London: Pimlico, 1994;John Keegan, The Face ofBattle, London: JonathanCape, 1976

155 madeclear by 1915to the menwho had respondedto the state'scall to take up arms.

Old army practiceswhereby disabled soldiers were the responsibilityof the Chelsea

commissionersof the Royal ChelseaHospital, while officerswere dealtwith by the War

Office wereinadequate to dealwith the scaleof casualtiesproduced by a masscivilian

army. Moreover,the assumptionthat a military manwas singlemeant that as the Select

Comnýitteeon Naval andMilitary Service(Pensions and Grants) stated in 1915,TEs

family circumstances,children or dependents,have never entered into the matterof the

pensionsto which the incidentsof his military servicehave entitled him. "s Dependents

sufferingfrom hardshipwere thus obligedto seekrecourse to establishedvoluntary

organisationssuch as the Soldiers'and Sailors'Families Association, the Patriotic Fund,

andthe Princeof Wales'sNational Relief Fund in additionto the Poor Law andlocal

Boardsof Guardians.Inevitably the voluntary systemwas unable to copewith this

increasingpressure; it alsocame under attack for attitudesakin to nineteenthcentury moralisingphilanthropy. As SylviaPankhurst remarked 'the notion that the womenwere entitledto separationallowance as a right, not as a charitableact of grace,.seemed difficult for the Association'sofficials to assimilate.916 The hardshipand humiliation of the voluntarysystem stimulated demands for governmentintervention with coststo be borneby the exchequer.As G. D. H. Cole insisted,relief shouldbe officially providedin

15 Quotedin GrahamWootton, ThePolitics ofInfluence: British Fx-servicemen,Cabinet decisions and, cultural change(1917-1957), London: RKP, 1963,p. 11 16 Sylvia Pankhurst,The Home Front, London: The CressetLibrary, 1987,p. 25 Throughoutthe war Sylvia Pankhurstworked in the EastEnd of Londonwhere she observed and recordedthe privationsand hardshipsendured on the homefront and with membersof the EastLondon Federationof Suffragettes,now the Workers' Suff-rageFederation, campaigned to redressthem.

156 recognitionof 'the right of the citizento be maintainedby the communityin a crisisnot

of his makingýand to 'savehim from the charity-mongeringexcesses of unemployed

membersof the middleand upper classes.' 17 In 1915state funds were madeavailable by

the Naval andMilitary War PensionsAct controlledby the War PensionsStatutory

Committeewith officesin centralLondon. Local War PensionsCommittees were

establishedin everycounty andlarge town with local representativesincluding the

voluntarybodies. 18 However the voluntaryprinciple and the assumptionthat the army

shouldtake careof its own becameuntenable in the faceof compulsorymilitary service

after its introductionin 1916for singlemen aged 184 1. From May 1916all menof the

sameage cohort, regardlessof marital status,were conscripted.Thus by the endof 1916

the Governmentwas compelledto acknowledgeits responsibilityto returningveterans by establishingthe Ministry of Pensionswith GeorgeN. Barnesas the first Minister of

Pensions.

The associationof pensionswith charitywas an affront to men'sdignity and carriedthe stigmaof shameand dependencyembedded in nineteenthcentury social welfarediscourses. Additionally, it underminedone of the centraltenets of masculinity, the idea of manlyindependence. Despite the formationof a separateministry, pensions were not a statutoryright. Decisionson the awardof pensionswere determinedby proof as to whetherthe disabilityor ill-healthwas servicerelated 'caused or aggravated by military serviceeither at homeor abroad,provided always that it was not the resultof

17 0. D. H. Cole,Labour in War Time, 1915,p. 95, quotedin Wootton,The Politics ofInfluence, p. 33 18 Addressby Sir Arthur Griffin- Boscawcn,NL P. to Inter-Allied Conferenceat Paris on the Treatment and Training of DisabledSoldiers, Recalled to Life, No. 1, June 1917

157 their own serious negligence or misconduct.'19 Further humiliation was causedby the

suspicion of malingering and the surveillance by medical boards was resentedas

impugning men's sacrifice, The administrative delays, inadequatepensions for the

disabledand war widows, the treatment meted out to men who had suffered in pursuance

of their duty all contributed to veterans' anger and frustration.

The number of casualtiesand the nature of the injuries sustainedwere

unprecedentedand by the end of December 1916 270,275 men'had been dischargedfrom

the servicesas unfit, the largest proportion of whom were suffering from wounds and

injuries to their legs or arms.20 Wounded soldiers returned to make demandson a government grappling with scarcity: 'scarcity of funds, scarcity of materials, scarcity of manpower and above all scarcity of organisation.' 21 From the start of the war the state was inexorably drawn into extending its intervention to mobilise manpower, industry and resourceslike food, raw materials and servicesand to find methods of financing all the wartimedemands. As a resultthe societyin which the earlyreturnees arrived was experiencingsocial and industrial unrest including a strikeby severalthousand engineers on Clydesideand, later in 1915,by SouthWales miners partly in responseto risesin the cost of living but alsoin defianceof the increasingcontrol by the stateof the labourforce culminatingin the Munitions of War Act. The greaterintegration of the populationinto the labour processduring the war gavea boost to tradeunion membershipwhich rose

22 steadilyfrom 4,145,000in 1914to 6,533,000by 1918. Tradeunionism therefore

19 Recalled to Life, No. 1, June 1917

20 C. W. Hutt, The Future ofthe Disabled Soldier, London: T. Fi sher Unwin, 1917, p. 2 ' 21 Keith Burgess, The Challenge ofLabour, London: Croom HeIrn, 1980, p. 155

22 ibid. pp. 165-66

158 providedthe modelfor the formationof the first ex-servicemen'sorganisation as they

soughtto defendtheir rights, not as workersbut as mento whom societyowed an

obligationfor servicesrendered.

In 1916 the Blackburn and District Discharged Sailors and Soldiers Association

wasformed to pressfor improvementsin benefitsand pensionsfor ex-servicemen.This

smalllocal organisationlater becamethe NationalAssociation of DischargedSailors and

Soldiers.It initially hadlinks with the TradeUnion andlabour movement; of its six

divisionalcommittees, four were basedin areasof traditionalworking-class unionism and

solidarity,Lancashire and Cheshire,Yorkshire, South Wales and Durham and

surroundingdistricts. In 1917the ExecutiveCommittee, comprising four membersof

TradesCouncils and four dischargedmen, announced that the Associationwas 'a purely

working-classorganisation', and:

thatthe discharged men should not beexploited by the capitalistclass. This will certainlyhappen if theTrade Unionmovement does not actively interest itself in getting themen together. 23

They further emphasisedtheir working-classcredentials by at first refusingmembership to officersthereby asserting the strengthof their classloyalties and looking to the labour movementfor suppoh. Its first conferencewas held in Blackburnin October1917 with delegatesfrom all 79 branchesattending. Philip Snowden,M. P. for Blackburnand a well-known opponentof the war, was undoubtedlylending his supportto the National

Associationbased on the experiencesof his own constituents.During 1917he kept a

23 Quotedin Wootton,Politics ofInfluence, p. 95

159 record of the letters he received, over 30,000, from 'parents dissatisfiedwith separation

allowances,disabled soldiers who experienced difficulty in getting their pensions,men

who had been taken into the army in an unfit physical condition -a state of things'which

was simply appalling.ý24

At the sametime a leadingadvocate of pensionsfor servicemen,James Hogge,

the Liberal M. P. for East Edinburgh; was calling on the state to fulfill its moral and legal

obligation to those who had volunteered or were compelled to serve in the armed forces.

In an effort to securethat obligation he formed the Naval and Military War Pensions

League in 1917 which 'proposed to eradicate inequalities that appearedin granting and

administering pensions,to organise all ex-servicemenand their dependents,to protect

their future interests, and to represent those interests in Parliament.'25 Pensionsbecame

and remained an important campaigning issue but it was the continuing prosecution of

the war and the government's responseto manpower needsthat provoked the further ire

of ex-soldiers, resulting in the formation of a second ex-servicemen'sorganisation.

Following the huge numbers of casualtieson the Sommefrom July to November

1916 the government sought new sources of manpower as replacementsfor the armed

forces. The result.was the Mifitary Service (Review of Exceptions) Bill which authorised

the medical re-examination of not only those who had previously been rejected as

medically unfit but also those who had been dischargedwith a view to possible further

service. Many of those already dischargedhad been officially declared disabled

24 Philip Viscount Snowden,An Autobiography,London: Ivor Nicholsonand WatsonLimited, 1934,p. 406 25 StephenIL Ward (ed.), Veteransofthe First World War,New York: Kennikat Press,1975, 'p. 13

160 neverthelessthe director generalof recruitingargued that 'there is not a manwho is able

to makea living in ordinarylife who cannotbe employedin the Army somewhere.926

Meanwhile,those who were employedin munitionsfactories and government offices

retained their exemptions. Philip Snowden and JamesHogge were among the protesting

voicesraised in Parfiamentagainst the legislationand the attemptto recallthe disabledto

the front. Snowdenargued for an amendmentto the Bill:

We havebeen told repeatedly,in the courseof these discussions,that alreadymore than 10,000men have been dischargedfrom the Army as disabled. If this Sub-sectionis operativein the Bill, all thosemen will be liable at any time to be recalledfor medicalre-ýexaniination, and they will be liable not only to be calledonce, but to be calledat periods of six months. This, I thinkýwould not only be an outrageto thosemen - it would be a cruel and, I might also say,a wickedthing to do in regardto menwho havebeen disabled in the serviceof their country.27

JamesHogge argued that the 'shame'of sucha proposalshould prevent the Housefrom

'askingany of thosemen to submitthemselves again for medicalexamination. ' Colonel

Sir C. Seelyalso objected to the idea of badlywounded men being expected to serve again,considering it 'a very cruel andvery unfair act.' Furthermore,as William Pringle pointedout, not all disabilitieswere visible and 'large numbersof officersand men have beendischarged from the Army on accountof nervousbreakdown. ' Returningsuch men to the front could havedisastrous consequences:

I Ward, Veterans,p. 14 27 Hansard,House of CommonsDebates, Vol. 92, col. 825 30 Nl=h 1917

161 Theseare caseswhere it is mostdifficult for any medical manto determinewhether or not a manis fit. A manmay apparentlybe absolutelyfit for serviceand yet breakdown againimmediately he is subjectedto a renewalof the strain. Couldthere be anythingmore dangerous to the efficient conductof the War thanto put menin this conditionin the Army again.28

Questionswere alsoraised by others,including Winston Churchill, about the actual

numbersof men who would be obtained under the schemeand whether these numbers

were significantto the continuingprosecution of the war. In the faceof the rangeof

opinions,from specificreservations to downrightopposition, the argumentwas

succinctlyput 'the thing we haveto bearin mind is: Are the menfit? If they arefit, it is

their duty to comeback. I am sorry, indeed,that we cannotexempt them from service,

but the needof menis paramount.' The objectorsf"ed andthe bill becamelaw on April

5 1917.

Inevitablythe injusticeof the legislationprovoked a further stormof protestfrom woundedex-servicemen who were alreadyprotesting against the inadequacyof the benefitsthey were receiving. Accordingto Major H. Jellicorsewho wrote a seriesof articlesin YheEx-Service Man on 'The Ifistory of the Ex-ServiceMovement', a second organisationwas born out of the ferment,the NationalFederation of Dischargedand

28 ibid. col. 837

162 DemobilisedSailors and Soldierswith JamesHogge as its president.29 Major Jellicorse

citestwo bodiesof ex-servicemen in London as the originatingforces behind the

Federation.In north London a deputationled by Mr. Rumseyprotested to the employers

of the firm wherehe was employedabout the way dischargedmen were being treated.

Meanwhilein Poplar,east London, dischargedmen were holdingprotest meeting against

the 'miserablebenefits' they were beingoffered. The two bodiescame together to

demonstratein TrafalgarSquare where they were addressedby, amongothers, James

Hogge. He was reportedas arguingthat:

The medicalboards were a supremefarce. It madeone ashamedof the medicalprofession to havefound doctors so readyto passinto the Army menwho they knewwere absolutelyunfit to go.

The Poplar contingent carried bannersproclaiming 'We protest against being recalled to

the colours when medically fit men are still retained in Government offices and

workshops. ' The demonstrators 'counselled active resistanceto thý new Act, which was

characterised,amidst cheers, as a rotten Act' and committed themselvesto furthering

their aims by meansof collective action.30

Although the Federation was headedby an M. P., like the National Association it

initially refused membershipto officers and insisted that the membershipbe responsible

29 According to his own account,NUjor H. Jellicorsewas stationedin Sussexin 1916where he gave lectureson pensionregulations in the Military Hospital and servedon the Local PensionsCommittee. Later, in London, he madecontact with JamesHogge and addressedbranches of the Federationon pensionsissues. He also met Clifford who becameeditor of TheEx-Service Man. His personalaccount of the developmentof ex-scrvicemen'sorganisations is illuminating. 30 The Times,April 23,1917

163 for the runningof the organisation.Its first annualconference was held at the endof

June1917 at which delegatesfrom the branchesput forwardresolutions for debate.The

mobilisationof ex-servicemen,supported by radicalM. P.s, andthe emergenceof two

organisationswith links to the labourmovement with structuresmodelled on trade

unionismbrought the grievancesof ex-servicemeninto publicview. The protestsby men

no longerconstrained by military disciplinealso brought into questionthe natureand

classof the meninvolved.

In 1917Field MarshalHaig had arguedthat characterand the senseof duty was

severelywanting among conscripts:

The influenceof thesemen and their antecedentsare not such as to fosterany spirit but that of unrestand discontent; they cameforward undercompulsion and they will departthe Army with relief. Men of this stampare not satisfiedwith remainingquiet, they comefrom a classwhich like to air real or fanciedgrievances, and their teachingin this respectis a regrettableantidote to the spirit of devotionand duty of earliertroopS. 31

In Haig's view, the conscripts were men who had already displayedtheir moral, and

class, deficienciesby their failure to respond to the imperatives of duty and service to the

nation, unlike the men who volunteered. Haig's statementrepudiated that duty was also

a function of working-class manhood; for working-class men duty connoted the

obligations of the male breadwinner so central to middle-classmasculinity and domesticity, and incorporated workingmen's obligations to defend their rights and interests and to collectively organise against unjust opposition; it 'signified the necessity

31 Ward, Veterans,p. 28

164 and 32 Manly being power of worker's collective manly agency'. agency was now re-

assertedwithin the Association and Federation, drawing on workingmen's traditions of

solidarity and organisation as they campaignedand demonstratedagainst the unjust

treatment they were experiencing as ex-servicemen.

Such public demonstrations and expressionsof discontent by ex-servicemenwere

causingconsiderable unease, particularly among the higherechelons of the military.

Veteransand their supporterswere viewedas attemptingto influencegovernment policy

and,by extension,challenge its authority. In order to counterthe threat,moves were

madeto establishanother veterans' organisation. Lord Derbywith two ConservativeM.

P. s, JohnNorton-Griffiths and Wilfred Ashleyput forwardtheir proposalto the Army

Counciland the War Office for the formationof the Comradesof the GreatWar. When the suggestionof the formationof an alternativeorganisation had been put to the Army

Councilin 1917,it welcomedthe move:

the formationof an organisationof this characterwould servethe usefulsecondary purpose of counteringthe activitiesof the promotersof otherassociations amongst soldiersand ex-soldiers which avowedlyhave for their object an organisedopposition to authority."

Furthermore,the War Office andthe higherechelons of the military and civilian establishmentconsidered ex-servicemen to be easyprey to political machinationsas Lord

Derby, drawingon his experienceas Director of Recruiting,opined:

32 GregoryL. Kaster, 'Labour's True Man: OrganisedWorkingmen and the Languageof Manlinessin the USA, 1827-1877',Gender and History, Vol 13, No. 1, April 2001, pp. 24-64 33 Army Council Minutes, War Office Papers,August 11917, (WO 163/22),quoted in Ward, Veterans, p. 17

165 In view of the fact that the Army today is by no meansas highly disciplinedas that in existencebefore the war, and alsothat classesof men servingat the presentmoment includeindividuals of everyshade of educationand opinion, it is probablethat the movementto encouragesoldiers to take part in political questionswill be fannedby certainfactions for their own ends.34

The establishmentof a third ex-servicemen'sorganisation was not merelyasa

rival of the first two but part of a broaderstrategy to containthe potentiallyradical and

disruptiveelements among ex-servicemen. Withý the backingof powerfuland wealthy

establishmentfigures such as Lord Beaverbrook,Lord Rothermereand Field Marshall

Lord French" the organisation,the Comradesof the GreatWar, was officially

constitutedat MansionHouse in November1917. In a pressstatement the Comrades

declaredthat it was not a political organisationand:

T'heComrades do not believethat it is in the bestinterests of the dischargedmen to involve themin party manouevreswith the attendanthostilities, recriminations and disappointments...his hopeswill be morerapidly realised. than by him the forces in the pitting againstall arrayed36 political arenaand thereby dividing the nation.

Despite such protestations of political neutrality, the first Chairman of the

Comradeswas Colonel Wilfred Ashley, Unionist M. P.; in addition, six out of the nine

membersof the first executive committee were also M. P.s. Unlike the Association and the Federation,the Comradesinitially attractedmainly officers. Its leadership,reflecting

34 Quotedin StephenWard, 'Intelligence Surveillanceof British Ex-Servicemen,1918-1920', Historical Journal, Vol. XVI, No. 1,1973, p. 181 3s GrahamWootton, The Official History ofthe British Legion, London:Macdonald Evans, 1956,p. 5 36 The ComradesJournal, Vol. 1, No. 1, November1918

166 military hierarchies,spoke for the ranks. However,any accusationthat it only servedthe

interestsof the officer classwas counteredby the Comrades;'the Comradesis a

democraticorganisation' with 'a determinationto securejustice for all who haveserved

their country,irrespective of rank.' Moreover,the nameComrades was deliberately

chosento invokethe comradeshipof the trenchesand thereby attempt to appealto the

broadestconstituency of ex-servicemen.As its Chairmandeclared 'the root ideaof the

movementwas Comradeship.' With its claimsto be 'democratic'and apolitical the

Comradessought to obfuscatethe classdivisions and status which obtainedin the

n-fflitary,and to neutralisethem in the present.Nonetheless, paternalism based on pre-war

classrelations structured the organisationunlike the grassrootsassociations which

encouragedthe resoluteagency of the menthemselves. Instead of direct action,the

Comradesworked throughinfluential political andmilitary leadersin their pursuitof justice for ex-servicemen.According to Major Jellicorse,the emergenceof the

Comradesprovoked very bitter feelingswithin the Federationand amongst the London officialsof the Association:

They consideredthat this organisation had been started officially by officers to break up theirs, and they strongly objected to the appeals for money which were appearing in the press; they themselveswere trying to finance their 37 orgaýnisationsout of their own pockets.

One of the resultsof their financialbacking was that the Comradeswere ableto publishtheir ownjournal. In November1918 the first editionof YheComrades Journal

3' TheEx-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 34, July 7 1919

167 was publishedto provideinformation, advice and discussionfor the membershipof its

branches,499 of which were in England,38 in Wales,40 in Scotlandand 18 in Ireland.

Therewere alsobranches in SouthAfrica andRhodesia. By September1918,614

branchesand posts had been established. The membershipwere informedof

developments,or the lack of them,through the pagesof the ComradesJoumaL At the

sametime, the practicalapplication of comradeshipwas fosteredin the Comrades'clubs

formedacross the countrywhere Comrades would meetmainly, it appears,for

recreationalpurposes. Great emphasis was madein thejournal on the extensionof the

clubsthroughout the country;according to the first editionof TheComrades Journal,

135 clubshad been opened varying from 'a coupleof roomsto up-to-datebuildings with

Baths,Billiard Tablesetc. '38 The accountswere fully illustratedby photographsof the

membersoften in formally posedgroup photographswhich gavethe impressionof a

proliferationof smallgentlemen's clubs, despite the inclusionof womenon some occasions.Members of other organisationscould be scathingabout the activitiesof the

Comradesviewing them as divisivewith a policy of containmentof ex-servicemen's justifiableattempts to redresstheir grievancespursued under the spuriousguise of comradeship:

The Comradeswere set up as a rival to the Federation-in orderto'spht its ranksand break its poweror betterstill, smashit out of existence.It offeredbribes in the way of bunsand billiards to ex-servicemen to becomemembers. It becamea meekand mild autocraticorganisation on similar linesto a Bible classto keepthe ex-servicemen in order. It 39 hasachieved nothing of noteto benefitex-service men.

38 The ComradesJournal, Vol. 1, No. 1, November1918 39 TheBulletin, No. 18, November6 1919

168 The contestation over the meaning attached to the identity of the ex-serviceman

was further compounded by the appearancein September 1918 of a sixteen page

newspaperYhe Fx- Service Man, An Independent Journal for Those who have Served.

It was not connectedwith any existing organisation and was financed solely by ex:

servicemen'ssubscriptions and 'not subsidisedby any sinister financial influence'. 40 Its

editor was W. G. Clifford, late R. A, who described himself in a later edition as 'an old

RegularSoldier, as a manwho haslived for yearson the pitifW pittancedoled out to

marriedgunners' and who had 'laid for monthson endin a military hospitalwith a go of

entericwith complications.'41 The purposeof the newspaperwas deceptivelysimple, it

was founded'to help the menby everymeans within its power' while 'every shadeof

opinionon the problemof the ex-Servicemen will be allowedfree expressionin our

columns'. Furthermore,the categoryof ex-servicemen was all inclusive,without

'odious' classdistinction, and therefore embraced the retiredgeneral officer as well as his pensionedservant. However, the, ulterior purposewas madetransparent from the first Edgar issue. Leadingarticles by Wallace,John Galsworthy and Lt. -GeneralSir Edward

Bethunecarried the sameexhortations to the readership- to refuseall overturesby' self- seekingpoliticians', to remainoutside politics andto unite in oneex-servicemen's society. For example,in his article 'My Advice to the Men' EdgarWallace urged 'the moreyou standtogether amongst yourselves the strongerwill you be' and,in

40 Financial backingfor the newspaperremains questionable; the editor W. G. Clifford clearly had connectionsin the War Office 41 TheEx-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 6, November20 1918

169 paternalistictones, warned 'take no notice of socialisticorganisations, alleged Labour

Partiesand camouflaged 'conchies'. 42 The demandfor unity was the messagerepeatedly

carriedthrough most of the articlesand one which was constantlyemphasised in its

coverillustrations. In his first editorial 'The Demandfor Unity' W. G Clifford referred

to the 'deplorable'situation represented by the existenceof threecompeting

organisationsclaiming to representex-service men. Appealingto masculinerationality,

mastery,independence and self-sufficiency,he claimed:

The men desire unity... I hope that the men will talk things over, think things over and get ready to play their part like thinking, reasonable,intelligent human beings, like men (my italics) who know what they want and mean to have it. 43

W. G. Clifford's constantlyreiterated call for unity amongex-servicemen increasingly

mirroredthe demandfor nationalunity which certainelements among the body of ex-

servicemen, working-class men, appeared to threaten.Unity, a particularinflection of

comradeship,therefore represented a mechanismfor the containmentof thosesubversive elementsand the forms of actionthey were taking to redresstheir grievancesand express their disaffectionand frustration.

