Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T22:19:05.964Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Touring behind the lines: British soldiers in French towns and cities during the Great War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2013

KRISTA COWMAN
KRISTA COWMAN*
Affiliation:
School of Humanities, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This article explores the importance that accessing urban life assumed for British soldiers stationed in France during World War I. Many who fought on the Western Front had never visited a foreign country before sailing to France. Drawing on contemporary letters and diaries and later memoirs, it considers how men responded to the new experiences they found in French towns and cities behind the lines. Through exploring activities from shopping and dining to cinema and prostitution, it argues that urban outings became critical to sustaining morale by offering opportunities to engage with civilian life on a reasonably regular basis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , February 2014 , pp. 105 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Engall, J.S., A Subaltern's Letters (London, 1917), 38Google Scholar.

2 R. White considers tourism amongst Australian soldiers in World War I, but his argument that this was a key reason why many enlisted is not replicated in British accounts. My concern here is with tourism as a subsidiary activity to war rather than a motivating factor. See White, R., ‘The soldier as tourist’, War and Society, 5 (1987), 63–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 This approach has dominated the cultural history of World War I, most obviously in Fussell, P., The Great War and Modern Memory (Oxford, 1975)Google Scholar. Fussell's work has been expanded – and critiqued – in a number of important studies including Hynes, S., A War Imagined: The First World War and English Culture (London, 1991)Google Scholar; Mosse, G., Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars (Oxford, 1989)Google Scholar.

4 For an overview of this shift see McCartney, H.B., Citizen Soldiers: The Liverpool Territorials in the First World War (Cambridge, 2005), 1–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 See for example Watson, J.S.K., Fighting Different Wars: Experience, Memory and the First World War in Britain (Cambridge, 2004)Google Scholar.

6 One example of the ‘disillusionment’ school of war literature is Leed, E., No Man's Land: Combat and Identity in World War One (Cambridge, 1979)Google Scholar. For challenges, see Fuller, J.G., Troop Morale and Popular Culture in the British and Dominion Armies, 1914 –18 (Oxford, 1990)Google Scholar.

7 Fuller, Troop Morale; Fergusson, N., The Pity of War (London, 1998), 357–66Google Scholar.

8 For the ratio of time spent in and out of the trenches, see Beckett, I. and Simpson, K. (eds.), A Nation at Arms: A Social Study of the British Army in the First World War (Manchester, 1985), 178Google Scholar.

9 For example McPhail, H., The Long Silence: Civilian Life under the German Occupation of Northern France, 1914–18 (London, 2001)Google Scholar.

10 Winter, J. and Robert, J.-L. (eds.), Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin, vol. I (Cambridge, 1997), 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Winter, J. and Robert, J.-L. (eds.), Capital Cities at War, vol. II: A Cultural History (Cambridge, 2007)Google Scholar.

11 Winter, J. and Prost, A., The Great War in History: Debates and Controversies 1914 to the Present (Cambridge, 2005), 154CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The literature referred to here by Winter and Prost is predominantly French.

12 See for example Rüger, J., ‘Entertainments’, in Winter and Robert (eds.), Capital Cities, vol. II, 105–40Google Scholar, at 117.

13 K.C. Gibson, ‘Relations between the British army and the civilian population on the Western Front, 1914–18’, University of Leeds Ph.D. thesis, 1998. See also Gibson, K.C., ‘Sex and soldiering in France and Flanders’, International History Review, 23 (2001), 505–756CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Gibson, K.C., ‘The British army, French farmers and the war on the Western Front’, Past and Present, 180 (2003), 175–240CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Goebel, S. and Keene, D., ‘Towards a metropolitan history of total war: an introduction’, in Goebel, S. and Keene, D. (eds.), Cities into Battlefields: Metropolitan Scenarios, Experiences and Commemorations of Total War (London, 2011), 1–46Google Scholar, at 11.

