DEFIANT GARDENING IN WW1

AN ENTERPRISE OF SURVIVAL REDISCOVERING THE POLEMIC LANDSCAPE OF BRITISH GARDENS IN THE GREAT WAR

FREDERICK MAWHOOD STUDENT N.O 16008735 AR7006 FORGETTING OF AIR 23 JANUARY 2017 TUTOR: NABIL AHMED

Yet shall the garden with the state of war Aptly contrast, a miniature endeavour To hold the graces and the courtesies Against a horrid wilderness‌ So does the gardener in a little way Maintain the bastion of his opposition And by a symbol keep civility; So does the brave man strive To keep enjoyment in his breast alive When all is dark and even in his heart Of beauty feed the pallid worm of death The Garden – Vita Sackville-West (Silkin, 1997)

PREFACE I have chosen to open with this poem as it immediately announces the two subjects that form the basis of my investigation – gardening and warfare. The poem not only describes the classic contradictions of war and peace, but also reveals the intricate relationship between destruction and creation. The horrific conditions of World War One are well documented, but less well-known is the important role that British gardens and their makers played amidst the fighting. From the accounts of trench gardening on the Western Front; the horticultural society at Ruhleben Internment Camp, the allotment revolutions in London, and the experiments conducted at Kew Gardens, a rich narrative of social change and the capacity for human creativity in the face of uncertainty is revealed. The aim of this essay is to rediscover this polemic landscape, and the following chapters can be read as a series of historical accounts on defiant gardening during ‘The Great War’.

“Small pleasures must correct great tragedies, therefore of gardens in the midst of war I boldly tell” Vita Sackville-West (Silkin, 1997)

A WORLD AT WAR DEFIANT GARDENING 3 I NT RODUC TION

The garden is a place which has consistently inspired the appreciation and engagement of human beings throughout history. At its core, it represents a desire to domesticate the natural world, exemplifying the dependence of human activity upon the co-operation of nature and embodying the “union of the world and the individual within it” (Cooper, 2006, chapter 6). Gardens allow us to maintain a connection with the natural world in our increasingly urbanised environments, however, their significance is not always something we can easily define. David Cooper believes this is primarily because “modern Western society is guilty of the relative neglect of the garden” and “reflections on them are increasingly restricted to the aesthetics” (2006, chapter 1); a view shared by Kenneth Helphand, who explains that “typically, in the popular imagination, gardens are thought of as sanctuaries, they are desired but rarely seen as essential, nor are they commonly plumbed for their deeper meanings” (2006, p. 3). In her gardening essays Jamaica Kincaid goes one step further by asking, “why must people insist that the garden is a place of rest and repose, a place to forget the cares of the world, a place in which to distance yourself from the painful responsibility with being a human being” (Casteel, 2007, p. 115)?

Gardens mirror a culture’s needs, values, and attitudes; therefore, it could be argued that Western society’s obsession with aesthetic beauty is to blame for gardening’s marginalization as more of a past time and not an essential component of human existence. But what happens to the garden when it becomes essential to existence? When it is created as a defence of sanity or a demonstration of psychological defiance in the face of adversary? How might the garden’s hidden possibilities and meanings manifest themselves in more extreme situations?

As Charles Lewis testifies, “just as the gleam of a candle is more visible in a dimly lighted room, so the human benefits of gardening are more clearly seen in impoverished environments that lack the amenities to make life pleasant” (1996, p. 54).

In my essay, I want to discover whether, in World War One, the garden transcended our modern perceptions of what it is capable of and instead evolved into something far more significant...

(Trier, 1914) Satirical Map of World War One

... an enterprise of survival.

4 I NT RODUC TION

Helphand defines the act of ‘Defiant Gardening’ as “the process of creating a garden in extreme or difficult environmental, social, political, economic or cultural conditions” (2006, p.