Part of that frustrationwas beingvented against the membersand leadership of other organisations,played out amidstdiffering classand political allegiances.The formationof anotherex-servicemen's organisation, the NationalUnion of Ex-servicemen

(NUX) in the earlymonths of 1919demonstrated such frustration. The NUX had strong

42 The Ex-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 1, September 111918 43 ibid

170 links to the IndependentLabour Party andwas 'in closestsympathy with the general

labourmovement'. It hasbeen argued that it was a breakawaygroup of Federation

membersincreasingly dissatisfied with their organisation'srefusal to align itself

politically. Accordingto David Englanderthe emergenceof the NUX is 'best

understoodas a responseto thosechauvinist, anti-Bolshevist and pro-imperial forces that

were so buoyantduring the First World War and so apprehensivein its aftermath.'44 The

avowedlysocialist NUX clearlystated where its allegiancesJay, by, on the onehand,

claimingspecial status and, on the other, by aligningits membersto other sectorsof

societywith the sameclass interests, The NUX inflected'the spirit of comradeship

which existedin the services'to exhort their members'who are still fighting together,

but this time for political andindustrial aims at home:'

Weare ex-Servicemen, but we are also citizens,and we realizethat our generalinterests are inseparablybound up with the generalinterests of the peopleas a whole

andfurther:

Weare ex-Servicemen,but we are also Workers,and we realizethat our generalinterests are identicalwith thoseof all our fellow-workers.45

To securetheir aims, they gave their support to both the Labour party and the Trade

Unions in order to share in the struggle between capital and labour. Although it was not

44 David Epglander,'The National Union of Ex-Servicemenand the LabourMovement, 1918-1920', History, Vol. 76, No. 246, February1991, p. 25 4" National Union of Ex-Servicemen,Statement ofAims and Policy, leaflet, n.d.

171 eligiblefor affiliation to the Labour party, the ExecutiveCommittee of the party pledged

its assistance:

We havedecided to recognisethe Union as an ally, andto recommendour supportersthroughout the countryto render it all possibleassistance... As an Executive(of the Labour party) we havesecured its assistancein forming a new Advisory Committeeto dealwith Serviceand ex-Service men'sproblems. We urge our memberseverywhere to give the Uniontheir specialsupport. 6

Unlike the other organisationswho declaredtheir politicalneutrality and indeed their

hostility to party politics, the NUX from the start madeclear its political agenda.

Supportfor the NUX had comefrom the secondwave of returningmen when

demobilisationswelled the membershipof the existingorganisations. Further

expressionsof discontentby ex-servicemenwere fuelledin January1919 by the

explosionsof disaffectionand angerover the unfairnessof the demobilisationschemes by

mendesperate to return home.

The problemof large scaledemobilisation was unprecedented; when the

Armistice was signed there were about 3,500,000 officers and men in the army.

Solutions to the problem of how to effect a controlled demobilisation programme had begun to be devised as early as the summer of 1916 and were further developed under the auspicesof the Ministry of Reconstruction.47 The major impulse behind the scheme was to avoid massunemployment as veterans returned to no secureemployment. Thus

46 NUX leaflet, a.d 47 Most of the following discussion of dcmobilisation is based on Steplien Graubbard, 'Military Dernobilisation in Great Britain following the First World War', Journal ofModern History, Vol. XlY, No. 4, December 1947, pp. 297-3 11

172 the order in which menwere to be demobilisedwas to be controlled,based on the needs

of industryrather than any other criteria suchas lengthof service. A bureaucratic

classificationdivided personnel into five groups;the first beingthe 'demobilisers',the

smallgroup who would administerthe demobilisationprocess. The secondgroup were

the 'pivotal men', thosewho would createopportunities for othersand the third major

group,the 'slip men' were thosewho had definitepromises of employmentat home.

Thesemen were to be releasedaccording to the importancegiven to their occupatiofiby

the needsof reconstruction.The rest were dividedinto two further groups;those who

did not havedefinite jobs waiting for thembut who worked in an industryvital to

reconstructionand lastly, the 'nonslip' group who wereto be releasedin order of the

importanceof their civilian employment.In addition,unemployment benefits of 29s per

week for the man,6s for his first child and3s for eachadditional child were payablefor

twenty weeksfollowing demobilisationas well as a cashpayment for the purchaseof civilian clothes. A railway warrantand ration book werealso provided. The Daily

Herald heapedscorn on the inadequacyof the benefitswhich 'work out to an averageof about9s aweek for fifty-two weeks,provided he is unemployedfor twenty of them' and continued:

It is superb,immense. None but an imperialpeople, victoriousagainst its enemies,but overcomewith emotion andthankfulness before its returningheroes, could have done it. 48

48 Daily Iterald, November23 1918

173 However, the paucity of benefits on their eventual return home was not the only

concern of the 'returning heroes'. The administration of the demobilisation scheme,

which was not begun until December 9, involved long delays and provoked criticism

from those in the services and at home. Yhe Times reported on the 'delays and muddles'

and 'apparent chaos' as employers in Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol and Leeds waited

impatiently for 49 The Daily Express 'the depth the releaseof pivotal men. warned of of

hostile feeling that has been raised among all classes,and particularly among the fighting

men, by all this deplorable delay."0 Furthermore, the schemewas proving inherently

unjust for it favoured men with a short service record. Those who were the first to be

demobilised were often the last to have been sent out on active service and had therefore

retained links with former employers. Winston Churchill, appointed by the War Ministry

to speedthe implementation of demobilisation commented on the injustice:

The ordinarysoldier without theseadvantages saw his lately joined comradehurrying hometo take hisjob, or somebody's job, in England,while he, after yearsof perils andprivations on soldiers'pay, woundedand sentback to the carnagethree or sometimesfour times,was to be left until all the plumsat homehad been picked up and everyvacancy filled. The fighting manhas a grim senseofjustice, which it is dangerousto aff-ront

The result was that discipline 'in every single separateunit was swiftly and

simultaneously rotted and undermined' as 'a wave of intense impatience and resentment

accompaniedby serious breachesof discipline spread acrossthe splendid armiei. 's'

49 The Times,January 4,6 1919 so Daily Express,December 28 1918 51 Winston Churchill, 71e World Crisis. theAftermath, London: Thornton Butterworth, 1929,p. 54

174 Administrative delays in a system increasingly condemnedas unjust were indeed

provoking protests and demonstrations. On January 3 1919,10,000 soldiers protested at

Folkestone, followed by 2,000 at Dover although as The Times reported 'there was not

the slightest implication of rowdyism' despite the breakdown of military discipline with

the men disobeying orders. The tone of The Times's editorial was generally sympathetic

explaining that the causeof the discontent 'was the feeling that they were not all being

treated alike, but that some were getting advantagesdenied without apparent reason to

others.P52

However,the tone changedas the return of demobilisedmen, angry and volatile,

poseda seriousthreat to socialorder, especiallywhen they brought their grievancesinto

the centreof London. Accordingto the report in The Timeswhen demonstrators

appearedin Whitehallin lorries chalkedwith signs'We won the war, give us our tickets';

'Get a moveon; No morered tape'; 'We want Civviesuits' the menreceived 'a distinctly cool receptionfrom the peoplein the street'. Urging patience,the editorialevoked wartimerhetoric in the hopethat 'the spirit of unity andpatient sacrifice which hasbeen so splendidlymaintained during four yearsof hardfighting will continueuntil peacehas beensigned and general demobilisation can begin. *53

Nevertheless,the processof demobilisationcontinued to be markedby protests anddemonstrations. A further causeof the protestswas that the troopsfeared being dispatchedto Russiato fight againstthe 'Bolshevistmenace' and strikes and demonstrationsspread throughout the countryincluding Kent, Sussex,Hampshire with

52 The Times, January 6 1919 53 Ae Times, January 8 1919

175 the largestdisruption occurring in Calaiswhen men refused to returnto their units.54

Eventsin Calaisattested to the seriousbreakdown of ýnilitarydiscipline causing grave

concernamongst the military hierarchyand the War Office,particularly to Field Marshal

Haig. In his view, the protestingsoldiers were beingled astrayby'Bolshevist agitators'

compoundinghis fearsof the susceptibilityto political influencesof so manyin the new

army. His solutionwas to restorearmy disciplineby advocatingthat the ringleadersbe

shot. However,Churchill intervened and demandedleniency to preventexacerbating a

potentiallyexplosive situation. Churchillalso reversed the previouspolicy by instituting

a schemebased on age,length of serviceand combat experience. This schemefound favourablesupport among both the troops andthe public sinceit waspatently based on fairer principlesthan the original plan. By mid-April, 55 per centof armyofficers were demobilisedand 78 per cent of the ranks.

While it hadbeen hoped that a speedierand fairer demobilisationplan would quell the spirit of discontent,demobilised men returned to swellthe numbersof ex- servicemen'sorganisations and the readershipof thejournals. The growth of the

Federationwas stimulatedby 'an influx of new members'and although it was hampered by 'lack of finance'the Federationwas finally ableto publishits ownjournal. Thefirst issueof YheBulletin appearedon March 13 1919. Publishedfortnightly, and at first limited to four pages,its purposewas 'to disseminatenews to the branches.' Ae

Bulletin reportedin Junethat 105new brancheshad opened in the last threemonths bringingthe total numberto 641. By November1919, the Federationboasted over one

m For a full discussionof the strikes,se'e Andrcw Rothstein,7he Soldiers'Strikesof 1919,London: 1ýbcmWan,1980

176 million members.By the samemonth, it was estimatedthat the NUX had grown from

onebranch with fifty membersto over one hundredbranches with 100,000members. 55

Similarly,in January1919, Yhe Ex. -Service Man was no longeravailable only by

subscriptionbut was sold everywherethrough W. H. Smith'sBookstalls and at

newsagents,price 2d. andissued weekly. By that time, saleshad increased tenfold since

the first issue.56 The appealof the organisationswas in their commitmentto the special

interestsof ex-servicemenand in their campaignsto ensurethat the nationfulfilled its

obligationsto thosewho had performedtheir dutiesin its service,not ascharity but asa

right., The organisationsalso provided advice for mennegotiating the bureaucratic

systemsset up to makeprovision for returningsoldiers pensions and war gratuitiesfor the able-bodied,disabled and dependent widows andchildren as well informingthem aboutthe varietyof trainingand educationand employment schemes.

Despitetheir differing constituenciesand political perspectives, a the organisationsshared the samethree aims regarding their dutiestowards widows and dependents,their disabledcomrades and themselves. The reasonfor the agreementon the aimsof the movementas a whole was that they werebased on moralprinciples includingthat ofjustice andas suchwere uncontentious.They spoketo the needsof all thosewho hadbeen affected by the war, thus embracingwomen and children into the fraternityof ex-servicemen. More significantly,apart from the further aimsincorporated by the NUX they avoidedany definiteplans of actionor anypolitical programme.On

55 Englander,'The National Union of Ex-Servicemen',p. 24 56 TheEx-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 9, January9 1919

177 the first pageof the first issueof 7heBulletin, the aimsof the Federationwere clearlyset

out:

Much remainsto be doneto obtainjustice for the disabled men,the widowsand dependents,and for the demobilised men,such conditions of life as will assurethem of beingable to reapthe full fruits of our noblesacrifices in theglorious victory which has beenachieved 57

While it is possible to interpret 'the glorious victory' as a sign of militarist rhetoric, it is

counteractedby 'our noble sacrifices'. The war may have been won but the costs of

victory. were borne by many, including women and children, to whom society owed a

debt for their sacrifices. The statementtherefore can be read as a plea for that obligation

to be met rather than as eulogy to the glories of war. It further presentedex-servicemen

as shouldering the responsibility of ensuring a just future, especiallyfor widows and

orphans and those who had also made sacrifices of their health and virility. Similarly, the

first aim of the NUX incorporated in their Statement of Aims and Policy was:

To protect our special interests as ex-Servicernenand especially to watch over the interests of our disabled comradesand the dependentsof those who have fallen.58

While insisting that the State fulfill its obligations they also recognisedtheir own obHgationsby 'doing what we can ourselvesto help them'. They had fulfilled their duty as men by going to war to protect women and children and were now extending that senseof masculine duty in peaceby 'watching over' those in need of their protective

57 7he B'ulledn,No. 1, March 13 1919 m National Union of Ex-Servicemen,leaflet, nA

178 care, In the caseof war widows and children,protection was affordedin the symbolsof

familialmale roles. A protectivestance towards their disabledcomrades was, however,

double-edged.

By the endof the war 40,000of the 500,000seriously maimed were totally or

near-totallydisabled. British veteransdid not foregrounddisability in the namesof their

organisationsunlike their Frenchcounterparts. The latter's first organisationestablished

in 1915,the Associationgenerale des mutiles de la guerre(General Association of War-

Disabled),was explicit aboutits membership.Moreover, some organisations did not

initially acceptdemobilised soldiers as members." While the samesituation did not

pertainin Britain, neverthelessthe differing claimsof the disabledand the able-bodied menalso point to tensionswithin veteransorganisations despite the apparentunity of the

'dischargedand demobilised'.

The voicesof the disabledthemselves were rarelyheard on the pagesof the journals,although there was plenty of concernabout their well-being. For example,in articlesand correspondencecolumns the hospitaltreatment of disabledmen was criticised,particularly the incarcerationof shellshock victims in lunaticasylums.

Medical adviceand information on neurasthenia,tuberculosis and prosthetics for amputeeswas madeavailable to the readershipalong with informationabout

6 employmentopportunities and pensions. 0 The vexedissue of employmentfor disabled ex-servicemenalso afforded ample opportunities for fulminationsagainst the

59 Antoine Prost,In the Wakeof War: 'LesAnciens Combattants'andFrench Society 1914-1939,

Oxford; Berg, 1992,pp. 29-33 1 60 The next chapterprovides a more detailedaccount of work and disabledcx-serviccmen.

179 obstructivenessand selfishnessof tradeunions. Nevertheless,the languagedeployed

particularlyin YheEx-Service Man servedonly to further emasculatea manwhose

bodily andmental integrity was alreadydamaged by his war wounds,making them 'less

of a man'. Referencesin YheEx-Service Man to 'batteredand broken men', 'human

wreckage'and the permanentlydisabled man as 'the saddestrelic of the war' were

partially appealsfor the necessarysympathy for the sacrificesthese men had made.

However,they were counteractedby injunctionsto the mento facethe battle of life and

not to give into masculine self-pity by dwelling on their loss:

To prevent him brooding in envy of the happier man who was left dead on the Field of Honour is one of the problems which Government and private citizens should study with sympathy... It is not wise for the disabled man himself to think of these things which are lost to him 61

As disabledmen defined themselves against other men,even the dead,they found their manhoodrejected so it not surprisingthat silencemarked their shameand humiliation. Compensationwas hardly to be found ftom beinginformed that they were carryingthe 'honourablescars of war.' Similarly,the sentimentsexpressed in an anonymousletter from 'A WoundedNCO' were unlikelyto be sharedby the vast majority of the disabledexcept for the refusalof charity:

61 77ieEic-&rvice Man, Vol. 1, No. 17, Nl=h 6 1919

180 He hasthe knowledgethat he has spilt his blood andsuffered in defenceof countryand lovedones. He has enlarged vision, clearerconscience, in otherwords, he hasbeen throughthe fire of sacrificeand suffering,and has come out moreof a MAN than he was beforealthough, perhaps, part of his body lies 'out there', his soul is bigger. And, therefore,he doesnot want anythingthat hasthe semblance of charity but only his RIGHTS."

While the disabledmen experienced the most acutesense of sufferingand loss, many

veteransfelt themselvestransformed by the war, that they hadexperienced a lossof their

former selves.As civilians,each had 'exchangedhis privateself andhis individualself-

interestfor a public andcommunal identity representedin the uniform.,'3 It Wasthat

senseof sharedloss which forged one of the bondsof comradeshipcoupled with the

notion of sacrifice. While their deadcomrades had paid the ultimatesacrifice, neverthelessthe survivingtoo had madesacrifices. The failureof societyto expressits gratitudeand obligationsto sacrificesmade was a constantsource of grievance.On the other hand,the languageof sacrificedrawn from the Christiantradition which 'provided a hierarchicalmodel of serviceand sacrifice' through the iconographyof Christ's sufferingand endurance on the crossrepresented a form of redemptivemasculinity. 64

For example,the ReverendF. S. Myers in distinguishingex-service men from 'noisy shirkers'and 'conchies'wrote:

62 77je Ex-&rvice Man, Vol. 1, No. 5, November 6 1918 63 ibid.

" Adrian Caesar,Taking it like a man: Suffering,sexuality and the WarPoets, NIanchester: NIanchesterUniversity Press,1993, pp. 4-6

181 The NationalFederation is the voice of clean,strong men who havelearned to think in the universityof Annageddon, menpurified by fire, hardenedby discipline,made gentle and wiseby heroicsuffering for others61

At times when society appearedunwilling to acknowledge its 'returning heroes' the

notion of sacrificehelped sustain the heroic ideal as exemplifiedin a letter to the Bulleffit

from the President of Monmouthshire Divisional Council:

I claim that the bestmen in Englandare thosewho gaveup their all for their country,that the test of worth is sacrifice, andby this test the ex-serviceman hasproved himself I am apt to look on all othermen as not quite up to our standard andthat it is for us to leadand othersto follow.66

By cWmingspecial status and superiorcharacter because they hadproved their

manlyworth as soldiers,ex-servicemen could equallymake a claimon the future

directionof post war society. In the secondissue of Ae Bulletin the 'Messagefrom the

Chairman',T. F. Lister (ex-gunner),elaborated the aimsof the Federation:

The goal is the enrolment of EVERY discharged and demobilised man. The purpose is that the men who won victory in foreign fields must be determined upon victory at home. The partnership of death must give place to the partnership of life.

65 7he Bulletin, No. 6, May 22 1919 " The Bulletin, No. 24, February 5 1920

182 However,the responsibilityof ex-servicemenwas not only to securefair treatmentfor

themselvesbut, ashe continuedin more utopianvein, to ensurea bettersociety in the

future,in the post war world:

Men who have borne the liability of service in War must give service in Peace, and not rest content until the people really have liberty by the assurance of home conditions which will life living. DO YOUR BIT 61 make worth .

Oneof the waysin which a better future would be assuredrelated back to the war itself

While sometried to translatemen's sufferingsand sacrificesinto someform of male

transcendence,other ex-servicemenseized the opportunity,once released from army

discipline,to vent their angeragainst the war. The Federation'sChairman, T. F. Lister

advocatedinforming the public aboutthe realitiesof war:

Useyour experienceof the past four and a half yearsto ensurethe public knowingall aboutwar. Do not sparethe public the horrorsof it. Always pronouncethe miseryof it.

However, the critique of the war was combined with searingadmonitions against the institutionalpractices of the armedservices, particularly the extremedisciplinary measures:

67 The Bulletin, No. 2, Nl=h 27 1919

183 Spare nothing in preaching the necessity for an overhaul of the manuals that govern the Services... The evils you know to exist under the cloak of discipline are to be remedied,not by Bottornleys or Generals and Admirals, but by the men. Submit resolution after resolution to your Member of Parliarnent.68

The extremesof military disciplinesuch as Field PunishmentNumber I andthe death

penaltycame under fire. Whenthe ParliamentaryCommittee of Enquirywas setup to

investigatecourts martial, YheBulletin roundly declaredits oppositionto the workings

of the courts:

We hope that this Committee will give careful consideration to the root of the evil. If the conditions of service were thoroughly re-modelled on more democratic principles, it would be found that the functions of Courts Martial would be almost entirely eliminated. Agreeing that some form of Military Law is essential, it should be framed entirely on the 69 linesgoverning Civil Law.

However,members of the Federationdid more than expresstheir disaffectionwith army practicesin the pagesof theirjournal. At a conferenceat the War Office on May 14

1919delegates raised the questionof representationat CourtsMartial demandingthe inclusionof NCOs andmen. They alsosuggested better training in armylife 'in order thatmen on dischargemay be morefitted for occupationin civil life. 70

Classhostilities formed'an integral part of the critiqueof the hierarchicalstructure of the army. The humiliationsoften sufferedamong the rankssurfaced again in ex-

68 7he Bulletin, No. 5, May 8 1919 69 TheBulletin, No. 4, April 24 1919 70 TheBulletin, No. 6, Nby 22 1919

184 servicemen'sorganisations where, now in peacetime,they could be freely expressed.

Moreover,the lossof agencyforced on themin the armywas a sourceof remembered

bitternessand humiliation:

The theory on which the old Army was rigidly constituted no longer obtains - the old Army regulations should be immediately scrapped, and new regulations to meet the present day position supplant them. The day when a soldier was consideredas a mere unit, a necessarypiece of 71 machinery, with no brains or initiative is passed.

Resentmentswere deeplyfelt by working-classmen against the perceptionof their lack

of 'brainsor initiative', capableonly of blindly obeyingorders. The insistencethat the

menshould run the organisationsand the exclusionof officerswas part of the processof

regainingtheir self-esteemand manly pride andasserting their own codesof masculinity

which hadbeen rejected. The Associationhad madeclear its own classallegiances by

assertingthat it was 'a working-class'organisation and like the Federationinitially refusedofficers entry to its membership.The argumentthat 'this Federationis a

Federationof men,run by menthemselves 772 was a heatedtopic of debateat conferences;for example,Ernest Thurtle from the BethnalGreen branch who had himselfrisen to officer statusfrom the ranksnevertheless argued at the Annual

Conferencein Manchesterin 1919.

71 7he Bulletin, No. 4, April 24 1919 72 TheBulletin, No. 8, June 19 1919

185 The Federation was the people's organisation. He might say a working-class organisation. The Trade Unions were not asked to take in employers of labour. The commissioncd officer had a different training, a different social position, different needsand a different outlook on life generally. IEs entry into the Federation would not be a source of strength to them, but a source of weakness.73

The NLTXwas the most virulent in its condemnationof the war andof the

persistenceof militarism fostered in the Comrades organisation. For them, the Comrades

servedonly to perpetuateclass inequalities:

The Union stands solidly against the perpetuation of militarism and the malcing of fiirther wars. The ex-Service men know, as no civilian can know, what war really means. And they are determinedthat neither they nor their children shall ever again be dragged through such a foul and accursed hell as they passedthrough in 1914-18. Never again! 74

The chargeagainst the Comradeswas that it was 'run almostentirely by retiredofficers

of high rank; andtheir whole outlook is militaristic... the ComradesAssociation exists to

resurrect the illusions of the glamour and glory of warfare.'75

The Comradesencountered criticism not only fi7omother organisationsbut also

within the columnsof 7heEx-Service Man. They were accusedof 'methodscalculated

to encourageclass hatred, for they lay themselvesout to enrol the better educatedman

and care fittle for those who are obviously just as much our pals.976 As such they

73 ibid.

74 National Union of Ex-Servicemen, Ltaflet 12, rLd. 73 ibid. 76 7he Ex-ServiceMan, Vol. 1, No. 34, June28 1919

186 threatenedthe potentialunity of the ex-servicemen'movement which the paper

vigorouslyadvocated. This was in sharpcontrast to opinionsexpressed in an earlier

issuewhen Sir FrederickMilner describedthe Comradesas 'an associationafter my own

heart' for:

it is keepingalive the splendidspirit of comradeshipthat has grown up betweenofficers andmen of all ranksin the trenchesand battlefields. Oneis alwaysreading in the obituarynotices of officers how their menloved them and would follow themanywhere. This is the feelingthat that we want to keepgoing whenwar has ceased.7'

Nonetheless,the paperexpressed a commitmentto a pluralityof viewsalthough in

practice,discordant opinions, especially on the issueof unity, wereusually represented as

thoseof a small,misguided minority.

In the sameissue, the anniversaryof the Armistice,the editor reportedon a

conferencechaired by GeneralSir Ian Hamilton andheld under the authorityof the

Admiralty, the War Office andthe Air Ministry 'to considera report on the bestmethod of fosteringthe spirit of comradeshipand mutual help amongall who servedand are servingin the RoyalNavyý the Army andthe Royal Air Force.' The Hon. Sec.Major H.

