Countdown to the Centenary

As the Centenary of the First World War approaches, I am posting extracts from my new book, Bristol in the Great War, which is out in August. Using military events as background, it describes what life was like in the city between 1914 and 1918 and takes a look behind the scenes to see how ordinary people coped. As always on this blog, the extracts include the words of people who were actually there. For more details about Bristol in the Great War and to pre-order, click the link on the left.

BRISTOL IN THE GREAT WAR - 1918
'The Tommies were out of luck if one of us Yanks were around'

US airman at Yate open their mail: 'The girls came miles to see us'
(Credit: Yate & District Heritage Museum)

Understandably, fun and laughter wasn’t what every serviceman wanted to see when he arrived home on leave, it didn’t take much for some to feel their efforts at the Front weren’t being appreciated. ‘If you had any idea what life was like in the trenches, you would think twice before being so gay and light-hearted,’ wrote one local newspaper correspondent. Another unwelcome surprise may have been to see just how well the American allies were settling in at home.

The United States had entered the war in 1917 when its merchant ships came under attack from German U-Boats. Hundreds of wounded Americans would be invalided back to the city, and US airmen were also stationed a few miles north of Bristol at Yate.

The Americans never had to look far for attention. ‘The girls came miles to see us as if we were a circus and the Tommies were out of luck if one of us Yank curiosities could be found for an escort,’ wrote Corporal Ned Steel, of Kansas City, who was based at Yate. He was amazed at how bold the Bristol women were and set the scene with American translations in brackets: ‘What quite took our breath away was to have a pretty girl cadge [bum ] us for an American cigarette, or in a “pub” (saloon) buy the treats of ale for us and think nothing of it,’ he wrote (with American translations in brackets). ‘And when a ‘”flapper” (Broadway chicken) in Bristol looked offended if we failed to kiss her goodbye (though we had just chanced to meet her ten minutes before) we nearly fell over. These habits, we were told, were the result of the war.’

Corporal Steel belonged to the American 822^nd (Repair) Squadron, one of several US units sent to England to learn how to repair damaged aircraft before moving on to France. When he arrived in April 1918, Steel was fairly scornful of the British – their cooking came in for criticism, so too did the slackness in the workshop when nobody in authority was around, and the way every second word seemed to be ‘bloody’!

However, when his squadron departed for France ten weeks later Steel had new-found respect. The expertise he had observed in the aircraft workshops impressed him, and so did the sacrifices that ordinary people had made for the war. Waving goodbye to the girls who came to see them off, he reflected: ‘Nearly everyone one of them had lost brothers or other dear ones in the long never-ending war. Then, could you blame them for crying softly as they watched the train move away?’

 

(Copyright © 2014 Jacqueline Wadsworth)

 NEXT POST: War is declared!

 

 

 

Countdown to the Centenary

As the Centenary of the First World War approaches, I am posting extracts from my new book, Bristol in the Great War, which is out in August. Using military events as background, it describes what life was like in the city between 1914 and 1918 and takes a look behind the scenes to see how ordinary people coped. As always on this blog, the extracts include the words of people who were actually there. For more details about Bristol in the Great War and to pre-order, click the link on the left.

BRISTOL IN THE GREAT WAR - 1917
'Mr Wadlow was in  terrible state and fell to the ground'



Harry Wadlow - middle row, right - wasa talented
sportsman who me a tragic end
(Credit: Frenchay Village Museum)

Despite all the advances, flying was still a hazardous occupation for pilots during the Great War, especially as they didn’t carry parachutes. Estimates of life-expectancy at the Front vary considerably but most are measured in days or weeks. The riskiness of it all was brought home to the community of Frenchay in May 1917 when the son of a local headmaster was killed in a flying accident in Kent.

 

As a child Harry Wadlow had been a pupil at the Frenchay National School, where his father Henry was still the head. He went on to Bristol Grammar School where he excelled at sport as well as his studies, and when war broke out Harry joined the Army Service Corps. He served in the Dardanelles and France, where he was promoted to captain, then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916.

 

The fatal accident happened when he was training to fly a single-seater De Havilland fighter at Joyce Green Aerodrome near Dartford. Situated on marshland, the airfield was not a popular one and Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Stanley Gould Lee, a pilot during the First World War, later explained why: ‘A pupil taking off with a choked or failing engine had to choose, according to wind direction, between drowning in the Thames (half a mile wide at this point), crashing into the Vickers TNT (explosives) Works, sinking into a vast sewage farm, killing himself and numerous patients in a large isolation hospital, being electrocuted in an electrical station with acres of pylons and cables; or trying to turn and get back to the aerodrome. Unfortunately, many pupils confronted with disaster tried the last course and span to their deaths.’

