Despatches magazine – Summer 2014

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First World War Centenary Special Edition

Despatches

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Support us and enjoy an exclusive pass to all five branches By joining IWM Friends you are giving invaluable support to a range of projects that will help future generations to understand the causes, course and consequences of war. In return you can enjoy: Unlimited free entry to IWM London paying exhibitions including Horrible Histories: Spies Free entry to IWM Duxford* Unlimited free entry to the Churchill War Rooms Unlimited free entry to HMS Belfast Despatches, the Friends magazine, delivered direct to your door Exclusive Friends events

To join or to purchase a gift membership please call us on 020 7416 5255 or visit iwm.org.uk/friends *except special events and airshow days at IWM Duxford Discounts and free admission are at the discretion of IWM and IWM Trading Company

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Despatches IWM Q11538 PHOTOGRAPHER: SECOND LIEUTENANT THOMAS KEITH AITKEN

Number 18, Summer 2014

Left: Wounded British soldier and German prisoner sharing a cigarette at an advanced dressing station near Epehy.

Front cover: Informal portrait of Captain Charles Bean, Official War Correspondent, knee-deep in mud in Gird Trench, near Gueudecourt in France, during the winter of 1916–1917.

Photographer: Herbert F Baldwin.

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Comment Diane Lees IWM Friends News IWM News New First World War Galleries James Taylor offers an insight into IWM London’s new First World War Galleries History of the First World War in Objects Nigel Steel selects a map showing European rivalry and The Newcastle Commercials’ drum From Street to Trench Matt Brosnan on how the First World War shaped the North West of England Poems From the Front Paul O’Prey on the poetry of the First World War Fred’s Redemption, Possibly

by Geoff Green, our essay competition winner A Sunday in Sarajevo Philip Robinson on the assassination of Franz Ferdinand

36 The Art of War Marina Vaizey on Truth and Memory, a new exhibition at IWM London dedicated to the art of the First World War 39 First World War Facts Terry Charman details First World War facts about the Fighting Fronts 40 A Woman’s Eye: British Women and Photography During the First World War Hilary Roberts explores the role of women photographers in the war 47 Friends Events 48 What’s On 51 Behind the Scenes Gina Koutsika, Josie Gale and Lucy Footer share some of their favourite Centenary Projects 52 First World War Essential Lists Reading list (history and non-fiction) 54 Books 57 Shop 58 And Finally Professor Sir Hew Strachan Summer 2014 Despatches ■ 3

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Comment The First World War centenary really matters to a huge amount of people. It may be because of a personal and family connection, the effect the First World War had on their hometown, how it changed our wider society or because of their beliefs about war and the importance of peace.

The Imperial War Museum was established while the First World War was still being fought to ensure that future generations would remember the toil and sacrifice of those who were impacted by it. Almost 100 years later we continue our founding mission and are proud to be opening new First World War Galleries at IWM London as part of our wider centenary programme, presenting the conflict through the voices of those people who encountered it.

These new galleries will allow audiences old and young to explore the First World War in great depth. They will experience the sights, smells and sounds of the recreated trench, see what life was like at the front with the Sopwith Camel fighter plane and Mark V tank looming above, learn of the terrible strain the war placed on people and communities and discover the role that women and children played on the home front. Visitors can consider some of the big questions and choices, ordinary and extraordinary, that people of Britain and its empire had to face in this first ‘total war’ and discuss the impact the conflict had on the world in which we live today.

I should like to thank all IWM Friends for the great support that you have given IWM, especially while IWM London has been temporarily closed.

I am also very grateful to you for donating £250,000 to the Your Country Needs You section in the new galleries. We greatly appreciate this generous contribution which has enabled us to tell the story of Lord Kitchener’s recruitment campaign in Great Britain and its empire as well as that of those who supported the war effort from the home front.

I very much hope that you will come and visit a transformed IWM London and explore our ground-breaking new galleries soon.

Lambeth Road, London, SE1 6HZ Registered Charity No. 294360 Telephone: 020 7416 5255 Email: friends@iwm.org.uk Website: www.iwm.org.uk/friends Honorary Members His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales His Royal Highness The Duke of York

Diane Lees, Director-General of IWM

Patrons The Rt Hon the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury The Archbishop of Westminster His Excellency the Secretary-General for the Commonwealth His Excellency the High Commissioner for Australia His Excellency the High Commissioner for Canada His Excellency the High Commissioner for India His Excellency the High Commissioner for New Zealand His Excellency the High Commissioner for Pakistan Her Excellency the High Commissioner for South Africa His Excellency the High Commissioner for Sri Lanka General Sir Peter de la Billière KCB KBE DSO MC and Bar DL Dr Alan Borg CBE FSA Field Marshal Sir John Chapple GCB CBE Sir Robert Crawford CBE Dr Noble Frankland CB CBE DFC Sara Jones CBE DL The Rt.Hon The Countess Mountbatten of Burma CBE CD JP DL Sir Harold Walker KCMG President: Professor Sir David Cannadine Friends Council Members Chairman: David Long Major General David Burden CB CVO CBE Emma Burrows Tony Hine Diane Lees FMA FRSA Philip Middleton (co-opted) Donough O’Brien Professor Paul O’Prey Damien Spratt (co-opted) Foster Summerson Marina Vaizey CBE Margaret Watson Head of the Friends: Victoria Thompson Membership Services Manager: Laura Whitman Founder: Air Commodore Dame Felicity Peake DBE AE Editorial Committee Chairman: Marina Vaizey CBE Lindsay Ball Elizabeth Bowers David Long Emily MacArthur Amanda Mason Professor Paul O’Prey Hilary Roberts Victoria Thompson Kieran Whitworth Despatches Editor: Victoria Thompson 020 7416 5372 Picture researcher: Laura Whitman Design: Smith+Bell www.smithplusbell.com Advertising: Media Shed www.media-shed.co.uk Print: Blackmore Ltd www.blackmore.co.uk To request additional copies or back issues call 020 7416 5372

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IWM FRIENDS NEWS

The 2014 IWM Friends AGM will be held on Wednesday 29 October at 5pm at the Churchill War Rooms. We are delighted to announce that our guest speaker after the AGM will be Edward Stourton.

Mr Stourton is a presenter of BBC Radio Four programmes including The World at One, The World This Weekend, Sunday and Analysis, and is a regular contributor to the Today programme, where for ten years he was one of the main presenters. He has written and presented several high-profile current affairs programmes and documentaries for radio and television, and also writes for national newspapers and magazines.

ELEANOR STOURTON

Edward Stourton to speak at 2014 AGM

Born in Nigeria in 1957 and educated at Cambridge University, he is the author of Absolute Truth (Viking 1998), In the Footsteps of St Paul (Hodder & Stoughton 2004), Paul of Tarsus: A Visionary Life (Paulist Press 2005), John Paul II: Man of History (2006), It’s a PC World: What it Means to Live in a Land Gone Politically Correct (Hodder & Stoughton 2008) and Diary of a Dog-walker (Transworld 2011). His latest book, Cruel Crossing: Escaping Hitler Across the Pyrenees, tells the story of the hundreds of people who, fleeing occupied Europe, climbed through the Pyrenees during the Second World War, malnourished and exhausted after weeks on the run hiding in barns and attics. It is this book which will be the subject of Mr Stourton’s talk.

Professor Sir David Cannadine appointed the new Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Our President, Professor Sir David Cannadine, has been appointed as the new Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and will take up the post on 1 October 2014.

Sir David will succeed the ODNB ’s current Editor, Dr Lawrence Goldman, vicemaster of St Peter’s College, Oxford, who has held the editorship since October 2004.

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Sir David is Dodge Professor of History at Princeton University and a specialist in the political, social and cultural history of modern Britain and its empire. He is the author of 14 books (and editor of a further 14 volumes) including The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (1990), Ornamentalism: how the British saw their Empire (2001), Making

History Now and Then (2008) and The Undivided Past: Humanity Beyond our Differences (2013).

Sir David will combine the editorship of the Oxford DNB with teaching at Princeton. He will also become a visiting professor in the Faculty of History at the University of Oxford.

£250,000 – £240,000 – £230,000 – £220,000 – £210,000 – £200,000 – £190,000 – £180,000 – £170,000 – £160,000 – £150,000 – £140,000 – £130,000 – £120,000 – £110,000 – £100,000 – £90,000 – £80,000 – £70,000 – £60,000 – £50,000 – £40,000 – £30,000 – £20,000 – £10,000 – 0–

IWM Friends Appeal

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IWM FRIENDS NEWS IWM Friends reachYour Country Needs You Campaign target We are delighted to announce that we have reached our Your Country Needs You Campaign target of £250,000 four months ahead of our deadline of November 2014. As IWM

Friends may know, the Your Country Needs You section in our new First World War Galleries will explore Lord Kitchener’s recruitment campaign in both Great Britain and the Empire and

Admiral Sir Desmond Cassidi GCB Mr Roy Casson Mr RC Cave Mr Brian Cawkwell Ms Margaret Chambers Mr David Chantler Field Marshal Sir John Chapple GCB CBE Mr David Charlesworth & Mr Charles Micklewright Mr and Mrs David Chitty Mr RJ Clarkson Mr Robin Baiden Mr and Mrs Ronald Clarkson Mr Peter Bailey Mr and Mrs Malcolm Baines Prof RE Clements Mr & Mrs AP Clinch Mr Robert Barclay Mr Neil Coakley Mr Kenneth Barker Miss Joanne Cogram & Ms Andrina Barnden Mrs P Cogram Major RV Barnes Professor & Dr SI Cohen Ms Caroline Barnett Mrs P Collins Major PR Barrass Miss Elizabeth Conder Mr R Barry Mr and Mrs Gerald Bateman Mr Geoffrey & Dr Deborah Connolly Mrs Maureen Beales Mr Jason Conrad Mr Emile Beaudoin Mr and Mrs Michael Conroy Mr & Mrs M R Bell Miss Victoria Benbow & Ms Miss Miriam Cooper Mr Paul Cooper Rachel Haverson Mrs Audrey CorbouldMr AM Bennett Turner Reverend Arnold Bennett Dr Peter C Corry Colonel PS Bennett Mr Peter Cousin Mr and Mrs Paul Beresford Mr HL Cowlard Mrs JM Berridge Mr Alan Cox Mr LBerry Sir Robert and Mr Nigel Berry Lady Crawford Mr Paul Berry Mr SJ Croad MBE Mr and Mrs Jeremy Best Mr & Mrs GF Crockett Mrs Jennifer Beyer and Mr Gordon Crumley Mr Harry Beyer Mr Ken Currah General Sir Peter de la Billière KCB KBE DSO MC Mr and Mrs Michael Curtis and Bar DL Mr RM Dallas Mr SA Bird Mrs Jackie Daly Mr & Mrs MH Blackburn Mr Nigel Dandy Mr John Block Mr John Dangerfield Mr Brian Bloomfield Mr MW Daniell Mr and Mrs Colin Blowers Mr N Dannatt Mr JS Blunden Mr Mike Dark & Miss M Boland Mr John Blowers Mr Steven Booth Mr G Davidson Mr and Mrs Romen Bose Mr David Davies Miss Brenda M Bousfield Mr and Mrs Jeffrey D Boyling Mrs Gemma Davies Mr A Davis Mr and Mrs Mark Bradley Mr Peter Davis Mr Simon Bragg Mr John M Davis Mr Frank Brand Mrs Josephine Davis Mr DR Branscombe Mr Maurice Dawson Mr Rod Brewster Mrs Sue Dawson Mr & Mrs T J Briden Mr Peter and Mrs Marion Dell Mr Rolando Broger Mr GR Denham & Mr John Brotherton Ms S Shade Mr Lawrence Patrick Brough Dr & Mrs MJ Denham Mrs Angela M Brown Dr Mo Dewar Dr Jennifer Brown Mr & Mrs James Dickinson Mrs Dudley Buchanan Dr John P Dickenson Mr Graham Buddery Major General David Burden Mr SG Dickinson Mr Richard Dockree Mr Geoffrey Burgess and Mrs Joyce Dodd the late Mr Alan Martin Mr and Mrs Phillip Doorbar Mr Henry Ronald Burgess Mr and Mrs Kevin Dorrell Ms Emma Burrows & The Drapers’ Company Mr Olivier Salter Mr DG Drew Miss Anne Burt Mr Martyn Duncumb Dr Martin Butcher Mr RR Dunkley Mr and Mrs Ian Byrnes Mr TJ Dunn Mr David Dwight Mr Colin Cairney Mr T Cantlay Mr RG Edwards Reverend Christopher Mrs Kate Elliott Carson Mrs Maureen Elton Mr & Mrs G Casey Mr and Mrs DJ Elvidge Miss MS Casey

Mr Andrew Etherington Mr Edward Ewing

Mr J Adams Mr & Mrs SV Allera Mr & Mrs JA Allison Mr JD Amess Mr David Amos Mr JK Appleby Mr & Mrs JA Appletree Mr David Armstrong Mrs L Ash and Mr W Cook Mrs S Asquith Mr John Atkinson

Ms L Fairtlough Ms Susannah Farley-Green Mr LF Favret Mr and Mrs Roger Felton Mr Edward Field Mr Michael Field Ms Tara Finn Mr Christopher Fisher Mr KL Fitzpatrick Mr David Flintham Mrs Sibylla Flower in memory of Roderick Suddaby Mr Ian D Forman Mr and Mrs John Fort Mr Martyn Foster Dr Richard Foster Mr WR Christopher Foyle Mr William Franklin Mr Brian T Frear Mr David Freegard Mr & Mrs AP Frost Mr EA Fry Mr William B Fulton Mr George Gair Dr Kevin Gallagher Mr George Gard Mr and Mrs AJ Gardiner Ms Juliet Gardiner Ms Susan Garland and Mr Gerald Barton Mr and Mrs Eric Gentry Mr and Mrs Liam Gillespie Mr D Gilmartin Mr Jeffrey Glazin Mr Joe Gluza Mr Julian Golbey Mr Julian Goodhew Mr RR Goodey Mr K R Gooding Mr Jeffrey Goodman Miss Sylvia Goodman Lt Col Martin Goodson Miss Janet M Gowin Mr RR Graham Mr Richard Graham Mr & Mrs GW Grainger Miss E Grassham Mr GWC Gravenor Mr Roger S Gray Mr Ian Greenwood Mr Terence Gregory Dr Alexander Grieve Mr and Mrs MW Griffin Mr and Mrs Trevor Groves Mrs Yvette Gurton and Mr Richard Gurton Mr C Guthrie Mr and Mrs Roger Hackwell Mr Graham Hadley Mr DS Hague Mr Eric W Hall Colonel Thomas Hall Professor Paul G Halpern Major & Mrs ACL Halsall Mr and Mrs John Hamilton Mr and Mrs Ken Hamilton Mrs MJ Hampson Major RF Hanbury Mrs BJ Hand Mr & Mrs WW Hanna Mr Marc Hanson Mr DI Harding Mr Neil F Harnby Mr Malcolm Harradine Mr Derek and Mrs Rita Harding

Mr Peter R Harris Mr Timothy Harte Mr Charles E Haskett Mr Richard Hatfield CBE Mr Rodney Hawkley Dr Geoffrey Haydon Mr P Hayhoe Mr Richard Hayward Mr Paul A Hazelwood Mr Michael Hearl Mr John Heath Mr TWR Heathcote Mr and Mrs Brian Hedger Mr Lennart Heiskanen Mr & Mrs PA Herbert Mr James Hewitt Mr and Mrs William Hickin Miss Jill Hicks Mrs Margaret Highton Mr W Hill Ms June Hirst Mr JO Hoath Mr John Hodder Mr D Hodge Lady Elisabeth Hodges Mr and Mrs Alan Hofman Mr David Holden Dr Ann Holder Sir Anthony and Lady Holland Mr & Mrs AC Honey Mr Richard Hooper Mr Walter Hooper Mr and Mrs Bryan Hopkins Mr & Mrs LE Horner Mr Brian Houlihan Mrs C Howald Mr & Mrs Brian F Howard Mr CD Howell Dr KA Howlett Mr Christopher Hoysted Mr and Mrs Cedric Hudson Mr B Huggett Mr GD Hughes Lady Humphrey Professor David Hunt Mr & Mrs HW Hunt Mrs Mary Hurford Mr John Hussey OBE Mr JFS Hyde Lt Col Robert Hywel-Jones Mr Steven P Ifield Miss MP Izatt Mr Robert Jack Colonel Arthur Jackson Sir Barry and Lady Jackson Mr A Jaeger Mr JA Jaeger Mr Robert Jack Mrs Elizabeth James Miss Janet A James Mrs Doreen Jansen Mr JW Jenkins Mr Mark Jenkins Mr and Mrs Derrick Johnson Colonel Neil A Johnson OBE TD ADC DL Mrs E Johnstone Mr and Mrs Gareth Jones Mr RTH Jones Mr and Mrs Rhidian Jones Mr Trevor Jones Mr R Joyce Mr G Karger Miss JMA Kauntze Mr AJ Kazimi Mr AG Keirle Mr Alan Kelly Miss MP Kemp

will look at how those who stayed at home did what they could to support the war effort.

