Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs War and Social Change: A study of a Scottish Burgh, 1910-1922. Thesis How to cite: Harding, Albert William (1996). War and Social Change: A study of a Scottish Burgh, 1910-1922. MPhil thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 1995 A.W. Harding https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000f7be Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk WAR AND SOCIAL CHANGE A Study of a Scottish Burgh 1910-1922 by AiW* HARDING M.A., B.A., M.Ed., M.Sc., M.Litto, PhD., F.E.I.S, This thesis is, presented to the Department of History, The Open University, for the degree of Master of Philosophy. T: ProQuest Number: 27701069 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 27701069 Published by ProQuest LLO (2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLO. ProQuest LLO. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.Q. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 4 8 1 0 6 - 1346 SUMMARY WAR and SOCIAL CHANGE; A Study of a Scottish Burgh 1910-1922 by A.W. Harding, Wars seem to be endemic, but their effects are difficult to measure. Do wars have a positive side? Or are they purely negative? A great deal has been written since 1965 in an attempt to answer this question. This thesis analyses the impact of World War One on the city of Perth by ex­ amining social conditions pre-war with those that appeared post-war and en­ deavouring to establish links. The introduction reviews the extensive literature and identifies the main areas of controversy, assesses the contribution of Arthur Marwick to the on­ going discussion, tries to define the concepts of total war and social change and lists the contribution of several participants. The pre-war evidence shows that Perth, although it still had a strangely rural, almost Victorian flavour, was a city in transition and that many as­ pects, usually taken as mo d e m - the motor car and the cinema - were already influencing life. Then the next five chapters are devoted to the progress of the war, year by year, as far as the civilian population was concerned. Each year, of course, producing its own mood ranging from crusading zeal to gloomy despair. As with most cities in the UK, 1917 was to prove the year of crisis. The post-war period, despite the exhaustion, was one of speedy recoveiy. The conclusion, based on an enormous volume of confidential police reports, shows a society emerging from a limited rather than a total war, in which all traces of conflict had disappeared within months and which picked up the threads of pre-war life with great composure. The post-war period was •dominated by the development of the motor car and the expansion of the cin­ ema. It would seem that the main effect of World War One was psychological, CONTENTS Chanters Images Introduction — — — 1 - a 1910 - 1914 — — — 9 - 41 1914 — — — 42 - 65 1915 — — — 66 - 86 1916 — — — 87 - 112 1917 — — — 113 - 147 1918 146 - 162 1918 - 1922 — — — 163 - 193 Conclusion — — — 194 - 209 O Tables and Charts Table A Population 210 Table B Birth Rate 211 Table C Infant Mortality 212 Charts B and C 213 Table D Illegitimacy 214 Table E Deaths 215 Charts D and E 216 Table F Phthisis 217 Table G Typhoid Fever 218 Charts F and G 219 Table H Diphtheria 220 Table I Scarlet Fever 221 Table J Cancer 222 Chart J 223 Table K Diseases and Deaths 224 Table L Diseases and Deaths 225 Table M Poorhouse Deaths 226 Illustrations 1. Perth pre-war . 10 2. Pre-war dress(lady) 13 3. Suffragette 25 4. Recruiting Rally 57 5,. Recruiting Poster 71 6. Propaganda Poster 78 7. Troops at Scone 88 8. Wounded 93 9. John Maclean 104 10. Food Poster 115 11. Troops in France 149 12. Post-war dress(lady) 181 13. Perth poat-war 184 14. M o d e m woman 203 Bibliogranhy Primary Sources 227 - 236 Secondary Sources 236 - 257 Articles 257 - 258 Theses 258 - 259 Oral Sources Mrs, Isa Reeve b. 1899 259 Mr. Dick Muirhead b. 1901 Miss Janet Dalgleish b. 1902 Map Perth 1901 Pocket Aoknowledgements This study would not have been possible without the aid of Steve Connelly, Archivist, Perth Archive Unit, A.K. Bell Library, Perth. He led me thro- ug)i the labyrinth of files and records, many of which had not seen the light of day for over 80 years. His colleagues, in the Local History Library and Lending Library, were equally helpful in tracking down ob­ scure references and articles. My Supervisor, Dr. Henry Cowper, contin­ ually deluged me with book lists and academic monographs from both sides of the Atlantic, while leaving me to make ny own judgment. To these, and my "old friends" in Perth, I am truly grateful. Abbreviations All the abbreviations used in this study are self-evident, but the most commonly used are - PC Perth Courier C Constitutional PA Perthshire Advertiser TC Town Council CA General Accident BW Black Watch ASC Army Service Corps TA Territorial Army UP United Free Church KlA PRI ParMn QUOTE "I believe that the main features of the War can be more accurately seen and more truly judged by those who lived through it than by a scholar writing after the lapse of half a century." - - John Buchan DEDICATION This study is dedicated to my father, A.A. Harding, who served with the Black Watch 1915-1918. / Introduction This study is concerned with the impact of World War One on the city of Perth, Using a wide range of local sources it describes how the war affected many aspects of life in the community. It also addresses, at a local level, the debate, which has been pursued by historians since the 1960's, surrounding war and social change, here the essentials of this debate, which focus,on how and to what extent, social, political, economic and cultural life is changed by war, are briefly described and assessed in the l i ^ t of the continuing historical controversy and in the specific context of World War One. The war itself, as Waites has pointed out, was regarded by some contemporaries as a "watershed", while others spoke of a "turning- point", a "great divide" or even "the start of the modern world." Thousands of communities, all over Europe, were enveloped in "total war." To Waites this implied "a conflict between industrial states utilising the full range of mass production and modern technology" and as such it unleashed nihilistic forces which put paid to any ideas of chilvalry and heroism.(l) J.M. Winter in The Great War and the British Peonle(l985).. described it as "a people's war."(2) Most commentators, however, only stressed the purely negative aspects of World War One - the collapse of three dynasties in bloody revolution and the large parts of Europe which had been devastated. Beckett, for example, calculated that the war had left c.9»000,000 dead, c, . 5,000,000 widows and c.5,000,000 orphans, while the cost, which ran into billions, was impossible to estimate.(3) Surely nothing positive could be salvaged from such a cataclysm? Arthur Marwick thought there could be. After a tentative start with Clifford Allen; The Open Conspirator(lQ64). in which he suggested that the war had helped to create a more cohesive Labour Party, he published The Deluge: .British Societv and the First World War(l965). in which he argued that war had a major impact on social change. This soon proved itself to be the classic text for the study of war and soc­ ial change. Marwick's view was straight-forward and direct: World War One had drastically changed many aspects of human life. His examples examples were, among others, a more powerful state, hi.gher living standards, reduced infant mortality, wider employment for women and a stronger trade union movement,(4 ) In Britain in the Century of Total War(1968). he tried to create a framework by which wars could be assessed and his four-tier model laid the parameters for a debate which has lasted more than thirty years - how much destruction and disruption did society suffer?; how well did existing institutions survive?; how far did the under-privileged in society participate in the war?; and what kind of psychological experience did the community have to endure? Marwick subsequently developed his views further. In War and Social Change in the 20th Century(1974). he talked of dimensions which could be beneficial; in The Home Front: the British and the Second V/orld War(1976). which he saw as a parallel to the 1914-1918 conflict, he described how a war would weaken the class system and foster a sense of insecurity, and in Women at War 1914-1918(1977).