Centre for First World War Studies

'There are two kinds of knowledge: knowing; and knowing where to find out'.
Dr Samuel Johnson

This page provides an opportunity for Friends and Members of the Centre and others to to seek answers to troublesome questions.
To submit a question, please email it to firstworldwar@bham.ac.uk
The vast majority of queries dealt with by the Centre for First World War Studies never appear on these pages. We post here only questions that the combined wisdom and resources of the Centre are unable to answer.

Matt Hall asks:
Can anyone say why a Corporal in the RMLI would be posted to HMS Dolphin in 1920? I’m not sure if there was a ship of the same name or if this is the submarine base at Gosport. Perhaps the Marines provided a guard?
Also does anyone know the meaning of HBL, as in HBL Chatham (6th Bn RM)

Centre Member Helen McPhail asks:
I am seeking information on any links between local civilians in northern France (or Belgium) and the British Army/intelligence services; this is for a talk next year, in France, about the lives of those who resisted during WWI under the German occupation. My knowledge is slight, limited to a few citizens in Lille who somehow made contact in 1914-15 and helped lost British soldiers/airmen to escape back to France or the UK or passed on information on German troop movements. I wonder if there is anything published or available to consult?

Organised sabotage, as widely recognised for World War Two, seems to have been unknown because of the heavy enemy presence and general circumstances.
Any suggestions welcome.

Mike George replies:
I have a copy of ‘I was a Spy’ by Martha McKenna which is superbly written and should provide Helen with, if not great detail, great insight into the use by the British of Belgian citizens as spies. My copy was published by Queensway Press. If Helen cannot find a copy, send me an email and I will be happy to lend it to her. I also have some info on the recruiting of Belgians and French as they arrived in the UK (Folkestone), their training and return to act as spies.

Jim Tomlinson asks:
I am researching the often overlooked story of my hometown 'Pals' Battalion in Preston. This has highlighted that the 19th Division had a policy of deliberately placing replacement drafts of soldiers into different Battalions within the Division. To my knowledge this was not normal practice and most reinforcements came from a Regimental Depot (See Graves, Goodbye to All That) and were subsequently disseminated to any of its associated Battalions. The source that this anomaly was taken from is HC Wylly’s The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment Vol II 1914-1918, 2nd Edition (2^nd edn. Doncaster: D.P.&G. Military Publishers, 2001) pp.274-275. Wylly says of the reinforcements ".. in many cases these belonged to regiments other than that to which they were dispatched and even in some cases the men composing them belonged to regiments, battalions of which were actually in the same brigade as the 7th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment!" (Wylly's punctuation - not mine). I have read through the history of the 19^th Division (Everard Wyrall) quite thoroughly and there is no mention of this policy at all. Annoyingly, Wyrall also excludes any references to his sources of information and an online search of the National Archives revealed nothing more than war diaries from units within the Division. My question is this - where could I find the 19th Division official documentation/correspondence and do you know of any other mixed reinforcement integration policies such as this?

Doug Rowe asks:
Sometime ago I read that there were 23 OCBs in the First World War. Can you guide me to a reference that will inform me as to their names and locations in the UK during 1914-18. Am I correct in assuming that Officer Training Battalions were the same as Officer Cadet Battalions? I have thoroughly browsed the web but have only been able to locate and name 7 of them so there are still 16 I haven't been able to trace. Can you help at all?