5), and our affiliation with warfare has consistently produced some of the most challenging situations that humanity has ever faced. As much as the transformation of a meadow into a field of battle reveals how action changes the meaning of a place, an attempt to reappropriate a portion of wasteland into a garden can be read in a similar way. By opposing their extraordinary circumstances, the deeper meanings of these gardens are brought into stronger light, allowing me to determine whether they have assumed a character or responsibility, not usually observable, but exposed under extraordinary circumstances.

My soul looked down from a vague height, with Death As unremembering how I rose or why, And saw a sad land, weak with sweats of dearth, Grey, cratered like the moon with hollow woe, And pitted with great pocks and scabs of plagues Across its beard, that horror of harsh wire, There moved thin caterpillars, slowly uncoiled.

It seemed they pushed themselves to be as plugs Of ditches, where they writhed and shrivelled, killed.

By them had slimy paths been trailed and scraped Round myriad warts that might be little hills.

From gloom’s last dregs these long-strung creatures crept, And vanished out of dawn down hidden holes.

The Show - Wilfred Owen (Silkin, 1997)

(Mawhood, 2017)

POMEGRANATES & HAND GRENADES 7 T HE WEST ERN FRONT

The Western Front was an enormous 475-mile-long intervention where the defending Belgian, French and British forces resisted the German Advances using a 25,000-milelong network of trenches. In-between the two great armies stood ‘No Man’s Land’, where belts of barbed wire, clouds of poison gas and constant artillery bombardment had transformed the landscape beyond recognition.

“Imagine a broad belt, which is littered with the bodies of men and sacrificed with their rude graves; in which farms, villages and cottages are shapeless heaps of blackened masonary; in which fields, roads and trees are pitted and torn and twisted by shells and disfigured by dead horses, cattle, sheep and goats, scattered in every attitude of repulsive distortion and dismemberment.” British Officer (Helphand, 2006, p. 24) “Ever present is the odour of rotting humans, horses, mules, rats, and food mixed with the stench of excrement, lingering poison gases, the repulsive aroma of quicklime used to decompose the dead, and the acrid stink of high explosive artillery shells. It is said that you can smell the battlefield miles before you reach it.” Officer Philip Gosse (Helphand, 2006, p.

A truly horrifying place for anyone to call home, it is surprising to find that gardens existed amid this chaos. In response to the war landscape facing them, gardening, along with romantic poetry, became a popular pastime on the frontlines, as it gave soldiers the opportunity to craft something meaningful in the face of such destruction. Ironically, even though greenery had become a shocking sight for soldiers, gardens were built and tended to across all sectors of the frontline. The image opposite, shows a soldier of the London Rifle Brigade standing in front of his sandbag defences with the splintered remains of Ploegsteert Wood in the distance; juxtaposed by the well-kept vegetable garden at his feet, complete with scavenged stonewear jugs as decoration. The man’s posture tells us that he is

(Brookes, 1918) Walking Across No Man’s Land

(Unknown, 1914) Soldier of the London Rifle Brigade and his Garden

Whilst the primary responsibility for many trench-gardens was to provide nutrition for the soldiers, they were often designed as a response to the desolation of their surroundings. During his tour of Ploegsteert Wood in 1916, Carita Spencer, visited the frontlines at La Panne and described the gardens that he observed, writing, “the soldiers have portioned off the earth

8 T HE WEST ERN FRONT

very proud of his garden and this achievement is made even more remarkable considering that when this photo was taken his sector was the scene of intense fighting. The process of garden-making requires a vision, site selection, the marshalling of materials, planting, monitoring and maintenance; however, the extreme conditions facing him would have exacerbated each of those tasks immeasurably. Therefore, the simple gratification received from owning a small vegetable garden must have been of huge significance to the soldier, granting him a supply of fresh food to supplement his poor diet and providing him with a sense of stability that was missing from the dangerous and uncertain conditions of trench life.

