Adolf Hitler Robert Graves

Battlefields Exhibition Materials from RJ Tarr at www.activehistory.co.uk / 1 Instructions to teachers Each character card consists of two parts: a. The numbered, first cell (this should be given to students; it outlines pre-war experiences and should be handed to students) and b. the other two columns (this should be on display, and outlines war and post-war experiences and provides a photo). With all “character cards” handed out and on display, students have to match up their half of the card to the correct character. It’s a good way of encouraging them to read all about the people involved. 1. Before the war this Adolf Hitler young Austrian had been In 1918 he was gassed during a trying – and failing battle with the British. When miserably - to set himself Germany surrendered he was still up as an artist in Vienna, partially blinded and was thrown Austria. He joined the into a deep depression. He German army in 1914 as channelled his anger into politics soon as war broke out, and and became leader of the German rose to the rank of National Socialist Party and corporal. He won the Iron dictator of Germany. He committed Cross twice for bravery. suicide in 1945. 2. When war broke out in 1914 this young man – a Robert Graves grandson of the German In 1917 he was shot through the historian Leopold von Ranke back and was left for dead. He - was at Cambridge survived the war, but was university studying emotionally damaged; he divorced Classics. He joined the his wife, emigrated to Majorca, British army and became a and wrote one of the greatest respected Officer. Whilst on memoirs of the war: “Goodbye to service he wrote some all that”. He died in 1985, a famous war poetry and famous author but suffering from became friends with nightmares until the last. Siegfried Sassoon. 3. This man was a famous Guillaume Apollinaire poet when the war broke He surprised many of his artistic out - the words on the friends by patriotically joining page were arranged in the war in 1914. He was injured shapes and patterns rather in the temple by shrapnel in than just lines. He was a 1916. He is believed to have friend of Picasso and was coined the term "surrealism" in once under suspicion of describing the 1917 ballet stealing the Mona Lisa Parade. He died of influenza on when it disappeared in 9th November 1918: just two days 1911! before the Armistice. Battlefields Exhibition Materials from RJ Tarr at www.activehistory.co.uk / 2 4. At the outbreak of the Siegfried Sassoon war this young man was an Nicknamed “mad Jack” by his unsuccessful poet from a soldiers, he was a brave officer, wealthy family. He joined single-handedly capturing a the army immediately, but German trench during the Battle broke his arm whilst riding of the Somme. He was famous for and didn’t get to France his bitter war poetry. until 1915, by which time Increasingly reckless, he was his younger brother had invalided out of action. After the already been killed. war he was a celebrated writer and poet. He died in 1967. 5. He joined the army in 1914, like many young men Benjamin Tarr of his age, to avoid the He fought in a number of boredom of working-class campaigns in france after 1914, factory life. He proudly but was killed aged 30 in the posed in his uniform so final stage of the war during the that his pregnant wife last great German Offensive of would have something to May 1918. He is buried near remember him by till he Bethune on the Western Front. got home. 6. Born in South Africa, JRR Tolkein the son of a British civil He fought in the Battle of the servant, he was raised in Somme, seeing combat at Thiepval Birmingham, England. He Ridge. He was invalided out in studied English literature 1916 suffering from trench fever. at Oxford University and By 1918 all of his closest friends graduated with first-class were dead. He went on to write honours in 1915. He The Hobbit and The Lord of the married in 1916 and then Rings, which both have numerous joined the army, training references to the horrors of the at Cannock Chase. trenches. He died in 1973. Fritz Haber 7. In 1909 this young During the war Haber’s chemist in Karlsruhe, discoveries not only helped Germany, found a way to German food production; in create ammonia by addition he personally developed pressurising nitrogen. This his work to produce poison gas. allowed for the creation of His wife committed suicide due to industrial fertilisers which his enthusiasm for this new led to