Exactly what happened to Harry is unknown, but he died instantly when his aircraft struck a hut on his landing approach. The news was broken to his father at morning school and the effect was awful. ‘Mr Wadlow was in a terrible state when he got the news and he fell to the ground,’ recalled one pupil. It was the second time tragedy had struck, for in 1901 his wife Laura had died, aged 31, of scarlet fever.  Harry Wadlow was buried at Frenchay with full military honours in a grave shared with his mother. He was 22 years old.
 

(Copyright © 2014 Jacqueline Wadsworth)

 

NEXT POST: 'The Tommies were out of luck if one of us Yanks were around' - 1918

 

Countdown to the Centenary

As the Centenary of the First World War approaches, I am posting extracts from my new book, Bristol in the Great War, which is out in August. Using military events as background, it describes what life was like in the city between 1914 and 1918 and takes a look behind the scenes to see how ordinary people coped. As always on this blog, the extracts include the words of people who were actually there. For more details about Bristol in the Great War and to pre-order, click the link on the left.

BRISTOL IN THE GREAT WAR - 1916
'Sewing, scrubbing, scraping and fetching for the British Army'

Nursing often involved scrubbing floors, cleaning sinks
and washing filthy bandages and dressings
(Credit: Frenchay Village Museum)

AS MORE and more men departed for war, Bristol women were now being asked to take on new roles which they did with enthusiasm. Large numbers were recruited for the Land Army and although many had been working in dairies, keeping poultry, and helping at harvest-time for generations, the less experienced girls were thoroughly checked to make sure they would ‘stick at it’. They had to supply three character references and were then interviewed by a panel. Selection boards were held in the city once a week at the Victoria Street Exchange and some 1,400 women applied in total, of whom about 660 were accepted.

It was impressed upon the successful candidates that although they would be wearing smocks and breeches, they were still expected to behave like ladies. For some, however, the freedom of being billeted on farms unchaperoned was too much of a temptation and many a boisterous night was spent at the local pub!

Despite the prominent part women were now playing, many citizens were still more comfortable to see them in supporting, decorative, or even subservient roles. Frenchay’s parish magazine, which was largely written by the rector, revealed an almost aggressive satisfaction in reporting that nurses at Cleve Hill Hospital in Downend were scrubbing kitchen floors, cleaning sinks, cooking for nearly one hundred people, and washing filthy bandages and dressings.

‘It is work that anyone may be proud and thankful to do,’ declared the magazine, continuing in Churchillian style: ‘For there will come the day when those who limped in can march out, when all bandages and slings can be cast off...these men will leave England again for the battlefield, and those Red Cross members who sewed and scrubbed and scraped and fetched and carried for them, and nursed them back into health, will know that they have had a finger in the pie which feeds the British Army.’

(Copyright © 2014 Jacqueline Wadsworth)

NEXT POST: 'Mr Wadlow was in a terrible state and fell to the ground - 1917

Countdown to the Centenary

As the Centenary of the First World War approaches, I am posting extracts from my new book, Bristol in the Great War, which is out next month. Using military events as background, it describes what life was like in the city between 1914 and 1918 and takes a look behind the scenes to see how ordinary people coped. As always on this blog, the extracts use the words of people who were actually there. Today's post describes Christmas in Bristol, and in 1915 it was business as usual. For more details about Bristol in the Great War, click the link on the left.

BRISTOL IN THE GREAT WAR -1915
'Electric torches - a most acceptable present for soldiers'



The Bristol Times and Mirror advertise
tempting treats for Christmas
(Credit: Bristol Reference Library)

AS 1915 drew to a close, it was reported by one London newspaper that, despite the war, women were still spending freely as the festive season approached. While shops that depended on male customers were finding business slack, those for women were reporting record sales. The same was true in Bristol, and a look through the local newspapers in the week leading up to Christmas 1915 shows that women had all the encouragement they needed from advertisers.

Alongside a big, bold appeal for army recruits, the pharmacist Henry Hodder, of Wine Street, commanded: ‘Do your Xmas shopping now’. The Misses Weymouth of Corn Street offered their furs as ideal ‘yuletide gifts’ with motor wraps from five guineas and foot muffs at 10s 9d. James Phillips & Sons, a household goods store in Union Street, helpfully let it be known that ‘You cannot do better than inspect our large and choice assorted stock of goods’.

