How were civilians affected by World War 1?Aim: To revise key details about the British Home Front during the First World

War

Total War• What was the Total War?

– A war where the countries drafts all the people and collects all resources that they can.

• When did this war take place?– Around 1916

• Where did it take place?– Europe

• Why did the Total War occur?– The war turned into a Total War because

the countries expected the war to be short so they weren’t prepared for long term war, when their supplies ran out, total war was their only option.

• What was the significance of the war?– WWI turned into a Total War which affected

the home front and government a lot. – It affected women too because with the

absence of men they were expected to take over more jobs and help out with the war effort.

– They received the rights to new jobs, to vote, and the right to apartments.

WWI on the Home FrontWWI on the Home Front• WWI was a WWI was a Total WarTotal War – required populations on the – required populations on the home fronthome front to to mobilize mobilize their resources completely toward the war effort; their resources completely toward the war effort; civilian population centers also became targets of the war effort – civilian population centers also became targets of the war effort – not since the US Civil War & the Napoleonic Wars had the world not since the US Civil War & the Napoleonic Wars had the world seen such complete mobilization for warseen such complete mobilization for war

• Mass conscription Mass conscription was carried out by all nations – most was carried out by all nations – most European nations had armies of 1-2 million – eventually over 70 European nations had armies of 1-2 million – eventually over 70 million would be drafted worldwide – many women would million would be drafted worldwide – many women would volunteer services as nurses at home & the frontvolunteer services as nurses at home & the front

• Entire economies were geared toward war production – led toEntire economies were geared toward war production – led to rationing rationing of all sorts of essentials as raw materials & agricultural of all sorts of essentials as raw materials & agricultural products were utilized to feed the war machine – led to increased products were utilized to feed the war machine – led to increased centralization & gov’t control of economiescentralization & gov’t control of economies

• WWI saw an increase WWI saw an increase in restrictions of civil liberties in restrictions of civil liberties – the press – the press was censored as was speech & mail; due process of law was was censored as was speech & mail; due process of law was suspended for those suspected of treason; German books were suspended for those suspected of treason; German books were burned, speaking German was banned & lynchings of German-Brits burned, speaking German was banned & lynchings of German-Brits were interned in Britain and its colonieswere interned in Britain and its colonies

• Women pWomen played an important role in the war effort – taking up layed an important role in the war effort – taking up jobs as men were sent to the home front – over 35% of the jobs as men were sent to the home front – over 35% of the workforce was women in many European nations during the warworkforce was women in many European nations during the war

• Sought to control public opinion

• Censored newspaper reports about fighting to keep from discouraging public

• Created propaganda, information to influence opinions, encourage volunteers

• Posters, pamphlets, articles about enemy’s brutal actions

Government Control

• Winning new type of war required use of all society’s resources

• Total war, governments took stronger control of citizens’ lives

• New controls changes nations’ industries, economies

• Factories produced military equipment, citizens conserved food, other goods

Government Actions

War on the Home Front

starter activity

This was arguably the most successful recruitment poster of the War. It shows Lord Earl Kitchener, the man responsible for getting men to join the army. It uses a clever visual trick. Can you guess what it is?

Recruitment

• Initial recruitment used posters, leaflets, etc. to build an army quickly

• What is the message of this poster?

• How would this poster encourage men to join the army?

Why did people ‘join up’?

Patriotism• Britain joined the War on 4

August 1914• People encouraged to ‘do

your bit for King & country’• ‘King’s shilling’• Pals brigades (including

villages, football teams, orchestras, old school friends)

• Over by Christmas• By December 1914, 1

million men had enlistedWhat is the artist of who made this

poster trying to say?

Propaganda• Leaflets & posters• Women were told to encourage sons, husbands &

boyfriends to enlist• By January 1916, 2.6 million men had enlisted

What do you think the man in the poster is thinking?

Recruitment

• Initial recruitment used posters, leaflets, etc. to build an army quickly

• What is the message of this poster?

• How would this poster encourage men to join the army?

Recruitment• Women’s organisations

tried to boost recruitment

• White feathers were given to men as a sign of their “cowardice”

• The Mother’s Union urged its members to get their sons to join up

Recruitment

• Initial recruitment used posters, leaflets, etc. to build an army quickly

• What is the message of this poster?

• How would this poster encourage men to join the army?

Recruitment

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Recruitment of volunteers to the army, 1914-15

19141915

“Recruiting” by E. A. Mackintosh• ‘Lads, you’re wanted, go and help,’• On the railway carriage wall• Stuck the poster, and I thought• Of the hands that penned the call.