The £250,000 donation will be the largest grant that IWM Friends will have given the Mr John Kerry Mr DA Kimber Mr Bernard King Mr MF King Mr IN Kirby OBE Mr James Kirkham Mr Alex Kirkley Mrs Dora Kneebone Miss Marie-Anne Knight Mr & Mrs LD Knott Mr H Gordon Knowles Air Vice Marshal GC Lamb CB CBE AFC FBIM RAF Mr and Mrs Anthony Lane Ms Margaret Lane Mr and Mrs Steven Lansdell Mr & Mrs PG Laurenson Miss Gladys M Law Mr Alan Lawley Mr Clive Layton Lt Col and Mrs Frank Lea Mr David Michael Ledger Mr George Leftwich Mr ADR Leonard Mr and Mrs Mark Lewis Air Commodore Robert Lightfoot Miss Patricia M Lloyd Mr and Mrs Douglas Lockey Mr David Long Mr PM Lou Ms Jean Lucas Mrs EJC Lumsden Major General Ian Lyall Grant Lady Lyell Mr John Macara Mr SJ Mace Mr George Mackay Mr R Maddock & Mrs M Bellion Mr A Maitland Mr DJ Mander Mr RM Manser Mr J Mapus-Smith Dr Patricia Mark Mr David Marlow Mr & Mrs AE Marshall Mr Richard Martin Mr Brian J Matthews Dr Brian R Matthews Mr Richard Max Brigadier Maynard Ms Ruth McCabe Mr Ivan McCracken Ms I McCready Mr AJ McGarry Ms Susan McGinn Ms R McGlashon & Mr A Roe Mr Rory MacGregor Mr PN McGuire Mr GM McKenzie Mr AH McKibbin Mr Graym McMillan & Mr Jason Symonds Mr David Mead Mr John Mead Mr Brendan Meehan Mr Philip Middleton Mr & Mrs PJ Miller Mrs Sheila Millington Mrs DJ Mills Mr Colin Mitcham Mrs HF Mitchell Wing Commander and Mrs Michael Mockford The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein CMG CBE Mr Nigel Morriss Mr David Morton

Mr Michael Moses Mr AC Mumford Mr & Mrs P Mussellwhite Mr David Nash-Brown Mr AR Neal Mr Thomas Neubauer Mr Anthony Newell Dr FGA Noon Mr and Mrs Christopher Oliphant Mr TC Oliver The O’Morchoe & Madam O’Morchoe Professor Paul O’Prey Mr RJ Owen Mr and Mrs David Oxford Mr Bryan D Oxley Mr Graham Paisley Mr Lawrence Palk & Miss D Paice Mr George Parmenter Mr I Parmenter Mr Tony Parsons Mr & Mrs RJ Parsonson Mr RB Partridge Dr David Paterson Mrs PE Payne Mr Derek Pedersen Mr Anthony Peetoom Reverend B Pegg Mr Peter Penney Mr Robin Penwarden Mr James Peter Mr Nicholas Philpot Mr Graham Pickworth Mr R Pigden and Ms H Pigden Mr and Mrs Charles Pinder Ms Yvonne Pines Ms Elizabeth Plackett Mr D Plant Mrs Bridget Pollard Mr and Mrs Robin Porter Mr Gilbert and Mrs Anne Pottinger Miss Gaye Poulton Miss EA Powis Mr L Pragnell & Mrs M Pragnell Mrs I Progin Mr DJ Pryce & Ms C Waller Mr Marcus Pugh Mrs Margaret Purves GC Mr DL Rackham Mrs Myfanwy Ranson Mr DJ Reader Mr and Mrs Gary Reader Mr Ian Redhouse Dr Judith H Reece Dr Iain Reid Mr FL Reis Jr Mr Peter Ribbons Mr Clive Richards & Mrs Julia Evans Ms Dora Ringland Mr Andrew Rockingham Miss Daphne Rodger Mr & Mrs Stephen Rogers Mr AJ Roper Mr HR Rosen Mr Martin Ross Mr and Mrs Gerald Rothman Mr Leonard Rothstein Mr DW Routledge MBE Mr WJ Rowe Miss E Rowell Ms Diane Rowland

museum in its history. This has only been possible because of the generosity of our members. Those listed below have supported the campaign with a personal contribution.

Mr R Telford Mr and Mrs John Thatcher Mr Victor Thomas Mr Roger Thompson Mr ME Thorne Mr Gordon Thorpe Mr and Mrs Peter Titley Miss E Tolansky Mr Stanley Salter Mr Nigel Toulmin Mr Brian D Sanders BEM Mr Jeffery Townsend Mr Francis Sarre Miss M Trant-McCarthy Mr Barrie Saunders Mr DGJ Saunders & Ms W Dear Mr and Mrs Richard C Traylor Mr Paul and Mrs Jan Schrage Mr & Mrs CS Tredinnick Mr Marc Schuster Ms C Trim & Mr RG Trim Dr G Scott MA Mr JN Turner & Mrs M Smith Drs Geoff & Janet Scott Mr S A Turner Mr & Mrs MP Scott Lt Cdr & Mrs AJL Tyler Mr Alex Segal & Mr Terry Pentony Miss Paulette Unwin Mr John Seigal Mr and Mrs John Upton Mr GAG Selby-Lowndes Dr Michael Senior Mrs PM Vagnair Mr MCG Seward The Lady Vaizey CBE Mr Chris P Seymour Mr Marco van der Emde Mr and Mrs John Sharman Miss Vivienne van Mr PRT Sheen Straubenzee Mr Paul C Sieloff Mr and Mrs Timothy Mrs G Siggins M Verity Mr Philip Simmonds & Group Captain F Vincent OBE Miss Denise Ince Mr Leslie C Simpkins Mr Leslie Wade Mr Jeffery Simpson Ms Sheila Waghorn Miss Philippa H Simpson Ms Maria Waite Mr Stephen J Simpson Mr Ben Walden Mr John Singleton Mr Graham Walker Sir Christopher Slade Sir Harold Walker KCMG Admiral Sir Jock Slater Mr and Mrs Brian Reverend Charles Smith Wallsworth Mr Charles Smith Mr and Mrs John Ward Mr DW Smith Mr GD Warman Mr DJ Smith Reverend David & Mrs Smith Mr William Warner Mr & Mrs NC Watkis Mr Derek Smith Major and Mrs Watson Mr FW Smith Mr and Mrs Ian Watson Mr Frederick G B Smith Miss Maggie Watson Mr Peter Smith Dr Trudy Watt Father Philip Smith Mr Frederick J Webb Mr and Mrs Robin Snook Mr Jeremy Webb Mr Ferdinand Solosy Mr and Mrs Norman Webb Mr Richard Speller Mr DM Wells Mr Michael Spellissy Mrs Marian Werner Mr & Mrs VPJ Spring Captain HHS Spry-Leverton Mr DJ Westmoreland Ms S Westwood-Bate & Mrs F Squadrilli Carr Mr R Dabner Mr & Mrs Patrick A Stables Mr WRE White Mr Kenneth Stacey Mr John Whiteley Ms Kathleen Stafford Ms Moyra Whiteley Group Captain David and Mr and Mrs Robert Mrs Anne Stanley Whitfield Mr David Steeds Mr John P Whittaker Mr and Mrs Matthew Stein Mr and Mrs Anthony Stelling Mr and Mrs Richard Whittaker Mr Lionel Stephens Mr Cecil K Wiggs Mr and Mrs Peter Stiff Mr GD Wilburn Mr Anthony Stirratt Mr David Wildey Mr P Stoddart Mr and Mrs Brian Williams Mr M F Stokes Mr GC Williams Mr and Mrs M Stokes Major PH Williamson MBE Mr John Stone Dr AM Wilson Mr C Stratmann Mr Anthony Wilson Mr Michael Stuart Major Richard Wilson Mr AL Stubbs Mrs Maureen Summerscales Mr Christopher Woodcock Mr Gary WoodmanMr Foster Summerson Simmons Mr Tony Suttill Mr Christopher M Woods Dr Glenn Swafford Mr & Mrs GG Worrall Mr Warwick H Taylor MBE Mr Courtenay Young Dr Bill Taylor Mr James C Young Mr Brian Taylor Mr M Taylor Mr David Zydzienowski Mr & Mrs MJ Taylor Mr Francis M Rowson Mr Denis Royal Mr G Roynon Mr John Ruskin Mr Simon Russell Herr PG Ruwald

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SPECIAL OFFERS Introduce a friend to the Friends and receive a free gift

Purchase an IWM Friends membership as a gift by 31 October 2014 and you could receive a copy of A History of the First World War in 100 Objects by John Hughes-Wilson and Nigel Steel, published by Cassell in association with IWM. The book narrates the causes, progress and outcome of the first global war of the twentieth century by telling the stories behind 100 items of material evidence of the conflict.

To claim your free gift call 020 7416 5255 to purchase a gift membership and quote the code ‘100 Objects’.

15% discount at The Historic Dockyard Chatham

15% Discount at The Historic Dockyard Chatham This voucher entitles the bearer to a 15% discount on entry on the standard ticket entry of £18.50 for adults and £16.00 for concessions. Tickets are valid for 12 months and unlimited visits.

Name: ................................................................................................................................................

IWM Friends membership no.:

......................................................................

The Historic Dockyard Chatham is pleased to offer IWM Friends a 15% discount on entry upon presentation of the voucher, left.

To commemorate the centenary of the First World War, The Historic Dockyard’s latest exhibition – Valour, Loss & Sacrifice: Chatham, the Royal Navy and the War at Sea (until 30 November 2014) – reveals the remarkable role played by Chatham Dockyard, its workers and the Chatham Port Division of the Royal Navy in the war.

Four long years of valour, loss and sacrifice are depicted using first-hand accounts, personal effects and poignant items including paintings, pictures and poetry. All are drawn from the national collections of IWM

and the National Maritime Museum, complemented by previously unseen items from The Historic Dockyard’s own collection.

Visitors will see the havoc wrought

by German submarines and mines in the twisted metal remains and battlescarred ships of the fleet and learn of the new repair and maintenance challenges this presented to the dockyard. They will discover how the loss of Chatham Division ships affected lives back home, and how technologies were quickly developed to fight a new type of warfare challenging a navy that had not been seriously threatened in home waters since the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

For further information please visit www.thedockyard.co.uk

The Loss of Three Royal Navy Cruisers 22 September 2014

20% off at Private White VC

The Historic Dockyard Chatham invites IWM Friends to take part in an event of national significance which will remember three Royal Navy cruisers – HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy – which were sunk by enemy submarine action on 22 September 1914 in the North Sea off the Dutch coast, with a total loss of life of 1,459 men. The event includes a drumhead service; the unveiling of

Private White VC are partners of IWM North’s Street to Trench exhibition. Private White VC is a clothing company that manufactures all its garments in the same factory in central Manchester which Jack White VC founded upon his return to civilian life after the First World War. Private White was a recipient of the Victoria Cross in 1917 for his gallantry in Mesopotamia.

Private White VC has stores in Holborn, London and in Manchester and is delighted to offer IWM Friends 20% off purchases. For further information visit www.privatewhitevc.com

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a commemorative plaque; the ‘Last Post’ played by Royal Marines buglers with the fall of 1,459 poppy petals (one for every life lost); and a musical finale with an afternoon Beating Retreat performance by the band of the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines.

To book tickets (free of charge) please email threecruisers1914 @chdt.org.uk

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IWM NEWS On the third floor, Curiosities of War will show some of the more obscure objects in IWM’s collections, ranging from a section from a bar where the Dambusters crew used to drink through to a sofa which troops in Afghanistan made out of Hesco fencing.

New Café, Tea Room and shops at IWM London’

IWM London transformed IWM London will re-open on 19 July as we reveal our new design

by Foster + Partners. As well as new First World War Galleries, the changes will include a redesigned atrium, three new shops and a new museum café opening out onto Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park.

On entering the museum, visitors will see a display entitled Witnesses to War, in which nine large objects including a Harrier, a Spitfire and a V-2 rocket will be suspended from above, as well as a T-34 tank, and a Reuters Land Rover damaged by a rocket attack in Gaza. Large architectural fins line the atrium, creating new terraces above; and as visitors move through the museum, more of IWM’s collection will be revealed.

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The terrace on the first floor presents Turning Points: 1934–1945, which examines some of the important aspects of the Second World War – such as the role of strategic bombing, the fronts in Russia and Africa and the D-Day landings – through curated displays using both large objects and other materials from IWM’s collections, including films and artworks.

On the second floor, Peace and Security focuses on contemporary conflicts from 1945 to the present day. The display looks at how Britain and Europe re-built themselves after the Second World War, and the way that conflicts have been fought and communities divided in places such as Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan.

IWM London’s new Café, managed by Peyton and Byrne, serves a range of hand-made British food prepared freshly every day. Seasonal food, including stone-baked sourdough pizzas, burgers, salads and speciality sandwiches, is available, as well as classic British puddings and healthy snacks.

The Café offers an opportunity for visitors to dine outside on our new park-side terrace, offering a selection of seasonal salads, hand-made ice creams, Peyton and Byrne original tea blends, and homebaked cakes and pastries.

The new Tea Room is open during busy periods, serving cream teas with fresh scones, jam and clotted cream, and a classic afternoon tea with a selection of finger sandwiches and cakes.

Three new permanent shops have been designed for IWM London. A dedicated bookshop with a selection of books, CDs and DVDs sits opposite a gift shop featuring Second World War-inspired gifts, as visitors enter the museum. There is also a new large gift shop with a wide selection of new gifts designed for the First World War Centenary and many exclusive to IWM.

14-18 NOW 14-18 NOW is the major cultural programme taking place across the UK as part of the official centenary commemorations of the First World War. Perceptions of the war have been shaped to a great extent by the artists of the time, including poets, writers, painters, sculptors, photographers and film-makers, many of whom served and reflected on the war and its effects. Their work had a profound and lasting impact.

14-18 NOW is inviting contemporary artists from the UK and around the world to explore the resonance of the First World War today. 2014 sees the first of three seasons of events taking place across the UK and online, with further programmes planned for 2016 and 2018.

This summer’s programme, running from June to August, features over 120 artists working in theatre, music, dance, photography, literature and film, creating events which take place from Monmouthshire to Edinburgh, Cornwall to London.

LIGHTS OUT

In this dramatic nationwide event, the UK will plunge into darkness between 10pm and 11pm on 4 August, the day that Britain entered the First World War one hundred years ago.

Upon this darkened canvas, single lights will appear across the nation. The public are invited to mark the moment at national or local events, or within their own home by leaving a single light or candle burning for this shared moment of reflection.

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IWM NEWS IWM 2014 024 462

Goodbye to All That

Lavinia Greenlaw, one of Britain’s most eminent poets, invites ten leading writers to respond to the title of Robert Graves’ famous book Goodbye to All That. Taking the phrase as a starting point for a personal reflection on the aftermath of war, these texts will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3, read and discussed at live events in Edinburgh and London, and published as an anthology.

Dazzle Ships

Two ships will be painted in specially-commissioned ‘dazzle’ designs by contemporary artists Carlos Cruz-Diez and Tobias Rehberger, taking inspiration from the famous camouflage patterns designed to confuse enemy U-boats.

HMS Belfastleads D-Day commemorations

Veterans who served in HMS Belfast during D-Day were joined by D-Day veterans from the Royal Hospital Chelsea and the Normandy Veterans Association.

On 6 June, HMS Belfast was host to the BBC Radio 2 Jeremy Vine Show for a special programme focusing on the cruiser’s role on D-Day. There were 23 live weather broadcasts from the ship throughout the day, as well as interviews with IWM spokespeople.

Over five days from 23–27 July, Liverpool welcomes back the Royal de Luxe street theatre company whose extraordinary Giants will tell the story of the impact of the outbreak of war on the city.

HMS Belfast led the commemorations of the seventieth anniversary of DDay. HMS Belfast was one of the very first ships to open fire on German positions at 5.27am on 6 June 1944, and is one of only three vessels remaining in the world that took part in the bombardment which

LETTER TO AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER

IWM Contemporary: Mark Neville

Memories of August 1914

Artists Kate Pullinger and Neil Bartlett are creating a new kind of war memorial by inviting the public to write a letter to an unknown First World War soldier. So far, letters have been received from Stephen Fry, Sebastian Faulks, Sheila Hancock and Andy McNab. To submit a letter to an unknown soldier, or to read more about the full 14-18 NOW programme, please visit www.1418now.org.uk

The latest IWM Contemporary exhibition features the work of the British artist Mark Neville.

Neville was commissioned in 2010 to spend two months as a war artist with 16 Air Assault Brigade in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, as part of a collaboration between IWM’s Art Commissions Committee and the arts organisation

supported the Normandy landings.

A D-Day veterans’ event was held on 20 May on board the ship with a ceremonial flypast by a Dakota from the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in the presence of the Prime Minister David Cameron, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson and 42 veterans.

firstsite in Colchester. Neville was taken out on patrol and allowed to experience the war first-hand, offering him a rare insight into modern warfare.

The exhibition begins with Growing up in Helmand, a series of photographic portraits of Afghan children encountered while out on patrol, alongside images of young British soldiers deployed in Helmand.

This is followed by a series of films, including Bolan Market, a six-minute slow-motion silent film shot from a Husky armoured vehicle as it moves through a market which was once a heavily-guarded Taliban area and is now a neutral zone.

IWM Contemporary: Mark Neville will be at IWM London from 19 July to 25 September 2014.

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IWM Documents 16483

FIRST WORLD WAR LIFE STORY

Above: Frank Middleton’s note to his mother.

Below: The cap badge of the South Lancashire Regiment.

In the first of a regular series, Charlotte Czyzyk, Lives of the First World War Life Story Co-ordinator, looks at one of the stories in IWM’s Lives of the First World War project, that of Frank Middleton, who features in IWM North’s From Street to Trench exhibition.

Finding missing pieces and the family lived in Eccles, near Manchester. After leaving school Frank worked as a quilt weaver and labourer before joining the army on 28 December 1914.

Frank’s service record details how he initially joined the Manchester Regiment on 28 December 1914, before being transferred to the 2nd Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment in April 1915. Frank wrote home on many occasions, the last time just two weeks before he died. We know from Frank’s medal index card that he was killed in action on 16 June 1915.

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Lives of the First World War was launched on 12 May 2014 as a permanent digital memorial to the millions of individuals from Great Britain, the Empire and Commonwealth who contributed to the war effort. The project brings together material from museums, libraries and archives from across the world in one place to enable the life stories of those who served in the First World War, either on the fighting fronts or the home front, to be told.