Number	Location
1	Newton Ferrers
2	Pembroke College, Cambridge
3	Bristol
4	Oxford
5	Trinity College, Cambridge
6	Balliol College, Oxford
7	Moore Park, County Cork, Ireland
8	Lichfield
9	Gailes, Ayrshire
10	Gailes, Ayrshire
11	Pirbright
12	Newmarket
13	Newmarket
14	Berkhamstead
15	Romford
16	Kinmel, Rhyl
17	Kinmel, Rhyl
18	Bath
19	Pirbright
20	Crookham, Aldershot
21	Crookham, Aldershot
22^nd (Garrison)	Jesus College, Cambridge
Household Brigade OCB	Bushey

In February 1916 the coming of conscription and the need for a more uniform system for the initial selection and training of junior officers led to the formation of Officer Training Units.[1] Details of the Officer Training Units up to 1 December 1918 are as follows:

Infantry                                 23
Royal Artillery                       6
Cavalry                                 2
Royal Engineers                     3
Machine-Gun Corps              -
Royal Army Service Corps    2
Garrison Battalions                1
Tank Corps                           1
Total                                     38

NB. The courses at Sandhurst and Woolwich continued to commission small numbers of Regular officers.

Officer Cadet Battalions (OCB) were those units training officers for the Infantry. Initially 12 Officer Cadet Battalions were formed.[2] By June 1916 about a dozen OCBs had been established, rising to 23 by July 1917.[3] Officer cadets had to have served in the ranks and been recommended by their CO, unless they had previous officer experience or a specialist qualification. Service in an Officers Training Corps (OTC) continued to count as prior service. The new courses, although containing a certain amount of military training, laid more stress on developing leadership, initiative and self-confidence. After three months training candidates had to pass an examination before being granted a temporary commission.[4]
The locations of the Officer Cadet Battalions in July 1917 and their subsequent movements were as follows:[5]

[1] Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire During The Great War 1914 – 1920 (London: War Office, 1922), p. 235.

[2] ACI 357 of 14 February 1916. (TNA: PRO WO 293/4)

[3] Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire, p. 235

[4] W. Robertson, From Private to Field Marshal, p. 267

[5] Brigadier E.A. James, British Regiments 1914 – 18 (Naval & Military Press reprint, April 1998), p. 119

Anna Sander adds:
I'd like to add another note to the response to the question about OCBs. I receive many queries about the officer cadets who came through Balliol College as part of No 6 OCB during World War 1. The enquirers understandably surmise that because the battalion was housed in Balliol College the officer cadets might have been in some way members of the college and that the college will retain records of their time there. This is not the case. Many of the Oxford and Cambridge colleges were taken over for various types of war work, and I would like to clarify that those war work functions were not administered by the college or the university. The colleges only provided premises.

Thousands of men came through Balliol on 6-week training courses, but these courses were given by the Army, not the college. No 6 OCB was not made up of former Balliol students, and conversely the men of No 6 OCB did not by virtue of attending the course at the college become members of Balliol or of the University of Oxford. Balliol does not hold records of their names or any other information about them. A few souvenir fragments have found their way here over the years, but no administrative records. I would venture to guess that the same is more or less true for the other college-based OCBs. I hope this helps to clarify the situation.

Anna Sander
Lonsdale Curator of Archives & Manuscripts
Balliol College
Oxford

Phillip Fisher asks:
I am looking for any evidence of an army or air force base near Stonehenge in the time of the First World War. In particular, we have some limited evidence that there was a cricket pitch very near to the site of Stonehenge and we are trying to find out exactly where it was.
We think that this may tie in with the army or air force camp that was at Stonehenge.

Dr David Jordan replies:
In answer to the question about whether there was an airfield at Stonehenge - yes, there was. It was laid down in 1917, and was used as a training aerodrome for bomber squadrons. It was used by a variety of units as they began working up, but was also the location for No.1 School of Aerial Navigation and Bomb Dropping (SoANBD). This unit operated sixteen different aircraft types, and the RFC were joined by Handley Page 0/400s from the RNAS in January 1918.

SoANBD moved to Andover in 1919, and the airfield was empty until the School of Army Cooperation moved in March 1920. Stonehenge was to have been one of the RAF's permanent post-war stations, but the plan changed (possibly as a result of the location of some large stones in the vicinity?) and the School of Army Cooperation moved to Old Sarum in January 1921. The airfield infrastructure was gradually dismantled over the rest of the decade.