• Fat civilians wishing they• ‘Could go out and fight the Hun.’• Can’t you see them thanking God• That they’re over forty-one?

• Girls with feathers, vulgar songs-• Washy verse on England’s need-• God-and don’t we damned well know• How the message ought to read.

“Recruiting” continued• ‘Lads, you’re wanted! Over there,’• Shiver in the morning dew,• More poor devils like yourselves• Waiting to be killed by you.

• Go and help to swell the names• In the casualty lists.• Help to make a column’s stuff• For the blasted journalists.

• Help to keep them nice and safe• From the wicked German foe.• Don’t let him come over here!• Lads, you’re wanted-out you go.’

“Recruiting” continued• There’s a better word than that,• Lads, and can’t you hear it come• From a million men that call• You to share their martyrdom.

• Leave the harlots still to sing• Comic songs about the Hun,• Leave the fat old men to say• Now we’ve got them on the run.

• Better twenty honest years• Than their dull three score and ten.• Lads, you’re wanted. Come and learn• To live and die with honest men.

“Recruiting” continued• You shall learn what men can do• If you will but pay the price,• Learn the gaiety and strength• In the gallant sacrifice.

• Take your risk of life and death,• Underneath the open sky.• Live clean or go out quick-• Lads, you’re wanted. Come and die.

• What aspects of Home Front changes are addressed in this poem?• What is the overall message?

• While it is true that the start of World War One was greeted with vast amounts of patriotism throughout Europe and the Empire, there were those who were pacifists and refused to have anything to do with the war. The pacifists were few in number (the UK had about 16,000 in total during the war) and would have had no impact on the number of fighting men Britain had in the lead up to conscription.

• However, despite their lack of numbers, the military and War Office came down on pacifists were great energy.

• In the autumn of 1914, so many men volunteered for the British Army, that the few pacifists in society were all but overlooked.

• As the war would be over by Christmas 1914, most men were more concerned about missing out as opposed to thinking about those who did not want to fight.

• Religion was the main reason why men did not want to join up. Many such as Bert Brocklesby were very religious.

• On the day war was declared he said: “God has not put me on this Earth to go destroying His children.

• Therefore, he refused to have anything to do with the military and the war. • Initially, the most these men could expect were white feathers being given to them and petty

verbal abuse in the street. • However, when it became clear that the war would not be over by Xmas 1914, the stance taken

on pacifists became more aggressive. • As the number of British casualties greatly increased from 1915 to 1916, it got worse. In public,

known pacifists ran the risk of being assaulted and thrown in jail for the most trivial of reasons.

Conscription• Voluntary recruitment was decreasing,

but the demand for troops was increasing• Voluntary recruitment didn’t share the

burden between all parts of society• Conscription introduced in 1916• All men aged 18-40 had to register• They could be called up to fight at any

time

Conscription• The British army had consisted of all volunteers.• As hundreds of thousands of men were killed or wounded,

more volunteers were needed.• Due to this the height limit was reduced.• And the upper age limit increased.• But the flow of volunteers was not enough.• In January 1916, the Military Service Act was passed.• It required all unmarried men between 18 and 41, except

those in exempted occupations to serve.• On April 26, 1916, the Act was extended to include married

men between the ages of 18 and 41 as well.• The law went through several changes before the war's end

with the age limit eventually being raised to 51.

Conscription• It has been argued that enforced enlistment was more to do with employment

circumstances, familial circumstances, physical fitness, skills and aptitudes and, to a much lesser extent religious and political grounds.

• This was vetted very closely by the Tribunals who had to assess a man's fitness for military service and weigh that against his usefulness to the domestic economy.

• As one historian has pointed out: "a farm lad, aged 19, might have escaped call-up in one part of the country whereas a 40-year old brickie from another part may have been drafted."

• Conscription caused real hardships for the British people. • For example, in November 1917 a widow asked Croydon Military Tribunal to let

her keep her eleventh son, to look after her. • The other ten were all serving in the British armed forces. • A man from Barking asked for his ninth son to be exempted as his eight other

sons were already in the British Army.• The man's son was given three months exemption.

Conscription• Who took practiced conscription during the

time of World War I?– Europe

• When exactly did conscription occur during this time? – Between 1890 and 1914

• What was conscription?– Conscription was a military draft which

made European armies double in size.• Why did countries choose to practice

conscription?– European countries felt the need to become

more powerful because of tensions tightening between them.

• What was the significance of conscription during this time?– Conscription, which is an act of militarism,

cause Military leaders to receive more power and gave countries the means to go to war.

