'No Place For Ladies'

I've just finished reading this book - I highly recommend it to all future Year 12s about to study 'The Experience of Warfare in Britain', but also to anyone with an interest in the role of women in the past and social history in general.  It's a fascinating book and a riveting read.




As the title suggests, Rappaport concentrates on the role of women in the Crimean War,  although there is also much interesting detail about the army of the day.  For example, how generally soldiers were expected not to get married, due to the length of their service (21 years after the Napoleonic Wars, changing to 10/12 years after the 'Time of Service in the Army Act 1847'), and the fact that wives were seen as an inconvenience since the soldiers could be expected to be posted abroad for years. Therefore, it was heavily discouraged, and soldiers who wished to get married had to seek the permission of their commanding officer. If this permission were not given, and soldiers still got married, this meant that the families of soldiers could expect no help from the army in terms of food, accomodation etc.

However, even if a soldier had obtained the blessing of his commanding officer, once the soldiers were called on active service, e.g. the Crimean War,  all help for soldier's families ceased once they had left the country. Little or no provision was even given for soldier's to be able to send part of their wages back to help their families, so in many cases the soldier's families became completely destitute, which eventually led to such a scandal that Queen Victoria herself had to intervene to encourage charitable organisations to help these families.  It seems incredible, even given the stereotypical Victorian belief in lack of social welfare, that so little should have been done to help these families, given the official lionization of the soldiers themselves as they left for the front.

The Crimea is also interesting in that it was the last war in which some women were allowed to accompany their husbands on campaign. Lots were drawn to decide who would have the 'honour', although again no provision was made to look after them, so women had to find their own food, clothing and shelter, or hope that the soldiers would take pity on them and share their (meagre) rations.

(Below - a picture of an army wife on campaign in the Crimea)



It is also interesting how, given the famous lack of organisation of the British army in the Crimea and their failure to provide adequate food/shelter/medical care for their soldiers,  that they made so little use of the women who had accompanied their husbands on campaign to take over these roles. This was in contrast to the French, who employed 'Cantinieres' (usually the wives of non-commissioned officers) to provide food and drink to soldiers. They even had their own natty uniform (see below), and apparently scandalised the women in the British camp by wearing trousers!





I highly recommend Rappaport's book as an intriguing glimpse into a little known aspect of 19th century Britain.

Amazing 3D images from World War One..

There's something about the grainy, flat images from the Great War that give it a sense of unreality, however there have been a few times when i've seen images that are so vivid that I feel that I can step into the picture. Here's a really good example - a set of images taken by the French army with a special 3D camera that gives an incredible depth to the picture - see the example below..


Anyone who has visited the museum attached to Sanctuary Wood at Ypres will be familiar with these type of pictures (if I recall correctly, the collection they have there are very gruesome!)

Another example has to be the colour pictures taken by Albert Kahn, a French photographer. Considering the limitations of the technology of the day, there's something about the pictures bring the war to life in a way that the black images fail to do.  Perhaps it is also the subject matter - not always pictures of the horror of battle, but instead an ordinary 'poilu' (French soldier) having his lunch in the middle of a typically French courtyard..



The colour pictures almost make one feel that you are looking at a still from a modern recreation for a film, rather than an actual image of the First World War that is almost a century old..


I often wonder how far black and white images distance ourselves from the subject matter. I've even had kids ask if the past actually happened in black and white!

ADMEN - how to effectively ensnare a History teacher!

 

I am a sucker for anything with a vaguely historical label on it. Today I needed to buy some teabags, and once I had seen these there was no other obvious option:

However, once I had sampled a cup of this fine beverage, I then began hankering for that other staple of Arctic explorers and soldiers - the 'hard tack' biscuit.

I've heard before of how durable these biscuits are - see this article for example, and i've heard that there are examples of American Civil War hard tack biscuits still extant in museums!

So, I thought i'd have a go at making my own.  There are various recipes online, ranging from the more obviously historical to ones aimed at parents wanting to entertain their bored kids with something vaguely educational. I decided to go for the former,  as most of the more historical recipes tended to make clear the essentially inedible nature of the biscuits.  This seems to be borne out by the historical evidence. Hard tack biscuits were a staple of both the Royal Navy and the average British soldier for many years, seeing as they were portable, didn't go off and were essentially indestructible! In particular, hard tack biscuits, along with bully beef, are mentioned in virtually all accounts of the average soldier's food in the Great War.

 However, this account from Private Pressey of the Royal Artillery (courtesy of Spartacus Educational)gives a good idea of how far these 'biscuits' were away from the modern hob nob.

'The biscuits are so hard that you had to put them on a firm surface and smash them with a stone or something. I've held one in my hand and hit the sharp corner of a brick wall and only hurt my hand. Sometimes we soaked the smashed fragments in water for several days. Then we would heat and drain, pour condensed milk over a dishful of the stuff and get it down.'

So, in a bored moment this afternoon, I had a go at making my own, and here is the result:

 

Ingredients are essentially flour, water and salt. Cooking instructions: bake in the oven for an hour until rock hard.

 

Eating instructions: either soak them in milk or tea, or just tuck in, although I advise that you make sure you have the number of a dentist to hand.

 

Verdict: not too bad, although I think I added too much salt. My wife tried some and said that she now feels like a shrivelled slug.

 

'A Young Cavalryman's Crimea Campaign'

A few weeks ago I picked up this book from a boot sale.  It is a collection of letters written during the Crimea by Richard Temple Godman,  who at the time was a young officer in the 5th Dragoon Guards. 



(Richard Temple Godman is on the left - pretty lucky that he had his picture taken by the famous Roger Fenton!)