(Helphand, 2006, p. 54) British Soldiers Picking Flowers

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(Helphand, 2006, p. 40) Elaborate Trench Garden with Clinker Path

T HE WEST ERN FRONT

beside the boardwalk that runs parallel to the rampart; first they have a little vegetable garden, and next to it for beauty’s sake a flower garden, and next to that a little graveyard, and then the succession is repeated. Just beyond them, the fields are streaked with barbed wire and craters” (Helphand, 2006, p. 37). This account immediately reveals the stark contrasts that these gardens evoked and demonstrates the highlysophisticated way they were being implemented. To the soldiers, gardening had become more than just a response to their basic human needs, developing into the physical embodiment of hope, life, and peace. Further down the line a British soldier wrote a letter home, declaring, “as one can’t possibly feel happy in a place where all nature has been devastated, we have done our best to improve things. Out of the ruined chateaux of Hollebecke we fetched rhodendrons, box, snowdrops and primroses and made quite nice flower beds” (Helphand, 2006, p. 38). It is fascinating to think that even as these soldiers fought for survival, their preoccupations often transcended their immediate struggles, instead choosing to wrestle a patch of beauty back from the battlefield in which they resided. The simple act of planting or observing a flower could in a small way help restore the solace of a natural aesthetic that had been erased from the land and offer respite from their terrible living conditions. This need for aesthetic relief was so great that in the lulls between skirmishes soldiers began writing home asking for seeds, “would you be so kind as to send me some flower seeds? There is nothing very nice to look at about my billet and I want to grow some flowers…

I want to cover the unsightly earth with verdure” (Helphand, 2006, p. 41). British Commanders inspecting the frontlines noticed the positive effects of gardening and developed the idea for a ‘Seeds for Soldiers’ scheme whereby flower seeds grown back in England would be flown into battlefields and distributed amongst the soldiers. Speaking about this in ‘The Garden’ journal, Herbert Cowley, proclaimed that “the suggestion of quick-growing seeds for the soldiers is excellent.

(Help

phand, 2006, p. 47) Growing Celery in an Old Communications Trench

(Unknown, 1915) Captain Irvine’s Trench Garden

(Warwick, 1917) Soldier of the 51st Division Tending to his Garden

10 T HE WEST ERN FRONT

Delightful instances are now to be seen of dug-outs, covered with verdant green turf, garden plots divided by red brick and clinker paths suggestive of an Italian Garden design. Verily the Briton is a born gardener” (1915). This request was met by ‘Webb and Sons’ who “sent a quantity of flower seeds for the soldiers to cultivate during their time in the trenches… to help to remind them of their homes in England” (Cowley, 1915).

Whilst long eradicated through the process of growth and decay, the photographs and accounts that survive of these gardens on The Western Front tell us that they became a vital part of daily life for many soldiers. In the trenches the men lived a life of primitive instincts and physical extremes, and in the face of omnipresent death a garden offered them a glimpse of hope. The following quote and painting by warartist Paul Nash beautifully highlights how, in their world of contrasts, the presence of nature took on a new significance.

(Forestier, 1915, p. 595)

12 T HE WEST ERN FRONT

It was this desire for anything pertaining to the normality of their lives back in England that was to prove one of the most sought after characteristics during their time in the trenches.

Newspapers, music, art, letters, and boxing matches were all part of a joint effort in creating an alternative reality for themselves, using familiar pastimes to establish a sense of regularity. Gardening became another pursuit which aided them in this endeavour. The image opposite is from an article run by ‘The Illustrated London Journal’ in May 1915, which stated that “the popularity of leisure-hour gardening amongst our soldiers at the front shows the home instinct expressing itself even amid the chaos” (Forestier, 1915). In a valiant attempt to reconnect with their homes back in England the soldiers had given familiar names to their plots, with the chronicler observing “a Regent Street, a Piccadilly Circus and a Fleet Street” (Forestier, 1915). Although humorous in intention, by naming their gardens in this manner the soldiers were tending to a yearning for the comforts of home, as well as using them as a vessel for cultural expression. Effectively, this was a way of declaring that this land was British and therefore the garden became a way for the soldiers to mark their territory by using sights and smells familiar to them. By making their way into a national newspaper these gardens had impacts far beyond the original intentions of their creators; helping to fuel patriotic pride and excitement, whilst forging stronger links between the families back home and the soldiers in foreign lands.