Conscription• Casualties increased• News returned to Britain of

horrors of trenches• Conscription introduced for

all men between ages of 18 and 41

• Conscientious objectors (conshies) given white feathers

• By 1918 2.5 million extra men had been enlisted

Why did millions of men feel ‘obliged’ to fight in the War?

• King George V, statement issued on 25th May 1916. • To enable our country to organise more effectively its military

resources in the present great struggle for the cause of civilisation, I have, acting on the advice of my Ministers, deemed it necessary to enrol every able-bodied man between the ages of eighteen and forty-one.

• I desire to take this opportunity of expressing to my people my recognition and appreciation of the splendid patriotism and self-sacrifice which they have displayed in raising by voluntary enlistment since the commencement of the War, no less than 5,041,000 men, an effort far surpassing that of any other nation in similar circumstances recorded in history, and one which will be a lasting source of pride to future generations. I am confident that the magnificent spirit which has hitherto sustained my people through the trials of this terrible war will inspire them to endure the additional sacrifice now imposed upon them, and that it will, with God's help, lead us and our Allies to a victory which shall achieve the liberation of Europe.

The No-Conscription Fellowship was founded as early as 1914 and it produced the following leaflet :

• Repeal the Act Fellow citizens:• Conscription is now law in this country of free traditions. Our hard-won liberties have been violated.

Conscription means the desecration of principles that we have long held dear; it involves the subordination of civil liberties to military dictation; it imperils the freedom of individual conscience and establishes in our midst that militarism which menaces all social graces and divides the peoples of all nations.

• We re-affirm our determined resistance to all that is established by the Act. We cannot assist in warfare. War, which to us is wrong. War, which the peoples do not seek, will only be made impossible when men, who so believe, remain steadfast to their convictions. Conscience, it is true, has been recognised in the Act, but it has been placed at the mercy of tribunals. We are prepared to answer for our faith before any tribunal, but we cannot accept any exemption that would compel those who hate war to kill by proxy or set them to tasks which would help in the furtherance of war.

• We strongly condemn the monstrous assumption by Parliament that a man is deemed to be bound by an oath that he has never taken and forced under an authority he will never acknowledge to perform acts which outrage his deepest convictions.

• It is true that the present act applies only to a small section of the community, but a great tradition has been sacrificed. Already there is a clamour for an extension of the act. Admit the principle, and who can stay the march of militarism?

• Repeal the Act. That is your only safeguard.• If this be not done, militarism will fasten its iron grip upon our national life and institutions. There will be

imposed upon us the very system which statesmen affirm that they set out to overthrow.• What shall it profit the nation if it shall win the war and lose its own soul?

What Happened to The No-Conscription Fellowship?

• The No-Conscription Fellowship was an organisation made up by members of the Socialist Independent Labour Party and the Quakers.

• The men who signed the above leaflet were Clifford Allen, Edward Grubb, A Fenner Brockway, W J Chamberlain, W H Ayles, Morgan Jones, A Barratt Brown, John Fletcher, C H Norman and Rev. Leyton Richards.

• All charged under the Defence of the Realm Act. • They were all fined; those who decided not to pay the fine

were sent to prison.

Conscientious Objectors• The Military Service Act that introduced conscription put many who opposed the

war into a position of direct personal conflict with the British Government.• Exemption was allowed on grounds of conscience, and unsympathetic and biased

trials were set up to assess those who claimed conscience as a reason for not fighting.

• David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, promised the conscientious objectors a ‘rough time.’

• However, such was the decline in enthusiasm for the war, there were 750,000 claims for conscience exemption.

• One was told that he: “was only fit to be on the point of a German bayonet.” • Of these tribunals, only 16,500 of the 750,000 were accepted as Conscientious

Objectors.• The great majority of these men accepted some form of alternative service,

working in hospitals, factories, mines, etc…• However, over 1000 refused all forms of war service.• These men were imprisoned, and most were brutally treated, resulting in

physical and mental abuse.• 70 of these men dies in prison.

• Herbert Morrison, An Autobiography (1960)

A large anti-conscription conference was held at the Ethical Society's Hall near Liverpool Street Station, London. There were determined but unsuccessful efforts to break it up. Toughs who had obviously been encouraged to be present fiercely attacked us as we emerged, with the City police doing little or nothing to stop them.

• When conscription came into force in 1917 I duly received my call-up notice. Of course, there was no question of my being fit for military service because of my blindness in one eye and it would, I suppose, have been easy to pretend that I wanted to put on uniform and then allow the medical officers to turn me down, but I was intent on sticking to my principles. In due course I was ordered to report before the Conscientious Objectors Tribunal for Wandsworth. Exemption could be absolute; conditional on taking up some form of national service; or refused on the grounds that the applicant had failed to prove the genuine nature of his objection.