15 The sample comprised 118 collections of private papers held at the Imperial War Musuem (IWM) identified via keyword searches on the Museum's database, then supplemented by published material. I am grateful to the trustees of the IWM and individual copyright holders for permission to quote material cited in this article: Maureen Bottom (N. Tennant); Paul Finch (Jack Sweeney); Angela Macfarlane (A.J.H. Smith); Miss M.A. Johnston (J.A. Johnston); Alison Baines (C.R. Jones); Jon Wicket (Stapleton Euchas) and R. Diamond (R.K. Lawson). Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, for the remaining material.

16 Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, ch. 5.

17 Ibid., 65.

18 Boyden, P.E., Tommy Atkins’ Letters. The History of the British Army Postal Service from 1795 (London, 1990), 28Google Scholar; Roper, M., The Secret Battle: Emotional Survival in the Great War (Manchester, 2009), 50Google Scholar.

19 Ellis, J., Eye Deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War One (Baltimore, 1976), 139Google Scholar; Englander, D., ‘Soldiering and identity: reflections on the Great War’, War in History, 1 (1994), 300–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 308.

20 The National Archives (TNA) WO95/376, Third Army routine orders, 9 Jan. 1916.

21 For recent approaches see Roper, The Secret Battle, 47–72, also Hämmerle, C., ‘“You let a weeping woman call you home?” Private correspondences during the First World War in Austria and Germany’, in Earle, R. (ed.), Epistolary Selves. Letters and Letter-Writers, 1600–1945 (Aldershot, 1999), 152–82Google Scholar; Hanna, M., ‘A republic of letters: the epistolary tradition in France during World War I’, American Historical Review, 108 (2003), 1328–361CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Holmes, R., Tommy (London, 2004), xxiiiGoogle Scholar.

23 Carrington, C., Soldier from the Wars Returning (London, 1965), 160Google Scholar. For similar, see Baynes, J., Morale: A Study of Men and Courage. The Second Scottish Rifles at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle 1915 (London, 1987; orig. publ. 1967), 208–14Google Scholar; Van Emden, R. (ed.), Tickled to Death to Go: Memoirs of a Cavalryman in the First World War (Staplehurst, 1996), 14Google Scholar.

24 IWM 05/9/1, C.R. Jones, Nov. 1915.

25 Lawrence, B.L., War Correspondence from France and Belgium (London, 1919), 3Google Scholar.

26 Ajax, The Active Service French Book (London, 1915), 1.

27 Harris, E.F., French for the Front (London, 1915)Google Scholar.

28 Crouch, L.W., Duty and Service: Letters from the Front (London, 1917)Google Scholar, letter 31 Mar. 1915.

29 3 Jul. 1915 in Trafford, P. (ed.), Love and War (Bristol, 1992)Google Scholar.

30 IWM 76/226/1, Jack Sweeney to Ivy, 22 Aug. 1915.

31 IWM 88/25/1, M. Gower to sister, 17 Oct. 1917.

32 Bourke, J., Dismembering the Male: Men's Bodies, Britain and the Great War (London, 1996), 23Google Scholar.

33 IWM 91/3/1, P.A. Brown to mother, 22–4 Oct. 1915.

34 TNA WO 154/73, war diary, APM 63rd Division, 28 Jun. 1917.

35 IWM 99/13/1, R .K. Lawson to sister, 4 Apr. 1917.

36 Hope, T.S., The Winding Road Unfolds (London, 1965Google Scholar; orig. publ. 1937), 92.

37 Smith, A., Four Years on the Western Front by a Rifleman (London, 1922), 193Google Scholar.

38 TNA WO 154/73, war diary, APM 63rd Division, 10 Jul. 1916.

39 Ibid., 29 Dec. 1916.

40 Nicholson, W.N., Behind the Lines (London, 1939), 261Google Scholar; Lawrence, War Correspondence, 27. See also Fuller, Troop Morale, 83–5.

41 Carrington, Soldier from the Wars, 80; IWM 99/13/1A, J. Rixon, diary, Apr. n.d. (?1916); Dearden, H., Medicine and Duty: A War Diary (London, 1928), 27Google Scholar.