In Clifton, the Alexandra Company proudly advertised its ‘dainty fancy goods’, while in Augustine’s Parade, MW Dunscombe Ltd showed off its ‘Meccano for boys’, and suggested their electric torches and pocket Kodaks were ‘a most acceptable present’ for soldiers at the Front.

Who could blame women for indulging in a bit of retail therapy? They were the ones who were left to bring up families by themselves, who struggled when food and money was short, and who could not forget that their loved ones might never return. 

(Copyright © 2014 Jacqueline Wadsworth)

NEXT POST: 'Sewing, scrubbing, scraping and fetching for the British Army' - 1916

Countdown to the Centenary

As the Centenary of the First World War approaches, I am posting extracts from my new book, Bristol in the Great War, which is out next month. Using military events as background, it describes what life was like in the city between 1914 and 1918 and takes a look behind the scenes to see how ordinary people coped. As always on this blog, the extracts use the words of people who were actually there. Today's post describes the arrival in Bristol of Belgian refugees. For more details about Bristol in the Great War, click the link on the left.

BRISTOL IN THE GREAT WAR -1914

'Many of the first arrivals were of the peasant class'



Belgian refugees arrive in Bristol,
many looked drained and bewildered
Credit: Bristol Reference Library

AS 1914 drew to a close, the reality of war was becoming clear. Wounded soldiers were now arriving back at Temple Meads Station, filthy, bloodied and bandaged. One Bristol paper published this soldier’s letter which described conditions at the Front: ‘In the daytime it is a butcher shop and at night it is like Madam Tussaud’s, nothing but dead and wounded, dead horses, burning towns and villages, murderers and refugees...It is painful to see women and children seeking a place of safety when shells go over and blow them to pieces. We are in a farm at the present time...and a Belgian refugee is here with three children on his own. His wife got shelled as they were flying for their lives.’

Belgian refugees were now seeking refuge in Britain and Bristol would accommodate 2,000. They were found homes and jobs, education was provided for the children, and money was raised to support them. The first Belgians arrived in the city on 22 September and were cheered by waving crowds. But as they paraded through the centre by tram many looked drained and bewildered.

For some like Maude Boucher, a mother of four from Clifton, the culture difference took a bit of getting used to. ‘Many of the first arrivals were of the peasant class and most of the women wore large shawls and no hats, and were generally standing at the gates and doors of their homes,’ she wrote in her journal. ‘The family which came later on to Tyndall’s Park were of the better class but had been obliged to leave their homes and had buried most of their possessions and treasures somewhere in Belgium. (That is as the story goes.) They had been able to bring practically nothing with them and as their family consisted of from ten to fifteen children in number, they were very glad of such a comfortable home as was provided for them.’

 

(Copyright © 2014 Jacqueline Wadsworth)

NEXT POST: 'A most acceptable present for soldiers' - 1915

At last, the Centenary of the Great War is in sight!

 

After two years of writing books about the First World War, I can finally see the Centenary coming into view - and what a welcome sight it is! For at last it means the publication of my first two books: Bristol in the Great War, which will be out in August, and Letters from the Trenches, out in November, A third title, Dorchester, Weymouth and Portland in the Great War is still being written and that will be published next year.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER

In the run-up to the start of the Centenary on August 4th, I shall be posting extracts from Bristol in the Great War as a tribute to those who lived through those awful years. Using military events as background, the book describes what it was like to live in Bristol between 1914 and 1918, and looks behind the scenes to see how ordinary people coped. As always on my blog, the extracts will use the words of people who were actually there.

The book is arranged in five chapters, covering the five years of war, and I shall be posting an extract from each one, along with illustrations (the book is packed with 100 photographs, many of which have never been published). I hope you enjoy them, even if you're not familiar with Bristol, and if you feel inclined to buy a copy of the book, simply click the link on the left.

Things have changed enormously in the two years since I began my writing projects, In 2012 it wasn't unheard of for children to confuse the two world wars, or simply not know the 1914-18 conflict existed. There's little chance of that now, with schools very much involved in the Centenary. Some even have their own WW1-themed blogs and twitter accounts.

Interest in the war has also inspired people to investigate their own family histories, and I have listened to some moving accounts by people who have discovered exactly how their relatives were involved in the conflict. A huge amount of research is now being published - from sweeping tomes to local stories - and it's noticeable that information about Britain during the Great War is now being pulled together in books and on websites. Two years ago it was often scattered among many different sources and hard to find.

I hope my books will play their own small part in ensuring that, long after the Centenary is forgotten, those who lived through the Great War are always remembered.