As any Soldier will tell you, food is critical to morale. Good food may not solve all of a Soldier’s problems, but bad food only adds to them. The importance of wholesome, appetizing food to the
morale and fighting ability of an Army is hard to underestimate. This reality once led Napoleon to remark: “C’est la soupe qui fait le soldat” (The soup makes the soldier).
The first Army field rations, authorized in 1775 by the Continental Congress, consisted of a pound of beef, pork, or fish; bread, beer, and milk, and were expected to feed a man for one day. By 1917 when the AEF arrived in Europe, the guidelines had changed little, with an increase in quantity and the addition of potatoes. In addition to basic foodstuffs, Doughboys also received luxuries such as milk, butter, candy, and cigarettes; luxuries their fellow allied Soldiers lacked. The Army often experienced shortages of fresh fruit, but in general, as one historian noted, “the dough-boys of the American Expeditionary Force were the best-fed army in World War I.”
As in all wars, however, feeding the troops was often a challenge. Simply getting food to the troops could be difficult, especially when the enemy tried to zero in and attack supply lines. During World War I, responsibility for food and supplies fell to the Quartermaster Corps, which implemented a number of innovations to address the particular situation in France in 1918. One of the more significant innovations was the creation of Field Bakeries that could provide fresh hot food to the Soldiers. Field Bakeries meant the end of reliance on that old staple of armies in the field: hard tack. American Soldiers relished the fresh bread that came from these bakeries.
One of Donald Kyler’s duties included leading food parties to the front. A fresh meal was always a welcomed luxury in the trenches, and whenever possible, Soldier received hot food delivered in food carts.
The exact origin of the term ‘Doughboys’, said to be in use since the 1840’s, is in dispute, but many believe the name came to be especially associated with the Soldiers in World War I because of their affinity for doughnuts and other baked goods made by Red Cross volunteers. Photo Courtesy of USAHEC.
As Kyler’s story illustrates, however, getting food and other supplies to the front is often difficult. Bad weather, poor organization, and especially enemy action (which often targets supply lines) can get in the way. A gas attack would ruin any exposed food in the trenches, and the trenches themselves were full of rats and other vermin. Well aware of the problems of resupply, the Army developed the first emergency ration in 1901. The idea behind the emergency ration was that Soldiers could carry food for use in the event that they were cut off from supply lines.
The reserve rations that doughboys carried contained over 3,000 calories worth of meat, bread, coffee, and sugar, and were designed to sustain them during assaults and periods when regular rations were unavailable. Emergency rations were tinned to preserve them until needed and to protect them from contamination during gas attacks as well as from mice, rats, and other scavengers. With these rations on hand, Soldiers were expected to survive seven days without resupply, if necessary.
As always, the cost of feeding the Army was an issue. Feeding a Soldier cost 26 cents a day during World War I, for a total of $727,092,430.44 (more than $11 billion in 2012 dollars) for the period of 1917-1918. Defending this high cost, Senator James Wadsworth of New York said “what we should remember at this time is that the American Army is being fed as well, if not better, than any other army on the face of the earth…”
All in all, Soldiers serving during the First World War had access to much better food than their predecessors, or even their contemporaries serving in allied armies. With access to the extra luxuries such as dairy products, candy, and freshly baked bread, and thanks to the efforts of men such as Donald Kyler, the Doughboys fought as well as they ate.
Mobile kitchens like this one helped bring hot food to the troops in forward areas. Photo Courtesy of USAHEC.
The homing pigeon, also called the mail pigeon or messenger pigeon, is a variety of domestic pigeons (Columba livia domestica) derived from the wild rock dove, selectively bred for its ability to find its way home over extremely long distances. The rock dove has an innate homing ability, meaning that it will generally return to its nest using magnetoreception. Flights as long as 1,800 km (1,100 miles) have been recorded by birds in competitive pigeon racing.Their average flying speed over moderate 965 km (600 miles) distances is around 97 km/h (60 miles per hour) and speeds of up to 160 km/h (100 miles per hour) have been observed in top racers for short distances.
Because of this skill, domesticated pigeons were used to carry messages as messenger pigeons. They are usually referred to as “pigeon post” if used in post service, or “war pigeon” during wars. Until the introduction of telephones, homing pigeons were used commercially to deliver communication.
Messenger pigeons are often incorrectly categorized as English Carrier pigeons, an ancient breed of fancy pigeons. They were used historically to send messages but lost the homing instinct long ago. Modern-day homing pigeons (homers) or racing pigeons (racing homers) do have “Carrier blood” in them because they are in part descendants of the old-style Carriers. This is one reason why they are still commonly but erroneously called “carrier pigeons”.
History
By 3000 BC, Egypt was using homing pigeons for pigeon post, taking advantage of a singular quality of this bird, which when taken far from its nest is able to find its way home due to a particularly developed sense of orientation. Messages were then tied around the legs of the pigeon, which was freed and could reach its original nest. By the 19th century homing pigeons were used extensively for military communications.