Jellicorse,Reserve of Officerswas quotedas saying:'an outstandingfeature of the war, both in the field andat home,has been the growth andthe extensionof a higherunity best expressedin the word comradeship.'78 The comradeshipof the trencheswas now beingideologically exploited in the interestsof nationalunity asconservative forces

77 The Ex-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 6, Novcmbcr 20 1919

78 ibid.

187 attemptedto rein in the warring factions which were yet again emerging in the post war

world of political andindustrial unrest.

The Comradesfrequently utilised the languageof brotherhoodand comradeship

to appealto the supposedsolidarity of ex-servicemenand, more significantly, to saturate

it with nationalistrneavýings. In February1919 Lt. -ColonelWilfred Ashleywrote of the

foundationof the Comrades:

The root ideaof the movementwas Comradeship...a comradeshipwhich would stimulateand enobleevery branch of Nationaleffort, and which would createof itself such Iýationalinfluence as would promotethe interests,protect the rights andremedy the grievancesof everyman who has served."9

Establishmentfigures were calledon to lend supportto the nationalistrhetoric couching

it in the languageof brotherhoodand sacrifice,for exampleLloyd Georgewas quoted:

this knowledgeof a commonsacrifice, of a common brotherhoodof sufferingand effort, has sunkdeep into the mindsof the peopleof this country. Thereis, as I havenever witnessedbefore, a new COMRADESIUPof classes.so

The Comradesinflected the notion of comradeshipwith particularmeaning. For themit meantharmony and social order: betweenemployers and employees and between classes and aboveall for the restitutionof the unity of the nation,undisturbed by political conflictsand class antagonisms. In other words, it soughtto preservethe old socialand political order basedon privilegeand wealth whereby the superiorclasses spoke for and

79 The Comrades Journal, February 1919 so ibid.

188 disciplinedthe 'lower orders' into obedience.In stark contrast,a memberof the Scottish

Federationremonstrated against any sentimentof comradeshipduring the war andin its

aftermath:

It was simply a case of members of the working classesheld down by brutal and iron discipline. Dfffercnt rations, different pay and different risk. The class line was as clear in France as it is at home; there was no comradeship in the trenchesto perpetuate.81

While the notionsof comradeshipand unity within andbetween organisations

werebeing contested and struggledover in the present,ex-servicemen were also 82 engagedin the politics of war memoryand commemoration. The searchfor

consolationamong all the communitiesof the bereavedwas the processof giving

meaningto the catastropheof the First World War. Over threemillion Britons lost a

closerelative in the war while few were untouchedby the lossof colleagues,friends or

neighbours." Ex-servicemenrepresented another community of the bereavedwho were

strugglingto find the appropriatelanguage and actions through which to expresstheir

grief andto makemeaningful their memoriesof war. In the processthey sharedin the

11 John Campbell, Edinburgh Review, January 1917, quoted in Wootton, Politics ofInfluence, p. 42 World War: for 192There now exists a major body of literature on commemoration of the First see, example Jay Winter, Sites ofMemory, Sites ofMourning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995; Adrian Gregory, The Silence OfMemory, Oxford: Berg, 1994; David W. Lloyd, Battle/teld Canada, Tourism, Pilgrimage and the Commemoration ofthe Great War in Britain, Australia and Oxford: Berg, 1998; Timothy Ashplant, Graham Dawson and Mchael Roper, The Politics of War

Memory and Commemoration, London: Routlcdge, 2000 83 Gregory, Silence, p. 19

189 publicrituals of commemorationorganised by the state,as well as developingtheir own

formsof memorialisationof their deadcomrades within their organisations:

We ex-Servicemen have sacred memories of themwhich in a very specialway are ours alone... they wereour pals. Othersrevere their acl-&vcmentsand pay tribute to their memory;but we lived the samelife as Oey did; we hada sharewith them in that greatcomradeship of the trenches which was like nothingelse that we haveever known. We went out as they did, sharedrations and billets with them, trainedand stuntedand fought and restedand groused and laughed,and everythingelse that they did, we did too... And they died,whereas we cameback and are herethinking of themtoday.

On November-141920 the Federationorganised its own Memorial Serviceto the

Fallenat St. Martin's Church,Leicester. The addresswas given by The ReverendCanon

F. B. Macnutt,Late SeniorChaplain to the.Forces in the B. E. F 1915-1918.14IES

appealto rememberthe 'great comradeshipof the trenches'was not simplynostalgia. It

supplieda languageof mourningand consolation for menwho hadwitnessed so much

deathbut who hadhad very little opportunityto moum their losses.With suchan excess

of deadbodies it was impossibleto mourneach individual death; at the sametime

experiencesof the deathsof mates,of pals,sometimes prolonged and agonised, were unbearablypainBil. Soldiersin the frontline witnesseddeath in all its horror, lived with the fear of the power of technologicalweaponry to ravagehuman bodies and minds. For they had an intimateknowledge of death,paiýlly learntin the trencheswhen death was ever presentwith corpsesand dismembered bodies strewn on the battlefieldsor in the

84 The addresswas published as a pamphlet The UnknownWarrior's Call to Living Warriors, with a Forewordby Field Marshal The Earl Haig, Leicester:Alfred Taccy, 1920,p. 8

190 trenches,sometimes remaining unburied and decomposing. That knowledgegave them a

senseof themselvesas a group set apart,made special by their experiences.

David Cannadinedraws a powerful distinctionbetween death on the battlefield

anddeath in civilianlife: 'the deathswhich they sawwere violent, horrible, bloody,

degradingand brutal, when, if they had beencivilians all their lives,they would probably

havelimited their repertoireof deathto old ageand natural causes. '85 At the time,

reactionsranging from indifference,callousness, black humourand badinage furnished a

defenceagainst the appallingsights of slaughteron an overwhelmingscale:

Oa the surface,they haddeveloped what seemedto be a callousindifference to death,and if someonewas killed, might say 'he's had it', or 'that's anothergomer'(sic), but this wastheir defenceagainst feelings which they might otherwisenot havebeen able to master. They lookedafter oneanother with protectivecare. 86

Suchprotective care which was an elementof the 'comradeshipof the trenches'

surfacedagain within the ex-servicemen'srhetoric andtheir repeateddesire to keepthe memoryof the deadsacred. Thus they were the guardiansof the pastwith the obligation to rememberand honour those comrades who had paid the ultimatesacrifice with their fives. 'Soldier organisationsprovided a frameworkfor remembering(comradeship rather thanbattle) throughthe languageof sacrifice,honour and national self-realisation'. 87

The languageof 'sacrifice' and 'nobility' of the.sacrifice was an attemptto give meaning

15 David Cannadine,'War and Death, Grief and Mourning in Modem Britain', in L Whaley(ed. ), Afirrors ofmortality. ýStudies in the Social History of Death, London:Europa Publications Ltd., 1981 86 C. M. Bowra,Memories, 1898-1939, London: Weidcnfeldand Nicolson, 1966,pp. 89-90 1" Garton, Cost of War,p. 31

191 to deathwhich wasunpredictable, random and pointless. The memoriesof the realities

of deathin war which hauntedthe survivorsin the present- 'the memoryof the carnage

andthe filth hasnever left me"' -could thus be transcendedand transformed into the

sacrosant.Death was renderednoble and heroic,recast in the romanticimagination of

Keats's'easeful death' or Shelley'sexhortation 'Mourn not for Adonais'who 'has

outsoaredthe shadowof our night' andwhose soul 'beaconsfrom the abodewhere the

Eternalare. ' As JayWinter argues,older romantictraditions expressed 'at oneand the

sametime the dignity of the menwho fought andthe degradationto which they hadbeen

subjected.'" Comradeshipwith the dead,had then a restorativefunction:

They sleepnow under those foreign skies, amid sights and sceneswhich we shall never forget- Ypres, Loos, Givenchy, Arras, Virny, the Somme. Still our pals - there is something about them which cannot die; the spirit of duty, service and self-sacrifice which is immortal and cannot be buried in any grave.90

As survivors,they determinednot to 'break faith with thosewho died in Flanders

fields'.91 By imaginativelytransforming the battlefieldsinto sacredplaces of peaceful,

dignified,repose for the deadthey might imposesome order amidthe chaosof their own

traumaticmemories of war andcarnage. Nevertheless, as David Cannadinerightly points out the battlefieldswere the siteswhere men not only sawdeath but purveyedit:

as Bowra, Memories,p. 91 89 Winter, Sites ofMemory, p. 204 90 7be Unknown Warrior's Call to Living Warriors, p. 10 Officer, John 91 A quotation from the popular poem In Flanders Fields by the Canadian Medical McCrae, first published in Punch in 1915

192 At the sametime, the soldiersthemselves had beenthe agents of death,killing, mAirningand woundingin a manncrwhich would be unimaginablein civvy street. Shock,guilt, anguish,grief, remorse;these were only someof the emotionswhich suchan experienceleft behind:above all, a desireto forget, and yet also a recognitionthat such experiencescould not be, must not be, forgotten'

Arguablytoo the notion of comradeshipwith the deadenabled them to makereparation,

to eradicateor alleviatethe senseof guilt felt by the survivorsand, in addition,the shame

andremorse for their participationin the carnageof war. If remembered,the ironic

wordsof the songsoldiers sang as they marchedto the Front: 'The bellsof hell go ting-

a ling-a-ling/For you but not for me' may well haveresonated quite differentlyto menin

peacetime.The processof comingto termswith the traumaof havingbeen witness to

sucha carnivalof deathwhile at the sametime havingthe responsibilityof causingother

men'sdeaths was, not surprisingly,fi-aught with complexand contradictory emotions for

ex-servicemen.For asFreud remarked, in the face of the deathsof tensof thousandsin a

singleday, 'We areunable. to maintainour former attitudestowards death, and have not yet found a new one. 93

Veteransremained fiercely protective of the battlefieldsites and cemeteries where manyof their comradeswere buried. During the war battlefieldshad already become sacredplaces and servicemen were a commonsight in the cemeterieswhich werebeing

92 Cannadine,'War and Death'. P. 217 93 Freud, 'Our Attitude TowardsDeath' in Group Psychology,Civilization and its Discontents,and other works, Vol. 12, PelicanFreud Library, Harmondsworth:Penguin, 1984, p. 80

193 94 constructedalong the battlefront. The first organised visits to the graveyardswere

known as pilgrimages but before long the travel agent Thomas Cook began to organise

tours and were followed by other major travel agenciessuch as Pickfords and Frames

Tours. In 1920 representativesof the Federation visited the battlefields, 'the resting

place of our fallen comrades'. The deputation was unanimousin giving its assuranceto

the relatives that that ' every care and consideration is being taken both as regards the

reinternment of bodies and the registration of graves. 95 Nevertheless,newspaper

accountsof tourist trips to the battlefields where 'the popping of champagnecorks and

ribald laughter may be heard where but recently men fought and died in their thousands'

was evidenceyet again of civilian callousness. Ex-servicemenalways identified the

96 tourist with the war profiteer. Financed by their ill-gotten gains during the war, their

tourist trips provoked further anger on behalf of the many wives and relatives who could

not afford visits. Nonetheless, the representative of the Federation assuredthe

readership of YheBulletin:

Fortunately, our dead comrades sleep well, Tlierc is a majestic serenity in their repose which all the coarse, unfeeling antics of the war profiteers cannot disturb or belittle. 97

94 David W. Lloyd, Battlefield Tourism:Pilgrimage and the Commemorationof the Great War in Britain, Australia and Canada,Oxford: Berg, 1998,pp. 25-27 95 TheBulletin, No. 29, April 15 1920 96 Lloyd, Battlefield Tourism,p. 43 97 The Bulletin, No. 30, April 29 1920

194 Similarly,Yhe Comrades Journal expressedoutrage at the desecrationof the

battlefieldsby the 'invasionsof tourists':

During the war we werehard put to it to find wordsto expressour opinionof conchies,profiteers and the like, but the worst of thesemisfits weremore human than thosewho would seekmere profit or sensationover the gravesof our gloriousdead. 9'

Ypres was another sacred site of contestation. The Ypres League was founded

by Lt. ColonelBeckles Wilson in 1920,not as 'an ex-soldiers'federation or benefit

society', but on 'sentiment:'

the sentimentof a nationwhose Calvary was at Ypres,and its objectsare to perpetuatethe memoryof all that Ypres meansto us by keepingalive the spirit of comradeship,and by commemoratingour 200,000dead now lying in the Salient.99

7he YpresTimes reprinted a letter which had appearedin the Daily Newsunder the

heading'Not My Ypres:This is Holy Ground' which fulminatedagainst the presenceof

a fair with its roundabouts,side shows, shooting galleries and dancing saloons with,

ironically, 'a hellishcacophony of machine-madenoises. ' The writer sawthis as evidence of how 'the world in its mad,selfish, sottish onrush quickly forgetsthe price that others paid, andcares not. '100

7he Comrades Journal, November 19 1919

The Ypres Times, Vol. 1, No. 1, October 1921. The Ypres Times was a successorto the trench journal, Wipers Times. 10077te Ypres Times, Vol. 1, No. 1, October 1921

195 As well as preserving the sacrednessof the battlefield site, the intention was to

erecta hostelryfor pilgrimswith 'bedsavailable for widowsand members who could not

afford the usualexpenses of a hotel.'101 Asserting the practicalaspects of

commemorationformed an integralpart of the sacredduty inheritedby the survivors. As

the November20 1918issue of Y77eEx-Service Man celebrated'Over at Last', ex-

servicemenwere reminded of 'A Sacred Trust: '

Ile menwho havefought and won throughsafe and sound regardas a sacredtrust the welfareof the widows,orphans andother dependants of that vast army of thosewho will nevercome back... It is a causedear to the big-heartedmen who havesaved us from thingswords cannot describe, and representsan ideal they will neverforget for a moment.102

While this idealwas frequentlycouched in the religiouslanguage of the sacred,branches

of the Federationand the NUX soughtto translateit into practicalaction. As the nation

soughtways to mournthe deadin -actsof commemorationinstituted in nationaland local

forms of public memorialsand remembrdnce services, ex-service men's attitudes to

memonalisationand commemoration and the differentmeanings they attachedto them

becameapparent. Throughout the countrylocal committeeswere establishedto decide on the form the local war memorialshould take but asAngela Gaffhey concluded from her work on commemorationin Wales'ironically it was the most affectedby the war who were often marginalisedin the commemorativeprocess. "O' While thejoumals

101Ae Ypres Times, Vol. 1, No. 1, October 1921 102The Ex-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 6, November 20*1918

103Angcla Gaffney, Aftermath: Rememhering the Great War in Wales, Cardiff. University of Wales

Press, 1998, p. 26

196 record the range of practical proposals put forward by ex-servicemenit is doubtful how

many were heeded. For example, the Croydon Branch of the Federation wanted the

localwar memorialto be 'an expressionof practicalsympathy to benefitthe childrenof

the men who had died'. They suggested a Committee be set up to assist the children to

secure further education or apprenticeships to a trade or articles to a profession. The

Committee would 'take the place of the father in seeing the children have a fair start in

lif 104 Similarly, letter in Birmingham its e.P - a regarding the war memorial proposed that

usefulnessshould not be sacrificed to ornament for through its 'outward and visible

beauty it would symbolise the spiritual loveliness of the supremesacrifice made in the

causeof Right and Liberty. ' At the sametime the provision of practical services to the

widows and dependentsof fallen men would reflect and 'be a witness to the gratitude

and reverence of the citizens of Birmingham to their beloved dead.'105

Conflictsemerged between ex-servicemen and local committeesabout

appropriatememorials adding to their sensethat not only weretheir viewssilenced but

that societywas ignoringtheir needsand the needsof thosewidows and children to

whom they hadpledged their trust. In Rhymney,in southeast Wales, for example,

membersof the Associationproposal for the buildingof two terracesof housesto be let free to the widows anddependents of menkilled in actionwas rejectedin favour of a

War MemorialPark. To addfurther injury, widows, orphans,dependents and ex- servicemenwere not invited to the openingceremony. This provokedan angryletter of protestto the local newspaperattacking the local council;'we canscarcely conceive of a

1047he Bulletin, No. 3, Aprd 10 1919 105The Comrades Journal, NL=h 1919

197 moredespicable, mean and ungrateful action than that of RhymneyUrban District

Councilin failing to recognisethese men. 106A further exampleof the humiliating

exclusionof ex-servicemenoccurred in Horsforth in Yorkshirewhere the War Memorial

Committeeconsisted of fourteenlocal worthiesand twelveex-servicemen. They

proposed the erection of a cenotaph and an institute for ex-servicemen. The scheme

provoked consternation amongst local church leaderswho delivered a circular to homes

in the town urging the townspeople to attend a meeting 'to saveHorsforth from

unspeakabledisgrace' occasioned by A Drinking Club considered'utterly unfitting and

offensive'. The report in 7he Ex-Service Man was outraged by the 'wanton slander by

innuendo on men, who as all the world knows, splendidly showed that in point of morals

and efficiency, they were second to none.' The clergymen later made a public apology in the Horsforth WeeklyWverfiser pronouncing 'their utmost respect for ex-servicemen whom they held in honour.9107

The marginalisationof ex-servicemenfrom local commemorationadds weight to

Adrian Gregory'sargument that ex-servicemenoccupied a subordinateplace in the pubfic memorialisation of the dead. He effectively demonstrateshow the 'invented tradition' of Armistice Day with the ritual of the Silence and the laying of wreaths at the

Cenotaph helped shapethe image of the bereaved as primarily women. Further, he argues that the symbolic power of the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, buried in

Westminster Abbey on Armistice Day 1920, demonstratedby the thousandsof people who paid homage at the tomb witfiýn a week fafled to have the sameemotional impact on

106Gaffney, Aftermath, pp. 29-30 107The Ex-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 44, September27 1919

198 ex-servicemen.They had too manymemories of 'the sheerquantity of unknownand

unknowabledead bodies that littered the battlefields'.108 However, the ex-servicemen's

responsesto the rituals of remembrancewere more complexthan Gregorysuggests.

Theycontinued to maintainan almostproprietorial attachment to 'our gloriousdead' and

to the sacredtrust bestowedon them to preservethe memoryof the dead. On the first

anniversaryof the Axmisticethe leadingarticle in YheBulletin entitled'Our Tribute to

the Dead' stated:

We paid our tribute without ostentatiousceremony by placingour simpletoken upon the spot which hadbeen made sacredto the memoryof our fallen comradesand in tokenof our resolveto build by our lives and the careof their widows andorphans, an everlastingMemorial of their sacrifices.We now dedicateourselves to the work of building a world in accordancewith the idealsof the Leagueof Nationsfor which our Comradesundoubtedly died. 109

YheComrades Journal similarlyemphasised each man's obligations to 'your faMenpals,

to their widows andfatherless children, to your blinded,maimed and broken pals that

they maybe treatedjustly andthat their interestsmay neither be overlookednor

forgotten'."0 In the Decemberissue the 'joy-bellsand junketings, relief and hilarity, fireworksand fun' of ArmisticeDay were contrastedwith the solemnremembrance of

November1919:

log Gregory,Silence, pp. 26-7,33-34 109The Bulletin, No. 19, November27 1919 110Vie ComradesJournal, November1919

199 Nothingwas everstaged that could comparewith that scene aroundthe Cenotaph.No play or operaever produced has hadthe powerto thrill with suchsureness and intensity,or to stir without exceptionthe emotionsof so vast a multitudeas the spectacleof the veteransbroken in the war standing bareheadedbefore the memorialraised to thosewho had fallen fighting besidethem. "'

The evidencefrom the ex-servicemen'sjournalspoints not to the lack of affective

responseto the nation'srituals of remembrancebut to the conflicting emotions

experiencedand expressed by ex-servicemen.In an article'The Deadand the Living' the

causeof the conflict was made apparent:

The greatact of commemorationis over...Our innermost feelings,which we are apt to keepback from public view, havenow beenlaid bare

andwith referenceto Lord Haig's call for employersto put their nameson the King's

NationalRoll as a duty owed to ex-servicemento be ableto find work, the article

continues:

The duty owing to these men has been brought home to us afresh during these last few days. neir time of remembrance is now. 112

Survivingex-servicemen realised their positionin the postwarworld was at best precariousand at worst unacknowledged.The sensethat society'sobligation to those

111The ComradesJournal, December1919 112The Bullefin, No. 19, November27 1919

200 who hadmade sacrifices was not beingmet fuelledanger among veterans further

emphasisingtheir separatenessand estrangementfrom those at home. Increasingly they

cameto the realisation that the 'mutuality of sacrifice' between home and front had been

disrupted, deepeningthe senseof estrangementfor 'it was the collapse of this mutuality

that, more than anything else, gave veterans a consciousnessof themselvesas an

exploited and abusedgroup'. "' Yet simultaneously, they sought re-integration at home

for while they had been at war, it had often been idealised for 'the idealisation of home

preservedsome senseof a possible continuity and sameness,some hope for a unified r identity. "" Home also encompasseda broader meaning, that of the nation which men

had fought to defend and for which their dead comradeshad sacrificed their lives. The

nation now in peacetimeappeared to renege on its moral obligations to the men who had

served it in war and by doing so had proved their moral worth. The continuing need to

plead their caserather than receiving fair restitution signalled 'the fragmentation of the

moral nexus between front and home, the nexus that made the suffering and death at the

"', front meaningful in terms of the preservation of a larger entity, the nation.

The meaningsof the 'nation', never fixed, were' opened up again to changeand

contestationafter the cataclysmof the First World War andex-servicemen's struggle to

definedtheir own senseof nationalbelonging was critical to the veterans'movement.

The processchallenged the 'imaginedcommunity' of ex-servicemen,contested the

meaningof the conceptof comradeshipamongst them and the differentinterpretations

113Leed, No Man's Land, p. 204

114ibid. p. 189 115ibid, p. 204

201 put on it in the post war period. Cornradesl-ýphad beenthe bedrockon which the organisationswere founded but conflictsbetween the organisationshad been present from their inceptionand further tensionswere emergingbetween the leadershipand the membershipas well asbetween ex-service men and societyat large. As the ideal of comradeshipfractured it simultaneouslyrevealed the lack of a coherentmale identity imposedby the identity of the ex-servicernan.

202 Chapter Four

'WE ARE CITIZENS WE ARE WORKERS' ...

Broken bodies and the body politic

One of the originating impulses in the formation of ex-servicemen'sorganisations

was to prevent the neglect and abandonmentof veteranswhich occurred after past wars.

The organisationshad shared with the nation in honouring the dead and commemorating

the sacrificesthey had made and in doing so, they fulfilled the sacredtrust they felt

obligated to render their dead comrades. Heroic status was conferred on the dead but

wheredid that leavethe living as they struggledto resumetheir placein a re-ordered

society?Increasingly, the difficult processof readjustmentand reintegration into the

socialand political world they had left behindlaid barethe problemsand anxieties of

thosewho hadsurvived. While the nation conferred"onthe dead,'our Men comrades',

their rightful statusas heroes,the statusof living veteranswas increasingly precarious.

Whenthe Armisticecame a new mood of nationalunity anda desirefor peaceand reconstructionfollowing the carnageof war. Ex-servicemenshared the hopeof a better future; they were now citizensprepared to fulfil their responsibilitiesand claim their rights.

The NUX in its Statementof Aims calledupon its membersto recognisenot solelytheirý'special interests' as ex-servicemenbut to incorporatethe political andsocial identitiesinvested in the citizenand the worker: 'we are also citizens,and we realisethat our generalinterests are inseparablybound up with the generalinterests of the peopleas

203 a whole' and'we are also Workers andwe realisethat our generalinterests are identical

with thoseof all our feflow-workers.' For the NUX memberssuch public recognition

wasto be found and confirmedwithin the working-classlabour movement, specifically

by formingpofitical allegianceswith the Labour party andthe tradeunion movement.