• There are many stories of the ruthless and sometimes insulting behaviour of the members of these tribunals in the First World War when the standard question to an absolutist (as men who were not willing to help the military machine directly or indirectly were called) was, "What would you do if you came upon a German attempting to rape your sister?". However, my inquisitors were both courteous and fair.

•

'The Ideal' - one of many cartoon produced by COs (1917).This and several other were also produced and widelydistributed as postcard        

In The Daily Express on July 4, 1916, Lieutenant Colonel Reginald Brooke, Commander of the Military Detention Barracks for the C.O.s

bragged about how he broke them:• “Some of the early batches, when nothing could be done

with them, were taken singly and run across the yard to special rooms---airy enough, but from which they could see nothing. They were fed on bread and water and some of them presently came round. I had them placed in special rooms, nude, but with their full army kit on the floor for them to put on as soon as they were so minded. There were no blankets or substitutes for clothing left in the rooms which were quite bare. Several of the men held out naked for several hours, but they gradually accepted the inevitable. Forty of the conscientious objectors who passed through my hands are now quite willing soldiers.”

Conscription and Conscientious Objectors

• Conscientious objectors opposed the war for political or religious reasons

• They refused to fight, and were imprisoned – or executed – for doing so

• Others helped the war effort, but not through military action– Field hospitals– Stretched bearers

The Conchies•Conscientious objectors were people who simply did not want to fight in World War 1. •Conscientious objectors became known as 'conchies' or C.O's • They were a sign that not everybody was as enthusiastic about the war as the government would have liked.

Over one million soldiers died on the Western Front during World War One but there were some men who refused to go because they believed the war was wrong.

There were several types of conscientious objector.

• Some were pacifists who were against war in general.

• Some were political objectors who did not consider the government of Germany to be their enemy

• Some were religious objectors who believed that war and fighting was against their religion. Groups in this section were the Quakers and Jehovah Witnesses.

• A combination of any of the above groups.

Quakers were prominent in promoting conscientious objection, and were ridiculed in the papers.

• “A Christian To A Quaker”• I much regret that I must frown• Upon your cocoa nibs, (reference to

Cadbury chocolate owned by a Quaker family)

• I simply hate to smite you down• And kick you in the ribs;

• But since you will not think as I,• It’s clear you must be barred,• So in you go (and may you die)• To two years hard.

• We are marching to freedom and to love;• We’re fighting every shape of tyrant sin;• We are out to make it worth• God’s while to love the earth,• And damn it, you won’t join in!

• To drive you mad, as I have done,• Has almost made me sick.• To torture Quakers like a Hun• Has hurt me to the quick.• But since your logic wars with mine• You’re something I must guard,• So in you go, you dirty swine,• To two years hard.

• We are marching to destroy the hosts of hate:

• We’ve taken, every man, a Christian vow;• We are our to make war cease,• That men may live at peace,• And, damme, you’re at it now!

• By Harold Begbie

Some conscientious objectors did not want to fight but were keen to 'do their bit'. These people were willing to help in weapons factories and some went to the trenches to become stretcher bearers etc., though not to fight. Other C.O's refused to do anything that involved the war - these were known as 'absolutists‘.

What did people think of the conchies?

• They were treated as cowards• Traitors• Criminals• White feathers were handed out

to young men who had not joined the army

• They could not get jobs in factories doing war work

What happened to the conchies?• Some did war work• Medical services• Support services• Some refused every kind of alternative service

and went to prison. Ten died and 31 went mad as a result of their experiences

• In his autobiography, Fate Has Been Kind, Frederick Pethick-Lawrence explained why he refused to be conscripted into the British Army.

It was not until the middle of 1918 that my age group came within the Conscription Act and I was called up. I was then 46. Believing as I did that the war could and should be brought to an end by a negotiated peace, I could not very well go out to fight for Mr. Lloyd-George's 'knock-out blow'. I accordingly went before a tribunal in Dorking as a conscientious objector. The Clerk to the Council told the tribunal that he knew I had held my views for a considerable time, and the military representative said that he did not particularly 'want this man'. So I was awarded exemption, conditional on my doing work of national importance, and work on the land was indicated.

• After Raymond Postgate was sent to prison for refusing to be conscripted, his sister, Margaret Postgate, became involved in the Peace Movement.