The sport of flying messenger pigeons was well-established as early as 3000 years ago. They were used to proclaim the winner of the Ancient Olympics. Messenger pigeons were used as early as 1150 in Baghdad and also later by Genghis Khan. By 1167 a regular service between Baghdad and Syria had been established by Sultan Nur ad-Din. In Damietta, by the mouth of the Nile, the Spanish traveller Pedro Tafur saw carrier pigeons for the first time, in 1436, though he imagined that the birds made round trips, out and back.The Republic of Genoa equipped their system of watch towers in the Mediterranean Sea with pigeon posts. Tipu Sultan of Mysore (1750–1799) also used messenger pigeons; they returned to the Jamia Masjid mosque in Srirangapatna, which was his headquarters. The pigeon holes may be seen in the mosque’s minarets to this day.
In 1818, a great pigeon race called the Cannonball Run took place at Brussels. In 1860, Paul Reuter, who later founded Reuters press agency, used a fleet of over 45 pigeons to deliver news and stock prices between Brussels and Aachen, the terminus of early telegraph lines. The outcome of the 1815 Battle of Waterloo has often been claimed to have been delivered to London by pigeon but there is no evidence for this, and it is very unlikely; the pigeon post was rare until the 1820s. During the Franco-Prussian War pigeons were used to carry mail between besieged Paris and the French unoccupied territory. In December 1870, it took ten hours for a pigeon carrying microfilms to fly from Perpignan to Brussels.
Historically, pigeons carried messages only one way, to their home. They had to be transported manually before another flight. However, by placing their food at one location and their home at another location, pigeons have been trained to fly back and forth up to twice a day reliably, covering round-trip flights up to 160 km (100 mi).Their reliability has lent itself to occasional use on mail routes, such as the Great Barrier Pigeongram Service established between the Auckland, New Zealand, suburb of Newton and Great Barrier Island in November 1897, possibly the first regular air mail service in the world. The world’s first “airmail” stamps were issued for the Great Barrier Pigeon-Gram Service from 1898 to 1908.
In the 19th century, newspapers sometimes used carrier pigeons. To get news from Europe quicker, some New York City newspapers used carrier pigeons. The distance from Europe to Halifax, Nova Scotia, is relatively short. So reporters stationed themselves in Halifax, wrote the information received from incoming ships, and put the messages in capsules attached to the legs of homing pigeons. The birds would then fly to New York City where the information would be published.
Homing pigeons were still employed in the 21st century by certain remote police departments in Odisha state in eastern India to provide emergency communication services following natural disasters. In March 2002, it was announced that India’s Police Pigeon Service messenger system in Odisha was to be retired, due to the expanded use of the Internet. The Taliban banned the keeping or use of homing pigeons in Afghanistan.
To this day, pigeons are still entered into competitions.
Navigation
Research has been performed with the intention of discovering how pigeons, after being transported, can find their way back from distant places they have never visited before. Most researchers believe that homing ability is based on a “map and compass” model, with the compass feature allowing birds to orient and the map feature allowing birds to determine their location relative to a goal site (home loft). While the compass mechanism appears to rely on the sun, the map mechanism has been highly debated. Some researchers believe that the map mechanism relies on the ability of birds to detect the Earth’s magnetic field.
A prominent theory is that the birds are able to detect a magnetic field to help them find their way home. Scientific research previously suggested that on top of a pigeon’s beak a large number of iron particles are found which remain aligned to Earth’s magnetic north like a natural compass, thus acting as compass which helps pigeon in determining its home. However, a 2012 study disproved this theory, putting the field back on course to search for an explanation as to how animals detect magnetic fields.
A light-mediated mechanism that involves the eyes and is lateralized has been examined somewhat, but developments have implicated the trigeminal nerve in magnetoreception. Research by Floriano Papi (Italy, early 1970s) and more recent work, largely by Hans Wallraff, suggest that pigeons also orient themselves using the spatial distribution of atmospheric odors known as olfactory navigation.
Other research indicates that homing pigeons also navigate through visual landmarks by following familiar roads and other human-made features, making 90-degree turns and following habitual routes, much the same way that humans navigate.
Research by Jon Hagstrum of the US Geological Survey suggests that homing pigeons use low-frequency infrasound to navigate. Sound waves as low as 0.1 Hz have been observed to disrupt or redirect pigeon navigation. The pigeon ear, being far too small to interpret such a long wave, directs pigeons to fly in a circle when first taking air, in order to mentally map such long infrasound waves.
Various experiments suggest that different breeds of homing pigeons rely on different cues to different extents. Charles Walcott at Cornell University was able to demonstrate that while pigeons from one loft were confused by a magnetic anomaly in the Earth it had no effect on birds from another loft 1.6 km (1 mile) away. Other experiments have shown that altering the perceived time of day with artificial lighting or using air conditioning to eliminate odors in the pigeons’ home roost affected the pigeons’ ability to return home.
GPS tracing studies indicate that gravitational anomalies may play a role as well.
Roles
Postal carriage
A message may be written on thin light paper, rolled into a small tube, and attached to a messenger pigeon’s leg. They will only travel to one “mentally marked” point that they have identified as their home, so “pigeon post” can only work when the sender is actually holding the receiver’s pigeons.