One such story is that of Frank Middleton, who is featured in IWM North’s exhibition From Street to Trench: A World War That Shaped a Region. Within the exhibition there is a scribbled note written

by Frank to his mother, to apologise for leaving to join the army without saying goodbye and asking her not to cry.

Using the data available on Lives of the First World War, we have been able to piece together additional information about Frank’s life. He was born in 1891 in Rochdale, Lancashire, to Martha and Charles Middleton. Frank had two sisters

Looking at the battalion war diary for this date gives us a sense of the danger that Frank and his comrades experienced: During the whole day, fire from our guns and those of the enemy was very heavy – many of the enemy’s shells pitched into Ypres, and these, together with falling buildings, placed the battalion in very considerable danger… As companies moved up to the position they were exposed to enemy’s fire of shrapnel, high explosives and gas shells, sustaining a number of casualties and the move was very slow. (National Archives Reference: WO 95/1414/1) Frank was believed to have been buried by the Middlesex Regiment, 8th Infantry Brigade. However, his grave must have later been lost because his is now one amongst nearly 55,000 names on the Menin Gate memorial to the missing in Ypres.

We hope that through Lives of the First World War, the missing pieces of Frank’s story – such as a photograph of him, or information about his interests and hobbies – can be found, shared and saved for future generations.

For further information on Lives of the First World War please visit www.livesofthefirstworldwar.org Summer 2014 Despatches ■ 13

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Save the Wheat and Help the Fleet, Hazell, Watson and Viney Ltd, litho, London, 1917.

German U-boats threatened to starve Britain of food and supplies.

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The Imperial War Museum was founded to make sure that we never forget what it is like to live in a world torn apart by conflict.

Over the coming months and years, with the First World War Centenary upon us, IWM will be in the spotlight as never before.

Our visitors and the media are keenly anticipating what form the galleries will take, what objects we will show and what we will say about them. I know that IWM Friends will be particularly eager to learn what you can expect to find and I would like to take this opportunity to give you an outline of the galleries as well as an insight into some of the thinking behind them.

We began working on the galleries over four years ago, when a small team of IWM historians and curators was brought together to see the project through from concept to realisation of the galleries. Our first task was to map out a storyline for them, to give the most devastating conflict in Britain’s history a fresh perspective which has historical integrity and is relevant, engaging and illuminating for all our visitors. Audience research showed that we needed to answer four important questions: Why did the war begin? Why did it continue? How did the Allies win? What was the impact of the war?

In accordance with IWM’s remit, we set out to answer these questions from a British and Empire perspective. We were also determined to ensure that the home front story was woven into the narrative.

After all, this was a conflict that was fought by whole societies – not just by soldiers, but by the men, women and children at home who supplied and supported them.

Over many weeks, we considered what form the story should take. The fruits of our debates and deliberations were translated into the fourteen main Story areas in the new galleries, each of which has a number of Substories. A board of distinguished academic advisers, chaired

by IWM Trustee Professor Sir Hew Strachan, helped us to chart our way through some of the more difficult waters as we refined and polished our narrative.

When we had agreed upon a framework for the galleries, we began to carry out a trawl of the collections and to plot objects large and small into the spaces. As you know, IWM’s First World War collections are unrivalled in their breadth and depth and the selection process was challenging. We looked at weaponry. We examined uniforms and equipment. We read thousands of letters and diaries. We pored

over pamphlets and posters, photographs and works of art. We watched hours of film.

Our curatorial teams offered up recommendations and stories to streamline and guide our thinking. The final selection which you will see in the galleries comprises 1,300 items from our collections. They range from military hardware, uniforms and equipment to intensely personal items. Some objects will be familiar to you, many of them not.

What they have in common is that they all have powerful stories to tell, not only of destruction and loss, but also of endurance, innovation, courage, duty and devotion.

As we looked at the objects, we also had to think about how and what we would say about them. We had to bear in mind that these would be the first galleries at IWM to show events outside living memory, and to consider what that meant for our audiences. When the Imperial War Museum opened in June 1920, King George V declared that the new museum would remember ‘common effort and common sacrifice’. For the first visitors to the new museum, the war was not history but the recent past. The exhibits needed little interpretation because those ➜

Commemorating the First World War

First World War ‘On War Service’ badge issued by the Ministry of Munitions.

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IWM London’s new First World War Galleries will open to the public on 19 July 2014. James Taylor, IWM’s Head of Research and Information, describes the journey from their inception to completion.

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➜ visitors knew what they were and what they meant to them. Yet the king also stated that the museum was to be an ‘an inspiration for future generations’. In order to be true to that vision, we had to find new ways of looking at our objects so that they would speak to our twenty-first century audiences, both now and in the future.

To bring the exhibits alive and ensure that they would not simply be relics of a distant past, we took the words of the men, women and children who had created and used them. Their voices are constantly present within the displays, not just in diaries and letters, but also in quotations embedded in the galleries’ fabric. We have presented events just as they were experienced by people at the time – without the benefit of hindsight. We worked with our academic advisers and curators to provide context and meaning.

We also looked to future generations for our own inspiration, working with our Youth Panel, an extraordinarily clever, creative and committed group of young people aged 14 to 19. They helped us give our texts and captions clarity and zest.

They also wrote family captions to help our youngest visitors understand and learn from the objects around them.

In order to translate our story and ideas – and above all our objects – into galleries, we engaged designers Casson Mann in 2010. The space they had to work with is, in essence, a horseshoe-shape. Casson Mann’s concept was to invoke the landscape of the war and home fronts within the galleries, so that visitors would encounter the fighting front stories on the exterior of the space and the home front on the interior. This ensures that there is a constant interrelationship between the two which reflects the conduct of the war itself. Objects would be displayed on raised plinths, many in showcases, others on open display. Over 60 digital audiovisual displays and interactives not only allow visitors to access more of our collections, but also reveal more about the objects on display and help us to pace and punctuate the story.

The First World War Galleries begin with Hope and Glory, an introduction to Britain in the years before the war: a nation with a global empire, the mighty Royal Navy its sword and shield. A film projection sketches what life was like for the people of Britain, while a huge shipbuilder’s model of HMS Hercules symbolises the navy’s determination to rule the waves.

We then move on to take in developing European rivalries, an area in which a coat worn by Kaiser Wilhelm II is the central object; and the 1914 Summer Crisis which took the great European powers and their empires to war.

In Shock, we show how seven million men marched off to war in August 1914 hoping for a swift victory. Many of them wore colourful uniforms, such as the Austro-Hungarian and French examples on display here, which harked back to past eras of military glory. By the end of the year, one million of these soldiers lay dead. The main reason for the shocking number of casualties was the lethal nature of massed, modern weapons, like the French 75mm field gun which confronts visitors in this space. These first few months of war would see Britain’s small army effectively destroyed. A letter, hastily written on a piece of card by Lieutenant Neville Woodroffe of 1st Battalion, The Irish Guards, records the death of most of the officers in his unit.

Woodroffe was killed three days later.

We now come to Your Country Needs You, our first home front area. I am sure that you will need little introduction to this section. Through grants and individual

Left: Crowds outside Buckingham Palace cheer King George, Queen Mary and the Prince of Wales following the declaration of war in 1914.

Right: Recruits at Whitehall Recruiting Office. Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 4 August 1914 was greeted for the most part with popular enthusiasm, and resulted in a rush of men to enlist.

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Far right: Munitions workers paint shells in the National Shell Filling Factory at Chilwell, Nottinghamshire.

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protect them from the hail of shrapnel and bullets which had cost so many lives. An array of objects reveals how each side tried to gain an advantage over their enemies: trench mortars, grenades, knives, clubs, a sniper’s robe, mining equipment, a camouflaged tree observer post. We also show how soldiers tried to protect themselves, not just against explosives and flying metal, but against a fearful new weapon which seemed to break the rules of ‘civilised warfare’: poison gas.

In World War we see how the suffering spread across the globe, to fighting at sea and campaigns in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and at the disastrous Gallipoli landings. We see Italy entering the war on the Allied side, Serbia and Romania defeated and Russia’s ‘Great Retreat’ in 1915. Exhibits here include the battledamaged 5.5-inch naval gun at which Jack Cornwell VC was mortally wounded; a flag carried by an Australian infantry battalion during the landings at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915; and the uniform of a soldier in the Indian Army upon which Britain was so reliant in campaigns outside Europe.

Four large interactive screens allow visitors to explore and learn more about the stories here.

Feeding the Front shows how a home front was created in Britain from 1915 onwards. A network of factories was built to increase weapons production – for which an army of men and women workers had to be recruited. With the number of volunteers dwindling, conscription was introduced to swell the ranks of the army. A range of objects illuminates the stories behind the need for ‘manpower’ and supplies, such as a ‘munitionette’s’ uniform; badges worn by men to show that they were not ‘shirkers’ but on war service; and a white feather sent to a conscientious objector. An interactive supply line shows what it took to feed a mass, modern army, not just with weapons but with all manner of supplies such as meat, timber, bandages and even matches.

Total War shows how, supplied by the effort at home, Britain’s army could launch its huge offensive on the Somme in 1916.

The first troops went over the top at 7.30am on 1 July; by evening nearly 20,000 of them lay dead. Over the next five months, British and Empire soldiers fought repeated battles on the Somme. They gained little ground, but the scale and ferocity of their attacks astounded ➜

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contributions you, the IWM Friends, have donated £250,000 to support what is an important area in the development of our story in the galleries. Indeed, this is the largest contribution that IWM Friends have given to a single project in their history. We are sincerely grateful to you for your generosity. It means that we can explore what motivated so many young men across Britain and the Empire to join the army; and how men, women and even children who could not fight looked for other ways to support the war effort.

It is one of the most colourful areas our visitors will encounter. Recruitment posters compete for attention with a makeshift uniforms and equipment worn by recruits. In one letter to Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, founder of this ‘New Army’, a nine-year-old Irish boy offers his services as a despatch rider at the front; in another a woman sends him a proposal of marriage. We show how many people’s patriotic feelings were expressed by raising money and sending gifts to soldiers overseas. Visitors will also learn how some British citizens performed extraordinary acts of self-sacrifice.

We return to the Western Front in Deadlock, as soldiers dug trenches to

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➜ the German Army. Indeed, the Somme embodied an escalation of the industrialised violence of the war, and to emphasise this the area here is dominated by a British ‘Mother’ 9.2-inch howitzer.

Casualties would amount to over a million on both sides. Among them were Lieutenant Robert Smylie, whose wallet, containing a picture of his wife and children, was damaged when he was killed.

At All Costs shows how total war on the Western Front in 1916 and 1917 meant total war on Britain’s home front. In Ireland, Britain faced rebellion on its own streets.

Zeppelins, then Gotha bombers, brought death and destruction from the air.

German U-boats threatened to starve Britain of food and supplies – a risky strategy that would bring America into the war. We also show how the army of workers at home had become as important as the army on the fighting fronts. Women now performed many roles which had previously been the exclusive preserve of men – in industry, in transport and in agriculture.

Life at the Front looks at what it was like to be a British soldier: what they ate, for example; how they entertained themselves; what they believed; what

they feared; what happened to those wounded or taken prisoner. Within this area is a replica trench, a British tank looming above and a Sopwith Camel fighter swooping low overhead. Through sounds, projected silhouettes and images of soldiers hunkered below ground, we evoke the drudgery, discomfort, danger and comradeship which characterised the experience of a British ‘Tommy’ on the Western Front, from a sudden thunderstorm to a gas attack. On exiting our trench, visitors find an area called Machines Against Men, which looks at the technological and tactical advances made by the Allies on the Western Front in 1917, albeit ones which could not secure outright victory. Three large photographs testify to the appalling conditions which soldiers had to endure during the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, while Paul Nash’s The Menin Road depicts a landscape shattered beyond recognition.

In Breaking Down, visitors will see the terrible strains which soldiers and civilians endured after three years of war. Those strains would lead to revolution in Russia and mutiny, desertion and defeat for the armies of France, Italy and Turkey. Objects reveal how the Allied blockade and

economic mismanagement caused desperation, hardship and hunger in Germany and Austria-Hungary, from a loaf of the hated ‘war bread’ – one ingredient of which was sometimes sawdust – to ersatz (substitute) tea, coffee and tobacco; and even paper clothing. Our visitors now reach the dramatic final events of the war in 1918 in Seizing Victory. Two powerful audio-visual displays show not only how the huge German offensives threatened defeat for the Allies, but how the British, Empire, French and US armies rallied and defeated Germany. Visitors are surrounded by uniforms and weaponry of both the defeated and the victorious.

In War Without End, we reflect upon the human cost of the war. Statistics illustrate the breadth of suffering, and objects show the depth of it. From August 1914 to November 1918, an average of over 6,000 soldiers lost their lives each day. From Britain and its empire, one million had been killed or died of wounds or disease.

One in six British families had to cope with a direct bereavement. In one of the letters on display, Emily Chitticks writes to her fiancé Will Martin, unaware that he had been killed by a sniper the previous day.

Left: Large packets of bundles of memorial cards from the Imperial War Museum’s public appeal for photographs of men who died in the First World War. Right: British troops observing from a trench near Thiepval, September 1916.

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Far right: A mass demonstration marches down the Bellvuestrasse, Berlin, in 1918, after the First World War.

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ensure that the galleries are accessible to our younger audiences. The Collections Management team has overseen the complex task of installing objects onto plinths and into showcases. The Systems team has honed the databases and introduced new technology to enable us to track performance against our goals and ensure that we can install objects more accountably and more quickly.

Conservators at IWM London and IWM Duxford have conserved, restored and refreshed objects so that they might be displayed for many years to come.

Our Photographers have not only digitised the whole First World War film and photograph collections, but documented the exhibition-making process and filmed the former Somme battlefields for a truly stunning projection.

Our Design team has applied their extraordinary creativity to the artwork for the text and captions, to showcase layouts and to the design of a beautiful book to accompany the galleries – which in turn has been managed from concept to production by Publishing. Our Digital Media and Audio-visual teams have created digital labels and edited archival films and oral testimonies respectively.

IWM’s Marketing and Press teams have striven to ensure that what we are doing reaches the widest possible audience.

Our Visitor Services Assistants have risen to the many and diverse challenges which have come their way as the site has changed and progressed.

We are immensely grateful to all IWM Friends for your support during this transformation of IWM London. We are so appreciative of the ways in which you have contributed your time and money to help us realise our ambitions. Our combined efforts will ensure that the IWM London First World War Galleries will be, as King George V hoped, ‘an inspiration for future generations’.

The accompanying book, The First World War Galleries by Paul Cornish, published by IWM, is available at all IWM shops and IWM’s online shop, priced £35 hardback or £20 paperback. IWM Friends receive a 10% discount.

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She died in 1974, having never married.

The final area looks at some of the ways in which the war changed people’s lives, from changing the way we think about and remember war to fostering a heightened sense of national identity in the countries of Britain’s empire. In continental Europe, wars still raged in the immediate post-war years. In Germany, with mass unemployment, confidence in democracy faltered. People looked to the politics of extremes, to communism or to a new ideology, fascism. As the 1920s came to a close, the times of turbulence seemed to be over. On the tenth anniversary of the end of the First World War, people reflected upon what the war meant. Millions had risked their health and happiness to fight that war. Millions had risked – and so many lost – their lives.

If it had indeed been the ‘war to end war’, then that terrible cost might be justified.

The First World War Galleries has been a collaborative project which colleagues from across IWM have helped support and steer for four years. IWM curators and librarians have identified powerful exhibits, illuminated the stories around them and checked texts for accuracy.

Learning teams have worked with us to

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A HISTORY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN OBJECTS IWM Art PST 6964

As part of a new regular feature, IWM Historian Nigel Steel looks at some of the objects in IWM’s collections which tell the story of the First World War.

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The polarisation of Europe in 1914 is clearly reflected by this British poster, originally printed in London a few weeks after war began, with a sardonic English caption.

Each country is represented by national stereotypes, with the main belligerents as ‘Dogs of War’ now let ‘loose in Europe’.

To the north-west stands a British bulldog, protected by a stocky Jack Tar restraining warships on leads. Aligned

alongside a French poodle, the bulldog bites the nose of a German dachshund ‘thought to have gone mad’. The dachshund is yoked to an ‘Austrian Mongrel’ intent on bullying little Serbia.

But Serbia is being protected by a Russian bear, exactly as the dachshund had hoped, as this should allow it to ‘steal a bone or two through the fighting’. Beyond the Balkans, a crouching Turk with a fez-

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The Newcastle Commercials’ drum

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A History of the First World War in 100 Objects

by John Hughes-Wilson (IWM Consultant, Nigel Steel), published by Octopus in association with Imperial War Museums, is available in IWM shops and the online shop priced £30.

IWM Friends receive a 10% discount.

In August and September 1914, as patriotic enthusiasm gripped Great Britain, Newcastle-uponTyne was prominent among the many towns and cities that formed ‘Pals’ battalions.

On 2 September, George Renwick MP suggested to the Newcastle and Gateshead Chamber of Commerce that they offer to the War Office a battalion of men from local businesses.

Accepted on 8 September, within eight days the Newcastle Commercials were at full strength. They were formally established as the 16th Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, and later formed their own band using a set of drums, bugles and fifes given to them by Mrs Renwick. Their surviving drum, still brightly painted, shows the battalion’s name and regimental crest. On 1 July 1916, the battalion attacked Thiepval at the opening of the Somme campaign. Of those Commercials who proudly enlisted early in the war as a symbol of Newcastle’s civic pride, over 350 were killed.

wearing dachshund stretches out one hand to close the Dardanelles, while in the other he holds two German warships on a leash in the Black Sea. This clear piece of anti-German propaganda was actually reprinted in Hamburg and sold for 50 pfennigs, with the English title and text translated to lay the blame for war on aggressive, untrustworthy Britain. This is one of those German copies.