42 IWM 78/58/1, Capt. R.J. Thompson, memoir, 15 Apr. 1915.

43 IWM Con Shelf, A.C. Stanton to Brownie, n.d. (Mar. 1917).

44 Holland, C. and Phillips, R. (eds.), The Great War Letters of Roland Mountford (Leicester, 2009), 74Google Scholar.

45 Ibid., 34.

46 Van Emden (ed.), Tickled to Death, 89.

47 Rogerson, S., Twelve Days (Norwich, 1988; orig. publ. 1930), 146Google Scholar, 149.

48 Ibid., 148; Spicer, L.D., Letters from France (London, 1979), 88Google Scholar.

49 Hope, The Winding Road Unfolds, 197.

50 IWM 02/4/1, F. Philipson, memoir, 73.

51 IWM 91/2/1, P.A. Brown to mother, 27 Oct. 1915.

52 IWM Con Shelf, A.C. Stanton to Brownie, 27 May 1918.

53 TNA WO 95/376, Third Army circular memorandum 10, 30 Nov. 1915, ‘Orders as to officers and other ranks going to Amiens’; Third Army routine orders, 1 Jan. 1916, ‘Passes for Abbeville’.

54 Duffett, R., ‘A taste of army life: food, identity and the rankers of the First World War’, Cultural and Social History, 9 (2012), 251–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

55 Sansom, A.J., Letters from France (London, 1921), 184Google Scholar.

56 Greenwell, G., Infant in Arms War Letters of a Company Officer 1914–1918 (London, 1925)Google Scholar, 25 Dec. 1915.

57 Van Emden (ed.), Tickled to Death, 129; Douie, C., Weary Road: Recollections of a Subaltern of Infantry (London, 1929; orig. publ. 1988), 42Google Scholar; Hiscock, E., The Bells of Hell Go Ting-a-Ling-a-Ling (London, 1976), 97Google Scholar.

58 IWM 99/56/1, C.R. Smith 22 Aug., no year.

59 For more detail, see J. Caillaud, ‘La presence britannique dans les départements de la Somme et du Pas-de-Calais 1914–18’, Université Picardie Jules Verne MA dissertation.

60 See for example Archives départmentales de la Somme (ADS) 4M741, file concerning the Aeroplane café in Abbeville.

61 ADS KZ219, Réponse aux rapports décadaires des SDS 27, 15 Aug. 1917.

62 Neil Fraser-Tytler, 5 Jun. 1916, in Baker, Major N. (ed.), With Lancashire Lads and Field Guns in France 1915–1918 (Manchester, 1922)Google Scholar.

63 IWM 99/13/1, R.K. Lawson to sister, 19 May 1917.

64 IWM 76/226/1, Sweeney to Ivy, 18 Aug. 1918.

65 Fuller, Troop Morale, 110. For Amiens examples, see various programmes in Fonds Duchaussony, ADS 14J.

66 ADS 4M777, Raport d'une surveillance exercée à Amiens.

67 Archives de la Préfecture de la Police, Paris (APP) DA/851, press cutting; ADS 4M777, surveillance report 13 Apr. 1917; table of ‘femmes ou filles notoirement’, in Abbevile, 13 Apr. 1917.

68 TNA WO/32/5597, cabinet minute, 18 Mar. 1918. For French reactions, see TNA WO/32/5597, letter from the mayor of Granville-Ste-Honorine to the War Office, 24 Jun. 1918.

69 For a broader consideration of how – and why – men wrote about this topic see Gibson, ‘Sex and soldiering’. The lacunae in evidence is also considered in Makepeace, C., ‘Male hetrosexuality and prostitution during the Great War’, Cultural and Social History, 9 (2012), 65–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 IWM 86/66/1, Lieut. G.K. Begg to mother, 6 May 1918; IWM 99/62/1, R. Oxtoby to sister, 24 Jun. 1916.