With training, pigeons can carry up to 75 g (2.5 oz) on their backs. As early as 1903, the German apothecary Julius Neubronner used carrier pigeons to both receive and deliver urgent medication. In 1977, a similar system of 30 carrier pigeons was set up for the transport of laboratory specimens between two English hospitals. Every morning a basket with pigeons was taken from Plymouth General Hospital to Devonport Hospital. The birds then delivered unbreakable vials back to Plymouth as needed. The carrier pigeons became unnecessary in 1983 because of the closure of one of the hospitals. In the 1980s a similar system existed between two French hospitals located in Granville and Avranche.
Wartime communication
A B-type bus from London converted into a pigeon loft for use in northern France and Belgium during the First World War
Dispatching of a message by carrier pigeon within the Swiss Army during World War I
Crewman of an RAF Bomber with homing pigeons nestled in niches as a means of emergency communications in the event of a crash, ditching, or radio failure
Birds were used extensively during World War I. One homing pigeon, Cher Ami, was awarded the French Croix de guerre for his heroic service in delivering 12 important messages, despite having been very badly injured.
During World War II, the Irish Paddy, the American G.I. Joe and the English Mary of Exeter all received the Dickin Medal. They were among 32 pigeons to receive this award, for their gallantry and bravery in saving human lives with their actions. Eighty-two homing pigeons were dropped into the Netherlands with the First Airborne Division Signals as part of Operation Market Garden in World War II. The pigeons’ loft was located in London, which would have required them to fly 390 km (240 miles) to deliver their messages. Also in World War II, hundreds of homing pigeons with the Confidential Pigeon Service were airdropped into northwest Europe to serve as intelligence vectors for local resistance agents. Birds played a vital part in the Invasion of Normandy as radios could not be used for fear of vital information being intercepted by the enemy.
During the Second World War, the use of pigeons for sending messages was highlighted in Britain by the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret as Girl Guides joining other Guides sending messages to the World Chief Guide in 1943, as part of a campaign to raise money for homing pigeons.
Computing
The humorous IP over Avian Carriers (RFC 1149) is an Internet protocol for the transmission of messages via homing pigeon. Originally intended as an April Fools’ Day RFC entry, this protocol was implemented and used, once, to transmit a message in Bergen, Norway, on 28 April 2001.
In September 2009, a South African IT company based in Durban pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a data packed 4 GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country’s biggest Internet service provider, Telkom. The pigeon, Winston, took an hour and eight minutes to carry the data 80 km (50 miles). In all, the data transfer took two hours, six minutes, and fifty-seven seconds—the same amount of time it took to transfer 4% of the data over the ADSL.
Homing pigeons have been reported to be used as a smuggling technique, getting objects and narcotics across borders and into prisons. For instance, between 2009 and 2015, pigeons have been reported to carry contraband items such as cell phones, SIM cards, phone batteries and USB cords into prisons in the Brazilian state of São Paulo.There have also been cases where homing pigeons were used to transport drugs into prisons.
Animal exploitation
Pigeon races are sometimes considered as a type of animal exploitation and against animal welfare, particularly where betting is involved, and animal welfare is regarded as secondary. For example, the animal rights organisation PETA criticises Taiwanese owners for flying birds across wide oceans where few reach their destination, claiming a fatality rate of 98%.
My two little Cavachons were born on 15th September 2018. Dad was a Cavalier King Charles spaniel and Mum was a Bichon Frise. The breeder was in Ryton, where I had never been before ,so it was a bit of an adventure to find the address. I initially went for a male dog and when I saw the female she melted my heart, so I bought both of them. Harvey is the male and Coco is the female.
Of course after 8 weeks after being weened from Mum I went to collect them and within a week they had been to the vets and had their jabs and check ups. After a couple of months on advice from the vet they were spayed and neutered as they were brother and sister.
They are now 5 years old next September 2023 and my little darlings. They make me laugh every day and are such good company. They both have their own little natures and personalities. Harvey is the leader and protects us all even though he is only 14 inches high. Coco is the cuddly one who loves lots of cuddles and being close to me. She is scared of everything and runs to my side at any sight of a stranger or a loud bang.
Harvey does have his moments especially when he is tired and likes to lie down next to me watching TV in the evenings.
The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice signed at Le Francport near Compiègne that ended fighting on land, sea, and air in World War I between the Entente and their last remaining opponent, Germany. Previous armistices had been agreed with Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. It was concluded after the German government sent a message to American president Woodrow Wilson to negotiate terms on the basis of a recent speech of his and the earlier declared “Fourteen Points“, which later became the basis of the German surrender at the Paris Peace Conference, which took place the following year.
Also known as the Armistice of Compiègne (French: Armistice de Compiègne, German: Waffenstillstand von Compiègne) from the place where it was officially signed at 5:45 a.m. by the Allied Supreme Commander, FrenchMarshalFerdinand Foch, it came into force at 11:00 a.m. Central European Time (CET) on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a defeat for Germany, although not formally a surrender.