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From Street to Trench IWM Historian Matt Brosnan on From Street to Trench, a new exhibition at IWM North, which examines how the First World War shaped the North West of England.

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IWM North’s latest exhibition focuses on the effect the First World War had on the North West of England, exploring both the common themes of the conflict and aspects that were unique to the region. In staging an exhibition that looks at the experiences of people across the region – from Carlisle to Chester and from Liverpool to Manchester – IWM North shows the huge contribution local people made to the war effort and the impact it had on them. The exhibition displays material from across the IWM collections, supplemented with loans from local institutions and individuals.

From Street to Trench begins in the decade before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Film footage from the North West Film Archive provides snapshots of life in the region before the war, ranging from scenes at a textile mill in Carlisle to a bustling Stockport market.

Pre-war life was hard for many, yet there was a strong sense of patriotism and both regional and national identity.

Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. A section entitled ‘Waking Up to War’ explores how men and women across the North West flocked to support the war effort. A wall of posters shows how the armed forces expanded rapidly, with many ‘Pals’ battalions being formed in the region. These were units that encouraged men who were friends, relatives and workmates to serve together. Men could be recruited anywhere – from music halls to football matches – and once enlisted faced months of training.

Women also volunteered to work for the war effort, including in newly-formed auxiliary military services. A group of personal items show how members of the Quirk family from Manchester all contributed to the war in different ways.

Gladys Quirk, the eldest sister, wrote about their efforts in a poem: ‘My brother is a Volunteer recruits for the ‘Preston Pals’ parade in their civilian clothes in Market Square, Preston, 7 September 1914.

soldier… My sister is a civil clerk, helping her country too… I’m just a munitions worker, toiling eight hours a day’.

Women worked in a greater variety of roles than before the war. In Manchester it became a more familiar sight to see women commuting to work on trains, buses and trams that were now also staffed by women. A hat and badge worn by a female ticket collector of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway shows how one of the region’s largest rail companies employed many women in wartime.

The ‘On the Street’ section focuses on the wide-ranging impact the war had on life at home. The British government took greater control over people’s lives.

Artefacts show how everything from banknotes to pub opening hours changed during the war.

Children from the North West made their own contribution, including writing to soldiers serving at the front and helping to raise money for local charity-funded hospitals. A realistic toy model of a Western Front trench shows how children were not completely sheltered from the war’s realities.

Convalescent hospitals were established across the North West in country houses and church halls. On display is a hospital bed borrowed from the National Trust property Dunham Massey, just outside Manchester, which housed one of these temporary hospitals.

Documents relating to Mary and Kathleen Duckworth, a mother and daughter who ran an auxiliary hospital in their home town of Heywood in Lancashire, illustrate the huge efforts of regional medical staff.

However, not everyone believed supporting the war effort was right.

Conscientious Objectors (COs) were those men who refused to be conscripted into the armed forces on moral, religious or political grounds. Among them was Euclid Thursby, one of 93 COs from the small town of Nelson in Lancashire. Later generations of Thursby’s family have lent material relating to his time at Wakefield Work Centre, a disused prison where COs were forced to work.

Civilians increasingly felt under threat from air raids, ‘enemy aliens’ and food shortages. The North West experienced two raids by German Zeppelin airships, with bomb fragments from a raid on Bolton in 1916 on display. A Salford police register shows how the government ➜ Summer 2014 Despatches ■ 23

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Left: Anna Airy, The ‘L’ Press.

Forging the Jacket of an 18-inch Gun: ArmstrongWhitworth Works, Openshaw, 1918.

Opposite page: The station mistress and two porters of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway at Irlams o’th Height station, Salford, 1917.

➜ monitored German nationals living in Britain. Many were later held in internment camps, as depicted by German artist George Kenner, who drew scenes at his camp on the Isle of Man. Civilians also faced food shortages due to attacks on British supply ships by German U-boats, leading to the first introduction of rationing in 1918.

Many changes on the home front were connected to the necessity of harnessing industry for the war effort. In ‘Feeding the Fire’, the exhibition explores the North West’s wide-ranging contribution to the huge industrial effort needed to support the war. On display are shells, hand grenades, rifle cartridges and uniforms manufactured by the region’s factories.

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range of small metal components made by women workers highlights the technical skills that women were rapidly acquiring. However, film and audio clips reveal how industrial work could be hazardous.

The region’s industry also produced specialist equipment. This included a large flamethrower used in a naval raid in 1918 that was made by a Manchester firm more accustomed to making equipment to extinguish fires. Similarly, a small periscope used by troops to see over the top of a front line trench without being exposed to enemy fire is a prime example of wartime adaptability. It was made by Duerr’s, a Manchester company that made jam in peacetime and still does today.

The ‘Witnessing War’ section focuses on the experiences of people from the North West who served in the armed forces across the globe.

The global nature of the First World War is explored through personal items of soldiers from the North West who served in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, Salonika and Africa. A handwritten account of the famous ‘Lancashire Landing’ at ‘W’ Beach on Cape Helles in Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 describes the drama and casualties of battle. Souvenirs made and gathered

by Lancashire soldier Jack Finnigan provide insight into his service in Mesopotamia, where temperatures could exceed 40°C. Amongst the numerous personal stories is a collection of items relating to Leonard Riddell, a young Royal Air Force pilot from Manchester who joined up aged 17. In August 1918, Riddell crashed behind enemy lines on the Western Front, breaking his leg. He was held as a prisoner of war in Germany until being repatriated in 1919. His photograph

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album, diary, letters and other documents have never been displayed before.

Items ranging from a flag flown from HMS Birkenhead during the Battle of Jutland in 1916 to drawings by a sailorartist who served off the coast of Africa illustrate the experience of sailors at sea.

In letters to his sister, pre-war professional footballer Teddy Ashton describes the 24hour daylight of northern Russia when serving in HMS Albemarle.

It was in France and Belgium that most of the soldiers from the North West experienced military service. Visitors can see personal artefacts relating to eight soldiers who experienced the dangers of the Western Front. Among them are original manuscript poems, on loan from the Bodleian Library, written by poet Wilfred Owen while serving as an officer of the Manchester Regiment. The gallantry

of local soldiers is represented through the medals and personal items of two Victoria Cross recipients, Felix Baxter VC and John Davies VC, and the Albert Medal for saving life on land of Victor Brookes, the latter award recently donated to IWM by his family.

The exhibition concludes with a section entitled ‘Aftershocks’, which examines the impact of the First World War on the North West. As Red Cross worker Rhoda McGuire wrote in a letter, the armistice of 11 November 1918 was met with a mixture of joy and disbelief in Liverpool: ‘Hurrah! ... Peace at last. I think we have all gone mad. Such a day! It seems too good to be true… we can hardly realise that the war is over… All shops and offices closed immediately and the streets were thronged with people. You could walk on their heads’.

In the years that followed, people had to

try to come to terms with a conflict that had left few corners of the region – or of the country – untouched. Personal mementoes and community memorial plaques show how remembering lost loved ones took many different forms.

Archive film footage of memorial unveilings in the 1920s is displayed alongside present-day photographs of these sites in the North West. These memorials and sites stand as a symbol of this huge and tumultuous event that, while not constantly at the front of our minds, is always present in the everyday fabric of our nation’s history.

From Street to Trench: A World War That Shaped a Region is at IWM North until 31 May 2015, open daily (except 24, 25, 26 December) 10am to 5pm, IWM North, The Quays, Trafford Wharf Road, Manchester, M17 1TZ. Summer 2014 Despatches ■ 25

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Poems from the Front

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Professor Paul O’Prey on the poetry of the First World War. the poets most likely to be studied by British schoolchildren, they look bemused. I think some of them assume that I’m going to talk about patriotic celebrations of great heroism; or maybe they have in mind something like Tennyson’s ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’. When we come to read Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg and others, they’re surprised to find that these poems have the power to fire their own imaginations and demand their full attention.

Graves said that he wrote his early war poems to show the ‘ignorant’ people back home in Britain what the war was really like.

Frustrated by what he read in newspapers (‘rosy official accounts of execrable battles’) and irritated by the unthinking support for the war that he encountered when he went back home on leave, he wanted to shine an ‘unofficial light’ on the horrors he saw in the trenches. His initial response to the war included a rather graphic poem describing ‘A Dead Boche’,

COURTESY OF THE ROBERT GRAVES ESTATE

Shakespeare and Byron both had to wait over a hundred years before they had a memorial stone in Poets’ Corner, which shows just how remarkable it is that Robert Graves was honoured there while he was still alive. In November 1985, a month before Graves died, the then Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes, unveiled a memorial stone on which is carved the names of sixteen poets who served in the First World War. Graves was among them, along with his friends Siegfried Sassoon, Edmund Blunden and Wilfred Owen.

The fact that Westminster Abbey couldn’t wait for the last of them to die before installing the memorial is an indication of how the poetry of the First World War has established a unique hold on our collective imagination. In the words of a more recent Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, the poetry of the First World War has become an almost sacred national text.

When I have lectured about war poetry abroad in places such as China or parts of Europe, students are intrigued by what they tend to see as a uniquely British literary phenomenon. When I tell them that, after Shakespeare, the war poets can be among

Robert Graves

though as the war progressed he developed a more personal and thoughtful tone. Wilfred Owen put it a different way, saying that all a poet in his situation could do was ‘to tell the truth and to warn’.

Poets like Graves, Owen and Sassoon are sometimes accused of having an undue influence on shaping the way we now view the First World War. It is a commonly-heard lament that schoolchildren seem more inclined to listen to the poets rather than the historians, who in turn argue that the war is more complex and more subtle than the one decried by Siegfried Sassoon, with his mutinous contempt for buffoonish generals.

Graves would no doubt be surprised to hear that the poems he and his friends wrote in the heat of battle are still considered problematic with regard to how ‘official’ Britain considers the war in which they fought. But he would also, I think, have some sympathy with Jeremy Paxman, an historian of the war who also loves its poetry, who recently warned that a diet that consisted only of Owen and Sassoon would focus too much on a narrative of horror and pointless sacrifice at the expense of any wider and more balanced interpretation of the conflict.

The answer to this is not to stop teaching or reading Sassoon and Owen, but to establish a wider and more balanced view of the poetry written during the war, as well as a greater understanding of the men and women who wrote it. The attitude to the war expressed in the best poetry written at the front is wide-ranging, complex and frequently ambiguous. In other words, it reflects the varied range of experience of a great many of the people who were there.

Some of the poets were officers, while others were privates, nurses, medical orderlies and chaplains. They saw the war from very different angles, though there are some common themes in the poems they wrote to describe their experiences.

There is, for example, no hatred of the enemy; rather a deep bond of compassion and humanity with others caught up in the war. There is a great yearning for peace, friendship and the consoling beauty of the natural world.

David Jones, for example, served as a ➜

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Mary Borden

I am suffocating – I cannot get away – They cling to my skirts, my arms My hands – They clutch at my strength They call my name – They keep calling me.

They cry to me to undo their pain and let them free – I cannot set them free.

They throw themselves onto my breast, to die – I cannot even let them die – Come to me for one hour, strong, clean – whole – Their wounds gape at me – Their stumps menace me – Their bandaged faces grimace at me Their death rattle curses me – Give me rest – Make me clean – I am stained – I am soiled – I am streaked with their blood – I am soaked with the odor of the oozing of their wounds – I am saturated with the poison of their poor festering wounds – I am poisoned – I’m infected – I shall never wash it off – But you are clean – Your face is cold and fresh and wet by the rain – Let me drink the fresh moisture of your face with my lips – Your garments are electric with the wild blowing wind – Put your gallant cloak about me – Let me breathe, Let me breathe.

© Patrick Aylmer

Mary Borden, extract from ‘Come to me quickly...’

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entrance of the British Museum, where Binyon worked for forty years, as well as on countless war memorials around the country. Although he was over-age for active military service, he wanted to ‘be made use of in some way’. At first he volunteered for home guard duty, but in 1915 he joined the French Red Cross, serving at the front as an ambulancier and medical orderly. His job involved hard, dirty, menial work, as well as assisting the surgeon during operations and burning the amputated limbs afterwards. His poems changed radically after seeing such ‘horrible slaughter’ first-hand.

Women also served at the front, mainly as nurses. Vera Brittain and Mary Borden were tested to the limits of physical and emotional endurance in busy field hospitals, tending to an overwhelming flow of wounded men. Brittain wrote movingly of caring for wounded enemy soldiers. Working in the German Ward she

Wilfred Owen

IWM Q101783

➜ private soldier in the same regiment as Captains Graves and Sassoon. He was in the trenches longer than any other major poet (117 weeks) and later said that, unlike Owen, he never stopped believing in ‘the old lie’ – dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. After receiving a bullet wound at the Somme, the twenty-year-old Jones wrote a piece for publication, saying: ‘The trench is still cold and wet; eyes still ache, and hands freeze. But it’s worth it!’ A few weeks later he was back in the line.

Even Sassoon and Owen are more complex than commonly thought. They are known for their anti-war verses, but they were also professional officers who served with great courage (Sassoon was nicknamed ‘Mad Jack’ for his reckless acts of bravery). Both were awarded the Military Cross for exceptional leadership and gallantry in action. The incident which led to Owen’s decoration was described vividly in the official citation: ‘He personally manipulated a captured enemy machine gun from an isolated position and inflicted considerable losses on the enemy’. In other words, this most compassionate and peaceful of poets played a very active role in the fighting, which he saw as his duty. He was killed in action a week before the armistice.

Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy was an army chaplain who also served as a stretcherbearer and helped in any way he could. He too was awarded a Military Cross for an act of bravery in bringing aid to the wounded.

His Kiplingesque ballads, written in a working-class dialect, sought to give a voice to the men he served. He preached a Christian message of love and hope at the front, but he was not a pacifist.

Perhaps the most famous lines of the war were written by a humble medical orderly: They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon wrote ‘For the Fallen’ right at the start of the war, before he had seen any action. Like Rupert Brooke’s famous sonnets (‘If I should die…’), these four lines captured the prevailing mood of those early days, and are still recited at services of remembrance today. They are carved onto the stone

learned that ‘human mercy turns alike to friend or foe/When the darkest hour of all is creeping nigh’.

Mary Borden wrote some of the most powerful poems of the war. A wealthy heiress and novelist, she used her own money to set up and run a field hospital for French soldiers close to the front line.

She wrote with extraordinary passion and energy. In Poems From the Front I have included three little-known poems, not published in book form until now. Perhaps one reason for this is that they refer rather frankly to her love for Louis Spears, a young officer (later a general) who she met when he wandered into her hospital looking for some lost soldiers. Borden was married at the time, though she later divorced her husband and married Spears.

These poems were never prepared for publication and give the sense of being written spontaneously and at great speed, with no time for reflection or even punctuation. For some men, like Julian Grenfell, going to war seems to have made them feel more manly. Borden, on the other hand, felt that it undermined (or overwhelmed) her femininity and she worried that her work as a nurse made her repellent to her lover.

Poets such as Mary Borden, Ivor Gurney, Edmund Blunden and Isaac Rosenberg express a great humanity and deep sense of compassion for those around them, as well as a love of the natural world as an emblem of longed-for peace. Their ‘unofficial light’ is more personal than polemical, but it shone just as brightly in the darkness; and should help to shape the way we view the First World War today, as much as Sassoon’s anger and Owen’s pity.

First World War Poems From the Front, edited

by Paul O’Prey, is available in IWM shops and online shop priced £9.99. IWM Friends receive a 10% discount.

Paul O’Prey will take part in First World War Poems From the Front, a discussion chaired by John Simpson on Tuesday 4 November 2014 at 6.30pm at IWM London. For further details or to book tickets, please visit www.iwm.org.uk

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IWM FRIENDS’ ESSAY COMPETITION Last year we launched an essay competition to IWM Friends and asked for submissions on the subject of ‘What does the First World War mean to me and why should we commemorate it?’

We received many entries, all of which were of a high standard.

Three entries – by Mike Armitage, Alan Cooper and Geoff Green were shortlisted and were sent to Dan Snow to judge the winner.

Dan has selected Geoff Green’s submission, ‘Fred’s redemption possibly’, because it ‘shows how every name, every headstone has a human, complex, imperfect, wonderful story behind it.’

Fred’s redemption, possibly The sepia-tinged face looks passively back at me from a century past. Why do I feel the need to know more about him? The soldier’s uniform tugging patriotic strings, perhaps? Possibly the lifelong chip on my mother’s, his youngest daughter’s, shoulder because she, of all her siblings, never knew him.

My grandfather volunteered, aged 43, to be part of Kitchener’s army when he had nine children already and a tenth on the way.

Two of his sons were already fighting on the Western Front.

He hailed from Lincoln, where he was baptised with the name Fred and long after all his children had died we discovered that he had a younger brother, whom they had never met. His mother was lost to the scourge of tuberculosis when he was six and his father then followed the working road, first to London and then to Bedford, where he married again and had a second family. Fred’s children did not know them either.

Perhaps this was because Fred had his own dark secret which was finally revealed because his was one of the rare burned service records of the First World War that survived the Blitz of the Second. Fred had been a member of the Bedfordshire militia in the late 1880s and had subsequently volunteered for the regular army in 1890. He joined the ‘Buffs’ and was sent for basic training to Aldershot. The surviving elements of his service record suggest that taking orders and being disciplined were not entirely to his taste or temperament and he found himself on the charge carpet far more often than his record probably indicates.

By 1891 he committed the very serious offence of desertion and went on the run for four months. He was apprehended in Oxford, dragged back to Chatham, court-martialled and sentenced to 84 days of back-breaking hard labour. Released to the ranks, his harsh lesson had clearly not been learned and in 1892 he absconded again, but this time was not caught. The likely reason for his double flit was my grandmother, whom he married in December 1893.

