Similar to the French populace, British society has frequently been depicted as being immensely enthusiastic about the outbreak of war in 1914. Yet Gregory argues that ‘the evidence for mass enthusiasm at the time is surprisingly weak’. This misleading portrayal of British society was fuelled by the memoirs of politicians, in particular Lloyd George. Writing almost twenty years after the outbreak of the First World War, the Chancellor at the time recalled how the crowds behaved in London after the announcement of war on 4 August, he wrote ‘hundreds were buying Union Jacks...the crowds cheered...with extraordinary fervour. It was a scene of enthusiasm unprecedented in recent times’. By depicting the war as being greeted with great zeal Lloyd George justified the decision to enter the war and shifted the burden of blame from the shoulders of the politicians.
In Britain, volunteering to fight has frequently been cited as evidence for war enthusiasm. It is striking that nearly 2.5 million men volunteered to fight in the British army. However this does not mean that British society was enthusiastic for war, volunteering does not equate to war enthusiasm. This myth has been propagated in schools and popular culture. For example, in one Key Stage Three Text Book pupils are misinformed that ‘Many believed the war would be over by Christmas, and they were anxious not to miss it. Many wanted a chance to fight for their country’. This jingoistic attitude is reinforced by popular culture, for example, when, in Blackadder, George recalls when he volunteered, ‘I joined up straight away, sir. August the 4th, 1914. Gah, what a day that was: myself and the rest of the fellows leapfrogging down to the Cambridge recruiting office and then playing tiddlywinks in the queue...and there we were, off to hammer the Boche’. The reality is far more complex than this jingoistic attitude which has has been so often been depicted. On closer analyses of the recruitment figures it can be seen that there was in fact no ‘rush to colours’ in August 1914. Only 93 men enlisted between 4 August and 8 August; this statistic makes the most unrealistic part of George’s story the fact that he was in a queue at all. September 1914 was in fact the month with the strongest recruitment levels. This rise in recruitment coincided with The Times article which gave a worrying account of the British Expeditionary Force’s losses and retreat. The Times article told readers how ‘the first great German effort has succeeded...the BEF...requires immediate and immense reinforcements’ . Gregory concludes that ‘far from signing up in a burst of enthusiasm at the outbreak of war, the largest single component of volunteers enlisted at exactly the moment when the war turned serious’. Pennell supports Gregory’s argument highlighting that recruitment rates dropped after Allied success on the Marne and then rose again after the First Battle of Ypres. When the British were perceived to be doing badly in the war men wished to help their nation. People, therefore, volunteered not out of enthusiasm, but out of a sense of duty. …show more content…
The day after The Times article, Andrew Buxton, a banker, told his sister ‘I know you don’t want me to enlist, but I cannot help thinking it my duty’. People in Britain certainly supported the war, but they did so not out of war enthusiasm and jingoism, but out of duty. It is important to draw the distinction that just because British society supported war does not mean they were enthusiastic for war. A sense of duty and defending one’s county played a large role in how British society responded to the outbreak of war. Walter Hare recalls why he fought. ‘There was an army opposed to us and we didn’t want them to get into England, and we thought the best way to stop them was to keep them where they were, in France’. Although we know there was no German plan to invade Britain, this defensive motive was genuinely felt by Britons. The fear of invasion had a big impact on British society; it helps explain why Britain accepted war in 1914. The pre-war invasion literature, such as The Riddle of the Sands, The Invasion of 1910 and The Battle of Dorking, that was so prominent in British culture before the detente between
In Britain, volunteering to fight has frequently been cited as evidence for war enthusiasm. It is striking that nearly 2.5 million men volunteered to fight in the British army. However this does not mean that British society was enthusiastic for war, volunteering does not equate to war enthusiasm. This myth has been propagated in schools and popular culture. For example, in one Key Stage Three Text Book pupils are misinformed that ‘Many believed the war would be over by Christmas, and they were anxious not to miss it. Many wanted a chance to fight for their country’. This jingoistic attitude is reinforced by popular culture, for example, when, in Blackadder, George recalls when he volunteered, ‘I joined up straight away, sir. August the 4th, 1914. Gah, what a day that was: myself and the rest of the fellows leapfrogging down to the Cambridge recruiting office and then playing tiddlywinks in the queue...and there we were, off to hammer the Boche’. The reality is far more complex than this jingoistic attitude which has has been so often been depicted. On closer analyses of the recruitment figures it can be seen that there was in fact no ‘rush to colours’ in August 1914. Only 93 men enlisted between 4 August and 8 August; this statistic makes the most unrealistic part of George’s story the fact that he was in a queue at all. September 1914 was in fact the month with the strongest recruitment levels. This rise in recruitment coincided with The Times article which gave a worrying account of the British Expeditionary Force’s losses and retreat. The Times article told readers how ‘the first great German effort has succeeded...the BEF...requires immediate and immense reinforcements’ . Gregory concludes that ‘far from signing up in a burst of enthusiasm at the outbreak of war, the largest single component of volunteers enlisted at exactly the moment when the war turned serious’. Pennell supports Gregory’s argument highlighting that recruitment rates dropped after Allied success on the Marne and then rose again after the First Battle of Ypres. When the British were perceived to be doing badly in the war men wished to help their nation. People, therefore, volunteered not out of enthusiasm, but out of a sense of duty. …show more content…
The day after The Times article, Andrew Buxton, a banker, told his sister ‘I know you don’t want me to enlist, but I cannot help thinking it my duty’. People in Britain certainly supported the war, but they did so not out of war enthusiasm and jingoism, but out of duty. It is important to draw the distinction that just because British society supported war does not mean they were enthusiastic for war. A sense of duty and defending one’s county played a large role in how British society responded to the outbreak of war. Walter Hare recalls why he fought. ‘There was an army opposed to us and we didn’t want them to get into England, and we thought the best way to stop them was to keep them where they were, in France’. Although we know there was no German plan to invade Britain, this defensive motive was genuinely felt by Britons. The fear of invasion had a big impact on British society; it helps explain why Britain accepted war in 1914. The pre-war invasion literature, such as The Riddle of the Sands, The Invasion of 1910 and The Battle of Dorking, that was so prominent in British culture before the detente between