The actual terms, which were largely written by Foch, included the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, the withdrawal of German forces from west of the Rhine, Allied occupation of the Rhineland and bridgeheads further east, the preservation of infrastructure, the surrender of aircraft, warships, and military materiel, the release of Allied prisoners of war and interned civilians, eventual reparations, no release of German prisoners and no relaxation of the naval blockade of Germany. The armistice was extended three times while negotiations continued on a peace treaty. The Treaty of Versailles, which was officially signed on 28 June 1919, took effect on 10 January 1920.
Fighting continued up until 11 a.m. CET on 11 November 1918, with 2,738 men dying on the last day of the war.
Background
Deteriorating situation for the Germans
German prisoners of war captured near Amiens in late August 1918
Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire was close to exhaustion, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in chaos, and on the Macedonian front, resistance by the Bulgarian Army had collapsed, leading to the Armistice of Salonica on 29 September. In Germany, chronic food shortages caused by the Allied blockade were increasingly leading to discontent and disorder. Although morale on the German front line was reasonable, battlefield casualties, starvation rations and Spanish flu had caused a desperate shortage of manpower, and those recruits that were available were war-weary and disaffected.
The hospitals set up immediately behind the lines were often housed in tents during the First World War, including wards and operating theatres.
This was particularly true of Casualty Clearing Stations, with base hospitals further away from the fighting sometimes making use of existing or more permanent buildings.
A casualty then travelled by motor or horse ambulance to a Casualty Clearing Station. These were basic hospitals and were the closest point to the front where female nurses were allowed to serve. Patients were usually transferred to a stationary or general hospital at a base for further treatment. A network of ambulance trains and hospital barges provided transport between these facilities, while hospital ships carried casualties evacuated back home to ‘Blighty’.
As well as battle injuries inflicted by shells and bullets, the First World War saw the first use of poison gas. It also saw the first recognition of psychological trauma, initially known as ‘shell shock‘. In terms of physical injury, the heavily manured soil of the Western Front encouraged the growth of tetanus and gas gangrene, causing medical complications. Disease also flourished in unhygienic conditions, and the influenza epidemic of 1918 claimed many lives.
Roman Wound Care
Care of the injured soldier is as old as war. And war is as old as history. Perhaps older. People were fighting and hurting one another back into the old stone age, long before organized societies and armies. Military medicine goes back a very long way. In fact, to the very first civilizations. From around 4000 BCE to around 1500 BCE, organized civilization arose separately in Mesopotamia and Egypt; the Indus River valley, present-day Pakistan and India; the Yangtze River valley in China; and the Americas, meso-America and the Andes. All were agriculturally based, and featured organized governments and armies supported by hereditary ruling and military castes. Without exception, all were warlike.
Even in the ancient world, all armies had to care for their wounded. But the civilizations themselves varied widely in their underlying medical institutions. Some cultures had such rudimentary medical care that wounded soldiers were given hardly more than token care, others had fairly sophisticated treatment of wounds. Roman military medicine most closely approached what we have today. The Roman army had organized field sanitation, well-designed camps, and separate companies of what we would now call field engineers. They had a much better grasp of sanitation and supply than anyone else before, or for a long while after. They had medical corpsmen, called immunes. They practiced front-line treatment, with evacuation through well-organized supply and logistics chains. Because of their improved sanitation, their armies suffered somewhat less from the epidemics which swept military camps. But that was only by comparison with their opponents. Two-thirds of their casualties were still due to disease. Their world-view included no such thing as bacteria or protozoa. Immunizations were two millennia in their future. And, perhaps most important, their practices did not outlive their empire.
After the Romans, medical care on the battlefield became disorganized, almost an afterthought. In the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, medical care was done by whoever was nearby. This meant local surgeons, camp followers, servants, and whoever else would volunteer or be conscripted. Armies were small. The famous battle of Crecy, for example, in 1346, was fought between an English army of 10,000 men, and a French army of 20,000. Camp sanitation was totally unheard of, and disease ravaged armies of the day. Until the 20th century, at least twice as many soldiers died from disease in camp than from wounds on the battlefield.
What is military medicine? Today’s military medicine is an amalgam of trauma care, infectious disease treatment, preventive medicine, and public health. All of these are important. Trauma care includes not only the treatment of wounds, but also the rescue of injured soldiers, their evacuation, and the provision of a graded system of care from the front line to hospitals far in the read.
Equally important is infectious disease care and preventive medicine. Anyone who has been in military service can testify to the large number of immunizations they received. These have controlled the diseases that caused most of the casualties in previous centuries. Those that cannot be controlled by immunizations can be treated. Today’s antibiotics and other treatments are vital in military medicine. Unhappily, antibiotics were not available in World War I, and diseases such as pneumonia, dysentery, and tuberculosis continued to claim victims.
Public health, including environmental medicine, is recognized as a crucial part of military medicine. Disease agents such as mosquitoes can be controlled. Water supplies are routinely treated. Human waste is controlled and not allowed to spread disease. Environmental medicine is a large part of this. Wars are not usually fought in nice places. Even when they are, as in Flanders and northeastern France, those places quickly become adverse environments.
French Soldier in a Trench
The First World War was fought largely in the trenches of the Western Front. That’s not the full story, but it was a dominant part of the war, and remains the public image. Trench conditions were miserable from a military standpoint, but a disaster for public health. Sanitation was so bad that after a week or two in the trenches, troops had to be rotated back of the lines to be deloused, thoroughly cleaned, and provided with fresh clothing and equipment. Even so, disease was common, and wound contamination universal.