His double desertion was perhaps the main reason for Fred keeping his own family well away from those of his brother and father; he never wanted his children to discover what he had done and it may also have been abetted by them branding him a ‘black sheep’ – eternally ostracised for committing that most heinous of uniformed sins, deserting the colours, twice!

He finally settled in Kingston-upon-Thames, where he worked 30 ■ Despatches Summer 2014

by Geoff Green for a wealthy company director. In 1914 his two eldest sons joined up, motivated by the patriotic fervour of the time. Fred had steady work, a tribe of demanding youngsters to support and was far too old to volunteer. However, in November 1915 he went to the recruiting office and signed the attestation forms again. Fred did not declare that he had previously been a member of His Majesty’s armed forces, but the rest of the information he gave was correct, right down to his date and place of birth. This man was not running from something which required a false identity: he was probably driven by guilt and the desire to put right a secret wrong that only he and his beloved wife understood.

One suspects he imagined that once in the Army Service Corps he would be bound for France, having enlisted as a member of a motor ambulance company, but fate dictated otherwise. He was shipped overseas to East Africa and a war of humidity, heat and disease-ridden suffering. His record suggests that during his fifteen months in that theatre he lived almost constantly with dysentery and malaria in appalling conditions and eventually the medics sent him back to the more temperate climate of South Africa to rest, recover and possibly be repatriated. A scrap of hand-written paper seems to suggest that this was their intention. Such suffering must have been terrible for anyone who was young and fit, but Fred was nearly 45 and probably far less physically able to cope than many of his younger companions.

Instead of being demobbed as medically unfit, he was posted to Mesopotamia, arriving in June 1917. Within a month he was dead, killed not by a Turkish bullet but by sunstroke. The official records tell us that the temperature in Baghdad during that July was the hottest ever recorded, remaining at around 50 degrees centigrade in the shade and 70 in full sunshine; and though the uniforms were thin by Western Front standards, they were hardly designed for those extreme conditions. Fred’s remains were one of the earliest to be interred in the newly-created North Gate Cemetery in Baghdad where he still lies, close to the tomb of General Maude, who himself was felled by cholera.

Fred’s demise can still be tracked through some surviving letters from his company commander, the Matron of the 23rd

Stationary Hospital on the banks of the Tigris where he died; and by an army chaplain who had to write to Fred’s widow in pencil since, as he says in a PS, ‘we have been unable to get any ink lately’. Their comments and the surviving record of his First World War service showed him to be dependable, reliable and, for the most part, tolerant of military discipline, responsibility and the expectations laden upon him.

This is not a conventional story of king and country bravery culminating in heroic death while fighting in the trenches. It is rather the somewhat unusual story of an ordinary man in the middle of life who seemed to want to make amends for the mistakes of his youth and paid the ultimate price in so doing.

Fortunately, perhaps, none of his ten children knew of his desertions before they themselves died. Fred’s wife, who lived as a widow until 1963, probably believed that nobody ever would discover their secret. My mother, who thought the world of him, would have had all her illusions shattered had she ever discovered the truth.

Today, Fred’s surviving grandchildren look back with fond regard and considerable admiration for a man who found the courage to redeem himself in the most dreadful of circumstances. I look again at the rather kindly, passive, sepia-toned face, the cap at a slightly jaunty angle and the belt testifying to the gaining growth of middle-aged spread beneath the khaki tunic. I can read his elegant handwriting in a few surviving postcards and in the family bible where he inscribed the names and all the birthdates of his children, except for his youngest, my mother, who as an adult had to write in her own; and I can stare at the only picture my grandmother ever owned of his grave, a simple wooden cross on a heaped sand-covered mound in faraway Baghdad. She never received one of him under a Portland headstone until a cousin climbed over the locked cemetery gate on the one day when he was in that city over sixty years ago and took a blurred black and white photograph on a simple Box Brownie.

I can talk to my own grandchildren about my grandfather, now five generations distant from their very different world. They can handle original family objects and letters that link Fred directly to them. They can learn something of the other theatres of war – not just the Western Front. They are able to understand the effects and consequences of Fred’s loss that my grandmother, left to raise her ten children in poverty-stricken circumstances, and millions like her, had to live with.

Fred was one unknown and quite insignificant casualty in a veritable avalanche of fatalities way beyond the comprehension of most people in Britain today. His unspectacular, if unusual, story deserves to be remembered, not least because his actions in 1915 suggest that he wanted to put his own life back on the track of honesty and pride. It is the tale of individuals like Fred that can bring to their young descendants a personal link to that now lost world of a century ago. This alone is the best reason to commemorate the events now seen as ancient history to many young people.

Whether Fred’s attempt to redeem himself was worth the price he volunteered to pay we will never know. What we can conclude is that his story will serve as a personal doorway to understanding for those who still carry some of his DNA.

PICTURE COURTESY GEOFF GREEN

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Fred Kirk, 1916.

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ESSAY

A Sunday in Sarajevo IWM Friend Philip Robinson on the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.

Formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, Bosnia-Herzegovina had been administered by Austria-Hungary from 1878 and fully absorbed in 1908. The latter event was much to the resentment of some of Bosnia’s citizens, the Bosnian Serbs, who harboured a dream of becoming part of a greater Serbia.

Franz Ferdinand and his wife had arrived in Sarajevo three days earlier. They stayed at the Hotel Bosna, just outside town, and while he supervised the manoeuvres of the Austro-Hungarian army south of Sarajevo, Sophie visited various charity organisations within the town and met local dignitaries. The weekend was special to them as it coincided with their fourteenth wedding anniversary.

In 1900 Franz Ferdinand had caused scandal and alarm by ➜

IWM Q 81831

A bright, clear summer Sunday in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia-Herzegovina, about ten o’clock in the morning. The heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and member of the Habsburg dynasty, Franz Ferdinand, sits resplendent in an open-top car next to his wife Sophie. Franz Ferdinand, tall and well-built, is wearing the blue uniform piped in red of an Austro-Hungarian cavalry general and a helmet adorned with green and turquoise ostrich feathers. Sophie is dressed in white silk with a broad red sash around her waist and a complementary plume of ostrich feathers at the right side of her broad-brimmed white hat. What happened within the next hour on that morning of 28 June 1914 set off a chain of events which led to the outbreak of the First World War.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife descend the steps of the City Hall, Sarajevo to their motor car, a few moments before their assassination.

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ESSAY

Ferdinand with his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg and their three children.

deemed to be too lowly a bride for a future Habsburg emperor.

He was deeply in love with Sophie and she with him and he was adamant that the marriage take place as an expression of their mutual commitment.

A consequence of this persistence was that their union was declared to be morganatic, that is, Sophie could not inherit a title from her husband and any children would not be in line of succession to the Austro-Hungarian throne. On 28 June 1900, in the Audience Room of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, in front of the archdukes of the empire, including his two brothers, Franz Ferdinand declared to the sixty-nine year old emperor, Franz Joseph, that he accepted that his wife could not lay claim, ‘to those rights, honours, titles, coats of arms, or privileges that would be accorded to wives of equal rank with their archducal husbands.’ The marriage itself took place three days later in Reichstadt, north of Prague, and as reported in The Times, ‘the whole proceedings were of the simplest possible character’.

Throughout their married life, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie suffered constant humiliation. On any state function she could not process alongside her husband but must walk behind even the youngest archduchess. She was not allowed to share the royal box at the Imperial Opera House; and should she be in residence at their home in Vienna when the archduke was away, all military guards were removed. Possibly most galling, at state dinners the head of the imperial household, Prince Alfred Montenuovo, insisted that a place be set for the consort of the heir apparent and left vacant, a petty practice that served as a constant reminder to Franz Ferdinand that he had sullied the royal household of the Habsburgs. Consequently he and Sophie spent most of their life together away from Vienna at their château in Konopischt, 30 miles south of Prague, where Sophie gave birth to three children, Sophie, Maximilian and Ernst.

Over the 14 years of their marriage there had been some easing of the restrictions imposed at its beginning. Franz Joseph presented Sophie with the title of Duchess of Hohenburg in October 1909, a designation of royalty, though still beneath the rank of archduchess. In May 1910, Franz Ferdinand was invited to represent the emperor at the funeral of Edward VII in London.

He was not allowed to take Sophie, however, as her presence would upset the customs of royal precedence. Two years later he was able to bring his wife to England. Travelling privately as the Count and Countess Artstetten, after their castle in the Danube Valley west of Vienna, they were able to visit the Royal Horticultural Society exhibition, the forerunner of the Chelsea Flower Show.

The following year, as guests of the president of the society, William Cavendish-Bentinck, sixth Duke of Portland, they visited his estate at Welbeck Abbey. During their stay, Franz Ferdinand enjoyed hunting and on one occasion a gun-loader tripped and accidentally fired his gun, narrowly missing the archduke. ‘I have often wondered’, the Duke of Portland ruminated in his memoirs, ‘whether the Great War might not have been averted or at least postponed had the archduke met his death then’.

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IWM Q 81810

➜ marrying Sophie Chotek, who though an aristocrat, was

On 28 June 1914, Franz Ferdinand was fifty; he had been heir apparent to the Austro- Hungarian Empire for 25 years; he was shy and apparently bombastic, quick to lose his temper, deeply religious and loyal to the Catholic church, devoted to his wife and children and not unintelligent. Franz Ferdinand was well aware of the tensions within the empire and, informed by a visit to the United States in 1893, had conceived a federal structure for the empire as a series of relatively autonomous states united under the Habsburg throne. To Slavic nationalists this was anathema and inimical to the vision of a united Slavic race within a greater Serbia. Franz Ferdinand’s vision ran counter to their aspirations and his well-published visit to Sarajevo provided an opportunity for his removal.

There is still uncertainty as to who conceived the plot to kill the archduke, though no doubt a central figure was Dragutin Dimitrijević, known as Apis, or The Bull, because of his thick neck and general build. He was head of military intelligence in Serbia and closely involved with a secret society known as The Black Hand, committed to the unification of all Slavs. It was through that society that three young Bosnian Serbs, living in Serbia, were recruited and trained as assassins. They were Gavrilo Princip, Nedeljko Čabrinović and Trifko Grabež; all aged nineteen and each one suffering from tuberculosis. Today we would describe them

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Three of the group involved in the assassination – Ciganovich, Cabrinovich and Princip.

as suicide bombers; each was armed with a bomb the size of a domestic bar of soap, a revolver and phial of cyanide to ingest were he to be captured.

On that Sunday morning joyful crowds had gathered along Appel Quay, the road that runs parallel with the Miljacka, the river that cuts through Sarajevo. Interspersed among the crowd were seven assassins, the three that had crossed from Belgrade and four others recruited in Sarajevo. Franz Ferdinand and Sophie acknowledged the welcome of those they passed when, no more than two hundred metres into the straight road, their driver, Leopold Lojke, heard a bang and saw an object – maybe a stone – thrown at the car. He accelerated and the bomb that had been hurled by Čabrinović bounced off the rear canopy of the vehicle and exploded in front of the following car, causing some injuries to its passengers as well as Sarajevan bystanders. Franz Ferdinand was incandescent, but concluded the act was that of a lone madman and ordered the driver to continue to the town hall at speed.

Gavrilo Princip, standing as the fifth assassin along the Appel Quay, could only witness his target as the car sped past, too quick for him to throw his bomb. He ran to where the crowd had gathered round Čabrinović, only to find him in captivity, struggling to bite his phial of cyanide. Within a matter of minutes

Franz Ferdinand had arrived at the town hall, leapt from the car and remonstrated with the mayor, Effendi Čurčić: ‘Mr Mayor, one comes here for a visit and is received with bombs! It is outrageous!’

Confused and uncertain what to do, the mayor replied by reading the speech he had already prepared. It could not have been more inappropriate: ‘Our hearts are full of happiness over the most gracious visit with which Your Highnesses are pleased to honour our capital city of Sarajevo.’

It was decided that the visit should be shortened and Franz Ferdinand asked to be taken to the hospital where he could enquire after the condition of those who had been injured by the bomb. Rather than following a route through the narrow streets of the Old Town of Sarajevo, his car would travel to the hospital by the most direct route, straight down Appel Quay. In the strain, disappointment and anxiety of the moment, no one thought to tell the driver, patiently waiting outside the town hall, that the plan had changed.

The cars began their return journey, the crowds cheered, and again Franz Ferdinand and Sophie acknowledged the warmth of their greetings. No more than 400 metres from the town hall, Leopold Lojke turned right into Franz Joseph Street, as specified in the original plan. General Potiorek, the Austrian governor of Bosnia, sitting behind the driver and in front of Sophie, cried ‘Stop, this is the wrong way’. The bronze Gräf und Stift convertible came to a halt outside Mortiz Schiller’s delicatessen at the very point where a disconsolate Gavrilo Princip was pondering what to do next, as his mission had apparently failed.

Suddenly and unexpectedly, within feet of where he was standing, was his target. There was neither time nor the space to pull the bomb he was carrying out of his pocket, so he grabbed his revolver and fired twice. The first bullet went through the side of the car and into the abdomen of the Duchess, severing a vital artery; and the second into the neck of the archduke, puncturing the jugular vein. For a moment, General Potiorek recalled, it appeared that the assassin had missed, as neither Sophie nor Franz Ferdinand moved; then slowly Sophie slumped into the lap of her husband who cried, ‘Sophie, Sophie, don’t die, stay alive for our children.’ But Sophie was dead; and within quarter of an hour, so was the archduke.

If only the driver had been told, if only Gavrilo Princip had been standing a few metres to his right or left, the tragedy of the double murder might not have happened. Both the archduke and his wife were dead, but even in death the petty hand of imperial precedence could not be removed. As Sophie was not sufficiently royal she was not entitled to a state funeral. Franz Ferdinand had anticipated this and had instructed in his will that when death came to either of them they should be placed in the family vault at Artstetten Castle.

But the lack of a state funeral was also the lack of an opportunity for the monarchs of Europe to come together, meet, greet and quell rumour and misinformation. That opportunity was lost and a month to the day after the assassinations, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on Thursday 28 July 1914, a declaration that within a week enveloped Russia, Germany, France and Britain.

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Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916, Stanley Spencer, 1919.

The art of war

Marina Vaizey on Truth and Memory, a new exhibition at IWM London dedicated to the art of the First World War. As far as the eye can see a flat landscape of mud in endless waves stretches to the horizon, punctuated by huge columns of burnt tree trunks, their branches and lifegiving leaves long destroyed. These are but arboreal corpses, devoid of life. In the foreground stagnant pools of water fill empty trenches: debris and rubble litter the ground; diagonal shafts of sunlight are like weapons from outer space; and two tiny military figures patrol the scarred earth.

Further in the distance are two even smaller figures like ghostly silhouettes. We know that here no bird sings, no human life exists; it is a scene fit only for worms.

Paul Nash’s masterpiece The Menin Road (1919, pictured right) is a despairing rendering of a ruined landscape; and we can barely imagine the unimaginable heaps of decomposing bodies underneath the now sterile earth. The painting itself is a cry of outrage from the artist, and was a commission to depict a Flanders battlefield for the Hall of Remembrance which had been suggested in 1918, but never realised: work commissioned for it formed part of the holdings of the Imperial War Museum.

36 ■ Despatches Summer 2014

Nash’s great painting is at the heart of IWM London’s new art exhibition, Truth and Memory. The title of another scene of apocalyptic destruction by Nash (who had seen active service before being invalided out and returned to the front as an official war artist), We are Making a New World (1918), could not have been truer. The First World War changed the world irrevocably.

There are other terrible images of desolation: CRW Nevinson, an ambulance driver and gifted artist, shows us a lunar landscape in After A Push (1917), another endless vista of barren earth pockmarked with stagnant pools, with a frozen choreography of isolated burnt trees, all under a lowering sky.

Stanley Spencer was involved with the war on the Eastern Front. One of his masterpieces (above) looks down on a stilled convoy of mule-drawn stretchers bearing the wounded to a dressing station, which he painted in 1919, three years after the event. It was an imaginary re-creation inspired by what he had witnessed; the reality was sordid, poignant, even tragic, yet also had an element of grandeur.

The Menin Road, Paul Nash, 1919.

Wyndham Lewis’s A Battery Shelled, also from 1919 (see page 38), shows both realistic figures and a gathering of robot-like figurines caught up in a web of lines indicting the ferocity of the booming weaponry. The warm embrace of some artists for the machine age was rapidly turning into an understanding of the nightmare unleashed by the First World War, not only to be mechanised in many respects, but also to heavily involve the civilian population. The war was extraordinary in the way some aspects of daily life carried on: post was delivered to the trenches; people visited Paris for its art; and so on.

John Singer Sargent’s Gassed (1919, see page 38) is dominated by a huge and magnificent frieze of blinded soldiers, the

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blind leading the blind, surrounded by tumbled, recumbent blindfolded soldiers; another ambulatory sequence of soldiers at an oblique angle shows us to a group blithely playing football in the far background.

There are official portraits from all sides in the exhibition; and although also created with a serious purpose, they are somehow more light-hearted, like the decorative and stylised depictions of the new science of camouflage for the great battleships. In much of the anthology, informative as it is (and still as horrifying as some selections may be), there is a curious and compelling beauty.

This anthology of 120 works of art shows us how artists responded in an extraordinarily diverse way to the war to end all wars. Some were at the front, while

others too old to serve were in a sense conscripted as artists and visited behind the lines of the battlefields, not to mention the field hospitals and civilian devastation.

Yet other professional artists were involved solely through their talent: they visited the war zones, or observed the bombing, people taking shelter and the war effort at home.