(Nash, 1919) The Menin Road

“Ridiculous mad incongruity! I feel very happy these days, in fact, I believe I am happier in the trenches than anywhere out here. It sounds absurd, but life has a greater meaning here and a new zest, and beauty is more poignant. I never feel dull or careless, always alive to the significance of nature who, under these conditions, is full of surprises for me�

Paul Nash (Norris, 2015, p. 76)

GARDENING BEHIND ENEMEY LINES

The initial living conditions facing these men were not pleasant, being described as “scandalously inadequate and not fit to keep pigs in” (Gardening in Wartime, 2014). The internees had to sleep on bare concrete and many of them died from disease during the first winter as a result of their poor diets. However, in the Summer of 1915, small gardens grown in biscuit tins began to appear underneath the windows of some of the barracks. Despite their poor nutrition, initially the main concern was to improve the “melancholic appearance of the camp” and climbers were planted to cover up the barbed wire fences.

This simple act was met with so much jubilation that gardening soon spread across the prison and “chrysanthemums and dahlias became a regular sight for the internees”, with the best ones being “sent back to England for sale to raise money for their families” (Gardening in Wartime, 2014). Cut flowers in pots began to ornament most of the buildings and “the sailors of Barrack VIII even made a rose garden, and were very proud of it” (Gardening in Wartime, 2014). Gardening had become an effective way for the prisoners to fill their time and improve their surroundings, but it was part of the greater ambition of designing a fully-functioning corner of Britain for themselves behind enemy lines. This was merely the beginning of their endeavour and what happened next is perhaps one of the most striking stories of gardening in the entire conflict.

In 1917, the ‘Royal British Horticultural Society’ received a letter, from Thomas Howat of the Ruhleben Horticultural Society

14 RUH LEBEN I NTER NMENT CAMP

On November 6th, 1914, an order was issued for all British men aged 17-55 in Germany to be arrested. Although not allowed to leave, they were not considered prisoners of war either and the compromise was an internment camp at an abandoned racehorse stables six miles west of Berlin. It was here that 5000 British men had to call home for the next four years, and also where we find one of the most sophisticated examples of defiant gardening from the period.

(RHS, 1918) Prize Bed along the Promenade

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(RHS, 1917) Public Garden Second Prize

RUH LEBEN I NTER NMENT CAMP

asking whether they would be able to enjoy the privileges of official affiliation with the organisation. The letter describes the aims of the society as being to “cultivate and beautify the ground around the barracks” and stated, “as the work we have in view is a large one, we should be grateful for gifts of bulbs and seeds” (Cumming, 2014). The RHS obliged and with the help of funding from Britain sympathisers, the internees set about transforming their environment. That year, the internees organised a series of “Wisley-standard horticultural lectures, along with two flower shows and prizes for window boxes, vegetables, gardens, and sweet peas” (Gardening in Wartime, 2014). They did it according to RHS standards and developed “fruit and vegetable displays, rock garden displays and show gardens outside each of the barracks” (Gardening in Wartime, 2014). Gardening in this way allowed them to once more feel connected to their homeland, and helped to create the illusion of an ‘ordinary’ British community behind enemy lines. Russel Clark, curator of ‘The Garden Museum’, explained that even in the middle of the war “they were getting the RHS journal delivered directly to the internment camp which is surprising because if the Germans wanted to know about any food shortages in Britain, it was right there in the magazine” (2017).