Wounds were usually contaminated with the mud of the trenches. Tetanus immunization was available, and wounded soldiers were routinely given tetanus toxoid. Wound care was much better than during previous wars. It emphasized debridement of devitalized tissue and thorough cleaning with antiseptic solution (Dakin’s solution). Aseptic technique was (usually) used in operating rooms. General anesthesia was available. Bowel injuries could be routinely repaired. Intravenous fluids were available, as were blood transfusions (sometimes). Radiography had only been invented some 16 years before, but was deployed on the battlefields by 1914. As an index of how much things had changed, mortality following amputation had been 25% in the American Civil War, and was 5% in World War I. Deaths from wounds dropped, but deaths from disease dropped even further. Far fewer soldiers died of disease as a percentage of total deaths than ever before. And this was despite the influenza epidemic of 1918-19, which claimed many victims at the end of the war.
Aid Station in a Trench Dugout
Even acknowledging all of the difficulties imposed by trench conditions, the casualty care system was still much better than in any previous war. Specialized military units, called ambulances were charged with picking soldiers from the battlefield and transporting them to aid stations, and then to field hospitals. For further evacuation, hospital trains were staffed with nurses and orderlies, and equipped to care for even difficult wounds. There were base hospitals and convalescent facilities both on the French coast and in England. As the American Army deployed to Europe in 1917-18, hospitals, doctors, nurses, and ambulances went with them.
The First World War claimed 9 million soldiers, and 7-10 million civilian lives. Civilian casualty estimates vary widely, and the true figure is probably unknowable. In 1918-20, over the course of the influenza epidemic (misnamed the Spanish flu), some 20 to 40 million people died. Half of all American soldier deaths from disease were due to influenza, many in training camps in the United States. Did the war cause the flu epidemic? Perhaps so. Certainly, it created the conditions in which the epidemic began and spread. The question has been debated ever since. Whatever its cause, the flu epidemic killed more people than the war itself.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an important health risk factor for military personnel deployed in modern warfare. In World War I this condition (then known as shell shock or ‘neurasthenia’) was such a problem that ‘forward psychiatry’ was begun by French doctors in 1915. Some British doctors tried general anaesthesia as a treatment (ether and chloroform), while others preferred application of electricity.
Four British ‘forward psychiatric units’ were set up in 1917. Hospitals for shell shocked soldiers were also established in Britain, including (for officers) Craig lockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh; patients diagnosed to have more serious psychiatric conditions were transferred to the Royal Edinburgh Asylum. Towards the end of 1918 anaesthetic and electrical treatments of shell shock were gradually displaced by modified Freudian methods psychodynamic intervention. The efficacy of ‘forward psychiatry’ was controversial.
In 1922 the War Office produced a report on shell shock with recommendations for prevention of war neurosis. However, when World War II broke out in 1939, this seemed to have been ignored. The term ‘combat fatigue’ was introduced as breakdown rates became alarming, and then the value of pre-selection was recognised. At the Maudsley Hospital in London in 1940 barbiturate abreaction was advocated for quick relief from severe anxiety and hysteria, using i.v. anaesthetics: Somnifaine, paraldehyde, Sodium Amytal. ‘Pentothal narcosis’ and ‘narco-analysis’ were adopted by British and American military psychiatrists.
However, by 1945 medical thinking gradually settled on the same approaches that had seemed to be effective in 1918. The term PTSD was introduced in 1980. In the UK the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines for management (2005) recommend trauma-focussed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and consideration of antidepressants.
During the First World War, military physicians from the belligerent countries were faced with soldiers suffering from psychotrauma with often unheard of clinical signs, such as camptocormia. These varied clinical presentations took the form of abnormal movements, deaf-mutism, mental confusion, and delusional disorders. In Anglo-Saxon countries, the term ‘shell shock’ was used to define these disorders.
The debate on whether the war was responsible for these disorders divided mobilized neuropsychiatrists. In psychological theories, war is seen as the principal causal factor. In hystero-pithiatism, developed by Joseph Babinski (1857-1932), trauma was not directly caused by the war. It was rather due to the unwillingness of the soldier to take part in the war. Permanent suspicion of malingering resulted in the establishment of a wide range of medical experiments. Many doctors used aggressive treatment methods to force the soldiers exhibiting war neuroses to return to the front as quickly as possible.
Medicomilitary collusion ensued. Electrotherapy became the basis of repressive psychotherapy, such as ‘torpillage’, which was developed by Clovis Vincent (1879-1947), or psychofaradism, which was established by Gustave Roussy (1874-1948). Some soldiers refused such treatments, considering them a form of torture, and were brought before courts-martial. Famous cases, such as that of Baptiste Deschamps (1881-1953), raised the question of the rights of the wounded. Soldiers suffering from psychotrauma, ignored and regarded as malingerers or deserters, were sentenced to death by the courts-martial. Trials of soldiers or doctors were also held in Germany and Austria.