He took part in most of the major incidents of the war, from landing at Varna, to taking part in the 'charge of the Heavy Brigade' during the battle of Balaklava, and observing the siege and eventual storming of Sevastopol.

Having recently read Trevor Royle's 'Crimea', which is more of a top-down account of the war, I found it really interesting to read the same events written about from the perspective of a minor officer.  Godman is pretty scathing of the British army and its leadership throughout, having particular venom for Lord Raglan. Here is what he has to say about Lucan (the commander of the cavalry division):

'July 17th 1854

Lord Lucan inspected us the other day and taking the command of the regiment clubbed it completely; he is a regular muff...there seem to be a good many muffs among the chiefs'.

Godman also vividly describes the effects of cholera upon his company, which had a devastating impact upon his comrades before they came anywhere near a Russian. He is clear throughout of the lack of preperation given for the campaign:

'August 18th 1854 - Camp near Varna (Bulgaria)

My dear Father - We have had a dreadful time of it the last week or ten days, having suffered more severely than any regiment out here.......Fancy a sick man on the plains of Bulgaria as we were, with very little medicine and no comforts or, one may say necessaries, such as arrowroot for the sick.  One of the doctors told me that if they had had these things, some lives at least might have been saved...The only thing we had to give our convalescents was common sailors' biscuits; no wonder they could not get better'.

Here Godman talks of the complete lack of medical preperations for the casualties suffered after the Battle of the Alma:

'Camp - Balaklava, Sunday October 22nd 1854

I believe you think in England that every preperation has been taken to make the sick and wounded as comfortable as possible; such is not the case, indeed anything so disgraceful as the whole department it is impossible to imagine.  The other day I was told on good authority that 500 men went to Scutari (the British hospital in Turkey that Florence Nightingale was about to take over) after Alma,  sick and wounded in one ship, and attended by two surgeons, and five men,  one of whom died on the way, and the poor fellows had no one to assist them or look after them.  On their arrival no preperation for their reception had been made'.

Just in case you think Godman is some kind of reforming young Turk, he has interesting comments to make about the restorative power of flogging, and also interestingly comments on how he has heard of Florence Nightingale's regime at Scutari and that he personally is horrified at the idea of being treated by a woman, perhaps showing that the legend of the 'Lady of the lamp' was by no means universal amongst the soldiers.


I really enjoyed this book.  Highly recommended reading - and I will probably be plundering it for sources for you poor Year 12s of the future!

Plans announced for the commemorations of the centenary of World War One

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/britain-at-war/10108162/First-World-War-centenary-plans-revealed.html

Interesting to see that these plans are now starting to be announced in more detail.

Also intriguing to see that Telegraph's comment on how the commemorations might feed into Scotland's referendum on Independence.  I hope that the commemoration of these events doesn't become too politicized, although I suspect that is inevitable.  Certain aspects look set to become a poltical battlefield - particularly in terms of the significance of the war.

I suppose it's also a good opportunity to remind us that Britain was far from united in 1914 - indeed it looked likely that there was going to be a civil war in Ireland over Home Rule before the war started, and there had been significant industrial unrest such as strikes in the years leading up to the war. 

I think it's important to bear these dissenting voices in mind as we approach the centenary.  After all, no-one has a monopoly on the legacy of this uniquely turbulent time in British history.

Last 'veteran' of WW1?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-16929653

I had an interesting conversation with my wife a couple of days ago in response to this story, which happened in February 2012.  I'm quite interested in the last veterans of different conflicts so I often look them up online, and Florence Green is listed as the last survivor of the First World War.

For the uninitiated, she served as a mess steward at King's Lynn in Norfolk during the war as part of the WRAF (Women's Royal Air Force). She never left the country or was exposed to any more danger than any other civilian in Britain at the time.

I argued that it was silly for her to be considered the last 'veteran' of the war, considering that she had never left the country and had never been involved in any danger, and that the (dubious) honour of being listed on Wikipedia as such should have fallen to Claud Choules, the last surviving 'combat' veteran who served in the Royal Navy during the Great War and witnessed the scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow.

However, my wife argued that I was being somewhat chauvinist and that I should recognise that Mrs Green played an important part in the war, and that it is good that the story of people on the Home front is being recognised.  I came around to her point of view in the end - after all, she was the last surviving person to have worn uniform in the Great War in the entire world.  I suppose that she is also emblematic of the great social change that the war wrought in Britain, and it would be silly not to recognise that.

What do you think?

The Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars

Last week there was an excellent documentary on the BBC entitled 'The Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars', presented by Peter Barton. It is well worth a watch.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01skvnh/

The documentary focussed on the subterrenean war beneath the battlefields of the Western Front, which although having received some coverage in Sebastian Faulk's 'Birdsong' and recent Australian film 'Beneath Hill 60' is generally one of the less well known aspects of the Great War.  In particular, the documentary focusses on the vicious campaign of mining and counter mining fought between the British and Germans at La Boiselle, at a place known as 'The Glory Hole', where an elite British mining team, formed from a group of men who formerly excavated the sewers underneath Manchester,  set about trying to undermine and blow up the German positions in advance of the battle of the Somme in July 1916.  Watching Barton descend into these tunnels, closed for nigh on 100 years, and from which certain individuals still reside, trapped under hundreds of meters of French soil, was rather terrifying.  Once again, one is reminded of the extraordinary danger men of the Great War were put through day after day, although surely the horror of being buried alive with no chance of rescue must rank among the most terrible of fates!

Earlier in the year during our Year 9 trip to the Somme we drove past the excavations at this location whilst returning from the remains of the Lochnagar crater, itself the work of the miners who were the subject of this programme.

More on the project at the 'Glory Hole' can be found here http://www.laboisselleproject.com/