The Great War, 1914-1918
Many of the soldiers who joined up at the beginning of the 1914-1918 war (persuaded perhaps by recruitment posters, e.g. item no. 2) believed that they would be home before Christmas, covered in glory, having defeated the Germans. None of them could have imagined the horrors they would face, seeing friends and comrades killed or horribly injured and with victory a remote dream. Britain servicemen alone suffered casualties of 702,410 killed and missing and 1,662,625 wounded1, either in the trenches or in battle, even up to the day the war ended on the 11th November 1918. Of those who survived over 600,000 would return home disabled, severely maimed or with their lungs destroyed by gas, facing a life of pain and with no prospect of employment. 65,000 of those disabled included "men whose disabilities were not physical but mental, and who were so traumatised by their experiences that they spent the rest of their lives in hospital"2.
Conditions in the trenches on the Western Front, which stretched over a 400 mile front, were appalling, with soldiers in close proximity to rotting bodies, causing disease and the loss of many lives. Syphilis and tuberculosis also killed many prisoners. Over 200,000 British servicemen endured life in Prisoner of War Camps3, living in unhealthy conditions and trying to survive on scant rations. Some lucky prisoners, however, received parcels from home (see item no. 3 - a card from a prisoner acknowledging receipt of a parcel).
During the war some members of the Canadian Forestry Corps (see item nos. 4-7) were in a camp at Englefield Green with their depot on Smith's Lawn (see item no. 8 for an amusing postcard related to this spot). Among the many jobs which they carried out with the trees they cut down were preparing railway ties and lumber for trenches, and building barracks and hospitals. Of the casualties suffered by the Corps in the course of the war 30 are buried in Englefield Green Cemetery and named on the familiar Commonwealth War Graves Commission gravestones (see for example item no.10). Many servicemen who died abroad during the war were, however, never identified and their gravestone simply says '"A soldier of the Great War/ Known unto God" (see item no. 11).
At home, when the problems of food supply reached an acute stage of crisis caused by the sinking of merchant ships in the Atlantic by German U-Boats, food rationing in Britain was introduced by Viscount Rhondda, appointed as Head of the Ministry of Food in 1917. As a result Ration Books and cards were issued (item nos. 12-13 are typical examples).
In 1914 King George V instituted two new decorations, one called the Military Cross "for gallantry in the field" (see item no. 15) by army officers and the other called the Distinguished Service Medal (see item no. 16) for courageous service in war by Petty Officers and ratings of the Royal Navy and 'other ranks' of other services.
After the war ended most cities in Britain erected war memorials. The memorials in smaller villages and towns often listed the names of each local soldier who had been killed, as happened in the case of the memorial in the churchyard of St. John's Church in Egham (see item no. 17). The unveiling of the memorial cross announced in item no. 18 was no doubt an event which was typical throughout Britain in the aftermath of the war.
Joan and Barry Wintour
August 2014
1 These casualty figures arc from The World War 1 Databook, by John Ellis & Michael Cox (London: Aurum Press, 1993)
2 Quotation from an article on the National Archives website: [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/aftermath/counting cost.htm]
3 This figure is compiled from statistics in The World War 1 Databook, by John Ellis & Michael Cox (London: Aurum Press, 1993)
ITEMS ON DISPLAY
1. Group of First World War Soldiers outside Egham railway station at the beginning of the war
2. Image of THERE'S ROOM FOR YOU/ENLIST TO-DAY (Parliamentary Recruiting Committee poster)
3. Official card acknowledging receipt of the parcel Mrs Head sent in 1917 to Pte. H. Emmans of the West Yorkshire Regt. at the camp in Germany where he was a prisoner of war (including a copy of the reverse side of the card)
4. Group of Women's Legion drivers in the Canadian Forestry Camp
5. View of workshop in the Canadian Forestry Camp
6. King George V and Queen Mary visiting the Canadian Forestry Camp
7. Orderly room at the Smith's Lawn Camp
8. Poem: "Smith's Lawn Camp", ca. 1916
9. Red Cross Hospital. Temporary buildings erected in Englefield Green during the war
10. Imperial War Graves Commission headstone of the grave of a soldier of the Canadian Forestry Corps in Englefield Green cemetery
11. Imperial War Graves Commission headstone for an unidentified soldier killed on the Western Front, worded A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR/KNOWN UNTO GOD
12. A Ministry of Food National Ration Book
13. A Ration Card
14. Image of DON'T WASTE BREAD! (A poster appeal published by Ministry of Food)
15. Image of a Military Cross
16. Image of a Distinguished Service Medal
17. Egham War Memorial
18. Service for the War Memorial Cross unveiling ceremony in Egham Parish Churchyard 1920