War on the home front

1. War on the home front • Victims of the war • The Role of Women • Pacifists and Conscientious objectors • Rationing

2. Victims of the war "There were shouts of "fire", well  you could not miss it, the whole place was lit up. We were all outside looking. I went upstairs to get a shawl. Suddenly I was downstairs and the house was on top of me. It's funny but I can't really remember hearing the explosion.....our house was blown down right enough.We don't go up to Silverton again....I didn't go to school again. There was no school, no house, so there was no point.“ Mabel Bastable, an eye-witness at Silverton Eye witness account of a weapons factory blowing up. Approximately 1500 civilians were killed during the war in England.

3. The Role of Women Mrs Millicent Fawcett, who was president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies between 1897 and 1918, said at the end of the war – 'The war revolutionised the industrial position of women - it found them serfs and left them free.' "You are doing a man's work and so you are dressed rather like a man; but remember that because you wear a smock and trousers you should take care to behave like an English girl who expects chivalry and respect from everyone she meets

5. Pacifists and Conscientious objectors  By 1916, volunteers to join the British Army were starting to dry up. In response to this, the government introduced conscription in 1916 - where the law stated that you had to serve your country in the military for a certain period of time. A 'conscience clause' was added whereby those who had a "conscientious objection to bearing arms" were freed from military service. "Compulsory service is, I believe, as distasteful to the nation as it is incompatible with the conditions of an Army like ours, which has such a large proportion of its units on foreign service. I hold moreover, that the man who voluntarily serves his country is more to be relied upon as a good fighting soldier than is he who is compelled to bear arms." Some were pacifists who were against war in general. Some were political objectors who did not consider the government of Germany to be their enemy Some were religious objectors who believed that war and fighting was against their religion. Groups in this section were the Quakers and Jehovah Witnesses. A combination of any of the above groups.

6. Rationing (1) Charles Young was interviewed about his experiences of the First World War in 1984. When I returned after the war relatives told me how bad it had been. You see, us being an island hardly any food could get through, because German U-boats were sinking our food convoys. My family lived on bones from the butcher made into soups. And black bread. And when some food did get delivered to the shops everyone for miles around besieged the place. The queues stretched for miles, and if you were old or infirm you stood no chance. Many, especially children, died of starvation. Food riots were very common. But news like this was kept from us, over in France. we only got to hear about it from men who came back after being on leave. I think that is why leave to England was very rare, and severely restricted.

7. Recruitment - there was a huge poster campaign to get people to join up, and the government had to introduce conscription in 1916. Conscientious objectors could be imprisoned. Women were recruited into the armed forces as nurses, drivers, cooks and telephonists. • The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) - this was passed in August 1914. DORA allowed the government to take over the coal mines, railways and shipping. Lloyd George became Minister of Munitions and set up state-run munitions factories. The government worked with the trade unions to prevent strikes. • Reduced workforce - there were fewer workers because so many men left to join the army. • Rationing - a fixed allowance for sugar, meat, butter, jam and tea was introduced in 1918. British Summer Time was also introduced to give more daylight working hours. • Propaganda - newspaper and soldiers' letters were censored. "The Tribunal" (a pacifist newspaper) was shut down, and lies were made up about German atrocities. Posters encouraged morale. The film "The Somme" was a semi-successful attempt at using film for propaganda because the graphic nature of actually seeing the men die upset many viewers. • Civilian casualties - 57 zeppelin bombing raids after 1915, and the German navy shelled Hartlepool, Whitby and Scarborough.