Thiswas an agendawhich other ex-servicemendid not shareor to which they were

openlyhostile. Nevertheless,the aimsof the NUX identifiedtwo arenas,pofitics and

work, in which ex-servicemenwould struggleto asserttheir postwaridentity. The claim

to exercisetheir rights of citizenshipand the importantcorollary, the right to work were

alsomeans by which they could renegotiatetheir masculinestatus. This chapter

examineshow ex-servicemenoperated in the political sphereand how the strategies

advocatedby the differentorgatiisations led to conflict within andbetween them. The

implicationsthis had for a unified veterans'movement and for the constructionof a

coherentex-serviceman identity will be explored. Work is an importantarena for the

constructionof maleidentities yet increasinglyafter the war ex-servicemenfound they

were excluded;the battle againstunemployment was a battlefought on the homefront.

The senseof socialexclusion was the morekeenly felt by ex-servicemenwho, by

the endof the War,had made the transitioninto the institutionalisedrealm of the nation state'spolitical life. Before 1914approximately only 59 per cent of the adult male populationwas registeredto vote in parliamentaryelections; existing residency requirementsdisenfranchised many men. For example,soldiers living in barrackswere one group of disenfranchisedmen as they did not qualify ashouseholders. In August

1916the Asquith coalitionestablished an all- party Speaker'sConference on the franchise. It met numeroustimes in order to producea franchisebill, the termsof which would be acceptableto the whole Houseof Commons.

204 The questionof the impactof the war on the broadeningof democratic

representationhas been the subjectof muchhistorical debate' but it is generallyagreed

that certaindegrees of nationaland socialcohesion which obtainedthrough the courseof

the war lessenedfears of massdemocracy, especially among the conservativeforces. For

them,the patriotic responseto the war amongthe working class,including the 'Leaders

of Labour' indicatedthe possibilityof a political accommodationwith the working

classes.During the courseof the war tradeunions officials had been drawn into the

decisionmaking process and government and 'constitutional'trade unionists were now

viewedas responsiblemembers of the working class. Concessionswould thereforehave

to be madein order to harnessthe working classto Conservatism:the extensionof the

franchisewas a major concession.2 Nevertheless,while the casefor franchisereform was

compelling,certain groups of the electoratebecame the focusof debate,particularly of

course,women but alsoservicemen. Indeed, some of the debatesabout women's

suffragepitted their entitlementto vote againstservicemen whose service and sacrifice in

the trenches,it was argued,rendered them worthy of the vote. During the debatesabout

Jýanchisereform Lloyd Georgeinvoked the patriotismof the menwho hadserved. He spokeof the pressingimportance of grantingthe franchiseto soldiersand sailors, arguing particularlyon the behalfof young servicemen:

1 SeeMartin Pugh, TheMaking ofModern British Politics 1867-1939Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1982; Kenneth 0. Morgan, Consensusand Disunity, Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1979; Ross McKibbin, The Ideologies of Class,Oxford: ClarendonPress, 1994; Bernard Waites,A ClassSociety at Wan England 1914-18,Leamington Spa: Berg, 1987 2 Pugh,Modern British Politics, p. 174

205 T'hereare hundredsand thousands of them and in all classes. They are not merelyprivates, but officers. What would happento them? The Englandthey havefought for, the Wales,the Scotland,the Ireland,the Empirethey have foughtfor, whenwe cometo settlethe conditionsunder which they and their childrenare to live - the countryfor which they had fought would say 'We do not want your opinion;we are not askingfor your voice'. How couldyou saythat. 3

Bonar Law echoed his sentimentson behalf of ex-servicemen:

We aregoing to havea new world whenthis war is over... no party needattempt to exist which cannothope to win the supportof the men-they are the bulk of the nation-who have savedus the libertiesof the Empire.'

Argu forward by that the to 8-M entswere put someanti-suffragists granting vote womenwould be againstthe interestsor at the expenseof soldiersand sailors, 5 but they

carriedlittle weight asthe argumentfor women'ssuffrage was effectivelywon. The

Representationof the PeopleAct 1918finally enfranchisedwomen but limited the

franchiseto womenover thirty while at the sametime grantingvirtually universal manhoodsuffrage. As Pughhas observed 'the limit on womenwas almostan insult' especiallygiven the fact that a specialfranchise was extendedto menof nineteenwho hadbeen on activeservice. Oneof the reasonsfor imposingan agelimit on womenwas that manypoliticians feared the youngimmature voter who, lackingsound opinions, was

3 Hansard, Houseof CommonsVol. 92, cot. 489,1,Urch 28 1917 4 ibid. cot. 557 5 SeeSusan Kingsley Kent, Making Peace:the Reconstructionof Genderin Interwar Britain, Princeton:Princeton University Press,1993, pp. 86-90; Brian Harrison,Separate Spheres, London: Croom Helm 1978,chapter 10

206 6 susceptibleto any emotional appeal. When Arnold Ward M. P., one of the leaders of

the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage, describedwomen as 'a massof

necessarilyinexperienced voters liable to be swayed by the argumentsof hysterical

agitators0 he could equally have been voicing widespread fears about returning ex-

servicemen,especially the young.

The franchise reforms of 1918 created an electorate of 21 million soldiers and

civilians which now encompassed95 percent of the male population! In order to allay

concernsthat servicemenshould not be excluded from the election, a system of postal

and proxy votes was devised. Just over 3.9 million service voters were registered and of

these 2.7 million postal baHot papers were issued. The country went to the polls on

December 14 1918 but as it was administratively impossible for men to exercise their vote on the day of the poll the count was extended over the Christmasholidays to allow the forces postal votes to be returned. Efforts were made to help overcome the inevitable isolation from politics at home; newspaperswith advertising were sent to

France and it was suggestedthat the men could be helped by having someoneat hand, an officer or a padre, to enlighten them. Such paternalism was fiinher indication of the fear of the immaturity and capriciousnessof sections of the new working-class male electorate. Nonetheless,participation was low; by December 28,641,632 soldiers had voted while 3,200 baot papers arrived too late.9 Irritation and anger with politicians

6 Pugh, Modern British Politics, p. 175 7 Harxison, Separate Spheres, p. 193

ibid. p. 140 John Turner, British Politics and the Great War, London: Yale Univcrsity Prcss, 1992, p. 33 1. Pugh suggcsts that 900,000 votcd, Pugh, Modern British Politics p. 197

207 who thoughtan electionmore importantthan getting the troopshome accounted in part

for the low participationrates; Pugh has noted that soldierssometimes inscribed

'demobilisefirst' on their ballot papers." However, the final turnout overallwas low at

57.2%,compared with turnoutsof over 80% in 1906and 1910. The resultwas that the

Coalitiongovernment led by Lloyd Georgewas returnedwith a largemajority, 526 seats

out of 707. The new mood of nationalunity which hadfollowed the triumph of Lloyd

Georgeas Prime Minister in 1916when 'the passionfor a new kind of government,

transcendingthe sectionalismof the past,became almost overwhelming"' was now

embodiedin the newly electedgovernment's appeal for postwarreconstruction, reform

andconsensus. The part ex-servicemenwere to play in the much-heralded

reconstructionand in the 'new world' envisionedby BonarLaw was opento question

andcontestation. So too were the meaningsveterans themselves attached to citizenship

andhow, in practice,they soughtto exercisetheir newly acquiredstatus as citizens.

However,ex-servicemen occupied an ambiguousposition within the new mass

democracyfor thesewere menreturning from a war which hadwrecked carnage and horrorson an unprecedentedscale. The certaintiesassociated with heroicmasculinity had alreadybeen undermined by the formationof ex-servicemen'sorganisations during the war whenmen joined forcesto redresstheir collectivegrievances. As it was argued in the last chapter,one of the mainmotives behind the formationof the Comradeswas to containworking-class ex-servicemen in particularwho were perceivedas susceptibleto agitatorsfermenting discontent among the troops. Therewas no automaticcontinuity

10 Pugh,Modern British Politics p. 197 11 Morgan, Consensusand Disunity, p. 16

208 betweentheir perceivedpatriotic responseto war andtheir return to take up their

positionin post-warsociety; the patriotic volunteercould become a violent

revolutionary.Moreover, the low esteemin which conscriptswere held within certain

quartersof the military establishmentfurther compoundedthe distrustof returningmen.

Efforts to avoid the consequencesof millions of demobilisedmen returning home to

unemploymenthad underpinned all the demobilisation schemes. Moreover, the anger

and frustration which erupted in protests and strikes during demobilisation fuelled fears

of the disruptive influences within the body of ex-servicemen. The national mood

reflected a desire for peace and reconstruction and the rhetoric of national and social

solidarity was summonedto call on national unity and conciliation to maintain social

stability and future prosperity. Revolution and unemploymentwere the twin dangers

which threatenedto undermine post-war stability and the returning troops were

implicated in both.

On the one hand, they were perceived as heroes whose service and sacrifice was

recognisedin the promisedreconstruction of a 'land fit for heroes'. On the other, the

public representationsof ex-servicemenacknowledged what the war haddone to these

same'heroes' andprovoked considerable alarm and anxieties about the transformationof

ex-soldiers'identities. Patriotic heroeswho had servedtheir countrybecame metamorphosedinto dark forces,represented by imagesof brutalisedmanhood, which might be unleashedinto the body politic:

209 All of themhad beenthrough the mill of prolonged inconceivablepressures and innumerabletearing teeth. To all, suddenand violent death,the woeful spectacleof shatteredmen and dwellings was, eitherto seein othersor expectand face for oneself,the commonestincident of everdaylife. If theseannies formed a unitedresolve, if they wereseduced from the standardsof duty and patriotism, therewas no power which could evenhave attempted to withstandthem. 12

The context in which Churchill wrote of his reflections was the rioting and

demonstrationswhich accompanieddemobilisation. He was not alone in fearing that the

return of vastnumbers of menwho 'had beentaught for yearshow to kill', menwho had

experiencedthe 'methodicallyinculcated butchery and barbarism of war' constituteda

major threatto 'British Democracy'. Unlessthese men were harnessed and contained by

inclusionin the new democracythey could representthe vanguardin the eruptionof

anarchyand violent disorder. In manyimaginations, revolution in the form of

Bolshevismloomed large as an impendingstorm over the political landscape:'the spectre

of red andwhite armieshaunted capital and labour respectively', according to David,

13 Englanderand James Osborne. Further,they argue,the Labourmovement was ambivalentin its attitudesto ex-servicemendemonstrated in its 'raggedattempt to

12 Winston Churchill, The Morld Crisis. the Aftermath, London: ThorntonButterworth, 1929,pp. 60- 61

13 David Englanderand JamesOsborne, 'Jack, Tommy and Henry Dubb: The Armed Forcesand the Working Class,'Historical Journal, Vol. 21, No. 3, September1978, p. 620

210 prevent the returning soldier becoming the cats-paw of Labour's enernies,.14 Such

attitudes served only to reinforce ex-servicemen's isolation and senseof betrayal,

contributing to the representation of them as volatile and violent. Arthur Henderson,

Labour M. P. and NEnister without Portfolio in Lloyd George's War Cabinet had visited

Russia in 1917 during the revolutionary upheaval. He, too, saw dischargedservicemen

as a serious threat to social order at home. He argued for the reconstruction of the

Labour Party as 'the bulwark of the British parliamentary system' and social changeby

constitutional methods as an alternative to revolution because'thousands have become

habituated to thoughts of violence:'

Whenthe war endsthis countryand everyother will be floodedwith hardyveterans of the greatcampaigns. Among themwill be thousandswho haveexercised authority over their fellows in actualwarfare, and who will be capableof assumingleadership again if insurrectionarymovements comeinto existence.We may be warnedby a perceptionof thesefacts that if barricadesare indeedlik ely to be erectedin our streetsthey will be mannedby menwho havelearned how to fight 15.

The state had legitimised male violence and aggressionin its prosecution of war

now it was feared that such violence would be unleashedat home. The fears expressed

by Churchill and Henderson were not assertionsthat violence and brutality were inherent

14 ibid. p 619 David Englanderalso arguesthat the labour movementwas not interestedin soldiersand ,veterans since the army wasregarded with fear and contempt. David Englander,'The National Union of Ex-Servicemenand the Labour Movement, 1918-1920,'History, Vol. 76, No. 246, February1991, p. 25

's J. Winter, Socialismand the Challengeof War: Ideas and Politics in Britain 1912-1918,London: Routledge,1974, p. 260-1

211 masculinequalities rather, the opposite. Men had learnedviolence and brutal aggression

in the crucibleof war. However,the violenceof ex-servicemencaused considerable

debateand alarm. SusanKingsley Kent, for example,records the incidenceof attackson

womenand notes the concernbeing expressedin women'sjournals of increasingdisplays

of maleaggression. She concludes that:

contemporariescould readily believe,on the basisof immediatepast experiences, that aggression,destructiveness, andviolence were inherent characteristics of masculinity"'

Kent goes on to explore the controversies which raged about the aggression

unleashedin war. Psychologists, psychiatrists, sexologists and feminists all engagedin

debatesabout the nature of femininity and masculinity in terms, she argues, of a sex war 17 now being fought over in the intimate, sexual relations between men and women. The aggressionof men in war, including the First World War, continues to be the subject of recent controversy about killing and the pleasuresof war, partly in responseto arguments about war as trauma.'s One alternative responseto the violence of death and destruction with which they had lived was furnished by a clerk working in a large

Ordnance Depot at Vendroux where a strike committee had been formed in protest about the conditions in the camp while the men were waiting to be demobilised. He later wrote:

16 Kent, Making Peace, A 99

17 ibid. pp. 102-113 18 SeeJoanna Bourke, An Intimate Art ofKilling, London: Granta, 1999and Niall Ferguson,The Pity of War, London: Penguin,1999, chapter 12

212 The thoughtof guns heads using neverentered our ...the majority of the menhad beenup the line. Therewere plenty of newguns in the OrdnanceDepot andmillions of roundsof ammunition,but we had seenenough of that nonsenseto last us a lifetime.'9

It is worth recordingthat none of the ex-servicemen'spublications responded to

the controversieshappening around them. On the one hand, as we shall see, the

disabling effects among men of war neuroseswere pressingissues surrounding the

reintegration of men. On the other, the organisations respondedto the perceived

violence and aggressionof men only within the parametersof Bolshevism.

Againstthe backgroundof the Bolshevikrevolution, the threatposed by

insurrectionarytroops causedconsiderable alarm; democracy itself would be

undermined.At the sametime, the notion of masculinitypredicated on rationalityand

self-controlwas alsoundermined. Philip Gibbs,the war correspondentalso reflected on

the violent behaviourof someof the returningtroops. Like Churchilland Henderson, he

attributedthis in part to their war experiences,firstly the 'intensiveculture of brutality'

establ.ished in the army andsupported by the disciplinaryregimes which tended'to destroypersonal initiative andwill-power' andwas a 'bad trainingfor the individualism of civil life'. Secondly,he pointedto thejustiflablegrievances being expressed by the returningveterans; the ineptitudeof the officialsorganising demobilisation and the inherentunfairness of the process;the attemptsto mobilisethe samemen to intervenein

19 B. G. A. Canncll, From Monk to Busman,London: Skeffington,1935 quoted in T. IL Wintringharn, Mutiny, London: StanleyNott 1936,pp. 324-5

213 Russiaagainst the Bolsheviks;the searchfor work andthe paltry pensionsallocated to

woundedand disabled men:

Who caredfor the menwho had riskedtheir lives andbore on their bodiesthe scarsof war? The pensionsdoled out to blindedsoldiers would not keepthem alive. The consumptives,the gassed,the paralysed,were forgotten in institutionswhere they lay hiddenfrom the public eye. Beforethe war had beenover six months'our heroes''our braveboys in the trenches'were without preferencein the strugglefor existence.20

The 'heroes'returning with their physicalor psychicwounds were renderedsuperfluous

or worse,invisible, to the societyfor whom they madetheir sacrifices.When Gibbs

acknowledgedthe heroismof the menwho fought and 'resistedthe educationof

brutality' he drew on the symbolsof the heroicideal; the herowho asa manof action

undergoes dangerous adventures and performs great deedsin battle and returns to

redeem his people. He is transformed by his experiencesand returns with the knowledge

and wisdom to resolve conflict at home; 'out of the dark depths of their experiencethey

looked up to the light, and had visions of some better law of fife than that which led to

the world tragedy.*21

At onelevel, Gibbsidentified with the notion of the transcendenthero who'does

not receivethe respectand gratitude of the nationbut at the sametime destabilisesthe categoryof the hero by his representationof somereturning veterans as men of violence

20 Philip Gibbs,Realities of War, London: Hutchinson,1929, p. 347 21 ibid. p. 350

214 vAththe revolutionarypotential for bringingdisorder. Thosehe characterisedas morally deficient:

the weak men, the vicious, the murderous, the primitive, were overwhelmed by these influences, and all that was base in them was intensified, and their passions were unleashed, with what result we have seen,and shall see, to our sorrow, and the nation's peril. 22

While Gibbs does not actually deploy the term 'degenerate' his language is freighted with

its connotations. Unlike the hero who transcendedclass barriers, the designation 'weak'

men was implicitly class-specificwith resonancesof the urban degenerate. Similarly he

distinguished legitimate forms of protest against the delaysin demobilisation when men

'bordering on mutiny elected spokesmento represent their grievanceslike Trade

Unionists'23from riots and the destruction of property such as occurred, for example, in

Luton when the Town Hall was damagedby veterans protesting about the refusal to

allow them to hold a memorial service during the PeaceDay celebrations. Nonetheless, protests about justifiable grievances constituted 'a serious business,subversive of discipline'. Furthermore, other violent crimes especiallyagainst women exemplified the

'disease and insanity' with which post war society had become infected.

Gibbs' competing representationsof the returning man in the first half of 1919, as hero, victim, or as violent threatening presenceto peaceful, ordered society point to the cultural uneasewith which these men's reintegration into society was viewed. At the same time, these were the very men whom the nation acclaimedas heroes. Their

22 ibid. '

23 ibid. p. 344

215 heroismhad brought victory againstGerman militarism and achieved peace after the long

war-tornyears. The instabilitiesof masculinitieswhich the competingrepresentations

suggestthe waysin which feelingsof estrangementwhich were discussedin ChapterOne

weremanifested as men began the processof return.

The termsshell shock and neurasthenia provided a languagefor interpretingthe

psychic effects of war and its impact on men's ability to resume 'non-nal' working life.

Writing in 7he Ex-Service Man in November 1918, L. Fielding Ould, a member of the

Special Medical Board at Lancaster Gate estimated that 70-80% of the men who had

been at the front 'suffer more or less from neurasthenia', including the physically

disabled, a disturbing number since 'on these men will dependto a great extent the future

industrial prosperity of the country'. He identified 'several marked effects on practically

everyone', especially a man's loss of self-confidence:

He feelshimself inadequate; he feelsthat whateverjob is suggestedto him he cannotdo. His capacityof work per hour is very seriouslylessened; his power of enduranceis by no meansgood; his powerof concentrationand applicationis almostentirely gone; he is very sensitiveto criticism; he dislikesnoise and bustle of everykind

It was imperativethat they shouldbe curedand the curewas work for 'if mencan get

24 The throughtwo or threemonths work, thenthey are practicallycured . clusterof symptomsobserved by Ould constitutewhat today would be diagnosedas post-traumatic stressdisorder, a conceptcreated out of the consciousnessof traumaassociated with the

24 The Ex-ServiceMan, Vol. 1, No. 5, November6 1918

216 Vietnamwar. 25 While Ould maywell haveover-estimated the numbers,nevertheless the

representationsof mensuffering the psychologicaleffects of war werepart of the

culturallegacy of the war. Robert Gravesand Alan Hodgein YheLong Meek-End,for

example,asserted that any manserving in the trenchesfor as muchas five monthswas an

'invalid'. 'Shell-shock',from which all sufferedto a greateror lesserdegree' rendered

'with for 26 phifip men no capacity concentratedthinking andwarped their critical sense'. Gibbs,the war correspondentobserved similar dislocating effects:

All was not right with the spirit of the men who came back. Something was wrong. They put on civilian clothes again... but they had not come back the same men. Somethinghad altered in them. They were subject to queer moods, queer tempers, fits of profound depressionalternating with a restless desire for pleasure. Many of them were easily moved to passion when they lost control of themselves. Many were bitter in their speech,violent in opinion, ffightening. 27

Unlike Ould's optimisticforecast that a few monthswork would effecta cure,

Robert Graveswas far lesssanguine: 'in most casesthe blood wasnot runningpure againfor four or five years;and in numerouscases men who hadmanaged to avoid a nervousbreakdown during the war collapsedbadly in 1921or 1922.' Furthermore,they argued,many officers and NCOs hadbecome addicted to whiskyand rum, thereforethe

're-absorptionof thesemen into civil life was complicatedby their unfitnessfor any work

2s For a critical discussion of the history of the culture of trauma, seeBen Shephard, A War ofNerves:

Soldiers and P*chiatrists 1914-1994, London: Pimlico, 2002, pp. 385-399 26 Robert Graves and Alan Hodge, The Long Week-End: A Social History of Great Britain 1918-1939, London: Faberand Faber, 1941, p. 27 27 Philip Gibbs,Realities of War,p. 346

217 that neededreliable judgement and steadyapplication. "' Individualproblems associated

with returnwere compoundedby societalones.

Returningex-servicemen during the war were dischargedinto a fracturedsociety

whereindustrial unrest and uncertainty prevailed. The consensuswhich had supported,

evenembraced, the outbreakof war was breakingdown in the faceof the competing

demandsand needs of the wartime economy. In 1917in the midst of industrialconflict

at home,the Bolshevikrevolution had attractedthe supportof variousgroups within the

labourmovement. Bolshevism was perceivedas the inspirationbehind the wavesof

industrialunrest sweeping the country andthe causeof revolutionaryferment among

certainsections of the working class. Supportfor the Bolshevikrevolution was

expressedin the LeedsConference held in Junein 1917where figures like Ramsay

MacDonaldand Philip Snowdenof the ILP aswell asmembers of the British Socialist

Party welcomedthe RussianRevolution unreservedly. 29 At the conferencethere were

callsfor the establishmentof Workersand SoldiersCouncils in Britain following the

Russianexample. Philip Snowdenargued that while 'the pressseized upon the

resolutionand grossly misrepresented its purpose'it was in fact a 'harmless'resolution which demandedonly that the Councilswould:

28 Gravesand Hodge,The Long Week-End,p. 27 29 RaymondPostgate, The Life ofGeorge Lansbury,London: Longmans,Green and Co. Ltd, 1951,p. 169

218 resist every encroachmentupon individual and civil liberty; pay special attention to the position of women in industry, support the work of trade unions, concern themselveswith questionsaffecting the pensions of wounded and disabled soldiers, the maintenanceof grants payable to dependentsof men serving with the Army and Navy, the making of adequateprovision for the training of disabled soldiers and for suitable and remunerative work for men on,their return to lif 30 Civil e.

The legitimatecall for fair treatmentfor ex-servicemenwas 'describedas an

incitementto the subversionof army disciplineand military authority'. Nonetheless,the

Councilsoccupied another imaginative space in which ex-servicemenwould becomethe

prey of extremistswho would co-opt a body of disgruntledmen for their own ends,men

who were alreadyengaging in what was interpretedas unconstitutional political activism

andwho could be easilyinfluenced.

The evidencewhich existsabout one Workers and Soldiers Council suggests that

ratherthan beingsubversive or revolutionaryit was pre-eminentlythe voice of the

respectableworking man. On June24 1917,representatives of the 4th, 5th and 6th

battalionsof the Royal Sussex,the I OthNEddlesex and several other battalions formed

the Home Countiesand Training Reserve Branch of the Workersand SoldiersCouncil.