Phill needs to obtain a copy of Ken Delve's splendid The Military Airfields of Britain: South Western England (Marlborough: Crowood Press, 2006), and he will find more detail about the airfield on pp.318-319. The book gives the airfield’s exact latitude and longitude: Lat/Long = N51.11 W001. 50

Mike Moore asks:
I have a number of questions:
I’m interested in knowing the terms of conscription during World War I. In particular, what were the penalties for reporting late and how late would you have to be for action to be taken?

My reason for asking is that I have a birth certificate which I am 99% certain is my grandfather, but the birth date on the certificate is 8 August whereas his service record lists a date of birth of 13 August. The 8/13 August 1916 would be his 18th birthday, but the 13th was a Sunday and he attested on the 12 August. Would a four-day delay in attestation be sufficient justification for him to lie about his birth date?

How far would a man have to travel in order to sign up as a result of his conscription? i.e. Is there a list of offices and their locations available for where conscript attestation took place?

Does the Training Reserve Battalion service number relate in any way to the conscription office? i.e. does a prefix of TR/3/ to the service number of a soldier tell me where in the country a man signed up?

Thanks in advance

Professor Peter Simkins replies:
My thoughts are pretty vague, I'm afraid. I seem to remember that a lot of the mechanics of conscription, tribunals, etc were covered in John Rae's Conscience and Politics (OUP, 1970) but it's a long time since I read it. My guess is that the discrepancy in dates may be simply a clerical error. Surely the National Register, taken in 1915, would have given the authorities the recruit's birth date in any case - otherwise how would they have known when to call him up and to which call-up group he belonged. There is just an outside chance, I suppose, that he volunteered before he was called up (some did). I would not have thought that a four-delay in attesting would have been long enough to cause for the police to be sent round to one's home, given that part of the time-frame in this case was on a weekend.

I don't know of any comprehensive list of recruiting reporting offices in August 1916 - though I personally have never looked for one. Again, John Rae's book might help about the process. The Adjutant-General's papers and the Ministry of National Service files at Kew would be the most likely sources of information about local recruiting offices in 1916. I certainly used them for 1914-1915 in Kitchener's Army. I am pretty sure that the Training Reserve Battalion numbers bore no real relation to the location of the recruiting office beyond, perhaps, a very broad geographical or regional connection.

Colonel Alison Hine adds:
My reason for asking is that I have a birth certificate which I am 99% certain is my grandfather, but the birth date on the certificate is 8 August whereas his service record lists a date of birth of 13 August. The 8/13 August 1916 would be his 18^th birthday, but the 13^th was a Sunday and he attested on the 12 August. Would a four-day delay in attestation be sufficient justification for him to lie about his birth date?

If Mike’s grandfather was 18 in August 1916 he would have been picked up under the second Military Service Act, passed in May 1916, which stated in Section 1 (1) ‘every male British subject who has at any time since the fourteenth day of August 1915 ….. … has attained the age of eighteen years … …. be deemed as from the appointed date to have been duly enlisted in his Majesty’s regular forces for general service with the colours or in the reserve for the period of the war, and to have been forthwith transferred to the reserve’. The ‘appointed date ….. as respects men who come within the operation of this section after the passing of this Act, be the thirtieth day after the date on which they so come within the operation of this section.’

As I read the Act, Mike’s grandfather would not have been deemed to have been enlisted/called up until the September.

So why attest early and give a different birthday? It appears to have been possible for young men not wanting to be identified as conscripts to volunteer for a unit prior to their eighteenth birthday then awaiting that date prior to actually joining up. If Mike has his grandfather’s Service Record (as he knows the error over dob I assume he must have) then he needs to look carefully at the wording to see whether there is any mention of and dates for: ‘Deemed to have been enlisted’ and ‘Called up for Service.’

I’m interested in know the terms of conscription during World War I. In particular, what were the penalties for reporting late and how late would you have to be for action to be taken?