In the spring of 1916 Ray, a scholar in his first year at St. John's College, Oxford, was called up. Of course he refused to go, thereby reducing his father to apoplectic fury; and, after he had failed to secure exemption and was brought before the magistrates as a mutinous soldier, I went up to Oxford be by his side. At that date it needed a fair amount of courage to be a C.O. Though the Military Service Act allowed exemption on grounds of conscience, it was regrettably vague in its definition of either "conscience" or "exemption"; and the decision as to whether a man had or had not a valid conscientious objection, and if he had, whether he was to be exempted from all forms of war service or from combatant service only, or something between the two, was left to local tribunals all over the country, who had no common standard or guidance, and generally - though not by any means invariably - took the view that every fit man ought to want to fight, and that anyone who did not was a coward, an idiot, or a pervert, or all three.

Raymond Postgate continued…• Objection on religious grounds was for most part treated with respect, particularly if the sect

had a respectable parentage; Quakers usually came off lightly, and were permitted to take up any form of service they felt able to do; though Quakers who were "absolutists," i.e., who refused to aid the war effort in any way whatever, were apt to be jailed after a long and futile cross-examination by the Tribunal on how they would behave if they found a German violating their mother. But non-Christians who objected on the grounds that they were internationalists or Socialists were obvious traitors in addition to all their other vices, and could expect little mercy. They would be sent to barracks, and thence to prison - and then nobody quite knew what would happen to them. There was talk of despatching them to France, unarmed, and shooting them there for mutiny.

It is almost literally true that when I walked away from the Oxford court-room I walked into a new world, a world of doubters and protesters, and into a new war - this time against the ruling classes and the government which represented them, and with the working classes, the Trade Unionists, the Irish rebels of Easter Week, and all those who resisted their governments or other governments which held them down. I found in a few months the whole lot which Henry Nevinson used to call "the stage-army of the Good" - the ILP, the Union of Democratic Control, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Daily Herald League, the National Council of Civil Liberties - and, above all, the Guild Socialists and the Fabian, later the Labour Research Department.

• John William Graham, Conscription and Conscience (2010)

In this place, alone, you spend twenty-three hours and ten minutes out of the twenty-four in the first month of your sentence, hungry most of the time. You get little exercise, and probably suffer from indigestion, headache or sleeplessness. The entire weekend is solitary until you attend chapel. After the first month you have thirty minutes exercise on Sunday. You would go mad but for the work. You sit and stitch canvas for mailbags. Your fingers begin by being sore and inflamed, but they become used to it. At first your daily task can hardly be finished in a day. You struggle hard to get the reward of a large mug of sugarless cocoa and a piece of bread at eight o'clock. It will save you from hunger all night, for your previous food - I cannot call it a meal - had been at 4.15. This extra ration, which varied, and was not universal, was a war-time incentive to produce work of national importance. It was cut off as a war economy in 1918.

• Except on monthly visits (15 minutes), or if he has to speak to the Chaplain or doctor, or if he has to accost a warder, the prisoner is not allowed to speak for two years the sentence usually given to a conscientious objector.

• The punishments for breaking a rule, for talking, for lying on your bed before bedtime, looking out of a window, having a pencil in your possession, not working, and many other such acts were savage. If those things were reported to the Governor, there would be, say, three days bread and water and in a gloomy basement cell, totally devoid of furniture during the daytime. This was famine. In addition, your exercise might be taken away, and your work in association, your letter or visit would be postponed, whilst your family were left wondering what had happened, and marks, with the effect of postponing your final release, would be taken off.

• The case of James Brightmore was even more outrageous. It certainly got more publicity. Brightmore was a young solicitor's clerk from Manchester. After serving eight months of a twelve months sentence for refusing to put on the uniform, Brightmore was sent to Shore Camp, Cleethorpes. Still refusing, he was sentenced to twenty-eight days solitary confinement on bread and water. According to Army Order X, Brightmore should have been serving his sentence in prison, but the authorities pretended not to know. There was no solitary cell in the camp, so the Major had to improvise, like the efficient soldier he was. He had a deep hole dug in the parade ground, coffin shaped, and into this young Brightmore was inserted. For four days he stood ankle-deep in water, then a piece of wood was lowered for him to stand on, but that sank into the water, which now stank, and in which a dead mouse floated.

• One day it rained heavily. Some of the soldiers took him from the hole and put him into a tent where he slept the night. He remained there all the next day, and then the Major became aware of it, and he was roughly wakened and thrust down the hole again, and a black tarpaulin pulled over it to keep out the rain. He was kept there for a week, the Major calling on him during the day to jeer, telling him on one occasion that his friends had been sent to France and shot, and that he would be in the next batch.