They passeda numberof resolutionswhich addressedtheir specificgrievances but more significantly,contained protests about their treatmentby Army Councilorders which demeanedand humiliated them as men: 'we be neitherdogs, criminals, or children'.

They alsoprotested against the denialof their citizenshiprights statingthat 'we pleadas beggarsfor what our comradescan demand as citizens. We askýo be citizenswith

30 Philip Viscount Snowdcn, An Autobiography, London: Ivor Nicholson and Watson, 1934, p. 455

219 privileges as well as the responsibilities.'31 There were no revolutionary demandsnor

plansfor actionsto undernfinethe state'sconstituted authority by resortingto violent

measures.The fear of Bolshevismremained a major pre-occupationfor it represented

what, Philip Gibbs, among others, diagnosed as the 'diseaseand insanity' at the heart of

the nation. In 1919the fear of Bolshevismprovoked debates jn the Houseof Commons

whenquestions were askedabout whether the govemmentwere taking any stepsto deal

with Bolshevism.During one of the debates,Winston Churchill reiterated the idea of

Bolshevismas a 'disease'and 'pestilence'. Continuingthe metaphorof disease,he sawit

as 'contagious'for:

It breaksout with great suddenness;it is violently contagious;it throws peopleinto a frenzy of excitement;it spreadswith enormousrapidity; the mortality is terrible.32

In the climateof fear and suspicion,one group identifiedas responsible for infectingthe

nationwere ex-servicemen.

The editorialsof the ex-servicemen'sjournals responded to the implied

accusationsagainst their membersby incontrovertibly refuting any afliance with extremist political views and practices. They launched their own attacks on Bolsheviks whom they representedas 'destructive men' in opposition to heroic ex-servicemenwhose patriotism was already proven by their public duty and service in time of war. Under the auspices of the Federation, a film was produced Bolshevism: A Message of its Evils which purported to demonstratehow Bolsheviks were part of a conspiracy to 'keep ex-

31 Englanderand Osborne,'Jack, Tommy and Henry Dubb', pp. 604-5 32 Hansard, Houseof Commons,Vol. 116,col. 1526,hby 29 1919

220 33 servicemenunemployed'. In June 1919 the leading article Tederationists Shun

Bolshevism'by the Chain-nan,T. F. Lister stated:

I am quite well aware that there a few people who are urging the ex-service men to resort to violent measures. Some of the men are honest, although wrong-headed. The majority are dishonest,and are the very men who, during the war, afraid to face danger themselvesdid everything to hamper the men who were fighting for their lives, Depend upon it, that to give credenceto Bolshevik doctrines would produce a far greater volume of employment than, unfortunately, there is at the moment. The revolutionary is a man who may know how to destroy; he has no constructive capacity. Justice can only be securedby Constitutional methods.34

The 'constructive'man, the heroicman who had faceddanger, was embodiedin the ex-

servicemanwho submittedhis claimsthrough constitutionalmeans to the authorityof

Parliament. Ae ComradesJournal containedarticles in a more stridentvein. In April

1919the leadingarticle threw down a challenge'Will British ComradeshipBeat

Bolshevism?' Oneanswer came from a 'dischargedwounded Non-Com: '

It will if the discharged millions of ex-service men in this country remain saneI We must hit out- and at once! Why? Becauseotherwise our pensionsand allowances would not be safe! Those Russian maniacs would pinch the penniesfTom a blind man's plate.35

BrigadierGeneral H. PageCroft of the NationalParty was enlistedto addhis comments

to the rabid anti-Bolshevist scare: 'the comradeship of the British race is founded on

33 TheBulletin, No. 14, September11 1919 34 TheBulletin, No. 7, June5 1919 35 The ComradesJournal, April 1919

221 justicewl-&h is the very antithesisof Bolshevism.' Two monthslater Ibe Comrades

Journal carrieda similararticle 'Why British Comradeshipwill Beat Bolshevism:' -

Discontentis the life-bloodof the destructiveagitation. Removethe causesof the discontentand the Bolshevik propagandawill be but the idle vapouringson an empty wind.36

The ex-servicemen'spapers were responding to the general climate of anti-

Bolshevism which was permeating the nation. However, the leadershipwas also

responding to the discordant voices emerging from its membershipand to the activities at

local level within some branches. As political activism increasedamong some ex-

servicemenand, with the NUX calling for allianceswith other radical groups, the

leadership of the organisations urged patience and moderation. The notion of a

moderate man is inflected by class; a middle-class construct of rational individualism and

concern with status. The selflessnessof the heroic ex-servicemanwas contrasted with

the selfishnessand greed displayed in the repertoireof maleactors in the retumed-soldier

demonology-conchies, Bolshies, obstructionist trade unionists, strikers, war profiteers, cowards. An ex-servicemanwas a superiorman compared to anyof theseother men whoseactions were perceivedof as selfishand againstthe nationalinterest. Such resentmenthad been fostered during the war itself in the attitudessometimes adopted towardsthe homefront. It hadbeen further stimulatedby the bitternessof delaysover demobilisation,the paucityof pensionsand the faure to securepreferential treatment in the labour market. The claimto moral superioritywas a camouflageagainst the

36 7he Comrades Journal, June 1919

222 humiliationsexperienced by veteransas they measuredtheir manhoodagainst other men.

Somegave vent to their bitternessand frustration in what was seenby the leadershipas

illegitimateforms of action. Any languagedeployed by ex-servicemenwhich hintedat

directaction was frequently interpreted as extremist. Signsof frustrationwere appearing

from the pens,at least,of ex-servicemen.

In a pamphletentitled Is this afit countryfor heroesto live in? the author

William Robertson, a demobilised soldier, had been approachedby 'a large number of

dischargedand demobilised men' to write of their grievances.He hadresponded

because'I considerit my duty as a soldier,as a man,and as a British subject:'

I knowthere is revolutionin the air; thereis a feelingof disgustand a feelingof rebellionin this country. Revolution, if one of force, means'undreamt of hardships, privationsand atrocities. '

Nevertheless,William Robertsonwarned:

The heroesknow too weHwhat sufferingsare, but unless.the govenunentis preparedto do something,and do it at once,to alleviatethe sufferings,the heroescannot be heldresponsible for the troublewhich is boundto arisein the nearfuture. 37

Despite the language of conflict, much of the pamphlet contained Haig's evidence to the Royal Commission. This enquired into the circumstancesof disabled veterans.

Haig was harshin his criticismof the inadequacyof statepensions and the hardshipbeing sufferedthrough bureaucratic delays and the lack of sympathyfrom manymedical board

37 William Robertson,Is this afit countryfor heroesto live in? Glasgow:R. E. Robertson,1919, p. 14

223 members.Whilst therewas agreementabout the injusticesbeing meted out to the

'heroes'there were also attemptsto channelexpressions of discontentin appropriate

ways.

It was asthough the 'heroes' were still servingsoldiers and subject to codesof

behaviourwhich obtainedin the army andwhere the armydiscipline subjected the ranks

to muteobedience. The fact was that thesemen were now civiliansand citizens who felt

that their manly worth had been proved during the war. They were trying to secure

recognition of the needs of the living. The sensethat the working-class man should have

his views representedby his superiors was often present in both Yhe ComradesJournal

and YheEx-Service Man representing as they did the most conservative views within the

veterans movement. For example, in one issue of YheEx-Service Man. Captain H. H.

C. Baird wrote a report of his addressto a branch meeting of one of the organisations in which he argued that the men 'knew that they still have to wait patiently for such fruits of victory as the country may be able to bring within their reach'. In the sameissue, there was a letter from Captain E. S. Donisthorpe, Hon. Sec. of the Discharged

Consumptive Society arguing for just rewards and rights for ex-servicemenfor which

'capitalists and profiteers must disgorge to make it practicable'. For, he warned, 'the ex- servicemanintends to persist in his demandsforjustice, if not by arbitration - then by sterner methods.' The editor of Yhea-Service Man fiercely attacked the

9ungentlemanly' sentiments:

224 It's very easyto fling a jibe at the 'capitalist', it's the sort of thing which usedto be specialisedin by unwashedgcnts who hold forth from barrel tops at streetcomers. What we want is constructivecriticism -just the sort of thing a gentlemanin the positionof CaptainDonisthorpe ought to be ableto supply."

Captain Donisthorpe's comments were doubly transgressive;firstly by advocating

so-called illegitimate forms of action based on the conflict between labour and capital

and secondly, by repudiating his class role in providing responsibleleadership to his

inferiors. Instead, he-appearedto bejoiningforces with extremist 'unrespectable'

working-clas'sagitators ranting at street comers. The fact that army discipline no longer

obtained among the returning men was a causeof concern as expressionsof discontent

were increasingly being heard. More alarmingly, they were being vo iced in the context

of broader unrest in the nation. As 'Scrutator', a regular contributor to 77jeEx-Service

Man, warned:

We haveto guardagainst two evils. The first of theseis unrestin the realmsof Labour. The secondis discontent amongour returnedand disabledheroes. There are far too manywho will takethe line of leastresistance now theyhave escapedthe terrorsof the battlefieldand are free from the disciplinewhich obtainedwith the Service.39

'Labour' men were particularly feared by the Comradesand portrayed in the pages of YheEx-Service Man as divisive within the community of ex-servicemen. They were the supporters of the party politics which had to be avoided in order to maintain

38 Ae a-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 6, November20 1918 39 TheEx-&rvice Man, Vol. 1, No. 19, March 20 1919

225 unity. Theywere alsoviewed as alliesof the disruptiveforces threatening peace and

harmony;the tradeunionists, the apogeeof 'selfishmen. '

Within a monthof the election,there were industrialdisputes in manysectors of

industry;'the unrestof the tradeunion movementseemed to penetrateto every'recessof

the socialand economic fabric. 40 At the beginningof 1919there was unrest in the

engineeringand shipbuildingtrades, a threatenedstrike on LondonUnderground,

increasedwage demands by the minersand the possibilityof a strike by the police.

Militant tradeunion activity contributedto the rising alarmof the Bolshevistmenace.

Oneresponse by the governmentwas to set up the CabinetCommittee on Industrial

Unrestin February1919. Another responsewith particularsignificance to ex-servicemen

wasthe new Directorateof Intelligence,a sectionof the Home Office establishedin the

springof 1919which publishedweekly reportsto cabinetministers entitled 'Report on

RevolutionaryOrganisations in the United Kingdom'. During thewar surveillance

activitieshad been carried out by the SpecialBranch of the CriminalInvestigation

Department,headed by Basil Thomson. Early in 1918they hadbegun targeting ex-

servicemen'sgroups for surveillanceas possiblesources of revolutionaryactivity. The

Federation,perceived as the most vocal organisationin its criticismof government policy, cameunder close scrutiny. It was conjecturedthat:

40 Morgaiiý ConsensusandDisunity, p. 47

226 thereis a determinedattempt among extremists to capture the DischargedSoldiers' Federation, and the, demand for betterallowances should be carefully watchedfor if they succeedin gettingthe soldiersand their wivesto backthem, they will be a very numerousand dangerousbody. 41

Accordingto Basil Thompson,'in the first threemonths of 1919unrest touched

its highwater mark' and 'in the monthsfollowing the Armisticesome of the societiesof

began 42In February1919, Soldiers', ex-servicemen to give anxiety'. the recently-formed Sailors'and Airmen's Union (S.S. A. U.) becamethe focusof increasingconcern, seen as

plotting 'a conspiracyto induceserving soldiers who enlistedunder the. Derby scheme

andunder conscription to 'demobilisethemselves' on May 11.943The organisationwas

supportedby the Daily Herald and,interestingly Stephen Ward writes 'accordingto

intelligencesources a writer for YheHerald, CaptainE. S. Donisthorpe,organised the S.

S. A. U. in late 1918' which was associatedwith the 'HandsOff Russia'campaign. It

was the sameCaptain Donisthorpe, letter writer to YheEx-Service Man quotedabove, who wascastigated by the editor for his political stancein suggestingthat 'sterner methods'may be requiredto gainjustice for ex-servicemen'sdemands. No actsof mutiny occurredon May II but the emergenceof the radicalNUX andthe International

Union of Ex-Servicemen(IUX) in May 1919were immediate targets for investigation.

41 StephenP- Ward, 'Intelligence Surveillanceof British Ex-Servicemen,1918-1920', Historical Journal, Vol. XVI, No. 1,1973, p. 182. This article providesa full analysisof the activities of Special Branch. 42 Basil Thompson, Queer People, London: Hodder and Stoughton 1922, pp. 276,296

43 ibid. p. 277

227 The NUX, as previouslydiscussed, was a splintergroup formedby the more

radicalelements of the Federationimpatient with their non-politicalposition. Its

affiliationto the Labour party beliesthe perceptionof its revolutionaryintentions while

the IUX, foundedin Glasgow,although stating its 'determinationto fight for the

overthrowof the capitalistsystem' only ever secureda smallmembership. Intelligence

surveillanceof veteransorganisations has been examined elsewhere demonstrating how

returningex-servicernen were perceivedas threatening national stability, particularly in

the contextof the alarmraised by the Bolshevist'menace'. Intelligencesurveillance was

not the only methodadopted to control ex-servicemen.The Comradeshad been formed

with that intentionbut therewere other movesto harnessthe actionsof veterans.

In November1918, a week beforethe Armistice,a conferencewas convened

underthe authorityof the Admiralty, the Wat Office andthe Air Nfinistry. Its Chairman

was Sir Ian Hamilton. Its aim was to foster the spirit of comradeshipamongst all those

who had servedin the forcesbut its mainpurpose was:

to try and rope in, to co-ordinate two, three or four or more bodies of Associations of Discharged Soldiers who arc already existing in this country and who have, some of them, taken on a political bias. 44

The return of demobilised men likely to swell the numbers of the existing organisations was anticipated with trepidation. General Ruggles- Brice representingthe forces in

France wanted the organisation to be ready to receive the men and inform them that

44 Reportof Conferenceheld at HorseGuards, November 5 1918,Sir Ian Hamilton papers,Liddell Hart Centrefor Military Archives,Kings College,London, I I/l/1

228 'thereis the Associationto look after you andyou will be alright as long asyou behave

yourselves'.

The experiencesof war had donelittle to shift the perceptionof working-class

menas children,unable to exercisetheir own judgmentsonce freed from army discipline.

Theywere to be broughtunder the control of a singleorganisation, the EmpireServices

League. Oneof the strong advocatesof the embryonicorganisation was Sir Douglas

Haig. Fearingthe involvementof ex-servicemenin disruptiveagitation, he was the

driving force behinda unified ex-servicemen'sorganisation free from politics.

Immediatelyafter the Armisticehe hadwarned that the men:

are still soldiers,though without arms,and no doubtwill go in for freshgroupings for new objectives,hitherto unthought of by the presentrace of politicians!Above all, theywill take vigorousaction to right any real or supposedwrong! 4'

Mthough Haig publiclysupported a democraticorganisation, his aim was to ensurethat

ex-servicemenwould be steeredaway from left-wing politicsby their 'real leaders'by

which he meant,of course,the officer class." Utilising the rhetoricof comradeshipand

self-sacrificeas well as callingfor unity was part of a strategyto containex-servicemen in a single,apolitical association. The objectiveof suchan organisationwas to tameany disruptiveelements among the body of ex-servicemenwhich appearedto be threatening socialorder andstability. However,the responsesto the attemptsto form a single

45 Quotedin GerardI DeGroot,,Blighty. * British Societyin the Era of the Great War, London: Longman, 1996,p. 268 46 ibid.

229 organisationwere mixed, evenfrom the Comradeswhich hadbeen formed with similar

objectivesto thoseexpressed in the proposedEmpire League.

In February1919, delegates were invited from the Association,Federation and

Comradesto attenda meetingof the League. Wilfred Ashleyof the Comradesexpressed

his reservationsabout the willingnessof ex-servicemento join an organisationsponsored

by the War Office for 'they arevery suspiciousof the War Office, andany organisation

that seemsto be run by the War Office is at onceshunned by them.' He alsofeared that

sincethe organisationmirrored his own, 'large numbersof our membersmay be forced

into the ranksof the more militant organisations,namely the Federationand association,

andinstead of unity therewill be only greaterdiscord, confusion and extremist action. P47

Underthe Chairmanshipof Sir Ian Hamilton,consultative committees were established

andplans to makethe organisationdemocratic devised; half its memberswere to be

underthe rank of commissionedofficer. The proposalswere submittedto Churchilland

Lord Peelfor further discussionbut it was not until July that a public announcementwas

madeabout a governmentorganisation for the dispersalof the canteenprofits accumulatedduring the war, popularlyknown asByng's millions. By this time, Sir Ian

Hamiltonwas no longerinvolved but he privatelyexpressed his view of the government's'distrust of ex-servicemen';'a ghastlyerror' for 'if the ex-servicemenare got into onegroup they will prove a steadyinginfluence in this country'.48 Clearlyhis was a minority view.

47 Letter to Sir Ian Hamilton from Wiffred Ashley,February 3 1919,Hamilton papers,I I/l/I 48 Letter to H. C. Baird (he had takenover the editorshipof TheEx-Service Man) from Sir Ian Hamilton, September9 1918, Hamilton papers,111115

230 The perceptions of ex-servicemenoperating as an unconstitutional force, a group

of potentiallyviolent andvolatile menthreatening national stability were shaped by in

part by conceptionsof working-classmasculinity inherited from the pre-warperiod.

Theywere compoundedby post war fearsof the rise of a more confidentand assertive

labourmovement which challengedconsensus and harmony. Conservativeforces were

alarmedby thesedevelopments and their insistencethat ex-servicemenshould steer clear

of politics andremain apolitical effectively meant conservatism. A letter in TheEx-

ServiceMan articulatedthe dilemmas;'you cannotmake unity by tying togethera

Bolshevik, Democrat Tory' 49 The for an orderly andan old-fashioned . call unity among the organisations,dominated by Haig, ensuredthat wheneventually the British Legion

emergedin 1921as the productof a unified movement,it was conservative,avoided

controversyand had limited influence. It was alsonumerically small; the membershipin

1921numbered only 18,000. By 1938it reacheda pre-warpeak of 400,000and even at

its heightthe membershiprepresented less than 20% of ex-servicemenand usually less

than 10%."

The call for unity in the ex-servicemen'sorganisations, emanating particularly from the Ex-ServiceMan andthe ComradesJournal andreinforced by othersmirrored the rhetoric of nationalunity; the sectionalismof party politics was to avoidedat all costs. Denyingthat their own agendawas deeplyconservative, they constantlyurged ex- servicemento stayout of party politics andto keepthe movementapolitical. TheEx-

49 The Er- Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 11, January 23 1919 " Berg, 'Adrian Gregory, The Silence ofMemory, Oxford: 1994, p. 98. For a full account of the formation of the British Legion, see Graham Wootton, The Ojrpc ial Histo rY ofthe British Legion, London: Macdonald Evans, 1956

231 ServiceMan, in particular,denounced politicians for trying to take over the ex-

servicemen's movementand accusing them of beingresponsible for the divisions

betweenrival organisationswhich 'fosters a spirit of hatredamong those who have

fought andserved together'. 51 In similarvein, the editor denouncedthe attemptsby the

Federationand the Associationto field their own candidatesin the electionin December

1918 calling it 'a monstrous proposal' since 'the men want to think for themselves,pick

for themselves,vote for themselvesand make their own choice from whatever candidate

may appear before them.02 I-JiSattempts to wam against the emergenceof a 'semi-

military party' neverthelesspoised problems for the direction of an apolitical veteran's

movement.

Identifying ex-servicemenas politically neutral within their organisationswhile

assertingtheir political rights outsidecaused considerable tensions as men, trying to

reintegrateinto civil life, soughtto makesense of their masculinityin a re-orderedworld.

The ex-servicemen'snewspaper committed to preventingthe repetitionof the past

neglectand abandonment of veteransof previouswars wasitself oneofIthe conservative forcesbent on constrainingex-servicemen's actions. The insularityof its approachto the problemsbesetting ex-servicemen on their return ironicallyconfirmed, rather than contested,the re'p resentation of the ex-soldieras a marginalisedoutsider; a singleman divorcedfrom anyfamily, communityor workplacenetworks and loyalties.

As effortswere beingmade to control ex-servicemenand harness them into one, non political body somelocal brancheswere taking their caseinto their local

51 The Ex-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 6, November 20 1918

52 The Ex-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 7, December 4 19 19

232 communitieswhere they receivedsupport for their claimsfor just treatment. The slow

responseto their claimsfor justice for thosewho hadserved, coupled with the faure of

the vision of 'a land fit for heroes'to materialiseprovoked angry responses, even as the

nationwas celebratingpeace. In July 1919,following the signingof the peacetreaty, the

official victory celebrationtook placein London with contingentsfrom all parts of the

Empiretaking part in the marchin the streetsof the capital. The centrepieceof the

paradewas the Cenotaphin Whitehall,initially a temporarystructure but later

transformedin 1920into a permanentwar memorialby public demand.In addition,,

peacewas heralded throughout the nation with plansput forward for celebratipnsat local

levels. The Federationrecommended that its membersboycott their local communities'

peacecelebrations. Yhe Ex-Service Man was appalledat 'an illimitablyinsane but none

the lessmischievous proposal' demanding to know 'how muchcomfort and happiness

sucha boycott would bring to disabledmen and widows' andaccusing the Federationof

'driving the communityinto separatehostile camps 53

In fact in somelocal communities,ex-servicemen found supportfor their actsof

resistance. For example, the St. Pancrasbranch of the Federation gained the support of the Mayor who announcedthat no peace celebrationswould be held in the borough until the grievancesof ex-servicemenwere remedied. At a meeting of local residents to discuss the forthcoming peace-celebrations, Mr. W. I Paton, Chairman of the St.

PancrasBranch of the Federation moved the following amendment:

'53 ne Ex-ServiceMan, Vol. 1, No. 3 1, June 14 1919

233 That in view of the treatmentof dischargedand demobiliscd menand their dependentsby the Government,also the numberof ex-servicemen now unemployed(over 2,000) in this boroughand the unjustifiableprofiteering still being carriedon, andthe fact that many of our comradesare still fighting in distantlands, we 2,500 dischargedand demobilizedmen of St.Pancras, strongly protest against anythingin the natuie of a peacecelebration until these grievanceshave been removed. 54

The amendmentwas passedby a large majority and the Mayor concededthat no peace

celebrationsshould take place, although this causedconsternation from some councillors

at a Council meeting a few days later. In Norwich, where the Eastern Counties Division

of the Federation was holding its national conference, a massdemonstration in the

market place passedthe following resolution: 'that we, the citizens of Norwich protest

against the so-called peace,while all ex-servicemenand their dependentsare given such

scurvy treatment by the Goverranent.'55 Ex-servicemen were included in the body of

citizens of Norwich and as such were claiming their rights of entitlement which

citizenship conferred. Equally, they had fulfilled their obligations.by their service to their

country in time of war.

Elsewhere, in Shrewsbury, the official peace celebrationscoincided with the strike of the NationalUnion of Agricultural Workers(NUAW). The local Federation hadmade links with the labourmovement and the NUAW supportedthe Federation's campaignagainst the peacecelebrations and its resolution'not to recognisethe civic receptionheld on 5 August,but insteadhold a public demonstration.' Headed by the

`4 St. Pancras Gazette,June 27 1919 S5 TheBulletin, No. 13, August 28 1919

234 GrinshillEx-Service Band, the demonstratorscarried a bannerdeclaring 'We want

adequatepensions, employment and justice for all who servedduring the war.,56 Yhe

Timesreported on'similar events around the country;in Merthyr Tydvil 25,000people

attendeda thanksgivingservice and later passeda resolutioncalling for an increasein

pensionsfor ex-servicemenand their dependents.57 Even in the suburbswhich held

celebrationsfor childrenthere were also,according to Ae Times,demonstrations by ex- 58 servicemen. A discordantnote was insertedwhen the plannedweekend of celebrations

in Luton was disruptedby ex-servicemenexpressing dissatisfaction over pensions.