This would need further research but I am not sure that it is relevant to this query.

How far would a man have to travel in order to sign up as a result of his conscription? i.e. Is there a list of offices and their locations available for where conscript attestation took place?

An individual to be conscripted would receive a Call Up Notice giving him a date and time to report at his local recruiting office. Without knowing where Mike’s grandfather lived it would be impossible to say where the recruiting office might have been. As Mike appears to have the service record I would have thought there might be an indication on that.

Does the Training Reserve Battalion service number relate in any way to the conscription office? i.e. does a prefix of TR/3/ to the service number of a soldier tell me where in the country a man signed up?

No. The prefix of TR does stand for Training Reserve but the number 3 relates to the number of the District in which the Record Office of the training unit was located.

Dr Bill Mitchinson further adds:
I think the different birth dates are more to do with clerical error somewhere down the line than anything more sinister. If you were more than a week late in showing up when your papers told you to, you could expect a visit from the local policeman, sometimes accompanied by soldiers from the depot. The call up papers told you to which depot you should report, very usually the one nearest to your home address. The depot could then give you a rail warrant to go somewhere else if that was what was required. By September 1916 the practice was first to fill up the regimental Reserve Battalions (i.e. usually the 3rd Battalion whether it be Regular or TF) and then send the excess to the Training Battalions.

I don't know of any specific list that details all the depots on one sheet, but there might be one in the War Office papers at Kew. Neither does the TR Number provide reliable details of from where the man came. The example Mike gives is likely to mean the 3rd TR Bn, which originally began life as the 10th North Staffordshire and then after a couple of transitions re-emerged towards the end of 1916 as the 3rd TR. It spent its time on Cannock Chase.

Dr Paul Everill asks:
I am an archaeologist employed by Southampton City Council, and at the moment I am undertaking some research into our Cenotaph on behalf of the city’s Ancient Monuments’ Officer. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1919, and was dedicated on the 6November 1920 – although 204 names were added to the original 1,793 in the following 18 months after a campaign by bereaved families and veterans associations.

Obviously this is an interesting subject in terms of the history of war ‘memorialisation’, but in practical terms if we can demonstrate that our Cenotaph is Lutyens’ original then it might open the door to additional funding to help us maintain it, so if any of your members are able to provide information I would be delighted to hear from them.

Sonia Batten replies:
I don't have a copy of Lutyens' letters to Emily (The Letters of Edwin Lutyens to his Wife Lady Emily edited by Clayre Percy and Jane Ridley (2^nd edn. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1988)) on hand but assume that Dr Everill has consulted it for clues. For it to be feasible that Lutyens designed the Cenotaph within such a short time there needs to be 'form'. What about Allan Greenberg's article on the creation of the Cenotaph: 'Lutyens' Cenotaph', Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 48 (1989), pp.5-23, or Penelope Curtis' article in the Imperial War Museum Review (No. 9)? I daresay Dr Everill has already found these.

Dr Angela Gaffney adds:
How intriguing! I haven't been able to find anything in my own records but wonder if the National Inventory of War Memorials could shed further light?

John F. Bushell asks:
I am currently researching the life of General Sir Alexander Cobbe VC, with the assistance of members of his extended family, and have his service record up to 1912. Whilst his service in Mesopotamia is well covered I have little on his service with the Indian Corps on the Western Front in the First World War. He appears to have been on the staff of the Lahore Division as a GSO1 and later at I Corps as a temp Brigadier. I gather he took a member of his father in law’s estate staff to France as his batman, which was unusual for an officer of the Indian Army, so I assume he joined his HQ from home leave in the UK. Do you have any information on the Indian Corps HQ staff for this period 1914-15?

John Bourne replies:
Alexander Cobbe was GSO1 3^rd (Lahore) Division from 18 October 1914 to 4 January 1915, DA&QMG Indian Corps from 5 January to 16 July 1915 and BGGS I Corps from 16 July 1915 until 27 January 1916. I do not know where he was when the war broke out.