IWM’s holdings of twentieth century British art is one of the most significant, important and affecting collections in the nation, second only to Tate Britain. In large part this is due to the unprecedented decision to institute official backing for artists to portray scenes of conflict, from civilian to military involvement across the whole spectrum of war and the

landscape of war, as well from city to country.

Long before the Arts Council, which came into being after the Second World War, the British government – the Establishment, no less – recognised the almost unfathomable importance of the arts in general and the visual arts in particular in terms of national identity beyond the purposes of propaganda. Propaganda, however, was an initial purpose, for the First World War was at its beginning a war of volunteers which had to persuade civilians and those joining the military of the cause, as well as rallying other countries.

Various schemes for supporting the work of visual artists during the war and immediately afterwards were promoted.

Little knowing what the future would ➜ Summer 2014 Despatches ■ 37

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was founded by Act of Parliament in 1917 to commemorate and collect material – and the collection is extraordinarily diverse, from weaponry to diaries, photographs to film – about all twentieth century conflicts in which Britain and its empire was involved.

It was in large part a patriotic reaction: as the outline of the huge conflict became clearer, it became more important to commemorate those who had been involved in it. What has been remarkable is that patriotic fervour gave way to a desire to commemorate as clearly as possible. In particular the literature that emerged from the war – and even more dramatically the savage brilliance of much of the art – showed both tragic moments and true narratives.

The visual arts are particularly important because of the obvious reason that they are readily visible; and however much we may need interpretation, we can witness their impact immediately.

In terms of the millions of individual items, almost all of IWM’s collections can probably be classified as archival; and certainly the majority has not been amassed for aesthetic reasons. Books, documents, oral history, letters, memoirs, uniforms, medals, visual documentation from photographs to newsreels (which often may need captions and explanations before their full impact is evident) are but a few of the categories represented.

IWM is one of the world’s greatest repositories of twentieth and now twenty-first century military history in the world, reflecting both Britain’s international role and of course also the home front. It has amassed a huge collection of reportage, documentation and

Art.IWM ART2747

➜ bring, the Imperial War Museum itself

A Battery Shelled, Wyndham Lewis, 1919.

interpretation, of fact and imagination, of both narrative and poetry in many forms. Truth and Memoryis a truly astonishing and in fact unprecedented compilation – for IWM has collected from all sides of any conflict; and while commemorating bravery and heroism, its presentations are the antithesis of mindless propaganda.

Throughout its history, IWM has acknowledged the power of art. By 1918, the Imperial War Museum had 850 works of art, acquired through gifts and commissions. By 1920, 3,500 works of art had been amassed for the new museum. Much has been collected for its subject matter, beyond aesthetic considerations; but IWM’s art collection also includes masterpieces from the leading artists of modern times. Truth and Memory is at the heart of the initial commemoration of the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.

Marina Vaizey will take part in Is Art a True Picture of War?, a discussion with BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz on Tuesday 21 October 2014 at 6.30pm at IWM London.

For further details or to book tickets, please visit www.iwm.org.uk Truth and Memory: British Art of the First World War is at IWM London, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ until 8 March 2015. Open every day (except 24, 25, 26 December) 10am to 6pm.

Art from the First World War, published

by IWM, is available in IWM’s shops and online shop: www.iwmshop. org.uk priced £10.

Art.IWM ART1460

Gassed, John Singer Sargent, 1919.

38 ■ Despatches Summer 2014

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FIRST WORLD WAR FACTS

PART 1

As part of a new series, IWM Historian Terry Charman details First World War facts about the Fighting Fronts.

■ Britain and Japan were allies

and fought alongside each other in China, capturing the German colony of Tsingtao on 6 November 1914. Japanese warships later also convoyed Allied ships in the Mediterranean.

■ On 22 April 1915 poison gas was used (by the Germans) for the first time on the Western Front during the Second Battle of Ypres.

IWM Q 115314

■ On 5 September 1914, the German U-boat U-21 sank HMS Pathfinder, the first Royal Navy vessel to be sunk by a submarine.

IWM PST 013195 A

■ At the beginning of the First World War, the French experimented with the use of parrots on the Eiffel Tower as an early warning system against enemy aircraft. A parrot could hear the sound of an aircraft engine 20 minutes before a human.

Unfortunately, they could not differentiate between friendly and hostile engines, and so the scheme was scrapped.

■ On 1 December 1916, recruiting began for Britain’s first women soldiers to join the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.

■ Future King George VI served

with the Royal Navy during the early years of the First World War and was in the battleship HMS Collingwood at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. He later served in the newlycreated Royal Air Force, gaining his pilot’s wings on 31 July 1919.

■ Lieutenant William Leefe Robinson of the Royal Flying Corps was awarded an immediate Victoria Cross after he shot down the German airship SL 11 over Cuffley on 2/3 September 1916. Later taken prisoner by the Germans, Robinson died during the Spanish flu pandemic at the end of 1918.

■ The first small contingent of American troops, soon to be nicknamed ‘Doughboys’ and headed by their commander General John Joseph ‘Blackjack’ Pershing, landed at Liverpool on their way to France on 8 June 1917.

■ Siam (present-day Thailand) declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary on 22 July 1917 and sent a small expeditionary force to serve on the Western Front.

■ ‘Desert Fox’ Erwin Rommel won Germany’s highest military decoration, the Pour le Mérite, nicknamed the ‘Blue Max’, when fighting against his future Italian allies in the autumn of 1917.

■ On 14 August 1917, China declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. No Chinese troops saw action, but both Britain and France recruited thousands of Chinese labourers to work behind the lines on the Western Front.

■ The last German forces in the field, under the command of General Paul von LettowVorbeck, surrendered in German East Africa (presentday Tanzania) on 25 November 1918.

IWM Q 011586

IWM Q 067512

■ 100,000 pigeons were used by the British Army during the First World War.

■ On 15 September 1916 tanks went into battle for the very first time during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on the Somme.

■ On 1 April 1918, the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service combined to form the Royal Air Force, the world’s first independent air arm.

Summer 2014 Despatches ■ 39

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NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY NPG MW 13861

Olive Edis in a self portrait taken shortly before her Imperial War Museum assignment, London, February 1919.

A woman’s eye: British women and photography during the First World War Hilary Roberts, IWM’s Research Curator of Photography, explores the role of women photographers in the First World War. Women’s contribution to First World War photography, both documentary and aesthetic, has received little attention in comparison to that of the Second World War and subsequent conflicts. This neglect is mostly due to the prevailing assumption that a war photographer must be a professional photojournalist with access to the battlefield and front line combat. However, such a narrow definition renders a proper appreciation 40 ■ Despatches Summer 2014

of war photography and its practitioners impossible, particularly with regard to the First World War. A broader definition is certainly important when considering women’s photography during the First World War. No female photojournalist had access to the battlefield or front line combat between 1914 and 1918. However, in the years since its foundation in 1917, IWM has assembled an extensive collection of professional and

amateur photographs taken by women for official, commercial or private purposes in the First World War. These offer an important account of the general human experience of the war. Three bodies of work, comprising photographs by Christina Broom, Olive Edis and Florence Farmborough, are of particular interest for the varied insights which they offer on the war and on the practice of photography by women at this time.

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Consideration of these photographs must begin by contextualising the circumstances in which they were created. British photography of the First World War was shaped by a combination of social and cultural changes together with important developments in photographic technology and practice during the period 1880–1914.

Combined, these developments transformed photography, hitherto a preserve of the few, into a pursuit of the masses. By 1914, photography was firmly established in Britain as a profession and as a personal hobby, transcending barriers of class, education and gender.

Inspired by constant improvements in technology and affordable equipment, its practitioners experimented and explored the medium while a diverse range of publishers circulated their work.

Women were not excluded from these developments: Photographic education became increasingly available to women and, as the century progressed, ever larger numbers of women took advantage of opportunities offered at trade schools and private colleges. Social change presented openings in photography that did not exist during the nineteenth century.1 Christina Broom (1862–1939) and Olive Edis (1876–1955) were amongst the first women to build careers as freelance professional photographers in Britain.

Both entered professional photography in 1903 in order to earn a living and support their families. Broom and Edis were well educated by the standards of the day, but were essentially self-taught as photographers. Despite differences in approach and technique, they achieved a combination of formality and subtle intimacy in their photography.

Broom worked primarily in the London area as a freelance photographer from 1903 until her death in 1939. Now recognised as the first woman to style

IWM Q 66157

Below right: Mrs Albert Broom: Officers of the Women’s Police Service, led by Inspector Mary Allen (a former suffragette), maintain order at the Women’s War Work Exhibition, Knightsbridge, London, May 1916.

IWM Q 66159

Right: Mrs Albert Broom: Soldiers of 1st Battalion, Irish Guards prepare to depart for France following the outbreak of the war, Wellington Barracks, London, 6 August 1914.

herself a press photographer, she submitted documentary work, most notably of the suffragette movement, to picture agencies for publication in magazines and national newspapers.

However, the core of her business – and the key formative influence on her photography – was the British picturepostcard industry, which peaked in popularity between 1902 and 1914.

Trading as Mrs Albert Broom and

equipped with a medium-format glass plate camera, Broom developed an effective style of group photography, shot primarily on location in the open air. Her adept stage management, combined with a restrained yet natural empathy towards her subjects, resulted in formal, carefully-composed yet revealing photographs which were often surprisingly intimate. Her technique lent itself to military and ceremonial ➜ Summer 2014 Despatches ■ 41

42 ■ Despatches Summer 2014

IWM Q 107170

➜ subjects. In 1904, an assignment with the Scots Guards triggered a chain of events which culminated in Broom’s appointment as official photographer to the prestigious Brigade of Guards and the Household Cavalry.

This unprecedented accolade, sanctioned by King Edward VII, gave Christina Broom unique access to these regiments (regarded as the elite of the British Army) at their London headquarters during the war.2 Although it could be argued that Broom’s work as a whole is somewhat static and formulaic, this criticism is less applicable to her wartime photography. Her coverage of the regiments preparing to leave London for France in August 1914 is candid, spontaneous and entirely devoid of the patriotic fervour then sweeping the country. By this time, Broom had worked with these soldiers for ten years. For her, this was not only a professional assignment, but a personal farewell to men she knew well and might not see again. Her photographs capture a grim urgency as soldiers gather their equipment and assemble for departure.

Broom’s subsequent coverage of wartime events in the London area is similarly expressive. A group of women police officers, photographed in 1916, are undeniably formidable; and the image makes a clear point about these former suffragettes who had abandoned their violent political protest of the pre-war years to become dignified, disciplined upholders of the law in wartime Britain.

Welcome and relief are inherent in Broom’s depiction of massed ranks of fresh-faced American troops at lunch soon after their long-awaited arrival in Britain. Broom’s final photograph of the war, showing sombre crowds assembled outside Buckingham Palace on Armistice Day in November 1918,3 is strikingly funereal. Rather than celebration, the photograph is suggestive of public war fatigue and personal loss.

Christina Broom never worked at the front. Her age4 and family circumstances ensured that she never considered it, but it would also have been fruitless for her to attempt to do so. In August 1914, the British military authorities made it clear that neither women nor photographers were welcome in the war zone.

Given such attitudes, it is not surprising that IWM encountered numerous

IWM HU 51891

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obstacles when it first requested permission in October 1918 for Olive Edis to visit the Western Front on its behalf.

Prior to the war, Edis had established herself as a successful studio portrait photographer with studios in Norfolk, Surrey and London. For portraits, she preferred a large-format 10x8 inch glass plate camera and natural lighting wherever possible. She also placed great emphasis on the importance of an artistic

approach. Monochrome platinum prints and autochromes in soft colours produced formal yet flattering photographs which verged on the painterly. Although not a suffragette, she was one of the first female professional photographers to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and was an active advocate of women’s photography.

Edis undertook the IWM assignment on an expenses-only basis when official permission to proceed was finally granted in March 1919, though by this time the war had been over for four months. In many respects, Edis found herself documenting the aftermath of war on the Western Front rather than the conflict itself. British wartime arrangements were being dismantled and none of her subjects were in danger as a consequence of enemy action (although they were very much at risk from the notorious Spanish flu pandemic then raging throughout the world).

Travelling by car with representatives of IWM’s Women’s War Work Committee, Edis spent four weeks photographing British, French and American women attached to the armed forces in a variety of locations. Even in peacetime, Edis’s studio technique did not transfer easily to the rigours of the Western Front. Her large camera was bulky and fragile. Her preference for photographing her subjects in natural light risked technical flaws, such as blurring, exposure problems and stilted poses which lacked the intimacy she sought. Nevertheless, her photographs were notably different from those of male official photographers: Miss Edis could allow herself little room for wastage, as even on a good day, given the need for careful arrangement of her subject and her cumbersome equipment, she would not expect to expose more than about a dozen plates and there were clearly no second chances on such a journey. Her style was more serious and intimate than that of the official photographers who had previously covered the role of women on the Western Front. They worked in a smaller format which allowed a degree of spontaneity in contrast to Miss Edis’s posed figures. Their photographs, destined for publication in the popular press, frequently emphasised the appeal

summer2014_pp40-45_womans-eye_FINAL 11/07/2014 15:52 Page 43

IWM Q 98415

Left top: Winifred Broom: Mrs Albert Broom displays her camera and samples of her work at the Women’s War Work Exhibition, Knightsbridge, London, May 1916.

Left below: Anonymous: Florence Farmborough outside her living quarters on the Eastern Front, 1916.

Right: Florence Farmborough: Weary Russian soldiers attached to a Red Cross mobile hospital pause for a meal near Grodzisko, Poland, August 1915.

of pretty, smiling girls in contrast to Miss Edis’s rather solemn figures.5 Edis’s work reinforces impressions of gender division and segregation at the front. Although men feature in her photographs, they rarely appear in large numbers and almost never in positions of equality.

Women are shown in positions of responsibility, dominance or skill and in a broad range of roles, both novel and traditional, which exude authority without compromising their subjects’ femininity.

A sense of drudgery and difficult working conditions forms a stark, if occasional, contrast to the idealised wartime images produced by male official photographers.

It is also true that in some cases, Edis does achieve a unique intimacy. Her photograph of a hairdressing establishment for military women at Pont-de-l’Arche would undoubtedly have been beyond the reach of a male photographer.

Despite official opposition, some British women did experience and photograph the war at close quarters in a manner which truly bridged the gender divide: Many women took their cameras with

them when they travelled abroad to become war workers, and the intensity of this new experience resulted in photographs which firmly established women as social documentarists.6 Although photography was never the primary purpose for these women, their exceptional situation and experiences often influenced their photography, transforming it from a personal activity, undertaken during occasional moments of leisure, into a means of bearing witness for a wider audience. This transformation was characterised by a broadening of subject coverage, enhanced attention to the quality of the image and, on occasion, the substitution of a better-quality camera.

Florence Farmborough (1887–1978) left home aged 21 to indulge a thirst for travel and adventure. When war broke out six years later, she was working in Moscow as an English teacher and personal companion. Farmborough’s strong affection for the Russian people motivated her to overcome language problems and train as a Red Cross nurse.

In March 1915 she joined a Russian mobile medical post close to the front line

on the Eastern Front. Within a few weeks, the Imperial Russian Army was forced to fall back: I am dreadfully tired. We are retreating!

In that word lies all the agony of the last few days. We were called from our beds before Dawn on Saturday 18th. The Germans had launched their offensive!

Explosion after explosion rent the air; shells and shrapnel fell in and around Gorlitse. The roar of the rival cannons grew increasingly intense. Rockets and projectors were at work. Patches of lurid, red light glowed here and there where fires had been kindled by shells. Our house shook to its very foundations, its windows rattling and quivering in their hinges. Death was very busy, his hands full of victims.7 Farnborough was undaunted by this baptism of fire. For the next two years, she worked in consistently harsh conditions throughout Poland, Austria and Romania.

She continued to treat the wounded of all nationalities until revolution and civil war forced her to flee her beloved Russia in 1918.

Farmborough was a keen amateur photographer. She documented her ➜ Summer 2014 Despatches ■ 43

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IWM Q 8108

Left: Olive Edis: A hairdressing establishment provided for women of Queen Mary’s Auxiliary Army Corps (QMAAC) at RAF Pont de l’Arche, France, March 1919.

Below left: Olive Edis: Women of the Queen Mary’s Auxiliary Army Corps (QMAAC) at work in the Clothing Hangar of a Royal Army Ordnance Corps camp, Vendroux, France, March 1919.

IWM Q 7955

image and was naturally observant. She had an instinctive sense for composition and lighting, and a style which occasionally verged on the sentimental.

Farmborough’s ability to set a scene to artistic effect is clearly demonstrated in a number of successful group photographs. However, her primary purpose was to document the people she encountered and the vagaries of war on the Eastern Front as she perceived them.

Farmborough’s proximity to the fighting enabled her to access to trenches and troops in the front line. She photographed the dead of both sides in graphic detail, while also documenting the particular combination of pragmatism and respect which Russians soldiers accorded their dead. Overall, Farmborough’s photography demonstrates how the intense experience of war in the front line has the potential to sweep divisions of gender and class aside.

It is undeniable that the wartime achievements of all the women featured in this article were exceptional for their time. However, it is important to recognise the inspiration that they provided for the immediate post-war generation of women. Then, as now, they provided an early demonstration of what women could contribute to war photography and a visual understanding of modern conflict. Rather than allow these women to fall into obscurity, we would do well to remember them. ➜ experiences, taking photographs

whenever opportunity allowed. Controls on photography were virtually unenforceable over the vast Eastern Front, and official resources to document events were also in short supply. As time went on, Farnborough was occasionally asked to photograph on a semi-official basis and upgraded her equipment accordingly. Now equipped with a medium-format glass plate 44 ■ Despatches Summer 2014

camera and tripod (acquired in the Crimea), she would pass exposed plates to a Russian liaison officer for processing in the rear areas. Espousing an early form of citizen journalism, Farmborough also wrote occasional eyewitness accounts which were published by The Times newspaper in Britain.