71 IWM 04/21/1, J.A. Mitchell to Doris, 8 Jun. 1916.

72 Cited in Harrison, M., ‘The British army and the problem of venereal disease in France and Egypt during the First World War’, Medical History, 39 (1995), 133–58CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, at 145.

73 TNA WO/32/5597, ‘The provision of tolerated brothels’.

74 IWM 83/36/1, R.I. Smith, memoir.

75 IWM 01/51/1, S.T. Euchus, ts diary, 23 Feb. 1917.

76 IWM 76/226/1, Sweeney to Ivy, 18 Aug. 1917.

77 IWM 92/36/1, memoir, Lieut. R. Dixon, ‘The wheels of darkness’.

78 H. Dearden, Medicine and Duty, 27, 28.

79 Carrington, Soldier from the Wars, 164.

80 Rogerson, Twelve Days, 147.

81 Hope, The Winding Road, 88.

82 Mottram, R.H., Journey to the Western Front (London, 1936), 102Google Scholar.

83 For instance P. Higonnet, ‘Parisian peculiarities: the French capital in the age of total war’, in Goebel and Keene (eds.), Cities into Battlefields, 73–82.

84 Cronier, E., ‘The street’, in Winter and Robert (eds.), Capital Cities at War, vol. II, 57–104Google Scholar, at 58.

85 Ibid., 103.

86 IWM 84/22/1, Capt. A.J.H. Smith to mother, 10 Jun. 1917.

87 Charteris, J., At GCHQ (London, 1931), 42Google Scholar.

88 IWM P91, Lieut. Campbell, unpublished memoir.

89 On the physical transformation of Paris during the war, which included the demolition of the city's ramparts, see Pinol, J.-L. and Garden, M., Atlas des Parisiens de la Révolution à nos jours (Paris, 2009), 30–42Google Scholar.

90 IWM 06/30/1, T.H. Holmes, memoir.

91 IWM 99/62/1, R. Oxtoby to father, 8 Oct. 1917.

92 Dundas, N., Henry Dundas Scots Guards (Edinburgh, 1921), 108Google Scholar.

93 IWM 04/30/11, N. Tennant, unpublished memoir.

94 Gregory, A., ‘Railway stations: gateways and termini’, in Winter and Robert (eds.), Capital Cities, vol. II, 23–56, at 47Google Scholar.

95 Lawrence, War Correspondence, 56.

96 Cronier, ‘The street’, 118.

97 APP AB/2179 Grande Bretagne, ‘Army and Navy Leave Club’ folder, Walter R. Hearn to M. le Préfet de Police, 13 Sep. 1917.

98 IWM Women's Work Collection (WWC) B.O.4 14/3; ‘A corner of Blighty’ pamphlet, IWM WWC B.O.4 15/6; ‘Responses of the British Army and Navy Leave Club’, APP AB/2179, ‘Army and Navy Leave Club’ folder.

99 APP AB/2179, ‘Army and Navy Leave Club’ folder.

100 Mottram, R.H., Sixty-Four, Ninety-Four (London, 1928; orig. publ. 1925), 433Google Scholar.

101 Dundas, Dundas, 108.

102 IWM WWC B.O.14/4, ‘Corner of Blighty’ pamphlet.

103 A. Borrell, ‘Trade, industry and tourism’, L'Exportateur Français, May 1917.

104 Rüger, ‘Entertainments’, 105–40, at 113.

105 Dundas, Dundas, 109.

106 Cronier, ‘The street’, 87–93.

107 Lewis, C., Sagittarius Rising (London, 1936), 74.Google Scholar

108 IWM 73/235/1, L.Y. Kirkpatrick to mother, 15 Feb. 1919.

109 La Vie Parisienne, 7 Aug. 1915, cited in Cronier, ‘The street’, 92. For concern over female drinking, see APP DB 343, circular 24/3/13.

110 Rüger, ‘Entertainments’, 139–40; Cronier, ‘The street’, 103.

111 IWM 02/29/1, J.A. Johnston, unpublished memoir.