• One of the soldiers who had been reprimanded for taking Brightmore out of the hole, realising that there was no intention of releasing the youth, tore open a cigarette packet and passed it down with a stub of pencil, suggesting that Brightmore write to his parents. He did so, and the soldier added a covering note, saying that the hole was twelve feet deep. They were under orders not to take any notice of the boy's complaints, but "the torture is turning his head." At that time Brightmore had been in the vertical grave for eleven days.

• Brightmore's parents took the letter to the Manchester Guardian, which published it with a strongly worded editorial. Within forty minutes of the paper arriving at the camp, Brightmore had been taken from the hole, which was hastily filled in. The major and a fellow officer were dismissed from their posts for disobeying the Order.

• The third case of Court Martial did not involve a young man, but the mature and articulate C.H. Norman, a writer on international politics and founder-member of the No Conscription Fellowship. He came up against the out-spoken sadist Lt. Col. Reginald Brooke, Commandant of Wandsworth Military Detention Camp, who declared that he didn't give a damn for Asquith and his treacherous Government. He would do what he liked with his prisoners.

• C.H. Norman thought differently. When he went on hunger strike he was badly beaten, tied to a table and a tube forced up his nose and down into his stomach. Through this, liquid food was poured. Then he was forced into a straitjacket fastened so tightly that breathing was difficult, and he suffered a spell of unconsciousness. He was bound in the jacket for twenty-three hours, during which time the Col, called on him to jeer. Norman was not an inexperienced adolescent: he brought a civil action against the Col., who was court martialled and sentenced to be dismissed from his cherished position where his sadism (for it could have been no less) had free play.

• John Taylor Caldwell, Come Dungeons Dark: The Life and Times of Guy Aldred (1988)

The treatment of nineteen-year-old Jack Gray was in blatant defiance of the Order. On 7th May 1917 he arrived at Hornsea Detention Camp. Refusing to put on the uniform he was abused and tormented for the rest of the day. Live ammunition was fired at his feet, his ankles were beaten with a cane, his mouth was split open by a heavy blow from a sergeant. Next day the process was continued. Then his hands were bound firmly behind his back and his ankles tied together. A rope was fastened to his wrists and pulled tight to the ankles. In this position he had to stand for several hours, then a bag of stones was fastened on his back and he was beaten round the training field till he collapsed. There were other brutalities inflicted on Jack which we will not detail, but of such a nature that eight of the soldiers refused to take part, leaving themselves liable to severe penalties.

• The torture which broke the boy's resolve was when he was stripped naked and had a rope tied round his waist. He was then thrown into the camp cesspool and pulled around. After the second immersion the rope had so tightened round his waist that he was in great pain. Still the treatment continued "for eight or nine times", said a witness at the subsequent court martial. Someone, transported into ecstasies of sadistic excitement at the sight of the lad's muddy, filth-encrusted body, got an old sack and making holes for arms and head, forced the youngster into it for further grotesque immersions. Then Jack Gray gave in, promising to fight for England and save the world from the barbarity of the Hun.

• The local M.P. forced an Enquiry. The officers responsible were censured. Nobody was allowed to see the report of the Enquiry.

• HAROLD BING'S STORY

There were plenty of protests against war in 1914. Some of the protesters were socialists, who believed that the working men of the world should unite, not obey orders to kill each other.

• Some belonged to religious groups which forbade taking human life. • Some thought this particular war was wrong, some thought all war was wrong. • Thousands of these varied protesters gathered in London's Trafalgar Square on August 2 to

make their anti-war voices heard. • A 16-year old called Harold Bing was there. • He had walked the 11 miles from Croydon (and walked back again afterwards). ‘• It was thrilling,' he said. Harold and his father were both pacifists (his father had opposed the

Boer War as well), and they both joined the No-Conscription Fellowship. • Harold helped to distribute NCF leaflets from house to house; on one occasion he was chased

by a hostile householder wielding a heavy stick.• After conscription was introduced in 1916, Harold, an 'absolutist' CO, went before his

tribunal. • He was not thought to qualify for exemption. • '18? - you're too young to have a conscience,' said the chairman. • But not, apparently, too young to be sent to war. • A policeman came to his home to arrest him, and he was taken to Kingston Barracks.

• A policeman came to his home to arrest him, and he was taken to Kingston Barracks.• When he refused to regard himself as a soldier, or obey military orders, he was court-

martialled. • The sentence: 6 months hard labour. In the end Harold spent nearly 3 years in prison.• Many COs were given what was called the 'cat and mouse' treatment: at the end of their

sentences in civilian prisons, they were released, taken back to barracks, arrested again for disobeying orders, and imprisoned once more.