With their surroundings improving, thoughts turned towards growing food and the community borrowed money to build a “large patch of ground in the middle of the race track to grow vegetables”, culminating in the establishment of a fully functioning market garden “complete with 2000 tomatoes, 8000 lettuces and 16000 leeks” (Gardening in Wartime, 2014).

To deal with the harsher German climates they built nursery’s, cold frames and even a heated greenhouse, with some of the prisoners eventually being employed as full-time gardeners.

By the end of the war, the camp had become completely selfsufficient, and the quality of diet inside the fence had exceeded the standards outside; as a result, surplus produce was sold to German citizens to stimulate a functioning economy.

(R

RHS, 1916) Covering the Barbed Wire

(RHS, 1918) Spring Flower Show

(RHS, 1917) Vegetable Growing Contest Winners

16 RUH LEBEN I NTER NMENT CAMP

The story of Ruhleben, shows us just how important gardening was to British culture at the time. The fact that they went to the effort of requesting official affiliation with the RHS reveals the substantial morale-boosting benefits that communal gardening and official competitions had in their extreme setting. Here the prisoners were able to completely transform the aesthetic of their immediate environment and begin to construct a real sense of community and comradery through the medium of horticulture. Many of them gained a skillset they would continue to utilise long after the war was over and Russel revealed to me that when he was conducting his research into Ruhleben’, “I had people write to me explaining that my grandfather taught me to garden and he learned at the camp” (2017).

She passes through thy fertile land, Nor bow, nor arrows in her hand, Nor hunting-horn – as in the chase; Hammer and pegs have ta’en their place. … Diana bids such wastes provide Potatoes plump, and carrots slender, Parsnips, succulent and tender, Stout cauliflowers, and portly cabbage, Gay Brussels sprouts and sombre spinach Thus would she help thee keep each day The German hunger-wolf at bay.

Diana versus Mars (Willes, 2015, p. 280)

(Mawhood, 2017)

POWER TO THE PEOPLE 19 T HE HOM E F RONT

This poem was written in 1917 as a response to women working on allotments in London. At that time, the idea of a British woman gardening was considered by many as ‘dangerous radicalism’ and it was claimed that “working on land would unsex a woman and create social mischief unfitting her for a woman’s proper duties at home” (Allen and Massey, 1984, p. 197). However, the desperate food shortages of 1916/17 brought the underlying inequalities of Britain’s society into sharp relief, and by studying the landscape of gardening in this period it becomes clear that “one of the biggest deaths of the Great War, was that of the Edwardian Woman” (Willes, 2015, p. 287).

“We will frighten the British flag off the face of the waters and starve the British people until they, who have refused peace, will kneel and plead for it!” Kaiser Wilhelm (Turner, 1980, p. 197) Before the war, Britain was importing over 60% of its food supply, but by mid-1916 German U Boats were sending 600,000 tons of supplies to the bottom of the ocean every month, culminating in the realization that the country only had four days worth of food at its disposal. Families living in the countryside could utilise locally grown produce, but in London mothers were struggling to feed their children, “it was a terrible time. We were starving. I can remember my mother going out and picking dandelion leaves and making sandwiches with them” (Emden and Humphries, 2003, p. 191). Mothers across London were trying desperately to prevent the loss of young lives and many resorted to foraging and digging up their back lawns to provide; “mum decided she would give up flowers and grow vegetables. In its place, we grew carrots and onions and potatoes and swedes” (Emden and Humphries, 2003, p. 215). In a fascinating reversal of gender stereotypes, whilst soldiers overseas were planting flowers to remind them of Britain, their wives back home were digging up their flower borders to provide for the vulnerable demographics.

What had once been the domain of the man had become

(Horrace, 1917) Women on the Home Front

However, in this period gardening was thought of as a labourclass activity, and the typical middle-class citizen tended to avoid directly engaging with it. Whilst poorer families had begun growing their own food to circumvent rising prices, the upper-classes were still able to afford their weekly groceries.