Farmborough was a gifted, if untrained, amateur photographer who possessed a good eye for an attractive

1. Val Williams: The Other Observers: Women Photographers from 1900 to the Present, London 1986 and 1991, p 24.

2. Information courtesy of the Guards Museum, Chelsea Barracks, London 2009.

3. IWM Photograph Ref: Q 66178.

4. Christina Broom was 52 when the war commenced in 1914.

5. Jane Carmichael: ‘Olive Edis: Imperial War Museum Photographer in France and Belgium, March 1919’ in Imperial War Museum (Hg.) Review No 4, London 1989, S 11.

6. Williams, p 24.

7. Florence Farmborough: Nurse at the Russian Front: A Diary 1914–18, London 1974, Ss 33–36.

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To book tickets for IWM Friends’ events please complete the enclosed application form or call us on 020 7416 5372/5255. All events include a donation to IWM Friends Visit: D-Day Museum and Operation Overlord Embroidery 9 September, 12.45pm–4pm D-Day Museum, Clarence Esplanade, Southsea PO5 3NT A talk and tour of the D-Day Museum, Britain’s only museum dedicated solely to covering all aspects of the Normandy landings.

IWM Friends: £15; guests: £17, includes tea and coffee.

Walk: Zeppelin!

16 September, 1.30pm–4.30pm Meet outside Russell Square underground station, London Late on 7 September 1915 Kapitanleutnant Heinrich Mathy guided Zeppelin L13 almost silently across the skies of central London, dropping incendiary and explosive bombs as he went. This raid at the heart of the British Empire pre-dated the Blitz by 25 years and left 22 people dead. Join Blue Badge Guide Mike Armitage on a three-hour walk from Bloomsbury to Liverpool Street, following the route of Mathy’s audacious raid 99 years later.

IWM Friends: £15; guests: £17 Talk: Professor Richard Overy: And Some Fell on Stony Ground 20 September, 2.30pm–3.30pm IWM London Professor Richard Overy gives a talk on Leslie Mann’s fictionalised account of the day in the life of an RAF bomber.

IWM Friends: £10; guests: £12, includes tea and coffee.

Visit: Military Tour of Highgate Cemetery 25 September, 10.45am Meet outside the West Cemetery, Swain’s Lane, Highgate, London N6 6PJ This special visit explores a range of significant nineteenth century military burials in an area not usually accessible to the public.

IWM Friends: £20; guests: £23

Visit: RAF Manston History Museum and the Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Museum 30 September, 12.45pm– 5pm RAF Manston, Ramsgate, Kent CT12 5DF A visit to the RAF Manston History Museum followed by a guided tour of the Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Museum.

IWM Friends: £10; guests: £12, includes tea and coffee.

Visit: Bomber Command at War: Yorkshire Air Museum 2 October, 12.15pm– 5pm Yorkshire Air Museum, Halifax Way, Elvington, York YO41 4AU A visit to one of the largest original Second World War Bomber Command Stations. IWM Friends can view an extensive collection of aeroplanes and explore inside a Dakota.

IWM Friends: £20; guests: £25, includes a two-course meal on arrival.

Visit: The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst 7 October, 2pm– 4.30pm RMA Sandhurst, Camberley, Surrey GU15 4PQ A guided tour of RMA Sandhurst.

IWM Friends: £20; guests: £25, includes tea and coffee on arrival.

Visit: Orford Ness 17 October, 1.30pm Meet at the Quay, Quay Street, Orford, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 2NU A guided tour on a trailer bus of Orford Ness, a site formerly administered by the Ministry of Defence, which conducted secret military tests during both world wars and the Cold War. IWM Friends: £25; guests: £28 Visit: Hughenden Manor 21 October, 11.15am Hughenden Manor and Gardens, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire Visit to Hughenden Manor, home of Benjamin Disraeli and site of secret RAF special operations rooms in the Second World War. IWM Friends: £10; guests: £12

IWM FRIENDS EVENTS September to December 2014 IWM Friends AGM 29 October, 5pm– 8.30pm Churchill War Rooms After the AGM there will be a talk

by Edward Stourton based on his latest book Cruel Crossing: Escaping Hitler Across the Pyrenees, which tells the story of the hundreds of people who, fleeing occupied Europe, climbed through the Pyrenees during the Second World War. IWM Friends: £15; guests: £17 Visit: Bentley Priory 6 November, 2pm Bentley Priory, Stanmore HA7 3GA A visit and guided tour of Bentley Priory, the headquarters of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, recently reopened as a museum.

IWM Friends: £12; guests: £15

Visit: RAF Halton and the Trenchard Museum 13 November, 10am– 4pm RAF Halton, Upper Icknield Way, Halton HP22 5PG A guided tour of the officers’ mess, followed by a visit to the Trenchard Museum and a talk by curator Francis Hanford on infantry training at RAF Halton.

IWM Friends: £10; guests: £15, lunch to be provided at additional cost.

Visit: Brooklands Museum 19 November, 11am–4pm Brooklands Museum, Brooklands Road, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 0QN Guided tours of Brooklands’ First and Second World War collections, followed by a guided tour of Concorde.

IWM Friends: £50; guests: £55, includes a two course lunch in a private dining room.

IWM Friends Military History Conference 22 November, 11am–3.30pm, IWM London Join us for our third Military History Conference, featuring a range of talks by respected historians including Roger Moorhouse, Julie Summers and a First World War historian.

Roger Moorhouse is an historian, researcher and writer specialising in modern German and central European history, with particular interest in Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and the Second World War in Europe and the former German eastern territories. He will speak on the Nazi-Soviet Pact, which is the subject of his latest book The Devil’s Alliance.

Julie Summers will talk about her four wartime books about the Second World War home front – Stranger in the House, which looks at the effect on family life of returning servicemen; When the Children Came Home, examining the impact of evacuation on a generation; Jambusters, the Women’s Institute in the Second World War; and Fashion on the Ration, which she has written for IWM London’s 2015 exhibition of the same title.

IWM Friends: £35; guests: £45, includes tea and coffee on arrival. Book by 31 August and receive a £5 deduction on each ticket.

Summer 2014 Despatches ■ 47

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WHAT’S ON

July to December 2014

For further information visit www.iwm.org.uk

LONDON Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ 020 7416 5000 Open daily 10am to 6pm (except 24, 25, 26 December) To buy tickets for charging exhibitions and events visit the website or call 020 7416 5439.

IWM Friends receive free, unlimited entry to all charging exhibitions.

EXHIBITIONS IWM Contemporary: Mark Neville Until 25 September 2014 Work by artist Mark Neville based on the two months he spent with 16 Air Assault Brigade in Afghanistan.

Truth and Memory: British Art of the First World War Until 8 March 2015 A major retrospective of First World War art including work by some of Britain’s most important artists of the twentieth century.

Horrible Histories®: Spies Until 4 January 2015 A family exhibition focusing on Second World War spies and spycraft.

Tickets: IWM Friends: Free, Adults: £6.20, Concessions: £4.40, Children: £3.30.

A Family in Wartime The story of the Allpress family in the Second World War. War Story: Supplying Frontline Afghanistan The stories of the men and women who supply, support and maintain front line troops in Afghanistan.

48 ■ Despatches Summer 2014

FAMILY EVENTS Suitable for children of all ages with parental supervision. Free, drop-in events.

Forget Me Not: Postcards From the Front 28 July–10 August and 18–24 August 11am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 4pm daily An art project which looks at embroidered postcards sent between loved ones at home in Britain and soldiers fighting abroad in the summer and autumn of 1914.

Object Conversations Every Sunday 11am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 4pm View and handle objects from IWM’s collections.

PUBLIC EVENTS Truth and Memory Gallery Talk 2 August 2014 11am to noon, 1pm to 2pm and 3pm to 4pm A free guided tour around the new Truth and Memory exhibition.

Mark Neville: The Image and the Experience 13 September 2014 Artist Mark Neville discusses his work and how his experiences with different communities has shaped his practice.

In Conversation with Kate Adie: The Legacy of Women in the First World War 16 September 2014 7pm–9.30pm Kate Adie looks at how women contributed to the war effort during the First World War and how their roles on the home front influenced major social change.

Tickets: IWM Friends: £10, Adults: £12.

In Conversation with Foster + Partners: The Regeneration of IWM London 1 October 2014 7pm–9pm Deyan Sudjic, writer, broadcaster and director of the Design Museum, discusses the Transforming IWM London project with Michael Jones and Spencer de Grey from Foster + Partners, the architects behind the project.

Tickets: IWM Friends: £12, Adults: £15.

Is Art a True Picture of War? 21 October 2014 7pm–9.30pm BBC Arts Editor, Will Gompertz, and an expert panel including Marina Vaizey discuss the art of the First World War. Tickets: IWM Friends: £10, Adults: £12.

First World War: Poems from the Front 4 November 2014 7pm–9.30pm John Simpson chairs a discussion that explores poems of the First World War, including poetry readings by the relatives of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.

Tickets: IWM Friends: £10, Adults: £12.

Why Soldiers Fight: From the First World War to Afghanistan 19 November 2014 7pm–9.30pm A discussion on whether today’s soldiers are so different from those who served in 1914.

Tickets: IWM Friends: £10, Adults: £12.

HMS BELFAST Morgan’s Lane, Tooley Street, London SE1 2JH 020 7940 6300 Open daily (except 24, 25, 26 December) 10am to 6pm (1 March to 31 October), 10am to 5pm (1 November to 28 February) Admission: IWM Friends: Free, Adults: £15.50, Concessions: £12.40, Children under 16: Free.

EVENTS D-Day Family Trail Until 31 December 2014 Learn about the important role HMS Belfast played on D-Day. Tattoo T-Shirts 11–17 August 2014 11am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 4pm Design a t-shirt inspired by traditional Navy tattoos.

Thames Festival – Cracking Codes 6–7 September 2014 11am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 4pm Intercept messages, map hazards and make up your own code.

CHURCHILL WAR ROOMS Clive Steps, King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AQ 020 7930 6961 Open daily (except 24, 25, 26 December) 9.30am to 6pm Admission: IWM Friends: Free, Adults: £17.50, Concessions: £14.00, Children under 16: Free.

EXHIBITIONS Undercover – Life in Churchill’s Bunker First-hand accounts of those who worked in the Cabinet War Rooms during the Second World War.

DUXFORD Cambridgeshire CB2 4QR 01223 835 000 Open daily (except 24, 25, 26 December) 10.00am to 6.00pm Admission: IWM Friends: Free, Adults: £17.50, Concessions: £14.00, Children under 16: Free Tickets for the events listed below can be purchased online at www.iwm.org.uk or by calling the box office on 01223 499 353.

EXHIBITIONS: D-Day – The Last of the Liberators Until 31 December 2014 A collection of photographic portraits by Robin Savage featuring some of the last surviving Normandy veterans.

EVENTS Duxford Air Show 13 and 14 September 2014 2pm to 5.30pm See historic aircraft and contemporary jets as well as aerobatic displays.

Tickets: Adults: £27.50, Children: £18.15.

Special Offer: One free child ticket is available with every adult ticket purchased in advance.

Showbus 21 September 2014, 10am to 6pm The biggest bus show in the world makes a welcome return to IWM Duxford in 2014 as it celebrates 60 years of the Routemaster bus.

Tickets: Adults: £18.50, Concessions: £14.80.

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NORTH The Quays, Trafford Wharf Road, Trafford Park, Manchester M17 1TZ 0161 836 4000 Open daily (except 24, 25, 26 December), 10am to 6pm (1 March to 31 October), 10am to 5pm (1 November to 28 February) EXHIBITIONS: From Street To Trench: A World War That Shaped A Region Until 31 May 2015 A major exhibition exploring the North West of England during the First World War.

Women and Industry Until 30 September 2014 Six images from IWM’s Photography Collection, displayed in huge five-metre-high frames outside IWM North, explore the role of women in the north of England during the First World War. Syria: Humanity in Conflict Until 14 September 2014 Created in partnership with the British Red Cross, this small but powerful photographic display explores the experiences of civilians in Syria since the outbreak of conflict in early 2011.

Reactions14 Exhibitions IWM has been commissioning artists to create responses to conflict since the First World War. Reactions14 will give contemporary relevance to the First World War.

RedBlueRedBlue by Mark Anstee Throughout August 2014 A live 30-day drawing residency by artist Mark Anstee.

Vertical Echoes by Bill Fontana Until 21 September 2014 The First World War sounds of a Sopwith Camel biplane and an artillery field gun will rise and fall as visitors enter IWM North through the 55m high AirShard.

The Sleeping Green Between

by Jennifer Vickers Until 21 September 2014 An emotive installation by textile artist Jennifer Vickers exploring the relationship between people and their past.

EVENTS Perspectives14: Trench 10 August, 2.30–3.30pm Dr Stephen Bull explores trench warfare from 1914 to 1918, from the construction of the trenches and their different types, to the new weaponry and tactics employed in defence and attack.

Free, booking required via quaytickets.com

What’s on around the UK

Below is a list of exhibitions to which IWM has loaned objects.

Brunei Gallery SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG 020 7898 4046 www.soas.ac.uk Empire, Faith & War – Sikhs and World War One Until 14 September 2014 The story of how one of the world’s smaller communities played a disproportionately large role in the ‘war to end all wars’.

RAF Museum RAF Museum London, Grahame Park Way, London NW9 5LL 020 8205 2266 www.rafmuseum.org.uk Enduring Relationship Until 14 July 2015 A history of the Royal Air Force and the Royal Air Force of Oman from 1918 to the present day.

The Wellington Arch Apsley Way, Hyde Park Corner, London W1J 7JZ 020 7930 2726 www.english-heritage.org.uk

We Will Remember Them: London’s Great War Memorials Until 30 November 2014 A study of London’s Great War memorials, including the Cenotaph and the Machine Gun Corps Memorial.

Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery Lenton Road, Nottingham NG1 6EL 0115 8761400 www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk From the Trent to the Trenches 26 July–16 November 2014 The experiences of Nottinghamshire people at home and in the trenches of northern France.

The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Kent ME4 4TE 01634 823807 www.thedockyard.co.uk Valour, Loss and Sacrifice: Chatham, The Royal Navy and the War at Sea 1914–18 26th July–30 November 2014 The story of Chatham Dockyard, its workers and the Chatham Division of the Royal Navy during the First World War.

Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths & Museum Buddle Street, Wallsend NE28 6HR 0191 236 9347 www.twmuseums.org.uk Coal, Ships & Zeppelins: North Tyneside in the First World War 31 July 2014–26 April 2015 An exhibition about the Swan Hunter shipyard, which built many British warships of the First World War. Barber Institute of Fine Arts University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TS 0121 414 7333 www.barber.org.uk Rebel Visions: The War Art of CRW Nevinson 24 October 2014–25 January 2015 CRW Nevinson’s images of the battlefield and its soldiers.

Hatton Gallery Kings Road, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU 0191 208 6059 www.twmuseums.org.uk Screaming Steel: Art, War and Trauma 1914–1918 20 September–13 December 2014 Creative responses to the psychological trauma suffered by artists and poets during the First World War.

Manchester Art Gallery Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3JL 0161 235 8888 www.manchestergalleries.org The Sensory War 1914–2014 11 October 2014–25 January 2015 An exhibition on how artists have interpreted and communicated the impact of war on the human senses, body, mind and the wider environment over the last century.

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BEHIND THE SCENES

First World War Centenary Projects Gina Koutsika, Josie Gale and Lucy Footer from IWM’s National and International Programmes and Projects team share some of their favourite First World War projects which are being undertaken by members of the Centenary Partnership, led by IWM. Although the First World War has passed from living memory, audience research shows that individuals and communities in the UK want to engage with the First World War Centenary on a very personal level.

The centenary is important to a huge number of people. It may be because of a personal and family connection, the effect the war had on their town, how it changed our wider society, or because of their beliefs about war and the importance of peace.

Almost 3,000 organisations from 48 countries have joined the First World War Centenary Partnership, developing over 1,500 events to engage with the public.

Unfortunately, we cannot list all of them here, but we have each highlighted some of our favourite projects.

Gina Koutsika, Head of National and International Programmes and Projects I have a number of favourite projects and have been inspired by the passion, enthusiasm and resilience of my colleagues.

Mike St Maur Sheil’s powerful battlefield photographs in Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace 14–18 is staged as an outdoor ‘street gallery’. The exhibition opened in Paris last spring, will transfer to London in the summer and is travelling around the UK and overseas.

As a Londoner and an avid library user, Cityread is another favourite. Every April, we are encouraged to read the same book, which this year was My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You by Louisa Young, set in the First World War. We were also invited to take part in numerous talks, debates, workshops and performances.

I loved Lest We Forget by the English National Ballet and was deeply moved by Dust by Akram Khan.

I am particularly interested in the educational programme in Wales, where

Lucy Footer, Centenary Programme and Partnerships Co-ordinator It has been most interesting to discover how the centenary is being marked differently in locations all over the world.

Despite Spain’s neutrality during the First World War, the Public Library Network of Valencia has decided that the centenary is too momentous an anniversary to ignore and have embarked on an ambitious programme of events, performances and research. With particular focus on young people, the programme will encourage contemporary audiences to respond creatively to the First World War. In Belgium, the Antwerp ‘14–’18 project explores how public engagement with the First World War can promote ideals of peace and reconciliation. Antwerp will mark the centenary through exhibitions focussing on refugees; the war in Belgium and the avant-garde; and a public walk across a specially-constructed pontoon bridge.