• The good thing, as Harold observed, was that each time someone was released, they had enough time before re-arrest to get hold of newspapers and information which they could then pass on covertly to fellow inmates. 'I remember there was great excitement when news of the Russian revolution came through. People thought this would make a great difference to the war.'

• Harold made a difference himself. • He helped to get vegetarian food provided (though unappetisingly) by the prison kitchen,

and additional nourishment (a mug of cocoa) supplied for men who worked overtime. • He also made friends with a few of the kinder warders - helping the daughter of one of

them with her maths homework; that particular warder died soon after the war, and Harold and some other ex-prisoners set up a fund to pay for the girl's secondary education.

• Harold was also one of the men who together created a prison magazine: written on thin brown sheets of toilet paper using the blunt end of a needle and the ink supplied for monthly letters home.

• Just the one copy ('different people writing little essays or poems or humorous remarks, sometimes little cartoons or sketches') was passed secretly from one prisoner to another.

• In Harold's prison this unique publication was called 'The Winchester Whisperer'. • The idea was widely copied. • Wandsworth COs, for example, produced their 'Old Lags Hansard', once with an

apology for late publication 'owing to an official raid on our offices', the editor's cell.

• A work camp attached to a stone-breaking quarry published 'The Granite Echo', with copies printed by a supporter in London.

• Harold Bing left prison with his sight damaged by years of stitching mailbags in dim light, but also having taught himself German and French.

• He wanted to teach, but he quickly found that many advertisements for teachers said 'No CO need apply'.

• 'And if you did apply, you got turned down as soon as they knew you were a pacifist.'

• But at last he found a sympathetic headmaster who was willing to employ him. • As well as teaching, Harold worked as a peace campaigner (often travelling

abroad) for the rest of his life. He died in 1975.

AFTER THE WAR• No-one was in a hurry to release the COs - certainly not until the

surviving soldiers were brought back from the front, which took months.

• Some COs went on hunger strike in protest at their continued detention: 130 were forcibly fed through tubes (as suffragettes had been) - so forcibly that many were injured by the treatment and had to be temporarily released.

• Others went on work strikes and were brutally punished for it.• In May 1919 the longest-serving prisoners began to be released; the

last CO left prison in August. • Many found that no-one wanted to employ them. • Those who hadn't done alternative or non-combatant service were

deprived of their votes for five years (though this wasn't always strictly enforced)

Planned Economies• What was planned economies?

– An economy controlled by the government, for example, when European governments decided price of goods, wages of the people, and the rent people had to pay. They also rationed food and materials and controlled imports, exports, transportation and industries.

• Where/ Who used planned economies?– Europe

• When did these take place?– During WWI

• Why were these used?– Planned economies were set up as a result of Total War and the

high demands of the war.• What was the significance of planned economies?

– The planned economies that the government set up had a large impact on the civilians at home and caused their support of the war

DORA• The Defence of the Realm Act• Introduced on August 8, 1914• Gave the government powers to control

many aspects of people’s daily lives• The priority was to keep industrial

production high, but other things were affected too

• One of the first businesses it took over was the railways

DORA• Mines and railways were

taken over by the government

• The government had ultimate control over them

• This meant production of coal, and the movement of trains, would be prioritised for the war effort

Dilute Beer

BritishSummer

Time

Control ofMines andRailways

Rationing

Censorship

LicensingHours

DORA

DORA• Ministry of Munitions created in May

1915• Ministries of Labour, Shipping, and

Food all created in Dec 1916• In ten years, from 1911 to 1921, the

number of government employees doubled due to DORA

DORA• British Summer Time was

introduced• The government move the

clocks forward by an hour in the summer

• This ensured factories had maximum daylight, meaning they could operate later

Impact on Industry Primary Source from Birmingham in 1918

• “Jewelers abandoned their craftmanship and the fashioning of gold and silver ornaments for the production of anti-gas apparatus and other war materials; old-established firms noted for their art productions, turned to the manufacture of an intricate type of hand grenade. Cycle-makers adapted their machines to the manufacture of cartridge clips; and railway carriage companies launched out with artillery wagons, limbers, tanks and aeroplanes, and the chemical works devoted their energies to the production of deadly TNT.”