In addition, “huge queues of over 3000 women were beginning to form outside grocery stores in South-East London as early as 5 o’clock in the morning” (Emden and Humphries, 2003, p. 216), and while the privileged could send servants out to collect their shopping, the pressures of work and school meant that often the poorer demographics were left with nothing. To make matters worse, “certain tradespeople would send out meat and other goods to favoured customers via the back door” (Emden and Humphries, 2003, p. 217), and suddenly the sight of an extravagant garden instead of a vegetable patch only served to highlight the inequalities of London’s class system.

When soldiers returning from leave started reporting that their sacrifices were not being shared equally at home “it becomes clear that this problem is universally discussed on the front and the men’s morale has suffered considerably” (Emden and Humphries, 2003, p. 219). Growing social unrest was beginning to hamper the war effort and with food shortages getting worse it was clear that something drastic needed to be done.

“If you can use a spade – go onto the land at once. Go to replenish our dangerously low stock. It is essential for the safety of the nation that we put forth immediately every effort to increase production” Prime minister Lloyd George (Foley, 2014, chapter 9) On Boxing Day 1916, the British Government issued the ‘Cultivation of the Lands Order’, “the most drastic statue of land reform Britain has ever seen” (Foley, 2014, chapter 9). The

20 T HE HOM E F RONT

the domain of the woman, and by “demonstrating their skilful manipulation of gardening tools they have proven that they are worthy mates of their men overseas” (Willes, 2015, p. 277).

21 T HE HOM E F RONT

order granted the re-appropriation of all unoccupied land for food production, and helped to “raise cabbages from concrete and broad beans from brickbats” (Foley, 2014, chapter 9). It was the cue that an army of elderly, mothers and children had been waiting for; permission to “pick up their forks and spades, roll up their sleeves and do battle with the weeds across the city” (Foley, 2014, chapter 9). Thousands of derelict sites were cleared of rubbish and turned into vegetable gardens and it became a common sight to see the old and young scraping manure off the roads for composting, “who could have expected the earth to yield up her treasures to patriarchs and babies” (Foley, 2014, chapter 9). Land donated by railway companies was turned into farmland and playing fields were dug up for cultivation. King George V led by example and had vegetable plots put in Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and ordered that model allotments replace the red geraniums by the Albert Memorial. This was repeated in six other parks across the city, and even the Prime Minister “turned his Surrey garden over to the growing of King Edward potatoes” (Foley, 2014, chapter 9).

This show of solidarity resulted in gardening being upgraded to a middle-class activity, and class divisions began to take on less of an importance in the context of the garden. When the war ended in November 1918, the number of allotments in London had tripled to 1.5 million and the men returned home to find a society substantially different to that they had left behind.

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(McLellan, 1917) The Duchess of Montrose Visiting Allotments

(Horrace, 1917) Children on the Home Front

‘Tillers of the soil they were – just gardeners then, In faith the day’s work doing as the day’s work came, Peaceful art in peace pursuing – not seeking fame – When through the Empire rang the Empire’s call for men.

Gardeners they were, finding in fragile flowers delight, Love in frail leaves, and charm even in wayside weeds.

Who, in their wildest dreams, ne’er rose to do brave deeds, Defending righteous cause against relentless Might!

The wide world gave her flowers for them – the mountains high, The valleys low, and classic hills all fringed with snow Where fires by sunset kindled light the alpen-glow.

O! Fate implacable! – to see those hills and die!

The war god rose refreshed – Gardeners and soldiers then!

Who, that slumbering Peace might wake, dared, with manhood’s zeal, To make Life’s sacrifice to Love’s supreme appeal.