Robert Kirsopp asks:
I am currently researching Private W. Kirsopp, Northumberland Fusiliers. I know he served in the 8th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers his regimental number was 4032. He is commemorated in Hexham Abbey and also the local catholic church (St Mary’s) also the war memorial in Hexham Park. I have reviewed his medal card, which states simply "dead" 2b. I understand 2b is the Balkans, yet I can find no trace in either CWGC records or on any rolls of honour anywhere.
Any suggestions on how to proceed would be gratefully received or indeed any information.
Is it possible to get him added to rolls of honour? Or find where he is buried?
Many thanks.

David Tattersfield replies:
It would seem that there is a spelling mistake on the church war memorial, which is not unusual. By interrogating the Soldiers Died CD Rom using the regimental number provided, we can trace this chap on the CWGC online database

Name:	KERRSOPP, WILLIAM
Initials:	W
Nationality:	United Kingdom
Rank:	Private
Regiment/Service:	Northumberland Fusiliers
Unit Text:	8th Bn.
Date of Death:	10/08/1915
Service No:	4032
Casualty Type:	Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference:	Panel 33 to 35.
Memorial:	HELLES MEMORIAL

Philip Vickers asks:
We are writing a history of British Naval Intelligence in WW I (and up to today) in the Mediterranean Theatre with special emphasis on the chief of such Secret Intelligence in the Mediterranean from Spain to Greece including North Africa. His name was Colonel C.J. Thoroton RMLI, known as Charles the Bold, reporting to 'Blinker' Hall of Room 40. Little is known about him but he is my wife's grandfather and some family papers have put us on to him.

We believe he may have been known to John Buchan but little is known about JB's SI work either. Thoroton figures briefly in most of the SI literature, e.g. in Christopher Andrews and Patrick Beesley. With that very brief introduction can anyone to throw more light on the subject?

Sharon Lawler asks:
My father asked me to find a book for him that he remembers reading in the dim and distant past. PLOT: Set in England, (Manchester?) a city regiment, made up of city men, farm men and apparently a Cockney, is trained up and shipped off in the Great War. Sent to Palestine and Gallipoli, where they see no action, they are eventually sent to the Somme and a tragic end to the story ensues.

My dad reckoned it was "to the city to the plough". My research suggested the title From the City, From the Plough. However, this is about the Second World War. The blurb on the back of this book suggested that the First World War equivalent would be The First Hundred Thousand. My dad says this is definitely not the book he remembers reading. Am continuing with my research and your website is a helpful tool. However, think it may be time to call in an expert in the field!

Dr Bob Bushaway replies:
My guess is that Sharon Lawler’s father is thinking of John Harris’s Covenant with Death, which tells the (fictionalised) story of the Sheffield City [Pals] Battalion, their sojourn defending the Suez Canal and the tragic events of Serre in 1916. The book was originally published by Hutchinson in 1961, but there are lots of subsequent paperback editions through the 1960s. From the City and the Plough is indeed a “First Hundred Thousand”–type account for the Second World War.

Kathryn Cruz asks:
I recently read the autobiography of Wangari Maathai the Kenyan Nobel laureate. Her uncle was killed in the First World War. His parents were never officially informed and they presumed, when he never came home, that he had been killed. They eventually learned that he had been shot in battle, from a comrade in arms, some time after the end of the war.

Maathai states that over 100,000 Kikuyus from Kenya were killed in the war. She also says that her grandfather was threatened with having his livestock confiscated unless he sent his son to fight in the war. Can you verify any of these claims? Were people informed of the loss of their loved ones and offered any compensation. Are there any statistics on the hundred of thousands of African who served as auxiliaries, many of whom lost their lives?