Unions’ Reactions to DORA• April-May 1917: unofficial strikes broke out• Resulted in the estimated loss of 1.5 million working

days• April-July 1918: Engineering Workers Strike in Leeds

and Birmingham• Government ended the strike with the threat of

conscriptions• Overall, between 1915-1918, there were 3227 strikes

involving 2.6 million workers• Estimated loss of 17.8 million working days

DORA• Licensing hours were

introduced• Pubs could only open

for 2 hours at lunchtime and 3 hours in the evening

• This made sure the workforce was awake and sober for factory work

DORA

• Beer was diluted• The government allowed

publicans to make beer weaker

• This ensured the workforce didn’t drink so much as to make them drunk or hung-over while at work

DORA: Leisure and Pastime Changes

• Prohibitions on public clocks chiming in between sunset and sunrise

• No whistling for taxis between 10PM and 7AM• Restaurants and hotel dining rooms had to

turn off lights at 10PM• All places of entertainment had to close at

10:30PM• British Summer Time was introduced in May

1916

DORA• Food was rationed• The government took over

land and used it for farm production

• This ensured there was enough food to feed the public and the army, despite German U-Boat attacks

• During war, average household spent 75% of income on food, fuel, and housing

DORA• Pubs were to close by 10PM• Weakening of the spirits and watering down beer• “We are fighting the Germans, Austrians, and Drink,

and so far as I can see the greatest of these deadly foes is Drink.” was said by Prime Minister David Lloyd George

• Spectator sports continued until 1915– Football or soccer was targeted– So was hunting and horse-racing

• People still went to the beach but now there was barbed wire along the beaches and some piers were cut in half as precautions against invasion

• American jazz and ragtime became popular• 150 night clubs operated in Central London by 1915

with illegal liquor sold in coffee cups• Soho was very popular• Cinema became very popular---20 million tickets

sold per week• War Exhibitions were created to communicate

public information on health and hygiene• Examples: War Exhibits on Houseflies and Exhibits

on Lice• Church attendance declined

Homefront: Food Administrationa. Assure the supply,

distribution, and conservation of food during the war,

b. Facilitate transportation of food and prevent monopolies and hoarding, and

c. Maintain governmental power over foods by using voluntary agreements and a licensing system.

The “Home Front”• Brings changes in hair

length and fashions• World War I innovations

--Chanel #5--Spam--Deodorant

• Impact on language and culture-- “Dud”-- “Lousy”-- “Rats!”-- “Gas Attack”

Rationing

• In April 1917, German U-Boats were sinking one in every four British merchant ships

• Britain was running out of food

Rationing

• In 1917 voluntary rationing began, led by the royal family

• In 1918 compulsory rationing began–Sugar–Butter–Meat–Beer

• Efforts to control Food Consumption:• Dec 1916: Lunches in public eating places were

restricted to two courses and dinners to three courses

• Fines were introduced for feeding pigeons and stray animals

• Food Control Campaign of 1917:• One Ministry of Food Leaflet introduced the public

to “Mr. Slice o’Bread” proclaiming that 48 million slices of bread were wasted every day

• “I am the ‘bit left over’; the slice eaten absent-mindedly when really I wasn’t needed: I am the waste crust.

• If you collected me and my companions for a whole week, you would find that we amounted to 9,380 tons of good bread---Wasted.”

• It was similarly claimed that a teaspoon of breadcrumbs saved by every person every day would amount to 40,000 tons a year.

• “Government Bread”:• Reducing the amount of white flour and

substituting other grain or potato• Long queues or lines for food led to people

taking off from work to wait in line, crowds bordering on riots, changing clothes and appearance to try to get seconds, etc…

• Inflation skyrocketed: 80% increase on wheat and 40% on meat just within the first year of the war

• Diets of ordinary families changed throughout the war:

• 1914: oatmeal was the cheapest• 1915: beans and rice• 1916: lentils and oatmeal• By 1918: sorrel, dandelion leaves and nettles were

substitutes for vegetables• Official Government Rationing:

– Began in 1917– Sugar rationed first– Then meats and fats– Weekly Ration: 15oz beef, mutton, or lamb, 5 oz of

bacon, 4 oz of fat, and 8 oz of sugar

• Coal Rationing began in Oct 1917– 200 hundred weight a week for up to four rooms– 300 hundred weight a week for up to five or six

rooms• The Total War led to many Welfare Programs being

passed:• Health of Munitions Workers Committee of the

Ministry of Munitions provided for factory inspectors and 900 canteens created to feed the workers---sausage and mash, mince and mash, stewed fruit, and milk pudding

• The Maternity and Child Welfare Act was passed in August 1918 to provide services for mothers and infants under the age of five–Extension of government provision of school

meals for the needy for the whole calendar year

• Rents and Mortgage or Rent Restriction Act of 1915 eased the pressures of housing shortages