For King and Country fought and died – Gardeners and Men! Harry H. Thompson (Jones and Parker, 2013, chapter 6)

(Mawhood, 2017)

LEADING

BY EXAMPLE 25 K EW G AR DENS

So far, we have seen how gardens became an important means of survival for people who may not have had an initial interest in them; however, in this final chapter I want to reveal how Kew Gardens, and its associates, used their knowledge of gardening and passion for botany to achieve some remarkable things despite the difficult circumstances facing them. When war broke out in 1914, national institutions like Kew were faced with the dilemma – change or decline, but rather than becoming redundant green-space the peacetime activities of Kew took on a new significance during the conflict, becoming an essential component of the war effort.

“What a privilege to work in such lovely gardens and to take on the place of our dear boys at the front” Lucy H. Joshua (1944, p. 393) With 124 men from Kew now fighting overseas, their roles and duties were taken on by 30 women from nearby horticultural colleges. At first these workers were met with “some suspicion from the men”, but by the end of the war “the ice had been broken and there was a real sense of comradeship” (Joshua, 1944, p. 393). In this professional setting, the new women could affect substantial changes within the conservative institution and “joined with the men when any matters connected with work cropped up to get some useful concessions” (Joshua, 1944, p.

394). These newcomers became the driving force behind Kew Gardens allotment campaign, compiling an “official demand that was needed for growing crops in front of the Palace” (Joshua, 1944, p. 394) – a remarkable achievement for a demographic which had long been looked down on by the profession. In early 1917, the gardens assumed the new function of instructing the public on how to produce their own vegetables and even made some of the land available to local-residents who had no gardens of their own. Model allotments were planted in front of Kew Palace and the Palm House, while potatoes and onions were grown on Kew’s lawns and along the boardwalks. On my study visit to Kew I reconstructed photos from this period and they help to show just how drastically this changed the garden’s appearance – one which had taken years of research and countless hours to design.

(Jones, 2013, chapter 6) The Palm House in 1917

(Mawhood, 2017) The Palm House as it is Today

(Jones, 2013, chapter 6) Kew Green in 1917

(Mawhood, 2017) Kew Green as it is Today

(Jones, 2013, chapter 6) The Orangery in 1917

(Mawhood, 2017) The Orangery as it is Today

(Jones, 2013, chapter 6) Kew Palace Lawn in 1917

(Mawhood, 2017) Kew Palace Lawn as it is Today

27

“The war work of botanists was as significant as that of other sciences” James Wearn (2016, p. 2)

K EW G AR DENS

The gardens also proved to be an invaluable resource of scientific expertise for Britain, and was relied upon extensively by many organisations and companies throughout the conflict.

The institution was frequently depended on by the Royal Flying Corps to provide advice on which timbers would be best suited for aviation purposes and to prevent inferior woods from entering our manufacturing lines. In addition, “numerous queries and samples were sent to Kew by the Minister of Munitions to ascertain from what strange materials opposition aircraft were being made from” (Wearn, 2016, p. 11), and quality assurance became a focus of activities in the Jodrell Laboratory. Wartime experiments conducted on nettle plants led to the production of new bio-plastics and research into algae led to the creation of soluble parachute silks.

A severe shortage of bandages was alleviated by the industrial production of sphagnum moss in the gardens, and research into organic pharmaceutical products for new ailments such as trench foot were also conducted by the institution (Wearn, 2015, 460).

For, wounded soldiers returning from the frontlines the gardens assumed a different role in the form of psychological treatment for shellshock. After it was found that ‘garden therapy’ could be beneficial to a soldier’s recovery, botanical institutions such as Kew were used as a method to treat soldiers who were suffering from extreme cases of battle trauma, helping to empower the patients, tackle social isolation, and divert their minds away from the horrors experienced in combat. In this way, Kew played a part in laying the foundations for our modern understanding of mental illnesses and paved the way for new methods to treat them with.