Furthertrouble occurredwhen the local Corporationrefused to allow themto hold their

own commemorativeservice in a local park resultingin damageto the Town Hall anda

numberof casualties.However, 'organisedex-servicemen disclaimed all responsibility

for the trouble. 59 The activitiesof local branchesreflected the discontentfelt by the

membershipof the variousex-servicemen's organisations in their lack of progressin

fulfilling their commitmentsto their deadcomrades' dependents and in securingjust

treatmentfor themselves.

Frustrationamongst the membershipof the Federationabout its lack of direction

had alreadyemerged. In responseto members'demands for someform of coherent

programmedealing with economicand socialquestions, a comprehensiveand wide rangingset of aimswas drawnup andpublished in the secondissue of 7heBulletin in

m Quotedin NicholasMansfield, English Farmworkersand Local Patriotism, 1900-1930,Aldershot: Ashgate,2001, pp. 150-1 57 The Times,July 21 1919 58 ibid. 59 ibid.

235 March 1919. The GeneralProgramme contained a numberof sections,including those

dealingwith constitutionalissues in which the abolitionof the Houseof Lords and

universaladult suffragewere calledfor. Other women'srights were alsoincluded

rangingfrom the endowmentof motherhood,representation of womenon local

committeesespecially housing committees, equal pay andeven, the reductionin

housework. On the economicfront, a minimumwage was demanded along with public

ownershipof all monopoliesand including public ownershipof land. This utopianvision

of a fairer, more democraticsociety encompassed far morethan the immediatedemands

of ex-servicemen,extending into their familiesand the wider community.Moreover, it

addressedthe needsand desires of menprepared to playtheir full part in nationallife.

As the Federationcontinued to insist on political neutrality,its broaderaims receded

from view andthe pressingneed to securejustice for ex-servicemen,widows and

childrendominated its activities. This suggestsa developinginsularity within the

Federationwhich was alreadypresent in the Comrades.It alsohad implications for the

forging of an ex-servicemanidentity for it deniedother possiblemale identities at a time

when men'sidentities as workers were underthreat. The denialof a political identity

attachedto the ex-servicemanidentity was, for some,emasculating. However, individual branchesappeared frequently to work autonomously,working within their local communities,as was"demonstratedin the activitiesassociated with the peace celebrations.

Nevertheless,the leadershipincreasingly found itself at oddswith sectionsof its membership,especially Labour men,as controversieswere aired on the pagesof the journals. Althoughthe Federation,Association and Comrades were political,their insistenceon their political neutralitywas motivated,in part, by their attemptto appealto

236 aswide a constituencyof veteransas possible. Theywere also seeking special treatment

from societywhich owed them obligationsin respectof their war service. In turn, the

claimfor preferentialtreatment in housing,in unemploymentbenefits and especially, in

employmentset them apartfrom other needygroups. In contrast,the NUX with its open

andclear political agendasought alliances with non-veteranworkers and citizens

positioningtheir strugglein the broadercontext of classstruggle. Further,it canbe

arguedthat the organisationswere respondingto representationsin circulationof ex-

servicemenas a body of threateningand potentially destructive men. For their part, they

attemptedto countersuch representations by presentingnormalising images of ex-

servicemenas embodyingrespectable and honourable manhood, capable of exercising

rationaljudgement and self-control.

At the sametime, however,other contradictoryimages of masculinitysurfaced as

ex-servicemenwere representedas abject;victims of society'singratitude, powerless to

effect changeand left only to humblyplead their case. In the first issueof 1920Ae

Bulletin declaredthe yearto be 'Critical in the History of the Federation',an

organisationwhose power lay in its 'political independence.The issueof political

neutralityand the consequentlack of a coherentpolitical platformprovoked a lively debatein the correspondencecolumns. L. Forrestof the Newburybranch deplored the runningof separateFederation candidates against Labour men in the Municipalelections:

237 This suicidalpolicy is placingmany members in a very difficult position. Someof us, for instance,are membersof boththe Federationand the Labour Party, beingdesirous of doingour bit towardsboth the small matterof 'justiceto ex- soldiers'and the larger andgrave national issue ofjustice to Personally,I have do all workers... not yet resignedand shall so only with very greatreluctance. 60

Somemembers, sharing his views, had alreadydemonstrated their disaffectionwith the

Federationby abandoningit to join the NUX wherethey were urged'to standshoulder

to shoulderwith all the rest of the workers...and to makethis countryfor all ex Service

men,for all otherworkers, for all women-folkand for all our childrena good countryto

live in.'61 The lack of a similarpolitical perspectivein the Federationwas challengedby

the Chairmanof the Civil Servicebranch, S. A. Tilley whenhe wrote that the 'members

feel the Federationis working an enginewithout coalin not adoptinga policy or political

action' for:

No ordinary man of common sensecould vote simply on our policy of complaints; tile country needs a party with a programme of construction.62

A branchmember from LeightonBuzzard agreed, arguing that, while the

Federationshould embrace men of differing shadesof political andreligious thought,

neverthelessthe task was to convincethem that 'the LabourParty was the most helpful

60 TheBulletin, No. 22, January8 1920, f" National Union of Ex-ServiceMen, leaflet, n.d. 62 TheBulletin, No. 23, January22 1920

238 to ex-servicemen.D63 This elicited an angryquestion from J. C. Haydenof the Uxbridge

branchdemanding to know 'in what mannerhas the Partyconcerned advocated our

causeT Insteadhe proposed:

Eschew politics as a party. Let our old political views be submergedand stand as independentmen, which gives us the right to criticise all parties and vote for the right without fear or favour of any. 64

The correspondencecolumns reflected the differingviews of the membership,even

amongthose who consideredthemselves labour men, such as C. A. Walker,for example,

who wrote as 'a labourman' in supportof non-affiliationto the LabourParty because:

the presentso-called Labour party is practicallydominated by the trying to discontent extremerevolutionists... 65 spread amongstour comrades.

The mostvociferous voices supporting a political programmecame from the

ranksof labourmen, nevertheless, as the debatesdemonstrate there were divisions

betweenthem. Unlike the SecondWorld War, the troopsreturning from the First World

War were not radicalised,to the sameextent that they lent their supportto the Labour

Party;neither were trade unionists necessarily Labour supporters.Historians have arguedthat the inclusionof ClauseFour in the LabourParty constitutionwas moreof a symbolicchange heralding not socialismbut a moreregulated form of capitalism.66

63 ibid. 64 TheBulletin, No. 24, February5 1920 '63 TheBulletin, No. 26, Nlarch 4 1920 66 Pugh,Modern British Politics, pp. 215- 217

239 Nonetheless,in somesections of the veterans'movement the LabourParty was viewed

asextremist

Thesedebates reflect the opinionsof somemembers of the growing isolationof

the Federationfrom the views of its membershipas to the participationof ex-servicemen,

ascitizens and as workers, in the post-warnation. In the report of the National

Conferenceof the Federationin YheBulletin in June1920 there were expressionsof

discontentfrom somebranches about the continuingapolitical stance of the organisation.

Somebranches called for a broaderpolitical platformin order to, as the North WestHam

Branchamendment stated, ' enablethe Federationto enterinto the social,economic and

industriallife of the community.P67 By limiting their demandsto pensions,Mr. J.

Shepherdfrom Stockportargued that 'as a fighting force,they would becomeentirely

alienatedbecause they had no definiteaim. He took it that they cameinto the Federation

to makethe world better.'68 The SouthLiverpool branchamong others called for the

Federationto work with the Labour Party andwhen a delegatefrom Birmingham

characterisedhis local Tradesand Labour Councilas containingsome of 'the foulest-

he interrupted down 69Despitethe mouthedmen' was and shouted . vigorousarguments in favour of working with the Labour Party the conferencevoted overwhelminglyagainst

the motion with 31 delegatesin favour but 140against. Political neutrality won the day.

61 7he Bulletin, No. 33, June 10 1920

68 ibid.

69 ibid.

240 Ernest Thurtle put forward a strong case for ex-servicemen'becoming more

citizens of the country' and as such they neededa political programme carried out by

political methods for:

They had to play their part in altering the present day conditions. They had seenhumanity crucified in France and Flanders, but they could seehumanity being crucified in England today and they were going to stand against that sort of thing. At present they were neuters, and a neuter either in biology or politics was always a subject for contempt."

ErnestThurtle's imagerydenotes more thanisolation from the body politic; it speaksof a

lossof power,of any manlyagency and of a senseof completeemasculation. Attempts

at removingmen from the realmof politics in which they could exercisetheir legitimate

rights as citizenswas tantamountto returningthem to No Man's Land,to memoriesof

powerlessnessand impotency. Neutrality gavemen neither a socialnor self definition;

the identity of the ex-servicemanwas becomingone located in the past,trapping men in

stasisand unable to assumealternative male identities in the presentand future. It

engenderedpassivity and helplessness and as Thurtle indirectlysuggests, humiliation in

the faceof other men. Moreover,the gainssome women had made during the war and

their victory in securingthe vote for womenover thirty signalledchanges against which

ex-servicemenregistered their own impotence.

Reflectingon the positionof ex-servicemenin July 1919,editorials in both 77je

Bulletin and YheComrades Journal exemplifysuch passivity:

70 ibid.

241 Unemployment, starvation, and oblivion faces the Hero of yesterday, the ex-service men of today. The widows and dependentsof those who made the supreme sacrifice - what ofthese? The erstwhile, neglectedjustice to the dependents,disabled men and the returning Service men stands solemnly before us. When the Country, and the Government representingit, realises its duty to its heroes, and honestly takes steps to make England a country fit for heroesto live in, we will rejoice; till then, we weep. 71

Marginalised and superfluous to the society which they protected, their position was now

exposedin the editorial in all its fragility and vulnerability, connoted by the suggestion of

tears and its associationwith the feminine and emotional expressiveness.The senseof

loss associatedwith mourning for the dead has now become melancholic imbued with

masculineself-pity. Loss is also loss of self-esteem. The editorial in Yhe Comrades

Journal under the heading 'Discharged and Disillusioned' adopted a similar melancholic tone when it contrasted the ideal of the triumphant return of the conquering war hero with the sad male figures emerging from the social realities of neglect and abandonrnent:

No disillusionmentlike the disillusionmentof retuming. No trial so severeas that of fitting a civilian hamessto backs bentand batteredand laceratedby long campaigning.But the transitionfrom that spaciousand glowing horizonof war, againstwhich menare silhouettedas giants,to the little life of drab,mean streets has beenrudely abrupt. The psychical counterpartof this shockhas been the suddendrop, as it were,from that limelightposition in the centreof the world's stageto a humbleplace in a long bedraggledqueue leading to the gallery door outside.72

71 Ae Bulletin, No. 9, July 3 1919 12 The ComradesJournal, July 1919

242 The contrastbetween the hero andthe ex-servicemanis powerfullydrawn. The deadare

rightly honouredand remembered as heroes,meanwhile the living are dislodgedfrom the

dominantheroic narrative. The effect of the editorialwas to transmutethe 'hero' into

the victim of the nation's ingratitude,a metaphoricallymarginal and small, weak

outsider. Insteadof assumingtheir rightful placein the socialorder andwithin

traditionalgender norms, ex-servicemen were now takingtheir placein 'the long

bedraggledqueue' with the powerlessclasses of unemployedand the poor.

However,the attemptto resurrectthe gloriesof war whenmen were 'giants'

would haverung deeplyhollow with menwhose experience of war was frequently

perceivedas de-manning,analogous to animalsburrowing in the earth. The attemptby

YheComrades Journal to eulogisethe war and positionthe menwho fought it within a

traditionalheroic narrative served only to relocatemen's identity in the pastwhere their

losswas constantlyrevisited. Thus,the identity of the ex-servicemanconstructed by

both theseeditorWs opened up a chasmbetween an idealisedmale hero and a present

self-pitying,emasculated male identity. The editorialsalso reflect the lack of any

directionof the organisationswhich becamea sourceof frustrationamong the

membershipas unemployment became an urgentconcern. Whilethe leadershipresorted to an abjectresignation, local brancheswere taking action.

14sharp contrast, the first photographwhich appearedin Ae Bulletin in

September1919 was of unemployedmembers walking from Manchesterto Londod

Reproducedfrom the Daily Graphic it showeda largegroup of determinedmen, wearingcaps and holding banners which read 'Keep the HomeFires Burning - with

243 governmentpromises' and Temobilised, Dernoralised,Pauperised and Pulverised. '73

Work, independence,self worth, the ability to providefor the familywere centralto the

constructionof working-classmasculinity; all were beingdenied, threatening their very

existenceas men. Nonetheless,they were refusingtheir marginalisationand taking

collectiveaction to demandtheir rights as citizens.

Citizenshipdefines the formal rights and obligationsof its citizensthrough its

legaland administrative frameworks. Nevertheless,the boundariesof belonging,

entitlementand participation are controfledand therefore contested by thosewho are

marginalisedfrom fulfiffing their statusas full citizens. Within the ex-servicemen's

movement,the senseof belongingintrinsic to citizenshipwas sometimesambivalent as

they experiencedthemselves 4s excludedfrom somecitizenship rights. The languageand

discourseof citizenshipwas takenup by sectionsof the ex-servicemen's movement to

makeclaims upon the nation,state and local communities,inflected by their particular

claim of havingserved their country. Their claimfor recompensefor servicesrendered,

in the form of adequatepensions, medical treatment and unemployment insurance was

part of the processby which they inscribedmeaning to the conceptof beinga citizen.

This entailednot only beingrecipients of that to which they wereentitled but alsoactive

agentswithin the institutionalpractices of administeringsuch entitlements. Thus they

madeclaims for democraticrepresentation on bodiessuch as Local War Pensions

Committeesand medical boards. The much-repeatedphrase 'Justice, not charity' was a demandfor inclusionon the basisof the rights embodiedin beinga citizen.

7I The Bulletin, No. 16, October 9 1919

244 We havenever lost sight of thoseaims and objectsto get . JUSTICEAND RIGHT, NOT CHARITY, for thosewho haveanswered the Country's call. Surelythe Discharged Men havethe energyand brainpower to standfast together andnot be hoodwinkedand deluded into blind-alley organisationswhich are todaygiving out charity in shovelsful.74

Fearof charityloomed large in working-classmen's minds; dependence on

charitychallenged central codes of masculinitywhich hadbeen established in the

nineteenthcentury and were articulatedin the conceptof the wage-earningman as the

familybreadwinner. Being in receiptof charityrobbed a manof his independenceand

emasculatedhim. Charitycould tranýfbrrna maninto a pauper;a spectreof complete

lossof manhood.As the Chairmanof the StokeNewington branch of the NUX

declared:

we demandthe right to work and enjoythe comfortsof life; to do usefulservice as citizens,as we did as soldiers,for the countryWE fought for. Our manhoodfiercely resentsbeing pauperisedand demoralised.7'

Representationon committees for the administiation of pensionswas also a way of reclaiming manly dignity as well ensuring fair treatment. Fair treatment was also demandedfrom Medical Boards for they made critical decisionsinvolving proof of war- sustainedirýuries and sickness. The Second Annual Conferenceof the Association recorded that representationshad been made to the PensionsMinister stating that it is

74 Leaflet, GloucesterBranch of the National Association,nd. Quotedin GrahamWootton. The Politics ofInfluence: British ex-&rvicemen, Cabinetdecisions and cultural change,1917-1957, London: RU, 1963,p. 85 7S New World, February1920

A;T, 'essentialthat our DischargedSoldiers should be appointedto sit in an advisorycapacity

on all MedicalBoards to seethat their comradesget fair treatmentwhen their pensionis

beingdiscussed'. Representation on Local War PensionsCommittees was an important

objectivewl-kh was finally achievedwhen everylocal committeewas to haveat least

two discharged,disabled members. 7he Bulletin appealedto its readersto

Keepever before your mind the sacrednature of the dutiesof your office. If you are not of a religiousnature, the fact that you havethe welfareof your disabledcomrades resting upon your shouldersshould be incentiveenough to compelyour bestefforts. 76

Classantagonism surfaced against the middle-class'ladies' who sat on Local Pensions

Committees,reinforcing the stigmaof charity. In a letter to YheBulletin a-

correspondentwrote

You rarely find the wife of a serving or discharged soldier sitting on the Committee. The ladies who usually occupy these positions are invariably of the well-to-do type, charitably disposedbut absolutely incapable of solving the problem of how to feed oneself and two hungry mites, find them in clothes and shoe leather, pay rent, coal, gas etc. on about 31/6 a week... there is a need for good, honest, intelligent worldng women on Local War Pensions Committees 77

The desire for the women of their own classto be involved on committees was part of the vision of a more democraticsociety in which working-classmen and women would not be subjectto the patronisinginterference in their liveswhich hadbeen a featureof

76 The Bulletin, No. 3, April 10 1919 77 TheBulletin, No. 2, March 27 1919

246 pre-warworking-class life. Nevertheless,the sexualdivision of labourremained

inscribedin the vision.

The imageof the old soldierof previouswars, abandoned, neglected wid

unemployedreturned to hauntthe ex-servicemen'sorganisations. In the prefaceto his

book YheFuture of the DisabledSoldier written in 1917C. W. Hutt observedthat

'alreadythe disabled is to be beggingin 7' The soldier seen the streets'. positionof disabledmen had been a centralconcern when the organisationswere formed. The

return of damagedmen, particularly those with visiblephysical disabilities, provoked

concernabout how their needswere to be addressed.State institutions, voluntary

organisationsand medical authorities were all Involvedin dealingwith the unprecedented

numbersof injuredmen. New developmentsin mechanisedwarfare had inflicted equally

unprecedentedbodily damageand dismemberment; the DisabledSociety estimated that

4 1,050ex-servicemen had had at leastone limb'amputated.79 Approximately,seventy

percentof amputeeswere under thirty yearsof age. By 1918,the governmentwas ,

providingmedical care and pensions for over 400,000disabled soldiers and sailors. T4e

extentof disablementwas careffiflyand bureaucratically weighted; men who sufferedthe

lossof two or morelimbs, a handand a foot, severefacial disfigurement or incurable diseaseresulting in their beingpermanently bedridden were entitledto a 100per cent pension.For amputees,the extentof the amputationof arm or leg warrantedbetween 80 and 50 per cent while the lossof two fingersof eitherhand accounted for 20 per cent of

78 C W. Hutt, TheFuture ofthe Disabled Soldier, London: T. Fisher Unwin Ltd, 1917,p. v 79 SethKoven, 'Rememberingand Dismemberment:Crippled Children, WoundedSoldiers and the Great War in GreatBritain', American Historical Review,Vol. XCM No. 4, October1994, p. 1186

247 the full pension.A full pensionwas worth 27s 6d while otherswere awarded on a sliding

scaledownwards to Ss6d. accordingto the degreeof disablement.

As menand their familiesstruggled for survivalon paltry pensions,the nation

was exhortedto protect thosewho hadbeen maimed and mutilated in their serviceand

sacrificefor the countryfor thesemen were, as YheTimes stated, 'the crearnof our race.

In their bodiesthey bearthe heritageof all our endeavourssince we becamea people

the qualitiesthey incarnateare thosethat upheldour namein strengthand honour'. 8'

The nation'sidentity resided,then, in thesemen's bodies which wereto be entrustedto

the nation'scare in recognitionof its gratitudefor their sacrifice. 'Let the nationadopt 8' the disabledmen as their children' echoedan articlein the ComradesJournal.

However,the war hadimpaired men's bodies and the associationwith crippledchildren

underminedboth the nation's andmen's virility: 'I purposelyavoid using the word " 4cripple' asthat word carrieswith it an implicationof helplessnessand inefficiency'.

Inefficiencychallenged the doctrineof nationalefficiency which dependedin part

on the healthymale body asworker and citizen. Disabledmen challenged male

competencyand ideas about masculine independence and the restorationof men'sbodies

alsoimplied restoring them to their masculineroles especially as independent wage-

earnersand family breadwinners.The imperativewas then to guidemen back into the labour marketwhere they could prove their usefulnessas manlyciti zens. Therewas

go The Times,March 2 1917 81 The ComradesJournal, Vol. 1, No. 1, November19 18, p. 8. For an excellentdiscussion of the convergenecsbetween crippled children and disabledveterans, see Kovcn, 'Rememberingand Dismcmbcnncnt' 82 Vie Ex-ServiceMan, Vol. 1, No. 1, September111918

248 plentyof advicein the ex-servicemen'sjournals aboutthe openingsand opportunities for

disabledmen and they were constantlyurged to follow coursesof trainingprovided by

local andnational schemes. The importanceof paidwork is a centralsource of

masculineidentity, power and status;all were underminedby the disabledman's impaired

capacityfor work. The existenceof a significantgroup of disabledmen, potentially

swellingthe ranksof the unemployed,provoked anxieties which rangedbeyond their

well-beingand loss of statusand economicpower. In the first issueof 7he Comrades

Journal, Major RobertMitchell, Director of Trainingat the Ministry of Pensionswarned:

Thereis muchrisk that our disabledmen, ifleft to their own resources,(my italics) will by sheerforce of circumstances drift into the channelsof unskilledlabour, poorly paidand perpetuallydiscontented, a dangerto themselvesand a menaceto the nation,their discontentaggravated by the constantrecollection that they owe their miseryto having servedtheir countryin the hour of need.83

Anxiety that veterans'discontent could be channelledinto extremistagitation

stemmedfrom the fearsassociated with Bolshevismbut therewere otherimplications

associatedwith the effectsof the lack of -workor work which conferredneither status

nor requiredany skill. The drift into idlenesshad to be guardedagainst at all costs

indeedit was claimedthat the preventionof idlenesswas one of the purposesof training

It alsounderpinned the ethosin hospitalswhere, during medical treatment and recovery which often requiredlong stays,the effectsof 'want of occupation'were observedwith - dismay. Evenpatients confined to bed were encouragedto spendtime in pursuitssuch as embroidery,painting and plaque decoration in orderto staveoff a descentinto

13 The ComradesJoumal,Vol. 1, No. 1, November1918

249 idleness.Such activities with their associationswith femininitywere differentiatedfrom

trainingfor an occupation. Additionally,idleness and its associatedbad habits 'of getting

throughthe daywithout doing anythingmore energeticthan smoking, playing cards,

listeningto a concert,or if out, going to the Kinematographshow' were actively

discouragedtoo in recoveringand convalescingpatients. For, it wasnoted, 'when the

84 patientis in an atmosphereof work, he soonrecovers some hold on himself'.

Oncea man'sbody had beenrendered unfit andhe'could no longerbe considered

healthyand able-bodied attention became focussed on the relationshipbetween the body

andthe mind,what was describedas the mentaloutlook of the man. The imperativewas

not only'to reconstructmen's bodies but alsoto severthe interconnectionbetween the

helplessnessof the body andthe hopelessnessof the mindbecause 'body andmind alike

degeneratewhen unemployed'. 85 Despondency,despair, lack of confidenceand

hopelessnesswere the termsapplied to the degeneracyof the mind. In an article in Yhe

Ex-ServiceMan a medicalreferee expressed his concernabout 'men who havelost

confidence...who havelost the wil.1-power which bringsthe stiff upperlip. The

recoveryof a batteredand broken man is a long-drawnout anddreary business. 86 The

languageof degeneracy,lack of wHI-power,loss of confidencerepresented the antithesis

of the constructionof middle-classmanliness. The cherishedideals attached to the conceptwere beingundermined by the disabledmen's loss of pride andself-esteem.