After the war, psychoneurotics long haunted asylums and rehabilitation centers. Abuses related to the treatment of the Great War psychoneuroses nevertheless significantly changed medical concepts, leading to the modern definition of ‘posttraumatic stress disorder’.
My Grandmother Agnes Elizabeth Burns (Todd) was born in Newcastle from Scottish parents who had moved from Glasgow before she was born. Her Father was a comptometer on the Glasgow Herald. This job entailed using tweezers to put in the lettering for all the stories before the newspaper was printed and sent out to the public. His eye sight suffered greatly over the years because of this and he had to find another job when he could no longer continue. This meant moving to Newcastle to become a blacksmith and here the family settled. He was George Todd and his wife was Agnes Todd. They had four children Agnes was the youngest.
Life was hard as with most people of that time, and my Grandmother went into service at 16 years old after her schooling. She worked for Duke of Northumberland in their great house and the Duchess gave my Grandmother a silver picture frame when she left aged 21 to work in a bakers shop in Newcastle. The wages were higher and not so long hours.
The bakers was called Carricks in Newcastle Grainger Street and the business continues today but the old cafe has gone. As a waitress she served lovely sandwhiches and cakes to the patrons. She told me as a treat to the staff down stairs washing all the dishes and preping the food, she would send clean cups with cakes in down with the dirty dishes so the staff could find them and enjoy the cakes in secret. There was a ‘dolly’ to put the dishes in like a box on the wall which acted like a lift if you pulled the pully rope. It got food from the kitchen and sent dirty dishes down for washing.
At 20 years old she met a dashing young man James Archibold Burns( my Grandfather) who had fought in WW1 but been injured by an explosion which resulted in a metal plate in his head and gassed in the trenches but he was on the mend. His family owned a chip shop in Benwell and when he inherited the business he was not really interested and placed a manager there, the manageress was robbing the business blind and he lost it to the bank as the mortgage was not being paid while he was away fighting. My Grandmother and Grandfather married in 1922 and had three children, a boy and two girls. They also lived in Newcastle close by to Agnes and George their grandparents.
The eldest of the girls was my Mum who became a tailoress and her sister became a secretary and married an airman and moved to Southhampton. She developed Rheumatoid Arthritis very severely and was in a wheelchair in her thirties.
The boy became a plumber but fell off a roof at 18 years old and became epileptic and never really worked after the accident because of the medication, he died aged 47.
Grandmother used to make extra money during the second world war as everything was on ration, by trading goods eg she had a friend who was a chemist so she got lipsticks cheap and exchanged them for extra rashers of bacon from the butchers wife. She stood in any queue at the shops even if she did not know what they were selling and bought whatever it was, and exchanged it for food. She baked every Sunday to fill the cupboards and pantry for the coming week. Bread, pies, pasties, cakes (even though sugar was rationed)
My Grandfather died aged just 57 years of cancer which was probably caused by the Wills cigarettes soldiers were given in the war for free. Or by the gas in the war who knows. I was born by then so he did see his only grandchild.
So Grandmother had a hard life emotionally but so did many others. Many children did not survive past five years old in the early part of the century.
She was cremated in the same cemetry as her husband in Newcastle, her ashes placed in the Garden of Remembrance.
Lives well lived full of love and sacrifice, the like of which we will never see again. Love to them both.
September 1915: A group of nurses at Hamworth Hall in the U.K., which was serving as a Red Cross Hospital during WWI.
Before Florence Nightingale reorganized the care of wounded soldiers during the Crimean War in 1854, it had been the task of camp followers — wives and prostitutes — to treat them with whatever primitive medical help was available. Nightingale insisted that conditions for the wounded were killing men as fast as the enemy. She demanded clean bandages and bedding, fresh air, nourishing food and decent trained care. A few years later and across the world, Clara Barton fought for the same principles in the American Civil War. Both women, and those they inspired to serve, saved countless lives. They attended to the wounded while there was still a chance of treating them, and forever changed how the war-wounded were perceived by the military — no longer as collateral damage in battle, but as lives that could be saved.
And yet, though both are remembered today as heroes, they were often at loggerheads with their governments before they got their way. And even years later, well into the First World War, which came to an end a century ago on Nov. 11, 1918, some officers still felt that women didn’t belong on the battlefield. As I learned while researching a novel with a battlefield nurse protagonist, many women had to prove themselves all over again as competent assets to the army, able to fend for themselves and provide skilled care that returned wounded men to regiments hungry to replace casualties. They were not just a higher class of camp followers.
By 1914, medical care had come a long way. The various combatants approached medical care in different ways. The French were far behind, their mindsets still almost medieval. Some accounts of the cellars and barns and railway cars where the wounded were housed are harrowing. Indeed, decades earlier, they’d decided, as part of a program separating church and state, to prevent nuns, historically the healers in war and peace, from serving with the Army hospitals. A few nuns did work independently of the Army to open hospitals wherever they could. There is also the story of French noblewomen who rushed to sign up for French hospital nursing, only to discover that they must treat the ranks as well as officers. Conversely, the Germans had decent male-only hospitals in their deep, multilayered trenches, so unlike the shallow ones the Allies dug. Even surgery could be done in some of these facilities. Meanwhile, St. Louis sent a unit of nurses and doctors — and an early X-ray machine — to Rouen, long before the U.S. entered the war.