Linking to their nation’s sporting heritage, the New Zealand Rugby Museum’s Balls, Bullets & Boots exhibition will connect the broader context of the First World War with the personal experiences of the New Zealand rugby team. The exhibition will then tour internationally to coincide with the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

projects which focus on lesserknown stories from the First World War. One example is the Royal Academy of Music museum, whose exhibition War Music (on until 21 March 2015) explores the relationship between music and war against the background of radical musical change. The exhibition also reveals the Royal Academy of Music’s own story during the war: the exchange of German pianos for English ones; and how students and alumni fared once they had enlisted and left London behind.

Staff at Newquay Zoo in Cornwall have been researching what happened to employees, animals and plants during both world wars at London Zoo, Kew Gardens, Belle Vue Zoo, Manchester and Birmingham Botanic Gardens, as well as Irish and European zoos and botanic gardens. They are using a blog to share their research (worldwarzoogardener 1939.wordpress.com). However, in addition to these rarely-explored themes, it is the local and personal stories that will be of particular interest.

The North East War Memorials Project is a small group of volunteers whose aim is to record every memorial to all wars located in the area from Tweed to Tees (and just beyond). They have been working on the project since 1988, and for the centenary have updated their website (www.newmp.org.uk) and launched a notice board with events and information about regional and local research on the First World War. They also offer schools, individuals and other groups the opportunity to add their research about the names on a war memorial to the website.

Josie Gale, Centenary Programme Museum Liaison Officer for English Regions I am particularly interested in those

To find out more about the Centenary Partnership Programme and what is happening in the UK and around the world please visit www.1914.org

school children around the nation, helped by their parents and grandparents, will research their local communities. The First World War will also be marked in Northern Ireland as part of their decade of anniversaries.

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FIRST WORLD WAR ESSENTIAL LISTS As part of a regular column we will feature ‘First World War essential lists’ on the subjects of literature, poetry, film, theatre, music and television box sets.

GENERAL HISTORIES The Forgotten Voices of the Great War by Max Arthur (Ebury in association with IWM, 2003) The Great War: 1914–1918

by Ian Beckett (Longman, 2001) The Fateful Year: 1914

by Mark Bostridge (Viking, 2014) Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain (Phoenix, 2014 – reprinted) The World Crisis 1911–1918

by Winston Churchill (Penguin Classics, 2007 – reprinted) The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark (Allen Lane, 2012) Mud, Blood and Poppycock: Britain and the Great War by Gordon Corrigan (Cassell, 2004) 100 Days to Victory: How the Great War Was Fought and Won 1914–1918 by Saul David (Hodder & Stoughton, 2014) The Pity of War 1914–1918 by Niall Ferguson (Penguin, 2009) The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell (Oxford Paperbacks, 2000) The Great War: 1914–1918

by Peter Hart (Profile, 2014) Catastrophe: 1914: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings (William Collins, 2014) The First World War: A Very Short Introduction by Michael Howard (Oxford University Press, 2007)

Please submit your suggestions to vthompson@iwm.org.uk or send them to: Friends Office, IWM London, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ.

READING LIST HISTORY AND NON-FICTION

A History of the First World War in 100 Objects by John Hughes Wilson and Nigel Steel (Cassell in association with IWM, 2014) The First World War by John Keegan (Bodley Head, 2014) A Brief History of the First World War: Eyewitness Accounts of the War to End All Wars, 1914–1918 by Jon E Lewis (Robinson, 2014) The War That Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War by Margaret MacMillan (Profile, 2013) The Hidden Perspective: The Military Conversations of 1906–1914 by David Owen (University of Chicago Press, 2014) Great Britain’s Great War by Jeremy Paxman (Viking, 2014) The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century

by David Reynolds (Simon & Schuster, 2013) The First World War Remembered by Gary Sheffield (André Deutsch in association with IWM, 2014) World War One: A Short History

by Norman Stone (Penguin, 2008) The First World War: A New History by Hew Strachan (Simon & Schuster, 2003) 1914–1918: The History of the First World War by David Stevenson (Penguin, 2014) The First World War by AJP Taylor (Penguin, 1974) The Great War: Myth and Memory by Dan Todman (Hambledon Continuum, 2007) The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman (Penguin, 2014 – reprinted) The Myriad Forces of War: Britain and the Great War 1914– 1919 by Trevor Wilson (Polity Press, 1986)

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When God Made Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914–1921

by Charles Townshend (Faber, 2011) Boy Soldiers of the First World War by Richard van Emden (Bloomsbury, 2012) The Soldier’s War: The Great War Through Veterans’ Eyes

by Richard van Emden (Bloomsbury, 2009)

HOME FRONT

Under the Devil’s Eye: The British Military Experience in Macedonia 1915–1918 by Alan Wakefield and Simon Moody (Pen & Sword Military, 2010)

The Fighting on the Home Front: The Legacy of Women in World War One by Kate Adie (Hodder & Stoughton, 2014) Home Front 1914–1918: How Britain Survived the Great Warby Ian Beckett (National Archives, 2006)

PHOTOGRAPHY, ART AND DESIGN

My War Diary by Ethel M Bilborough (Ebury in association with IWM, 2014)

The First World War in Photographs by Richard Holmes (André Deutsch in association with IWM, 2014)

The First World War on the Home Front by Terry Charman (André Deutsch in association with IWM, 2014)

The Great War: A Photographic Narrative by Hilary Roberts and Mark Holborn (Jonathan Cape in association with IWM, 2013)

Blighty: British Society in the Era of the Great War by Gerard J DeGroot (Longman, 1996)

Art from the First World War (Imperial War Museums, 2014)

First World War Britain 1914– 1919 by Peter Doyle (Shire Living Histories, 2012)

Posters of the First World War (Imperial War Museums, 2014) The Great War in Portraits by Paul Moorhouse with an essay by Sebastian Faulks (National Portrait Gallery, 2014)

Great War Britain: The First World War at Home by Lucinda Gosling (The History Press, 2014) The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War

by Adrian Gregory (Cambridge University Press, 2008) The Deluge: British Society and the First World War by Arthur Marwick (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men After the First World War by Virginia Nicholson (Penguin, 2008) British Culture and the First World War by George Robb (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002) Nice Girls and Rude Girls: Women Workers in World War I by Deborah Thom (IB Taurus, 1998) Dear Old Blighty by ES Turner (Michael Joseph, 1980) All Quiet on the Home Front: An Oral History of Life in Britain During the First World Warby Richard van Emden and Steve Humphries (Headline, 2004) The Great War and the British People by JM Winter (Macmillan, 1985)

FIGHTING FRONTS Tommy Goes to War by Malcolm Brown (History Press in association with IWM, 2004) Trench: A History of Trench Warfare on the Western Front by Stephen Bull (Osprey Adventures, in association with IWM, 2014) Mapping the First World War by Peter Chasseaud (Collins in association with IWM, 2013) The Donkeys by Alan Clark (Pimlico, 1991) Gas! Gas! Quick, Boys: How Chemistry Changed the First World War by Michael Freemantle (The History Press, 2013)

Feeding Tommy: Battlefield Recipes from the First World War by Andrew Robertshaw (The History Press, 2013)

A Bitter Truth: Avant-Garde Art and the Great War by Richard Cork (Yale University Press, 1994) Vorticism and Abstract Art in the First Machine Age by Richard Cork (G Fraser, 1976)

Kitchener’s Army by Peter Simkins (Pen & Sword Military, 2007)

A Terrible Beauty: British Artists in the First World War

by Paul Gough (Sansom, 2010)

Forgotten Victory – The First World War: Myths and Realities

by Gary Sheffield (Headline, 2002)

Modern Art, Britain and the Great War by Sue Malvern (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2004)

Tumult in the Clouds: British Experience of War in the Air 1914–1918 by Nigel Steel and Peter Hart (Hodder & Stoughton, 1997) The Eastern Front 1914–1917

by Norman Stone (Penguin, 1998)

Gallipoli by Peter Hart (Profile, 2011) The First World War in Africa by Hew Strachan (Oxford University The Kaiser’s Pirates: Hunting Press, 2004) Germany’s Raiding Cruisers Artillery in the Great War, by Paul 1914–1915 by Nick Hewitt (Pen & Strong (Pen & Sword Military, Sword Military in association with 2013) IWM, 2013)

The Huns Have Got My Gramophone!: Advertisements from the Great War by Amanda-Jane Doran (The Bodleian Library, 2014) Your Country Needs You: The Secret History of the Propaganda Poster by James Taylor (Saraband, 2013) Fashion: Women in World War One by Lucy Adlington (The History Press, 2014) Summer 2014 Despatches ■ 53

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BOOKS

Many of the featured books are available in IWM shops and online at www.iwmshop.org.uk where Friends receive a 10% discount.

Precious evidence My War Diary 1914–1918

By Ethel M Bilbrough Published by Ebury Press in association with IWM Reading someone else’s diary – without their consent or knowledge – is an awkward business. Nosey at best?

A shocking violation of privacy at worst? In normal circumstances, perhaps a bit of both. But when that diary contains first-hand revelations about arguably the most important event in modern times, perhaps it is more forgiveable.

In 2011, I was involved in selecting items from IWM’s extraordinary First World War Collections for the new First World War Galleries – from weapons and uniforms to posters, paintings and photographs. Letters and diaries have a special, compelling immediacy, and surveying them is intense – sometimes unyieldingly so.

One afternoon I began reading Mrs Ethel Bilbrough’s diary. It upended my day. I read it once. Then I read it again. And again. I felt fleeting worry over this prodigious consumption of Ethel’s creation. Was it satisfying simply because her words were immensely legible (rarely the case) and the pages plastered with clippings and little charity flags? It was both of these things. But the deeper reason for the irresistible draw was found in her satiating opinions.

Ethel Mary Bilbrough lived in Britain during the war. In a classdivided country, the wealthy, well-connected Ethel and insurance executive husband Kenneth Bilbrough were nearer the elite. The couple, who had no children, lived in the grand Elmstead Grange in Chislehurst, Kent.

Ethel, now in her mid-forties, was also a keen writer to national newspapers. Her wartime diary is interspersed with cuttings from pieces offering strident advice about how the conflict should be conducted and endured. ‘Real-time’ entries in the diary begin in 1915 through to the war’s end in 1918. From rationing and recruitment to air raids and animals injured on military service, Ethel’s diary covers the big issues of the day. Her intense patriotism is conveyed through sweeping criticisms. The government, conscientious objectors who refused military service and Britain’s allies are all subject to her wrath if they threaten victory. Her even more forceful views on Germany come as no surprise. Kaiser Wilhelm II is branded the ‘slayer of millions’.

Ethel died in 1951. When her diary was found in a clear-out and offered to IWM ten years later, the colourful charity pins stuck within its pages were presumed to be the main interest. But, for me, Ethel’s opinions are the real draw. In her own view, ‘It seems to me that everyone who happens to be alive in such stirring epochmaking times, ought to write something of what is going on!’ But she is clear that the diary ‘will merely be my own personal impressions’. These impressions are sometimes provocative, sometimes exceptionally biting, but never dull.

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Some may query what right she had to pontificate about the war. Ethel wasn’t a soldier or a war worker. But her diary captures something of a fundamental moral purpose that drove millions of British men, women and children to volunteer as soldiers, work in factories, donate money and help war-related charitable organisations. Such endeavour was driven, for the majority of people, by a belief that the nation was right to fight. Ethel’s diary makes plain this sense of righteousness.

This August, one hundred summers will have passed since the war began. It can be tricky to understand exactly how this destructive and transformative ‘great’, ‘world’ and, in one memorably succinct description I recently came across, ‘big’ war affected people. How did it really feel to live through it? Can we ever know? Probably not entirely; Ethel’s diary can certainly only answer how she alone felt and is not any kind of public record. We certainly don’t have to agree with her.

Ethel’s diary also reminds us that there is a greater breadth of vivid, individual and opinionated response out there beyond her own. Read as a whole, we see the strength of one response provoked by a war that affected everybody. I don’t think she would mind us delving into her ostensibly private thoughts. In fact, I suspect she would have been pleased for this diary to be published now in full. Letters and diaries which survive today help break down much broader questions around how the First World War changed Britain forever. They are precious evidence to relish reading.

Laura Clouting Curator, IWM ISBN: 9780091951115 Hardback: £15

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BOOKS

Also recommended

Vivid and authoritative

From those who lived it

The First World War Remembered

By Gary Sheffield Published by André Deutsch in association with IWM

The First World War on the Home Front

By Terry Charman (Senior IWM Historian) Published by André Deutsch in association with IWM

One hundred years after the Austrians fired the first shots against the Serbs, the events of the First World War are remembered as some of the most devastating and traumatic in history. The savagery of the fighting, the appalling conditions endured by the soldiers and the sheer scale of carnage have seared images of the war into public memory. From the Battles of the Somme, Arras and Passchendaele to colonial campaigns in Africa, Mesopotamia and Palestine, from fighting in Gallipoli to revolution in Russia and civil war in Ireland, The First World War Remembered gives a vivid account of the conflicts of 1914–1918.

Gary Sheffield’s authoritative text is supplemented by over 200 photographs and colour battle maps, as well as more than 30 painstakingly-researched rare facsimile documents – personal and unit war diaries, letters, secret plans and telegrams, orders, maps and posters – that until now have been stored or exhibited in museums and archives around the world.

The book also contains a film on DVD entitled Our Empire’s Fight for Freedom alongside a series of veterans’ first-hand accounts called We Fought on the Western Front.

Drawing on IWM’s archives, The First World War on the Home Front features previously unpublished excerpts from diaries, letters and newspaper reports, illustrating the enormous social and economic changes to take place in Britain during the war years through the words of the people who lived it.

Painting an evocative portrait of British civilian life, this book presents in vivid and immensely personal detail the changes in this country during the First World War. ‘Your Country Needs You!’ was the poster slogan that shouted out to the people of Britain, and as men of all ages responded to the call by joining the forces and leaving their homes and jobs, so those left behind were forced to step up and take their place.

Food shortages, rationing, the ‘first Blitz’ and the appearance of women in the workplace all became familiar.

From the draconian effects of the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) and the threat of Zeppelin raids to government propaganda and the power of the press, The First World War on the Home Front recalls how the people of Britain not only confronted the direct threats to their country, but also prepared for the fact that life would never be the same again.

ISBN: 9780233004051 Hardback: £50

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IWM SHOP The IWM Shop includes presents for all occasions, with a number of new ranges to support the new First World War Galleries at IWM London. As a Friend you enjoy a 10% discount. To use this discount online, simply register and email iwmshop@iwm.org.uk to confirm your Friends membership before you purchase.

Centenary bag £1.50

Centenary pin badge £2.50

Centenary magnet £3

You are the Man notebook £6

Sopwith Camel model £125

Why Aren’t You in Khaki t-shirt £17

Black Cat brooch £5

Field Poppy mug £7

Remembrance plate £18

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AND FINALLY Professor Sir Hew Strachan, an IWM Trustee and Chichele Professor of the History of War at All Souls College, Oxford, outlines the importance of IWM London’s new First World War Galleries.

Powerful testimony

IWM ART 001146

The First World War was a turning point in world history. It claimed the lives of around 10 million service personnel and untold numbers of civilians across the globe, and had a huge impact on those who experienced it. It was the first real instance of what later generations would call total war, with whole nations pitted against each other as millions of men fought on land, at sea and in the air.

Modern weaponry caused mass casualties and civilian populations suffered hardships and came under threat of enemy attack. The war broke the empires of Germany, Russia, AustriaHungary and Turkey. It triggered the Russian Revolution and provided the bedrock for the Soviet Union. It forced a reluctant United States on to the world stage and revived the ideals of liberalism.

On Europe’s edge, it provided a temporary solution to the ambitions of the Balkan

Paul Nash’s We are making a new world (1918).

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nations. Outside Europe it laid the seeds for the conflict in the Middle East. In short, the war shaped not just Europe, but the world in the twentieth century.

Most of these outcomes were in the balance until the war’s end, and some remained so after it was over. In 1917 many in Britain and the empire were not optimistic. In February of that year, as the Germans declared unrestricted U-boat warfare and Russia stood on the brink of revolution, the Imperial War Museum was born.

The purpose of the museum was not only to commemorate but to collect, to sift through the products, debris and memorabilia of the war, and to do so in a way that reflected not just the roles of the armed forces but the efforts of the entire nation. By 1920, when the museum opened for the first time at the Crystal Palace, the war had been won, but it was

still hard to encompass the conflict as a whole. So great was its enormity that all who had fought in it struggled to give it shape and context. The exhibits were less about telling a story that still lacked a clear narrative, and more about evoking a set of experiences that in their entirety were common to all.

Some aspects of the First World War still resonate today. Soldiers severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan have survived thanks not only to the most upto-date surgical techniques but also to procedures pioneered and developed in 1914–1918. The legitimacy of the war was debated then, just as we argue about war’s necessity now. But other themes have forfeited their purchase. Britain went to war in 1914 as the head of an empire which it has now lost.

Many of those men who put on uniforms did not have the vote; nor did any of the women who worked in munitions factories or who joined the newly-established female branches of the armed forces. By the war’s end all men in Britain aged over 21 had the right to vote, and all women aged over 30. Those who set up the Imperial War Museum had to recognise that the empire in its title, although in 1919 greater in geographical extent than it had ever been, was no longer an effective model for international organisation; instead the League of Nations and the United States’ role within it promised a different form of English-speaking dominance. That particular ambition would not be fully realised until after 1945.

IWM London’s new First World War Galleries tell the story of the war in chronological fashion. They do so by putting the experience of the British Empire in a global context, and by simultaneously relating the events at the front to the experiences of those at home.

The galleries tell you more than you can absorb and retain in the course of a single visit. They are powerful testimony to the ways in which the museum has so fully met the ambitions of its founders. Objects from IWM’s collections fill the new galleries – from artillery pieces to intensely personal items such as diaries and letters, from photographs to works of art. The First World War Galleries give a compelling, vibrant and emotive narrative of the war which was the founding event of our modern world.

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