Dr Ross Anderson replies:
There were detailed records kept of the African auxiliaries by the British administration in what became Kenya. The non-combatants were enrolled in the Carrier Corps and the soldiers in the King's Africa Rifles (KAR). Having said that, there was a lot of fluidity in the former corps as men deserted and/or re-enlisted or where conscripted back in. In those days, identity documents were just in their beginning so people moved around a lot sometimes in search of better pay or conditions. Things were better run from late mid 1915 onward as the organisation settled down, but it should also be noted that as the British advanced into what became Tanganyika, they also enrolled lots of inhabitants of that country. A lot of carriers were recruited informally to move supplies on a local basis as the troops passed through. It should also be remembered that the carriers were recruited throughout East Africa with thousands being found from what was Belgian Congo (DRC), Uganda Protectorate, Zanzibar, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Nyasaland (Malawi), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Mozambique. The Germans fully mobilised their own colonial subjects and were rather more ruthless than the British in this regard, particularly from mid-1916 onward. Unfortunately, their records have not really survived.

The official number of deaths attributed to the Carrier Corps as a whole was officially attributed at over 40,000, though not just Kikuyu and it is likely that many more died having deserted or as result of their war service. The numbers were very large in any event - the reasons were usually due to disease combined with the very strenuous exertions of the marching & fighting. All ranks, soldiers and carriers, also suffered heavily from insufficient food supplies, malaria, dysentery, pneumonia and the like. If I recall correctly, I think the peak strength of the Carrier Corps was about 250,000, but many more passed through its ranks. Across Central & East Africa, I would guess that several millions of Africans served the war effort, either directly in the front line, but in much greater numbers through the supply of food, the movement of material, labourers, drivers, and clerks. It was the mobilisation of all of the colonies involved and had a marked impact on their societies.

There is no doubt that coercion was applied to find such recruits - the District Officers were given quotas to fill and the local Chiefs had their arms twisted to provide suitable manpower. The threatened confiscation of cattle was a likely coercive measure as the British were desperate to end the campaign and the Germans equally determined to prolong it. The high point came in early 1917 when the British commander requested an enormous increase in recruiting to make his campaign in the lowlands of the Rufiji valley possible - it was never fulfilled as the numbers were simply too large. There was some resistance amongst the African population, largely through running away, but also amongst the British civil administration who feared that these demands would overwhelm the colony and incite rebellion. From the Kenyan point of view, the situation eased as the campaign moved south in mid to late 1917 and pushed into German and later Portuguese territory.

As regards the man in question, it is highly probable that he could have been killed and not found - in the thick bush, miles from roads, many perished unseen. However, if he did not return, the procedure was for his next of kin to go to the administration and request his pay, and I believe, a death gratuity. This is a grey area for me as I would need to check more closely - certainly there was an enormous administration set up to run the Carrier Corps and deal with the demobilisation, discharge and death of its members. However, if he was not formally enrolled in the Corps then his family would not have received anything. Really a little more detail on him is required.

The subject is dealt with in my book The Forgotten Front (Stroud: Tempus, 2004), but there is a monograph by Geoffrey Hodges, The Carrier Corps, written in the 1970s, I think, that looks at the Kenyan side in some detail. It has its limitations, but does look at the question in depth. Edward Paice’s recent book Tip & Run (London: Weidenfeld, 2006) also covers this area fairly fully. As regards statistics, there is a file in the CO records, the exact reference of which escapes me, that is the official report on the Carrier Corps to London. It is very detailed with a great number of statistical appendices.

Really this is a subject that deserves its own research & book as the African side has never been adequately told especially when taken on a regional basis. There’s a good PhD subject for the right student.

Professor Glenda Abramson asks:
I am seeking information about the imprisonment of enemy aliens in Austria and Germany during the Great War (places, conditions). I have searched for relevant bibliography but can't find anything in English. I assume there is material in German, but I can't find it either. Could anyone help, please?