For the British, the declaration of war in 1914 meant that women took over the work of men wherever possible. Postmasters became postmistresses. Women learned to drive omnibuses or to take over desks wherever men could be spared. Others dug up gardens and fallow land to grow needed foodstuffs for the home front, after U-boats attacked convoys coming in from the Empire and the U.S. British farmers were desperate for help. Many women went into factories, and were very good at setting fuses in shells and bullets. It was dangerous work, and the chemicals they dealt with made many ill.
And, on the battlefield, the nurses stepped in. What they would experience over nearly five years of war was horror, privation, exhaustion and danger. Their reward was the satisfaction of saving lives.
For our fictional take on the nurse’s situation, we made protagonist Bess Crawford the daughter of an officer in the British Army, giving her a less Victorian upbringing as well as parents who were more likely to agree that she could train, but it was not uncommon for families to refuse permission, feeling that this would be too shocking.
The women who did volunteer went through several layers of medical training as well. For the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, training was mandatory. There were other volunteer nursing groups, like the VADs (Voluntary Aid Detachments) — with whom Agatha Christie trained — with less strict training, who helped in the wards at secondary nursing tasks.
The regulated nursing groups like the Queen Alexandra’s were given the rank of officer in order to protect them and give them some standing when dealing with doctors, other ranks and high command. These women were expected to uphold the integrity of their service. Their relationships with the men under their care had to be completely professional. They could be expelled if they had affairs or even became engaged. And yet these young women who had never seen a man in his underclothes were expected to work with the mutilated bodies of wounded fresh from the trenches. All of which they did with great courage and dedication, often staying with their patients as the Germans overran a sector. Indeed, the British nurse Edith Cavell not only stayed with her wounded in Belgium, but was accused by the Germans of helping the local underground. She was executed by firing squad on Oct. 12, 1915.
How did a grateful nation reward all those women who had come to its defense? Rather stingily, considering their service and the losses they’d suffered as a generation of fathers, husbands, and sons died for King and Country.
Some women finally gained the vote in 1918 — at war’s end — as promised earlier in the war when the Suffragettes had agreed to halt their civil protests for the duration. But the franchise was only extended to women who were 35, the head of household or the owner of property. The war nurses were not eligible unless they fit into one of these categories. Nor were those who worked on the land or drove the buses or set the fuse in all those shells. Even so, there were men who went on record predicting dire consequences to the nation arising from women being allowed to vote or stand for Parliament, because they were as a sex emotionally unsteady.
Britain didn’t collapse. Still, it was not until 1928 that all women over 21 received the same rights as men, in the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act. American women were granted that right in 1920, in the 19th Amendment.
Less than a hundred years ago… I wonder sometimes how many women today understand what a hard-won right that was. Certainly nursing was a high-profile example of what women could achieve, although their sisters in other positions were the backbone of England’s work force and clearly visible on an almost daily basis. This was repeated in WWII and, in both instances, these women were expected to quietly return home and resume their places as wives and mothers.
After World War I, however, that wasn’t always possible. Britain had lost a generation of men, and many women had to find work to support themselves and their children. At the same time, many employers had to swallow their feelings about hiring women, and fill vacancies where they could. Still, in the hundred years since the Armistice, we have really not made a hundred years of progress in how women are viewed in many workplaces. The nursing profession is thus perhaps the best example of one in which the work of women in the Great War had a proud and lasting impact on the future. Contrary to what some hoped at the time, that war did not end all wars — and in those that followed, nurses carried on the tradition of duty and service begun by Florence Nightingale and so faithfully embodied by the courageous women of World War I.
The 31st August 1921 marks the date when the First World War officially ended. It is also the date that the last casualties who died during or as a result of the conflict are commemorated by the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC). Ian Coyne, a tour guide with Anglia Tours, Product Development Manager at Next Generation Travel Group and a CWGF Eyes On Hands On Volunteer, uncovers the stories of some of these casualties.
Notwithstanding the Armistice of 11 November 1918, today marks the centenary of the date on which the First World War actually ended. When the Termination of the Present War (Definition) Act 1918 was passed by Parliament, it gave discretion to His Majesty in Council to declare the date of the termination of the war. Consequently, war with each of the Central Powers ended close to the date of the ratification of the various peace treaties. Although a treaty with Turkey had yet to be ratified, it was decided that 31 August 1921 ‘should be treated as the date of the termination of the present War’. As the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) was charged with responsibility for the graves of service personnel who died between the outbreak and end of the War, this meant that those casualties of the First World War who died after 31 August 1921 fell outside the remit of the Commission.
As this centenary approached, Gareth Davies a member of the Anglia Guide Team came up with the idea of visiting the cemetery in which each of the servicemen who died, in the UK, on 31 August 1921 is buried. Aided by the efforts of Emrys Jones, one of Anglia Tours’ original guides, and with the support of an enthusiastic group of friends and colleagues, we not only managed to visit each cemetery, and take a photograph of each headstone or WW1 memorial, we also managed to unearth information which has subsequently enabled the CWGC to update their war records a hundred years on.