a rapid increase in weapon. It is difficult to food production. determine whether Haber cost more lives than he saved. Battlefields Exhibition Materials from RJ Tarr at www.activehistory.co.uk / 3 8. He was born in Canada Harold Gillies in 1882. He moved to During the war he pioneered London where his medical facial reconstructive for soldiers studies were undertaken at suffering terrible disfigurement Cambridge University and as a result of the war. He St. Bartholomew's Hospital established a hospital at Sidcup, London. He married, had Kent, which is now famous as the four children, and became birthplace of modern plastic a semi-professional golfer. surgery. He died in 1960. Enoch Morrel He was caught asleep on guard 9. Before the war he was duty and sentenced to be shot. a warehouse man in the However, he was given the chance fruit and vegetable market to go out under fire to bring in the Bull Ring, back casualties rather than be Birmingham. At the executed. He managed to bring outbreak of war he was in someone back and so got his the Territorial Army, age reprieve. After the war he 17, so went straight to married and 3 sons and 4 Belgium. daughters, one of whom became Mr. Albiston’s mother. He died in 1934. 10. He was a draper before Frederick Laughton the war and came from He was was promoted to the rank Scotland. He joined the of lieutenant. After the war he Gordon Highlanders, but as was stationed in Cologne in they weren't going to Germany in the army of France and he wanted to occupation and was in a cavalry fight he joined the regiment. Once he left the army Machine gun corps and a few years later, he went back went to the trenches to his original occupation. He instead. was Mrs. Patrick’s grandfather. Daniel Griffiths 11. He came from Bewdley He was blown up in the trenches in Worcestershire, England, in northern France in 1916. His leaving behind a young wife had to support their young wife and a son who was son until he became old enough to just one year old. go to work at the age of fourteen. He grew up to become Mrs. Barry’s father. Battlefields Exhibition Materials from RJ Tarr at www.activehistory.co.uk / 4 12. He joined the Navy Ernest Baker-Wells after being raised in a He was eventually rescued from Navy orphanage. His ship the sea by a fishing boat and was hit by a German U- survived the war, but suffered Boat in 1914 and he swam from post-traumatic stress from the sinking vessel to disorder. He never properly another ship, which was adjusted to civilian life, earning sunk in its turn. He a little money from playing piano clambered on a lifeboat but in pubs until his early death. was ordered out because it His sister’s grandson is Mr. was overcrowded. Jones. Stuart Fletcher He served with the Royal Army 13. He was born in Medical Corps as a private in Heanor, Derbyshire on 19 Mesopotamia until he was May 1898. His father ran discharged in November 1919. a lace firm. He Whilst there he took a number of left school to enlist and unique photographs which are now was sent to Mesopotamia as housed in the Imperial War a stretcher bearer. Museum. After the war he went to work in the family lace firm. He was Mrs. Perrussel’s grandfather. William John Shepherd 14. He was born in In 1915 he joined the Canadian Newbury, Berkshire on 29th Overseas Expeditionary Force and May 1886. He had one went to France, where his skills brother and two sisters. He as a butcher made him invaluable moved to Ditchingham in for providing food to the troops. Norfolk and then decided to He married in 1917 and moved emigrate to Canada in back to England after the war. He had two children: Peter, who 1910. He was a butcher by trade. died in WW2, and Mary, who became Mr. Hunt’s grandmother. He died in 1927. 15. She was born in 1905 in a small village near Olga Cavalli Venice; at that time her All her family had to flee by village was a few train to Calabria to be far away kilometers away from the from the battle zone; when she Austrian border. As the came back more than a year later Austrian-Hungarian empire the entire village had been was an ally of Germany, destroyed. Her parents recovered this Italian region was their stove from the ruins; that was the only thing they had left. attacked by Austrians when Italy joined the war on the Olga was Mr. Cavalli’s side of the allies in 1917. grandmother. Battlefields Exhibition Materials from RJ Tarr at www.activehistory.co.uk / 5 16.

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