Professor Glenda Abramson asks about the imprisonment of enemy aliens in Austria and Germany during the Great War. She might be interested to look at the Prisoner of War and Aliens Department material in the Foreign Office records in the National Archives at Kew. Included in the series are neutral investigations into German and allied POW/internment camps. There is a card index to the correspondence contained within this series.
Hope this is of assistance.
Cheers,
Aaron Pegram
Australia

Tim Dunce asks:
I had always assumed that next of kin were notified by telegram when their oved one was killed in action. However, Neil Oliver, in Not Forgotten, 2005, says on p. 121, when referring to an 'other ranks' casualty, 'Army Form B.104-82B came in a buff-coloured War Office envelope (telegrams were for officers' families only)'. He restates this on p. 161. I've tried to confirm that Neil is correct on this topic, but without success so far; can anyone shine any light on the subject, please?

William Spencer replies:
Officers’ Next of Kin got telegrams, the ORs letters via the regimental record offices. In certain cases the Next of Kin of ORs got telegrams if the man was wounded and wanted his Next of Kin to visit.

Luke Terrill asks:
I am hoping to embark on an MA dissertation on the use of football for propaganda and recruitment purposes during the First World War. I am aware of some circumstantial evidence of football teams, players and fans being targeted during the 1914-1918 period, but need to find out more if I am to proceed with my research. I would be grateful if you could point me in the direction of some useful publications, archives or contacts.

Bob Bushaway replies:
Does Luke mean "Rugby football" or are we speaking of the game with the round ball (or both)? There are several studies reflecting on both, such as Jack Alexander’s Macrae's Battalion: The Story of the 16^th Royal Scots (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 2003), who were largely recruited from players and supporters of Heart of Midlothian Football Club, and Tony Collins’s article ‘English Rugby Union and the First World War’, Historical Journal, 45 (4) (December 2002). ‘Unpatriotic’ footballers were often compared unfavourably with ‘patriotic’ Rugby Union players, during the period of voluntary recruitment: see http://www.rugbyfootballhistory.com/rugbyatwar.html But there is not a single study of the idea of football and propaganda as far as I know. There is more written about the Second World War, such as Jack Rollin’s Soccer at War 1939-45 (London: Collins, 1985; revised edn. London: Headline, 2005), which is an account of the way the game was continued in Britain during the war for morale purposes.

Of course, Luke would need to think about the definitions of his terms because the idea of "Official", State-controlled propaganda was slow to get going in Britain's liberal society at the outset. Football (and of course Rugby LEAGUE) was a part of the popular idiom of Edwardian British society, which is why it resonates in acts like the London Irish at Loos and the East Surreys on the Somme and their footballs in No-Man’s-Land stunts. Equally it features so strongly in pre action and recuperation regimental and divisional sports. Football can be seen, for example, going on in the background of John Singer Sargent's ‘Gassed’, with all its intended irony in a painting of men who have been blinded. For artists and writers the idea of football for the healthy, sighted and limbed was a strong image in a world rapidly making them invalided, blind and limbless.

Tony Mason's Association Football and English Society, 1863-1915 (Brighton: Harvester, 1980) has a section on the war years, as does James Walvin's The People’s Game (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1994) (I think!) but I know the archives of most existing soccer clubs are poor. Clearly, the contemporary Press would be a crucial source as well as The National Archives files on the Ministry of Information. But I don't think Luke will find this straightforward given the general lack of stuff including analyses of popular culture in Britain during the war. I hope this helps.

Stan Grosvenor adds:
Luke Terrill asked about " ... football for propaganda ..." on your web help page. If he refers to Association Football there are examples quoted in the novel [based on fact] Abide With Me, author Frances David [pseudonym], published by King Lion in 2003, ISBN 0-9545215-2-8. The story is about Glossop North End football team and one particular player, kia in the Great War. The writer had access to private documents and also referred to the local newspaper.


CENTRE FOR FIRST WORLD WAR STUDIES