A good example is Private William Jones, 12th Bn Loyal (North Lancs) Regiment who is buried in Ashton-in-Makerfield (St Thomas) Churchyard.
The son of Ellis Hugh & Margaret Jones, 12 Flora St, Ashton in Makerfield, Private Jones saw service in the Machine Gun Corps and 5th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, before joining the Loyals. In November 1919 he was discharged from the Army suffering from pulmonary TB.
Although Private Jones’ headstone records his date of death as 31 August 1921 his pension records and the Graves Registration Report showed he actually died twelve months earlier, on 31 August 1920.
The good news is that having been made aware of this CWGC were able to update the database and arrange for a new headstone with the correct date.
Then there is Private 2nd Class, Thomas Shepherd of the Royal Air Force. Pte Shepherd is one of sixty Great War casualties commemorated on a screen wall in Bacup (Fairwell) and who do not have individual headstones.
Interestingly during his enquiries, the cemetery authorities informed Emrys that Shepherd is in fact buried in a different plot to that identified on the Screen Wall.
A manual amendment to the Graves Registration Report, indicates he may have been buried in a private grave together with James Henry Turner and Mary Ann Shepherd. However, when Emrys visited the cemetery he found there was neither a gravestone nor grave marker in place.
GUNNER MICHAEL TIERNEY
Although most of the men who died on 31 August 1921 succumbed to illnesses or injuries suffered during the First World War, that was not the case with Gunner Michael Tierney. Gunner Tierney was killed in an accident at Bordon Camp, the circumstances of which are set out in this article from the Sunday Post, dated 4 September 1921:
The opinion of Colonel M’Cleary was that deceased exhibited excessive zeal in the competition and the Coroner agreed.
Gunner Tierney’s wife Mary was amongst the crowd that witnessed the fatal accident. His headstone in Bordon Military Cemetery bears the personal inscription ‘Sadly missed by fond wife and loving children RIP’
These are just three of the servicemen who died on the last day of the First World War – our aim at the start of this project was to remember each of those who died, in the UK, on 31 August 1921 and who are buried in the UK.
Starting from 08.00 on 31 August 2021, we will post a profile of one of these men on the Anglia Tours’ Facebook page and Twitter feed, on the hour each hour. You will also be able to read their profiles on the Anglia Tours website.
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten, original name Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas, prince of Battenberg, (born June 25, 1900, Frogmore House, Windsor, Eng.—died Aug. 27, 1979, Donegal Bay, off Mullaghmore, County Sligo, Ire.), British statesman, naval leader, and the last viceroy of India. He had international royal-family background; his career involved extensive naval commands, the diplomatic negotiation of independence for India and Pakistan, and the highest military defense leaderships.
He was the fourth child of Prince Louis of Battenberg, afterward Marquess of Milford Haven, and his wife, Princess Victoria of Hesse-Darmstadt, granddaughter of Britain’s Queen Victoria. He entered the Royal Navy in 1913 and had various naval assignments before becoming aide-de-camp to the Prince of Wales (1921). In 1922 he married Edwina Ashley (who died in 1960 in North Borneo while on tour as superintendent-in-chief of the St. John Ambulance Brigade). In 1932 he was promoted to captain and the next year qualified as an interpreter in French and German. In command of the destroyer Kelly and the 5th destroyer flotilla at the outbreak of World War II, he was appointed commander of an aircraft carrier in 1941. In April 1942 he was named chief of combined operations and became acting vice admiral and a de facto member of the chiefs of staff. From this position he was appointed supreme allied commander for Southeast Asia (1943–46), prompting complaints of nepotism against his cousin the king. He successfully conducted the campaign against Japan that led to the recapture of Burma (Myanmar). As viceroy of India (March–August 1947) he administered the transfer of power from Britain to the newly independent nations of India and Pakistan at the partition of the subcontinent that took effect at midnight Aug. 14–15, 1947. As governor-general of India (August 1947–June 1948) he then helped persuade the Indian princes to merge their states into either India or Pakistan. He was created viscount in 1946 and earl in 1947.
King Charles 111 was born in 1948 and Lord Mountbattten was his favourite uncle as he grew up. They spent much time together as part of the royal family.
Mountbatten was fourth sea lord in 1950–52, commander in chief of the Mediterranean fleet in 1952–54, and first sea lord in 1955–59. He became an admiral of the fleet in 1956 and served as chief of the United Kingdom Defense Staff and chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee in 1959–65. He became governor (1965) and then lord lieutenant (1974) of the Isle of Wight. Mountbatten was assassinated in 1979 by Provisional Irish Republican Army terrorists who planted a bomb in his boat. Other members of the party were killed also including children.
He was instrumental in introducing Price Phillip, as a young naval officer, to Queen Elizabeth 11,who was only thirteen years old at the time, on the Royal Yacht Britannica. She never forgot him and they corresponded for many months. Then when she was 21 they became engaged. After eventually marrying they honeymooned in Kenya, Africa. It was here that she was told her father King George V1 had died of lung cancer and she was now Queen of England.
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