However, one of the most fascinating stories to come out of Kew Gardens from this period can be attributed to the eight gardeners who found themselves fighting in the Salonika Campaign. For these men, the war did not repress their unwavering passion for botany, instead offering them the opportunity to document and collect plants in regions they had never visited before. Despite

(Mawhood, 2017) A Collection of William Turrill’s Pressings from Salonika

28 K EW G AR DENS

the obvious constraints, these eight men sent packages of over 1600 gatherings of plant material back to Kew, made even more remarkable when we consider that “each specimen had to be hunted, collected, pressed, dried, identified, recorded and packaged”, often occurring “under hails of bullets” (Wearn, 2015, 5). The most prolific of these plant hunters was William Bertram Turrill whose personal collection numbered 550 gatherings and 80 packets of seeds, of which 40 grew back at Kew. In a letter sent to back home to Kew, Turrill explained that “there are times when I should be absolutely miserable, were it not for the healthy pleasure which my botanical knowledge provides me” (Wearn, 2016, p. 7).

After dark, Arthur F Baker conducted expeditions along the West bank of Lake Dorian to build his own collection of 334 specimens, whilst at the same time German infantryman Franz Doflein was building his own collection along the East Bank; “military aid was necessary and our positions and batteries had to be notified, so that we did not have the fire of our own men directed upon us” (Wearn, 2015, 11). In a pleasing twist of fate these collections were eventually displayed alongside each other at Kew after the war was over. However, one of the most poignant stories I came across was that of Private Charles Frederick Ball, who was last seen “lying behind a big boulder, digging up ‘weeds’ with Turkish bullets spitting all around him” (Wearn, 2015, 12); unfortunately, he was found dead a few days later, but it became known that “numerous seedlings are growing at Glasnevin from seeds he sent home” (Wearn, 2015, 12). In a region poorly known to the profession, important discoveries such as that of a new species of ‘Silene Harrissii” were made, and numerous papers and books on plant life in the region were published from these discoveries after the war had ended. Despite their difficult and often dangerous surroundings, these men didn’t let the war diminish their passion, and the image of these soldiers wandering intrepidly around the battlefields seeking interesting specimens shows us the important role that gardening played for them during the conflict.

POLEMIC LANDSCAPE REDISCOVERED? 29 C ONC LUDI NG THOUGHT S

Over the course of this essay we have discovered numerous examples of how, during The Great War, gardens demonstrated qualities and functions that far exceed our modern expectations of them. On the Western Front, gardens became an important outlet for soldier’s creativity, helping to raise morale and improve their horrifying living conditions, whilst in Ruhleben gardening became a way for the prisoners to re-connect with their homeland by establishing a functioning British community from behind enemy lines. Back in Britain, gardening became the setting for huge social changes, where gender and class inequalities gradually subsided in the battle to feed the nation, and at Kew Gardens pioneering research and experiments were undertaken to provide the country with the cutting-edge resources needed to win the war. I did not expect the garden to fulfil so many different roles during this conflict, but as David Cooper points out, “the gardener, like anyone practically engaged with the natural world, must learn to play the hand he’s been dealt - that of a species which finds itself living in places where it must substantially alter the environment in order to survive” (2006, chapter 5). The war affected millions of people across the world, in a multitude of different ways, and altered European landscapes beyond recognition; but it was to this same landscape that humanity turned to in its darkest hour, using nature as a vessel for cultural expression and a way of actively responding to suffering. To create a garden is to “engage in a planned, demanding, longterm enterprise” and in this way gardeners “must always be living for the future and not the present” (Cooper, 2006, chapter 5). Therefore, British gardens in this period became expressive of the hope for a better future, bringing people together and embodying their maker’s desires, emotions, and feelings. I am not trying to say that gardens have lost their relevance in contemporary British culture, they are still a vital part of daily life for many people; however, I believe my research shows that in World War One, they evolved into something far more significant...

... an enterprise of survival.

If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam; A body of England’s, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away, A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness, In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

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(Muirhead, 1918) Watching our Artillery Fire on Trones