What was increasinglyrecognised as the psychologicalimpact of their injuriesthreatened

84 Hutt, Disabled Soldier. pp. 78,88 85 TheEx-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 1, Scptember111918 " TheEx-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 2, Scptember25 1918

250 to erodethe middle-classimage of an independent,striving and achieving individual.

The processof the reconstructionof men'sbodies was shapedby representationsof

normativemasculinity as definedby a class-specificmiddle-class masculinity. As the

valuesand traditions embedded in this representationwere seen to be underthreat,

differingresponses were provokedranging from sympathy,condescension to coercion.

Moreover,the remedywas soughtby in individualsolutions, by efforts to transformthe

man's'mental outlook', in other words, to restorehim to the manhe was imaginedto

be. Somewarned that sympathywould not last; the nationalpride which transformed

disabilities,mutilations and dismemberment into 'badgesof honour' would not last as

'the courseof negligenceon the part of the community,the public,the stateand the 87 NationalGo vernment' resulting in 'the consequentdegeneration of the disabledman

The emphasison the individual'sresponsibility for his own mentaland moral -

regeneration,particularly articulated in the pagesof YheEx-Service Man andthe

ComradesJournal, militatedagainst the collectiveefforts being espoused elsewhere in

the publications,appealing rather to the tenetsof middle-classmanly individualism.

While all the veterans'organisations campaigned for adequatepensions, men were warnedabout the demoralisingeffects of dependenceon stateprovision and cautioned againsttaking political actionto securetheir claims. In an 'Open letter to a Soldieron

Leavingthe Army' Lt. GeneralSir EdwardBethune acknowledged that becauseof woundsor sicknessmen may well havelost skills permanently,nevertheless he warned:

27 Gan-ardHaiTis, TheRedemption ofthe Disabled, New York: D. Appicton and Co., 1919,p. 17

251 Life is hard for mostof us, andyou cannotexpect to be grantedsuch a pensionas will keepyou in idlenessfor the restof your life. You mustget on your perchand help yourself Don't get impatientand mix up thingsby trying to setmatters right by joining political bodies,supposed to be your 'very own"'

More optimistically,the first issueof Recalledto Life, a journal sponsoredby the

Mnistry of Pensionsfor disabledmen, argued that:

Now he has a pension,and is, perhaps,inclined to look forwardmost of all to a continuanceof relativeease coupled freedom be with greater ...very soonwill addedto that the desireto do the bestwith himselfas a man; for a disabled sailor or soldieris not lessof a man, but moreof a manthan he was beforethe War.'9

Someefforts were madeto aid recuperationby the equivalentof what would now be

calledself-help. Significantly,these developments were instituted not by an Englishman

but 'a well-knownAmerican authority or! the disabled',Douglas McMurtie of the Red

CrossInstitute for Crippledand Disabled Men. He reportedhis good resultsin setting up 'cripple parties',meetings where disabled men could exchangetheir personal experiencesof disablementfor, he argued:

77jeFx-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 3, October9 1918 89 Recalled to Life, No. 1, June 1917. Thejournal was renamedReveille under the editorshipof John Galsworthywho wascommitted to securingjust treatmentfor the disabledand the nation's obligation to honour its debt to its woundedmen.

252 The greatesttask in dealingwith disabledmen is not comprisedin training, employment,provision of appliances andthý like, but in putting menout of the disheartenedclass into the companyof thosewho are marchingforward on the high roadto accomplishment.The aim is a conquestof the spirit.... Many are ashamedof their disability beatenby their handicapor deepin the sloughof dependency.90

The visiblepresence of disabledmen's bodies contributed an addedemotionally

chargedrhetoric into the debatesand concerns about how to reabsorbsuch men into the

labourmarket but financialhelp was far lessfulsome as John Galsworthy observed:

The State,like the humblestcitizen, cannot have it both ways. If it talks - as it does-,with the mouthof everypublic manwho speakson this subject-of heroes,and of doingall it canfor them,then it must not cheese-pareas well, for that makesit ridiculous.9'

Far lessvisible were menwhose minds had been war damaged;many were literally out of

sight in institutionsand asylums.

Concernwas expressedin the pagesof TheBulletin particularlyabout the

treatmentof menin institutionsand the relegationof fellow comradesto the level of

pauperlunatics. Many recuperatedat homewhere they madeefforts towards recovery.

Thereis very little evidenceof how shellshocked men fared in the post war periodfor unlike the attentiondrawn to the physicallydisabled, shell shocked men remained largely invisible. However,an Americanstudy starting in 1919studied the livesof 3,000war in neuroticsin order to assesshow they copedon their return. Theywere followed up

90 The Ex-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 20, Much 27 1919

91 Reveille, Novembcr 1918, P. 182

253 1924-5.92 The study establishedfive categories of adaptability and readjustment to

work: normal, neurotic, fatigued, disabled and psychotic. The conclusionswere

disturbing; they estimated.that 'for two-fifths of the men in 1919-20 and one- fifth in

1924-5 readaption is difficult, painful or impossible'.93 A further finding was that the

divorce rate was significantly 'higher in the follow-up grbup than all the censusage

groups for males in the country at large.794 Much attention, in pursuit of national

efficiency, was focused on the rehabilitation of damagedmen's masculinities as workers.

Meanwhile, the effects on their families and in family relationshipswere obscured. This

American study is rare in directing the attention to masculinefamilial identities as

husbandsand fathers and how the traumatic effects of war reverberatedin the personal

and intimate realm.

Shell shock with its associationsof loss of self-control and self-restraint exposed

emotional expressivenesswhich certain masculinities sought to control and repress in

oppositionto femininity Othermen, especially those with authorityand obligation to

restoremen to their productivefunctions, could reactto the blurringof gender boundarieswith fear andhostility. Malingeringoften providedan explanatorytool while personalfailure andlack of malestriving could alsobe blamed.

An exampleof this canbe glimpsedin a report aboutthe effortsto settledisabled men,especially those suffering from shellshock or tuberculosis,on the land by providing themwith smallholdings. In a report in 1923by the Ministry of Agricultureand

92 Norman Fenton,Shell Shockand its aftermath,London: Henry Kimpton, 1926. 93 ibid. p. 165 94 ibid. p. 144

254 Fisheriesthe failure of manyof the schemeswas attributedto the agriculturaldepression

andthe fact that menlacked both experienceand capital which underminedtheir efforts.

Nonetheless,the report stated:

Freshfrom the Forces,they wereinclincd. to look uponthe Stateor their County Council as not only their landlord,but alsoas their fosterparent... The menhave come to realise that their successor failure dependsprimarily on themselves andthat their landlords,while willing and anxiousto give themevery opportunity of "making good", cannotand will not allow themto remainin occupationof their holdings indefinitelyif they lack eitherthe ability or energyto succeed.95

Individualfailure to achievean appropriatemale response to opportunitiesoffered had

implicationsfor the nationalcoffers:

Tlie probability is that, owing to their disabilities(they are mostlytuberculosis and shell shockcases) and the stateof the employmentmarket generally, they will remainin any casea chargeon public funds.96

In the fight of these attitudes, the emergenceof an organisation dedicated to the

needsof 'casesof acutenervous and mental breakdown as would otherwisebe sentto

asylums"' amongex-servicemen of all ranksis perhapsless surprising than might first

appear. The women who founded the organisation were not the much-despised'ladies'

95 NEnistryof Agriculture and Fisheries,Report on the PresentPosition and Future ProspectsofEx- ServicemenSettled on the Land in England and Wales,London: IIMSO, 1923,p. 9 96 ibid. 97 Ex-ServiceMen's Welfare Society,NIinute Book, May 12 1919. The organisationstill existstoday, re-namedCombat Stress, and continuesto work with veteranssuffering from war trauma.

255 of the charitableorganisations but womenwho wereaffiliated to or in contactwith other

women' groups,including the Women'sFreedom League, the Federationof Women's

VillageInstitutes and the ChurchLeague for Women'sSuffrage League. Thesewere

womenwith experienceof political campaigningand with the vote virtually achieved

readyto play their ffill part in the nation. Womendominated the organisationinitially,

but it soonbecame a mixed organisationwith menincluded on the committee. It held its

first meetingon November1 1918and first calleditself the Fellowshipof Reconstruction

andWelfare Bureau for ex -servicemenof all ranksand all services,their wives,widows

andrelatives. It finally resolvedon the title of Ex- Servicemen'sWelfare Society and set

abouttrying to establishhomes for the careof mensuffering breakdowns. The Ul

accountof its activitiescannot be told here;the significantpoint is that they immediately

madecontact with the Federationinforming them of their supportfor soldiercandidates

in the forthcomingelection. They appearedto havemuch more success in gaining

supportand interest from the local branchesthan the leadershipwho refusedto meet

with their requestfor a meetingon the groundsthat 'it was the policy of the N. F. D. S.

S. to seethat the Stateprovided the Dischargedmen with anythingthey required'.9,

The reffisalto acceptthe organisation'soffers of supportdemonstrates the dislike of anythingwhich 1-ýintedat charitybut alsothe negativeaspects of the claimto comradeship.For comradeshipcould be politically insular,looking inwardsonly to the body of ex-servicemenrather than reaching into the wider community.However, there appearsto havebeen a changeof heartand a moreco-operative relationship was established.In 1923,for example,the British Legion wasrepresented at their meetings

98 ibid. JanuaryViM

256 which by this time were lobbyingin protestagainst the 6,000 ex-servicemenlanguishing

in asylums.

Thesemen represented a group of the most severelywar damaged.The war

damagedman was an image appearing elsewhere, in literary representationsfamously in

RebeccaWest's Return of the Soldier (1918), Virginia Woolf s Mrs. Dallaway (1925)

and Dorothy L. Sayers Yhe Unpleasantnessof the Belladona Club (1928). However,

there were a group of novels written by men which were centrally concernedwith the

problems of reintegration of men: Warwick Deeping's Sorrel and Son (1923) and the

war correspondentPhilip Gibbs's YheMiddle of the Road (1922) are two examples.

While neither of the main male protagonists, both ex-officers, are identified as suffering

from shell shock specifically, their 'nervousness' contributes to their troubled senseof

displacementand disorientation in the new re-ordered world. Bertram Pollard, the herq

of YheMiddle of the Road is accusedby his young, aristocratic wife of being 'too beastly emotional' while he himself recognisesthat 'he was neivy, he knew that. The war had left him all on edge'.-"9 The central themes explore the gap that the war had opened up between the imagined stability of the past representedby notions of traditional

English values and the new democracy, symbolisedby emancipatedwomen and an assertiveworking class. The ways in which the male protagonists have to negotiate their lives in the new order cuts across both class and masculinity. In both novels, the anxieties expressedby both central charactersin relation to their disturbed senseof self are compounded by their fears of being superfluous and redundant in their struggle to assert their manly independencethrough work.

" PhAip Gibbs,The Middle ofthe Road, London: Hutchinson, 1922,p. 9

257 The plight of the unemployedex-officer capturedthe middle-classimagination.

'The moneylessex-officer was a new socialphenomenon in England"00as well as a

culturalone, a particularclass-inflected representation of woundedmasculinity. The

plight of the ex-officerspoke to the fearsof the middleclass whose position in post-war

Englandappeared under threat, not only in the perceivedprecariousness of its economic

securitybut alsoin the underminingof its valuesand traditions. '" Gibbs'sBertram

Pollardtries to find work through his local Labour Exchangein a desperateattempt to

releasehimself from his financialdependence on his wife. The lack of opportunities,

evenfor a middle-classex-officer, were ftustratingand bewildering: 'I was at St. Paul's

schooland a year at Oxford. I'm ajollygood gunnerandI wasbrought up as a

gentleman.Hasn't Englandany placefor my sort?...'Impossible that he shouldbe

uselessand unused! 2102S orre I and Son fir St publishedin 1925was a best-seller,running

to forty-oneeditions also encapsulated middle-class fears of an Englandwhose traditions

andvalues were lost in the war. Describedby its authoras 'a productof the war' it

extolsthe qualitiesof 'characterand courage'as opposedto 'negativecynicism (which]

seemsto me to be a form of cowardice'.'03 The narrativetraces the vicissitudesof post- war life throughits hero StephenSorrel, an ex-officerand 'temporarygentleman'. On his return from the war, he is facedwith spectreof unemploymentbefore finally finding

100Graves and Hodge,The Long Week-End,p. 66 101McKibbin, TheIdeologies of Class,pp. 269-271 102Gibbs, TheMiddle ofthe Road, pp. 27,30. For an interestingdiscussion of Gibbs'snovels and their relation to political eventsand contemponuysocial problems,see Stuart Laing 'Philip Gibbsand the NewsreelNovel', Literature and History, Vol. 7, No. 2, Autumn 1981 103Stanley J. Kunitz and HowardHaycr4 TwentiethCentury. 4uthors. - A BiographicalDictionary of Alodern Literature, New York: It W. Wilson Co, 1942,p. 361

258 work asa porter in a shabby,run-down hotel. Fearhaunts Sorrel and the novel;fear of

economicinsecurity, loss of statusassociated with military statusas an officer: evenafter

finding employment,'he felt a sudden,sordid tremor of fear':

The keennessof his own anxiety was a humiliation, and he acceptedthe humiliation, explaining it to himself quite frankly as though he were wearing a shabby suit of clothes. He was alarmed at the possibility of his being pushedout into the street, of losing his thirty shillings, his keep and his tips. 104

The other sourcesof fear, and contempt,are personifiedin the predatorywomen,

includinghis ex-wife,who stalk the pagesand labour,in the form of the 'smelly' and

dirty working classesand the graspingorganised labour movement. Sorrel, the epitome

of an honourableand courageous man, triumphs by exhibitingthe qualitiesof stoicism

and endurance.Ilis careffilmanagement of his resourcesmakes him a wealthy,

independentman and more significantly, enableshim to providefor his son'supward

socialmobility into his well-deservedplace in the professionalclasses as a surgeon.The

ruggedindividualism of Sorreldefeats all oppositionto traditionalvalues; even his son's

lover, an emancipatedwoman novelist, finally agreesto the marriageand domesticity

which shehad eschewed. The popularityof the novellay in its confirmationof stability;

the socialupheaval of war had settledback on to familiar,apparently secure, terrain underpinnedby the courageand virtue of Sorrel.

While the middleclasses may havegained some reassurance from suchimages, the searchfor work wasbecoming more desperate.The pre-occupationsof the plight of

104Warwick Decping,Sorrell andSon, London: Casselland CompanyLtd., 1925,1951cdition, p. 34

259 the officer class, particularly the 'temporary gentlemen' status of those from the ranks,

central to Warwick Deeping's novel were pre-figured in the pages of Yhe Ex-Service

Man. An article entitled 'The Problem of the Ex-Ranker by One of Them', which has

the quality of an abbreviated short story, related the problem of return for a former

salesmanin a high-class store who had obtained a commission. Socialising with officers

of a higher classhad raised his expectations yet, unlike them he faced a return to 'dingy

dwellings, the rush for the tube, the mean meals in meanrestaurants, the fortnight at

Margate' andthe return to deferencewith 'the 'yes",Madam again'. 105 The editor added

his commentaryclaiming that suchmen had displayed'inherent qualities which makefor

successin anywalk of life' gainedas a result of their military experience.A later article

condemnedthe 'sheeringratitude which would be a stainon the nation' if suchmen who

hadrisen from the ranks'should find themselvesback again in someobscure menial

position' citing the exampleof a young railway-porterwho hadbecome a lieutenant:'I

hatethe thoughtthat that manmight againhave to go backto his luggage-carryingand

fip-receiving.106 Servility and servitudefitted ill with the officer statusacquired in the army. Aspirationsthat wartimestatus would be confirmedat homewere often disappointingand some ex-officers experienced being demobflised and de-officered.

Wartimestatus carried little weight in civifian society.117 Instead, it appearedto disadvantagenot only ex-officersbut all ranksas they pursuedtheir searchfor work; a searchthat createdhostility betweenex-servicemen and trade unions and women, both of

103The Ex-Service Mýn, Vol. 1, No. 5, November 6 1918 106The Ex-&rvice Man, Vol. 1, No. 8, December 18 1918 107 See Martin Petter, 'Temporary Gentlemen in the aftermath of the Great War: Rank, status and the ex-officer problem, Historical Journal, Vol. 3 7, No. 1,1994

260 which groupswere perceivedas obstructionistin ex-servicemen'ssearch for work and

their entitlementto specialpreference.

The opportunitiesfor finding work were decreasingrapidly in 1920. In the late

spring the post-war boom collapsed resulting in industrial stagnation and mass

unemployment and by December the unemployed total had risen to 540,000. By the

summer of 1921, after the coal strike, the unemployed total exceeded2 million. 108

servicemenwere inevitably adversely affected and unemploymentamong them becamean

urgent issue as well a source of demoralisation and bitterness. Despite the efforts of a

range of government departments, voluntary organisationsand the men themselves,in

July 1922 the British Legion estimated that ex-servicemenrepresented over a quarter of

the unemployed male workforce.

The searchfor work was an individualendeavour as well the impetusfor

collectiveeffort. The desperationexperienced by lack of successwas recordedin the

final entry in a diary datedMay 22 1920. The writer recordedthat, sincehis discharge

from the army,he hadfound it impossibleto find work; 'they don't seemto want

anythingto do with anyonewho servedin the war. He hadbeen a regularsoldier before

the war andtherefore had no trade;he hadbeen discharged from the armyon medical groundsand had spenttime in a mentalhospital. He was particularlybitter aboutthose who hadkept theirjobs throughoutthe war:

log Morpn, Consensusand Disunity, pp. 256-7

261 I cannotunderstand why they neverwent out to Franceetc. becausethey wereas fit as I was, of that I am certainand they still havetheir jobs but us with no tradesetc. do not seemto be wantedat all. 109

Young menwhose rite of passageinto manhoodwas combatrather than an

apprenticeshipwere especiallyvulnerable to post war unemployment:

The youth had becomea man but with only the capabilities of a youth to meetadult realitiesin ciwy street. Althoughan expertmachine gunner, I was a numbskullso far as any tradeor craft was concerned...I joined the queuesfor jobs as messengers,window cleanersand scullions. It wasa completelet downfor thousandslike me, andfor someyoung officerstoo. 110

Their lack of experienceand trade was notedin severalgovernment reports concerned

with the training and employment of ex-servicemenThe Committee of Re-Employment

of Ex-ServiceMen reportedthat:

A considerablenumber of the unemployedex-serviccmcn are betweenthe agesof 19 and25; they had acquiredlittle or no experiencein any tradebefore joining the Forces. They are consequentlynot ableto offer an adequatereturn for a skilled or semi-skilledman's wage and aretherefore somewhat handicappedwhen seeking employment. "'

109W. F. West, IWM 92/10/1

110George Coppard, With a machinegun to Cambrai: the tale of a young Tommyin Kitchener's army, 1914-18,London: 1IN4SO,1969, p. 133 111Committee on the Re-Employmentof Ex-ServiceMen: Interim Repor4 12 August 1920,London: WASO, 1920,p. * 3

262 In the absenceof the availabilityof work, skilledor evenunskilled, some ex-

servicemenresorted to novel strategiesfor survivalsuch as sellingcards on which were

written versesabout the plight of unemployedex-servicemen. One example, The

UnemployedEx-Soldiers'Appeal, was pennedby PrivateHarris of the Royal West Kent

regimentwhich began:

Kind friendsand good people I am now on my way Travellingthe countrywithout any pay

andconcluded in the last verse:

Meantime, I must live the best way I can; And make my appeal to every good man So just buy a copy and try if you please, My desires,my wishes, my wants to appease.112

The sight of men tramping through the country was greeted with anger and dismay. A

letter to the ComradesJournal from the Secretary of the Derby branch reported

receiving calls from 'out-of-work ex-servicemenwho are destitute and tramping from

town to town in an endeavour to obtain work. 9113

Other men sought recourse to their problems by contacting their old officers who would have had connections within the class who employed the servicesof chauffeurs, drivers, gardenersand so on. 114Such appealsprobably prompted the letter from a

Captain of a London regiment, now living in Surrey, who wrote to the St. Pancreas

112This is one of the collectionof eighteenbroadsides purchased in the streetsof Londonbetween 1920 and 1931and depositedin the British Library in 1944by Margaret Steppart 113The ComradesJournal, April 1921 114Sir Ian Hamilton, for example,regularly receivedcorrespondence from ex-scrviccmenwell into the 1920s. Hamilton papers111115

263 Gazetterequesting help from local employersin findingemployment for his ladsfrom St.

Pancras,Kentish Town andMarylebone. He providedan example:

Pte. F- has been out of work for some time, and is so reducedin circumstances that he has had to sell part of his home to keep his wife and himself and pay the rent. He was in my company during the war and was one of the smartest lads in it - honest, a real hard worker, and thoroughly willing. 115

Paternalismstructures the class relationship between the officer and his lads; the

'wiUing' man is an obedient, deferential working-class man. Elsewhere, some of the

'lads' were taking matters into their own hands. Ajoint committee meeting of the St.

Pancrasbranches of the Comrades and Federation was organisedin -September1920 to

discussthe problem of the unemployed. At the meeting, they decided to call a

conferencewith local employers to discuss relief works to ensureemployment in the

winter. They also called for employment opportunities in the borough departmentssince

we are of the opinion that ex-servicemenshould fill those positions now held by women and we demand that such action be taken as early as possible." 16 The collaboration between the St. PancrasComrades and Federation membersis interesting; the rivalries fought over in the pages of the publications were of less significancethan joint efforts to find work. Moreover, what united them was the presenceof women in jobs that ex- servicemen,in particular, the disabled, were entitled to.

As their expectations of preferential treatment were unforthcoming, antagonism towards women, especiallyin local government posts, developed. The expansion of

115St. PancrasGazette, Nbrch 26 1920 116St. PancrasGazette, September 3 1920

264 womenclerks had startedbefore the war and most wereemployed by commercialfirms,

the Civil Serviceand local government,in areaswhich hadbecome associated with

'women'swork' ratherthan 'men's work' 117Their publ.ic presencein local government

jobs provokedcalls for their dismissaland for themto return to domesticwork, seenas a

more appropriatearea of women'semployment. To be askingfor work in areasnow

moreassociated with the femininewas anotherblow to masculineself-esteem as

working-classmasculinities are frequentlyembodied in physicalstrength. For a disabled

man,the assignmentto women'swork or 'soft'jobs wasdoubly humiliating.

Antagonismto womenworkers is expressedin the publications,for example,

'thosewomen you dreamedof, etherealvisions, well, they'vegot yourjob"" usually

referredto youngwomen, the flappers. Thereis far lessmisogyny and hostility

expressedthan might havebeen expected from other accountsof the period.119 Women

workerswere perceivedas obstructionistbut somewomen workers were the widows of

deadcomrades and therefore obliged to earntheir livingsand this was acknowledgedin

the occasionalreferences to women. Antagonismtowards other menas expressedin the

publicationsis as strong,if not more so, than sexualantagonism.

The hostility expressedby the Associationof Ex - Civil Servantsto both women

and other men,especially non-combatants, flows in equalmeasure. The Associationwas

foundedin 1920by nine ex-servicemendescribed as 'earnest,determined and far-

117See Meta Zimmeck, 'Jobsfor the Girls: The expansionof clerical work for women, 1850-1914'in Angela V. John (ed.), UnequalOpportunities, Oxford; Basil Blackwell, 1986 118The ComradesJournal, July 1919. 119See Kent, Making Peace,chapter 5 which describeswomen's view of men returning from war

265 seeing'.120 They were equally hostile to the women who had taken their place during the

war andwho remainedin their postsas they were to the Temporaries,men who were

'conchies'or non-combatants.Both threatenedtheirjobs andtheir opportunitiesfor

promotion:'men who stayedat homeand were thentheirjuniors, while they fought had

steppedinto their shoesor becometheir superiors.""

