AFTERMATH Wolffe_AFTERMATH_1.indd 1 26/11/2018 16:13 Wolffe_AFTERMATH_1.indd 3 26/11/2018 16:13 Wolffe_AFTERMATH_1.indd 4 26/11/2018 16:13 AFTERMATH When World War I finally came to an end and hostilities ceased – on the Eastern and Western Fronts, on the sea and in the air – many, many lives had been lost and many more lives had been affected: not only the wounded, the disabled and the traumatised but also their families. Back home the economy was anything but robust, the treasury having been severely depleted through funding the war effort. There was also little provision in place to support either the disabled veterans and their families or those families which were now fatherless. There were huge tasks ahead: that of clearing up the battlefields and burying and recording the dead; and that of looking after the living whose lives had been massively affected by the war. Front cover: The Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers was opened in 1916. By the end of WWI it had fitted over 5,000 prosthetic limbs to the victims of the war and was recognised as a pioneering surgical establishment. Left: ‘Holy Ground’ notice, Ypres. 1 Wolffe_AFTERMATH_1.indd 1 26/11/2018 16:13 1914 The task of recording and remembering the dead began as early as 1914, when Major General Sir Fabian Ware, having been rejected by the British Army due to his age (he was 45 at the time), was put in command of a mobile ambulance unit provided by the British Red Cross Society. Ware was both struck and concerned by the fact that soldiers in their thousands were being buried by their comrades, in individual and mass graves along the Western Front, under markers which would not last and with no official record of the locations. Aware that marking, or registering, a grave is the first act of Remembrance – as well as a mark of honour and of huge psychological importance for relatives – Ware and his unit began recording and caring for all the graves they could find. A British Red Cross Society mobile ambulance. 2 Wolffe_AFTERMATH_1.indd 2 26/11/2018 16:13 1915 By 1915 their work was given official recognition by the War Office and incorporated into the British Army as the Graves Registration Commission. By October of that year, Ware and his Commission had registered over 30,000 graves. Graves Registration Unit group at Lijssenthoek Cemetery. The theme of Remembrance was further taken up powerfully in a poem written by the Canadian Medical Officer, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. McCrae was a doctor who served as a surgeon during the Second Battle of Ypres. He, like countless others, had seen the horror of war first hand but he was also a poet and an artist. Like other now famous World War I poets, McCrae also saw what Wilfred Owen summed up as ‘the pity of war’. He wrote home “We are weary in body and wearier in mind. The general impression … is of a nightmare.” His poem, that in time was to become his most quoted, was originally titled ‘In Flanders Fields’ and was published on 8th December 1915 by Punch magazine. 3 Wolffe_AFTERMATH_1.indd 3 26/11/2018 16:13 In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch: be yours to hold it high! If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. Poppy field in the Somme. field in the Poppy 4 Wolffe_AFTERMATH_1.indd 4 26/11/2018 16:13 Scarlet corn poppies grow naturally in conditions of disturbed earth throughout Western Europe. As the poppies grew amongst the unmarked crosses McCrae was noting, poignantly, that these wild flowers – if nothing else – were ‘marking the place’ of the fallen. Meanwhile Ware, in all likelihood oblivious to the poem, was doing his best to rectify this. McCrae was, more urgently, calling on those who survived to carry on the fight, for if they did not, the dead would ‘not sleep’. 1916 The number of casualties continued to grow and by 1916 huge efforts were being made to handle the injured and maimed. Stately homes were being converted into convalescence homes and new treatments were being tried to combat the horrendous injuries which had been inflicted. At a public meeting held in Glasgow City Chambers in March 1916, the proposal to establish a hospital in the West of Scotland for amputees wounded in battle was approved. Sir William Macewen, Professor of Surgery at the University of Glasgow, led the project – inspiring others to rally to the cause, including Sir Thomas Dunlop, the then Lord Provost of Glasgow. Such was the overwhelming support for the Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers, as it was named, that £100,000 (the equivalent of over £6 million in today’s money) was contributed within a few weeks and which doubled within the year. In October 1916 the first wounded patients were admitted to the pioneering hospital, which led the way and the world in the design, manufacture and fitting of artificial limbs. By 1919, the hospital had treated over 5,500 servicemen and fitted 5,250 artificial limbs. Since 1916, and now known simply as Erskine, they have cared for over 90,000 veterans. Erskine remains pioneering in its delivery of compassionate care and support to over 800 veterans and their spouses each year. In addition to having four care homes in Scotland, the charity also provides accommodation, training and social Poppy field in the Somme. field in the Poppy support to Scottish veterans and their families. 5 Wolffe_AFTERMATH_1.indd 5 26/11/2018 16:13 1917 Sir Fabian was acutely aware that all the nations of the British Empire were contributing Servicemen and women to the war effort and suffering casualties in equal measure and he was therefore keen that this was reflected in the work of his organisation. Encouraged by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) he submitted a memorandum to the Imperial War Conference. In May 1917, the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) was established by Royal Charter, with the Prince serving as President and Ware as Vice-Chairman. The Commission set the highest standards from the outset. They appointed three leading architects – Sir Edwin Lutyens, Sir Herbert Baker and Sir Reginald Blomfield – to design and construct the cemeteries and memorials. Rudyard Kipling, probably the most eminent writer of the day, was chosen as the Commission’s literary advisor on appropriate inscriptions. Ware asked Sir Frederic Kenyon, Director of the British Museum, to evaluate and comment on the differing approaches of the three architects. The report Kenyon presented to the Commission in November 1918 emphasised equality as the core ideology, outlining the principles the Commission still abides by today: • Each of the dead should be commemorated by name on a headstone or memorial • Headstones and memorials should be permanent • Headstones should be uniform • There should be no distinction made on account of rank, race or creed While the war was ongoing it remained the responsibility of the Army to bury and register the dead, with the IWGC taking over thereafter to create permanent cemeteries and memorials to commemorate them in perpetuity. When it was safe to do so, battlefields were searched for bodies. If an identity tag was present the man could be buried in a cemetery under a wooden cross bearing his name, awaiting a permanent headstone after the war. Without an identity tag, those finding and moving the remains would record any details that might distinguish one man from another, including uniform fabric and style, buttons or badges. This is why, for example, a headstone might read ‘a Lieutenant of the Warwickshire Regiment Known Unto God’. 6 Wolffe_AFTERMATH_1.indd 6 26/11/2018 16:13 Cemeteries created during the war and very close to the fighting might appear disorganised today, with graves in a more untidy arrangement rather than even blocks of straight lines of headstones. Dangerous conditions for burying, or lack of space, could result in men being buried in very close proximity to one another. Those who perished in the same tank, or aircraft, may have died in a such as a way that they would be buried together. Cemeteries created during the war but further away from the front lines, such as those near medical facilities and camps, were more organised in blocks and rows, and were less likely to have unnamed people buried in them. Detail from an original plan of Tyne Cot Military Cemetery by Sir Herbert Baker. 7 Wolffe_AFTERMATH_1.indd 7 26/11/2018 16:13 1918 In January 1918 a further horror inflicted itself on the world – the ‘Spanish Flu’. This flu pandemic raged globally from January 1918 to December 1920 and was probably the deadliest ever influenza pandemic. It is estimated to have infected some 500 million people worldwide and resulted in the deaths of tens of millions (some 3 to 5% of the world’s population at the time). It remains one of the most devastating natural disasters in human history. Whilst most influenza outbreaks target juvenile, elderly or already weakened patients, the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed previously healthy young adults.