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