The relationsl-ýpbetween ex-servicemen and trade unionists was complexand

contradictory, deserving of a much more detailed analysisthan is possible here. The

demarcationsbetween skills andregulated entry into certaintrades and occupations

which tradeunions had securedwere often seenin somesections of the veterans

movementas deliberateobstructionism. In the ComradesJournal and YheEx-Service

Man viewsabout the selfishnessof tradeunionists, usually depicted as non-combatants,

weregiven full vent, describedin one article as:

falseindividuals who seemto be imaginethat the sacrificeof of bloodand treason of the last five yearshas been made solelyto establishan anarchicalTrade Unionism.122

A contradictoryview was expressedtwo weekslater whenYhe Ex-Service Man printed a letter from a memberof the NUX arguingthat organisingoutside the Labour movementwould give

120Association of Ex-Service Civil Servants, Milestones in our FightforJustice leaflet rLd 121ibid. p. 4 12277ie a- ServiceMan, Vol. 1, No. 40, August 16 1919

266 the anti-Labourclass a gloriousopportunity to injurethe causeof organisedLabour by 'playing off' the ex- servicemenagainst the tradeunions and the tradeunions againstthe ex-servicemen.123

The NUX worked with tradeunionists and women, indeed women were included

in the membership.For example,in an accountin the local paperabout the St. Pancras

Councilof Action.which was establishedto protestagainst the increasein the cost of

living andto demandthe repealof the RentsIncrease Act, the NUX was amongthe list

of participantswhich alsoincluded representatives of tradeunions, the ILP, NUX and

the RailwayWomen's Guild. The picture of the relationshipbetween the unionsand ex-

servicemenis more complicatedwhen turning to the strengthof union organisationin

differenttrades and in differentgeographical areas. Earlier we sawthe unitedefforts of

the agricultiiralworkers' unionsand ex-servicemen in rural Shropshire.In contrast,

GeoffreyMoorhouse's study of Bury citesthe exampleof the Lancashireand Cheshire

MinersFederation's refusal to employanyone Who had not beena skilledminer before

the War.124

For ex-servicetrade unionists and non-unionists alike, someof their attitudesto the union movementwere forged pre-warand then further shapedduring the war itself

For somemen involved in combaton the battlefieldsnews of strikesat homewere received with varying degreesof antagonism and hostility. Strikers were men who not only men who had escapedthe sufferings of war but those who were also causing further

123The Ex-Service Man, Vol. 1, No. 44, August 30 1919 124Gcoffrey Moorhouse, Hell's Foundafions,London: Hodderand Stoughton,1992, p. 114

267 disruptionand privation at home. Moreover, as someex-servicemen were reducedto

beggingon the streets,a shamefulact, they looked upon tradeunionists in work as men

who belittledtheir own senseof the self worth. On their return,veterans had found the

trade union movement occupying a different relation to the state and the government.

Tradeunion membershiphad grown steadilyduring the war from four million in 1914to

six and a half million in 1918. The introduction of the Treasury Agreement and the

MunitionsActs had drawn concessionsfrom tradeunionists in relationto the dilution of

skills andthe putting asideof certaintrade practices.The Manchester Guardian, for

example,expressed some sympathy with the concessionsmade by tradeunionists during

the war while it the sametime, pointing to future difficulties:

The governmentinduced them to surrendercustoms and practicesthat wereall-important in their eyes,as the charter which they andtheir forefathershad won by generationsof struggleand sacrifice...the ordinaryworkman believes that he will find himselfat the endof the war with a flood of non- unionisedlabour in the workshopswith his tradeunion rights lost doubtful prospectof recoveringthose and125 a very rights.

Maintainingthose rights, however,for someveterans constituted merely the actsof

selfishmen, men over whom ex-servicemencould claimmoral superiorityas the

Presidentof the Associationarticulated at the BirminghamConference in 1919. What

the countryneeded, he argued,was 'real, live men,real unselfishmen, real genuine

men...who wiff inspiremankind with the ability of their example.'126 Being an ex-

125Manchester Guardian, October 14 1918 126The Ex-Service Man, Vol. 2, No. 58, December 13 1919

268 servicemanmight bestowsome moral authoritybut how this might be practically

achievedwas left opento question.

Tradesunions were under pressurefrom sourcesother thansections of the

veteran'smovement. The British TradesUnion Reviewreported on the debatesin the

HouseCommons when trade unionists came under attack. Throughout1920 and 1921

The re-employmentof ex-servicemenwas discussedin regularcolumns in the British

TradesUnion Review. One of the concernsexpressed was that the trainingbeing offered

ex-servicemenwas often in alreadyovercrowded trades or wherethere were few future

prospectsowing to the declinein trade. In 1921a pamphlet,Trade Unions and the a-

ServiceMan was published,written by Fred Bramley,Assistant Secretary, Parliamentary

Committee,Trades Union Congress,which systematicallyanswered the criticismslevelled

the labour 'the divide at movement, concludingthat conspiracyto the workersof the country,the attemptto antagonisethe ex-servicemenagainst their fellows,to protect

vestedinterests by the employers...will fail if the factsare carefullyconsidered. "27 A

governmentreport of 1920shared the sameconclusions, stating that, with a few

exceptions,the tradeunions had secured the reinstatementof ex-servicemenin their pre-

war employmentas well as co-operatingin ensuringopportunities for the disabled.129

As unemploymentbegan to rise, ex-servicemenbecome a visiblepresence in the beginningsof an unemployedworkers movement. The presenceof ex-servicemenand womenon the first marchesof the UnemployedWorkers Movement (NUWM) led by

127Fred Bramley, Trade Unionsand the Ex-Servicekfen,London: CaledonianPr=% 1921, p. 20 128Committee on the Re-employmentof Ex-ServiceMen, Interim Report,London: HMSO, 1920,p. 4

269 Wal Hanningtonhave been well-documented. 129 Wal Hanningtonfound supportfrom

membersof the NUX in St. Pancras.In a report on a court casethree members of the

NUX were summonedto court chargedwith carryingcollecting boxes without a permit.

They hadmarched with fifty other mento the local LabourExchange carrying a red

bannerbearing the words 'St. PancrasUnemployed'. Theywere sellingscented cards

advertisinga certainscent with the words NationalUnion of Ex-ServiceMen - St.

PancrasBranch - OrganisingFund - Price OnePenny. Wal Hanningtonwas another

defendentaccused of aidingand abetting. During the casehe claimedto be the Secretary

of the organisation."O

In the historiesof the veterans'movement the NUX appearsto havedisbanded.

Whenthe other organisationseventually achieved unity andformed the British Legion

the NUX refusedto join, not that their political stancewas welcomed.However, some

ex-membersappear to haverel-inquished their ex-servicemen'sidentities to join with the

unemployedmovement. Out of Work,published by the LondonDistrict Councilof the

Unemployedcontains references to unemployedex-servicemen in its organisation.As

unemployedmen, their claimto be citizensand workers was unachievable, nevertheless

the identity constructedwithin the ex-servicemen's organisationsproved too

constraining.Other ex-servicemenclearly felt the same.

The point at which the ex-servicernen'sorganisations amalgamated to form the

smaUmembership of the British Legion intersectedwith a growing senseof alienation

129 Walffannington, Unemployed Struggles 1919-1936. My LIfe and Struggles Amongst the Unemployed, 1936, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1979 130St. Pancras Gazette, November 26 1920

270 from the identity as an ex-serviceman.The resultof the efforts to keepmen out of party

politics,while espousinga conservativeagenda, left the movementdirectionless with no

clearaims and objectives except, ' as oneveteran expressed it above,'a policy of

complaints.'

In 1921the ComradesJournal identified'lions to conquer'which were the

apathyamong ex-servicemen, a growing public wearinesswith anythingto do with war

andthe feelingsamong men who did not fight of 'secretjealousy of the manwho went "' through Hell a dozen times for him'. The claim of moral superiority over other men

proved not only divisive but also located ex-servicemen'sidentities in the past while

providing no masculine agency in the present. It engenderedthe forms of passivity and

abjection which emerged at times in the columns of the publications. 'Timidity' was how

it was perceived by the Secretary of the NUX, Ernest Mander: 'generally speaking, the 132 main characteristicsof the ex-servicemenhas been their timidity. ' He continued: 'they

are beginning to realise the futility of begging with feeble, hesitating voices for trivial

concessions'.113 Instead, he saw signs of change. How those changeswere manifested

in the construction of masculinities in the inter war years is open to question.

131 Comrades Journal, January 1921

132 Arew World, No. 5, February 1920

133 ibid.

271 CONCLUSION

This studyhas traced the journey of British menfrom civilianto soldierand back

to the resumptionof civilian status. The First World War broughtsocial upheaval in its

wake;part of that turmoil was the disorderingof genderrelations and the centralpre-

occupationof this studyha's been with masculinity.The questionsof how Victorian*and

Edwardiancodes of masculinitywere disturbedby the war andthe waysin which

masculinitieswere re-establishedhave framed this study. The parameterswere drawnby

focussingon the formationand re-formation of masculineidentities of menwho became

soldiers,not as careersoldiers but for the durationof the war only. War offeredthe

opportunityfor menand their manhoodto be, in ChristopherIsherwood's words, 'put to

the test'.'

The startingpoint of this thesiswas the storiesmen narrated about their war

experiences,predominantly on the WesternFront. The stories.men wrote, often revised

and re-writtenlong after the war was over, were not part of the official record;analyses

of military strategies,of battleswon andlost andthe variousaccumulations of official statisticswere for othersto documentand record. Soldiers'stories are fragmentary,full of disconnectedincidents and random images in muchthe sameway asthe soldier experiencesbattle. As the military historian,John Keegan observes, a soldierhas no well-orderedor clear-cutvision in war; 'battle, for him, takesplace in a wildly unstable physicalenvironment'. 2 Incidentsand images, now reconstructedin memory,are drawn

ChristopherIsherwood, Lions andShadows,London: HogarthPress, 1938, p. 16 J. Keegan,7le Face ofBattle, London: JonathanCape, 1976, p. 47

272 togetherinto narrativeform in the processof telling the story andcreating an accountof

the past. The unstableexternal environment was mirroredby equallyunstable mental

statesas a soldierexperienced a rangeof emotionsfrom 'boredom,exultation, panic,

fear, anger,sorrow, bewilderment,even that sublimeemotion we call courage'.3 War

affordedmen the opportunityfor emotionalexpressiveness usually associated with the

feminine. It was the intenseemotional experiences of war which continuedtohaunt, as

somemen expressed it. They returned,in their memories,driving the compulsionto re-

tell their stories. They were attemptsto find meaning,to makesense of the experience

of war in order to achievesome form of psychologicalcomposure. The compulsionto

re-tell storiesreveals the struggleto find a coherentnarrative and a coherentself;

soldiers'stories frequently demonstrated. the inabilityto do so. Rememberingcould

invoke painfiil memories,such as the humiliationsassociated with military disciplineor

recallhorrific imagesof deathand dismemberment. Some men spent years revising and

revisingtheir memoirs- for thempsychological composure was elusive.

Thusmemoirs shed light on the unconsciousprocesses involved in structuring

memory and masculineidentities. They also make visible the ambivalencesand conflicts

about war experienceand masculinity. What wasirevealedwas the disruptions the war effected on men's senseof themselvesand how they imagined their masculineidentities as soldiers. In the process,they experienceda profound senseof dislocation from their previous selveswhich they articulated in various ways: in angry or sorrowful expressions of the loss of manhood and being made 'strange', in descriptions of irrational feelings and inexplicable changesof mood and in the use of metaphors of burrowing animals.

ibid.

273 Fear,and the fear of fear, dominatedtheir thoughtsand states of feeling. More

troublingly,these affective states represented the antithesisof the masculinequalities

associatedwith heroismand bravery embodied in the soldier. Instead,men experienced

timeswhen competency and mastery were undermined,the capacityfor endurancewas

stretchedto the limit andthe ability to maintainself-control and fearless ness in the face

of danger were constantly under threat. Being a soldier did not confer a secure

masculineidentity. Managing the external terrors and horrors of mechanisedwarfare,

trench life and the apparent limitless slaughter and mutilation with the inner turmoils.

which were created was a process in which all servicemenwere engaged.

Nevertheless,reactions were never unitary and emotional responsesto war

experienceinvolved remembering and forgetting. Individualmale subjectivities which

areuncovered by thesestories contribute to an understandingof the structuringof male

identities. They canalso shed light on the public record,and indeed on later

interpretations.The profoundsense of dislocationin a largebody of menhad

ramificationsbeyond individual psyches, extending into the socialworld. For example

the problemsassociated with the reintegrationof menwith psychicaland psychic wounds

exposedtheir vulnerabilityin relationto other menand, disturbingly, to women. Shell

shockwas a further manifestation.

The evidenceof individualmasculine instabilities which emergedfrom the personalnarratives examined in ChapterOne became the focusfor public anxietiesabout traditionalcodes about shell shock. War experienceswere traumatic;substantial numbersof menfinally succumbedto breakdownduring the war or duringthe following years,some did not. In 193236% of British veteransreceiving disability pensions were

274 listed as psychiatric casualtiesof war. 4 The renewed interest in the study of shell shock

has coincided with the concept of trauma which developedin the 1980s in relation to the

psychological effects of war on Vietnam veterans. The use of the term has extended

beyond war neurosesto include the effects on civilian populations from natural disasters,

accidentsand domestic and sexual abuse. While its popular usageand the accompanying

term, post traumatic stress disorder, are the subject of debate and contention,

neverthelessthe concept of trauma is a useful tool for enhancingour understanding of

the transformative effects on men at war.

The incidence of shell shock and its implications for military efficiency, discipline

andmorale caused alarm in the army hierarchy. Moreover,it removedmen from the

front line, a situationwhich becamepressing at timesof acutemanpower shortage. The

full force of the military's coerciveand disciplinarypowers, often in the form of courts-

martial,were brought to bearagainst the exceptionaldisplays of perceivedcowardice.

Sheflshock disturbed the previouslysecure opposition between courage and cowardice:

betweenthe braveheroic m? m andthe coward. Couragewas one of the qualities

embeddedin hegemonicmasculinity constructed primarily in the public schoolsof the

nineteenthcentury which extolledcharacter and duty. The lossof reasonand self-

control exhibitedby shellshocked men was the antithesisof a masculinemodel which was constructedon rationality,self-control and endurance. Failure to performmilitary dutieswas interpretedas a sign of want of character.Victorian andEdwardian notions of degeneratetypes of men,the 'other' - non-respectableworking-class men, homosexuals,artists, aliens- against which traditionalmasculinity defined itself were

Eric Leed,No Man's Land, Capbridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1979, p. 185

275 paradedin order to accountfor the increasingnumbers suffering from shellshock. The

spectacleof breakdownamong the officer classunravelled such certainties. Assumed

masculinemoral qualitiesembodied in characterand willpower underpinnedthe

tenaciousattempts to upholdthem. They alsoinformed the attitudesand the practicesof

somemedical men when facedwith the presumedlack exhibitedby the patients. These

moral qualitiesunderpinned some of the medicaldiagnoses and treatment utilised by

military doctorswhose role was to 'cure' menand render them fit to return to duty.

Medicaldiagnoses competed with psychologicalinterpretations which, by revealing

unconsciousprocesses, provoked further anxietiesand insecurities about conceptions of

masculinityassociated with rationalityand self-control.More disturbingly,the Report of

the War Office Committeeof Enquiry into 'Shell-Shock'in 1922failed to delivera clear-

cut definitionof cowardiceand couragedespite the evidenceof eminentwitnesses from

the military andmedical establishments including some from shellshocked men.

Competingmilitary andmedical representations of the shellshocked man were

examinedin order to exploresome of the waysin which anxietiesabout masculine identitiesemerged as a result of the war but were alsoprojected into the post war period.

However,my emphasison subjectiveexperiences led me to pursuea further line of enquiry. Set againstthe official representations,I looked for evidenceof alternative representationsof the shellshocked man which appearedin personaltestimonies and examinedhow thesewere interpreted. The personaltestimonies, especially perceptible in the written memoirs,are inflectedwith expressionsof trauma. The lossof bodily and psychologicalcontrol was profoundlydisturbing to thosewho witnesseda mansuffering:

276 disturbancesreverberate in the vivid imageryfound in the memoirs:as one maninsisted

'war makessane men mad. "

In manyof the memoirs,the shellshocked man is a 'braveman' pushedbeyond

the limits of his endurance.The writers identify with him while at the sametime

experiencingfear, fear that they might do the same.The processes,physical and

psychological,by which menbecome 'mad' canbe tracedin the fragmentaryreflections

and descriptionswhich fill the personalaccounts. The physicalhardships and privations

are set out alongside,for example,the humiliationsof military discipline,the presenceof

unburiedcorpses which transgressthe taboosof anysociety and the desiresand

prohibitionsevoked in the malehomosocial world of the front. Thereare, inevitably

referencesto men 'swingingthe lead', malingering,but from the evidencefound here,

moraljudgements of shellshocked men are few andfar between.

The memoirsof doctorsserving with the IL A. M. C. presenta more class-based

perspective.Refusing shell shock as a medicallydefinable disease they turnedto

malingeringas an explanation.However, for some,in the doctor/patientrelationship,

categoriesof degeneracybecame harder to sustainand, as they admitin their accounts,

cameto modify their opinions. Furthermore,their medicalevidence was calledfor in

courts-martial:they could hold the balancebetween life andthe firing squad. It is, perhapssignificant that two R.A. M. C. doctorswho found themselvesin this situation provide examplesof the compulsionto revisit, reviseand rewrite their memoirsdecades after the war, onewrote his prefacein 1958,the otherin 1964. The divisionbetween

5 Hiram Sturdy, RVM Con Shelf

277 war andpeace did not representa decisivebreak; rather the post-warfives of manyex-

servicemenand others were led on the borderland;in the shadowof war.

The subjectof return formedthe secondpart of this study. Many ex-servicemen

returnedbearing physical and psychic wounds and, from the evidencein ChapterOne, a

senseof dislocationfrom the self andfrom thoseat home. As ex-servicemenwere

dischargedand demobilised, charities, voluntary organisations,government departments

and state institutions were mobilised to deal with the problems of reintegration.

Dependenceon charitable efforts, inadequate pensionprovision, poor medical treatment

and training and employment opportunities spurred veterans to take action to remedy

their grievances.

Associations of ex-servicernenwere formed during and after the war with the

objectivesof securingjustice for ex-servicemenand protecting the rights of widows and

childrenof the dead. In 1921,the threemain orgahisationsunited to form the British

Legion. Membershipof the Legion was small,never representing more than 20% of ex-

servicemenand usually only 10%. It hasbeen characterised as conservativeand as

havinglimited political influence. However,the veteransmovement prior to

amalgamationhas afforded a more complexand nuanced perspective on the collectivity

of menwho hadbecome ex-seMcemen. The thesismoves, then, between a studyof individualsubjectivities and public masculinities,focussing on the meaningsattached to' an ex-servicemanidentity andhow this was contestedwithin andbetween the organisations.The largelyneglected publications of the ex-servicemen'smovement proved a surprisinglyrich sourcefor exploringcontending masculinities and how they were given expression,not only in the actionsof the organisations,but alsoin the written word in the editorials,articles and correspondencecolumns of the publications.

278 The examination of the differing origins, formation and structures of the

associationsdemonstrated their differing political and class allegiancesand the tensions

and rivalries generatedbetween them. Nevertheless, the notion of comradeship as an

organising principle was shared. It was demonstratedin the sharedobligation to honour

dead comradesunderstood as a sacredtrust bestowed on the living. It also representeda

bond between men with shared experiencesand memories of war. Comradeship,

however indefinable, could represent what Prost, in his study of French veterans, has

called the 'veteran Spirit7.6 It was, however, inflected with different political meanings;

on the one hand, for the conservative wing of the movement it representedpolitical

consensusand class harmony. As such, it was utilised to contain ex-servicemenand to

ensuretheir political neutrality. It was perceived as political emasculationand a denial of

their rights of citizenship recently gained. On the other hand, comradeshipsignified the

struggle between capital and labour and class antagonism. It also meant comradeship

with other workers outside the body defining themselvesas ex-servicemen.

The relationshipbetween the leadershipand its membership,especially in the

Federation,became strained. However, the activitiesof the local branches,some of which are documentedin thejournals,display a certainamount of autonomy.This suggeststhat the picture'Of the nationalmovement may need to be modifiedby more local studies.Nicholas Mansfield's research on Englishfarmworkers points to the productivealliances between trade unionists and ex-servicemen but alsoto the increasing conservatismof someof the rural branchescoupled with a decliningFederation

6 Antoine Prost, In the Wake of Wwý Oxford: Berg, 1992, p. 98

279 membershiP. 7 Similarly,Geoffrey Moorhouse's fascinating study of Bury' illuminates

the tensionsin the positionof ex-servicemenreturning to their hometown especiallyin

the labourmarket. Furthermore,his carefulexamination of the local pressdemonstrates

someof the conflictsand instabilities in the domesticsphere. A fruitful areaof further

researchwould focus on the family and domesticity.Feminist historians have examined

the heightenedemphasis on motherhoodin the inter-warand have offered important

insightsinto the varyingexperiences of wives andmothers in the post-warperiod. The*

instabilitiesof masculineidentities generated by war pointsto a further productivearea

of researchinto how ex-servicemenrenegotiated their rolesas husbands and fathers in

the private,domestic sphere in the more feminisedand conservative culture of the inter

war years.

- The resumptionof their roles asbreadwinners and independent wage earners

becamean increasingproblem for ex-servicemen.Despite their appealsfor preferential

treatmentin employmentand their efforts to achievetraining and employment

opportunitiesfor the disabled,ex-servicemen represented a significantpercentage of the

increasingnumbers of unemployedin the 1920s. This representeda bitter outcomeof

the promisesof reconstructionand a 'land fit for heroes. The problemof unemployment fuellede x-servicemen's anger and frustration which wasvented both at womenand at other men. The humiliationsof their positionmeasured against other men and women was signifiedby woundedmasculine pride andemasculation. Disillusionment and

NicholasMansfield, English FarmworkersandLocalPatriotimn, 1900-1930,Aldershot: Aldgate, 2001, pp. 148-154 GeoffreyMoorhouse, Hell's Foundations,London: Hodderand Stoughton,1992

280 despairare tones which surfacein the publicationsof the ex-servicemen'sorganisations,

evidenceof fiustration andhopes dashed.

However,this alsoreflects the refusalby the leadershipof the movementto

developa coherentpolitical programmeand strategy.Instead, efforts to containex-

servicemen,partly as a responseto fearsbeing expressed about their potentialfor

violenceand revolutionary activities, undermined their masculineagency, mirroring what

manymen, especially in the ranks,had experiencedin the war. The identity attachedto

that of an ex-servicemanwas passiveendurance. My conclusionis that it was repudiated

by many;some to retreatto domesticityor a quiet life of recuperation.Others, such as

thosewho appearin the recordsof the unemploymentmovement, attempted to securea

betterfuture which had beenan earlyvision of the veteransmovement which expressed

the hopesand desires of ex-servicemento play a part in the reconstructionof the nation

at peace. Otherslooked to the Labour Party for hopeof a moredemocratic future. The

failure of the ex-servicemen'smovement was that, at a crucialmoment of transformation

andrestructuring after the war, it tried to containmen within an identityforged in the pastand therefore resisted the possibilityof changeand alternative imaginings of masculinity.

Nevertheless,it was not easilyattained for as CharlesCarrington wrote:

For long I lived a doublelife betweenthe externalworld of the nineteen-twentiesand the inner world of war which was neverlongout of mind.9

9 CharlesCarrington, SoOersfrom the WarsReturning,London: Hutchinson, 1965, p. 252

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