The teaching of History in schools in the 1988 Educational Reform Act included as one of its key skills ‘empathy’. It wanted students to ‘feel what it was like’ rather than just know the dates and alleged causes for events. To do that, means that one must not only have knowledge, but one must slough off the experiences of one’s own society. Why did Denis, William and Bert Tall fight in WW1 - a war where the death rate was grotesquely high and the experience terrifying?

War was declared on the 4^th of August 1914, on the 7^th Kitchener called to young men for help. The result was unbelievable. Denis may well have been one of those who turned up and was told not to return until he was 19 (the minimum recruitment age).

The timing of William’s marriage to Alice Day, in the closing months of 1914, may have been linked to the war. The pressure on young bachelors to take part was immense, the role of newspapers was high. The Evening Chronicle, the local newspaper of Newcastle upon Tyne proved to be as swept away with patriotism as the rest of Great Britain: (http://users.wessex.net/w1007346/CHRONICL.html)

MONDAY OCTOBER 19TH 1914
"The registration of men for the Tyneside Scottish Battalion is proceeding with a rapidity entirely gratifying to those responsible for raising the unit. The pipe and drum parade on Saturday followed by the recruiting meeting at the town hall, was very successful and resulted in some 170 names being secured.
THURSDAY 14TH JANUARY 1915
"Another letter received by this Committee was equally interesting. It was from a youth of 18, only 5 feet high, and pleaded: 'Don't disappoint mother by saying I cannot serve, and, if necessary, die for my country.' " (The height regulation of 5’8" fell to 5’2" by November 1914)

The Evening Chronicle provided its readers with a ridiculous, romanticised view of the fighting
"We went into action on Monday morning...we killed them like heaps of flies on paper. It was terrible work but we glorified in it. We gave them a couple of bayonet charges. Their pluck lasted until we were about fifty yards off then they were off. It would do you good to see our little chaps who were laughing and shouting and chasing the big fellows. You wouldn't think it was war."

The Germans were demonised, one officer reported:
"The Germans… kept firing on the wounded, and the body of one wounded man, when brought in was found to be riddled with bullets. Three wounded men, lying huddled together, were wiped clean off the earth by a bomb, and he was an eye-witness of a direct hit by a shell, a wounded man being blown to pieces, part of his clothing falling from the air a few seconds later."
And jingoism emphasised
"Though the Tyneside Scottish suffered severely… the enthusiasm of the men was unbounded, and the wounded were cheerful and content, they knew the day had gone well with them."

The situation must have been similar throughout the Empire. In America the MARYSVILLE GLOBE reported in 27/7/17 (Note the propaganda about German behaviour):

"A Canadian soldier with only one leg and two crutches was passing through Marysville on his way to Vancouver, B. C. and after resting at the Currie hotel overnight was about to move on Sunday morning when some of our business men, led by Mr. S. F. Moulton, of the Fair store, conceived the idea of getting him to stay and talk to the people at a public meeting on his experiences in France and what he knew of the destruction wrought by the invading armies.

Arrangements were accordingly made for the use of the Marysville theatre for Tuesday evening, and a crowded house greeted the soldier, who lost his leg in the battle of Zelubek, near Ypres, on June 2nd, 1916

The man was an American citizen, named R. Reynolds, a resident of Gloucester, Mass., engaged in the U. S. Coast Survey work when, like thousands of other red-blooded Americans, he decided to help the Allies in their efforts to lick Germany, and enlisted in the 48th Battalion, Victoria Vol. Inf., in February, 1915, and after a few month's training in Canada, was sent to the front in France and took his place in the trenches.

Private Reynolds opened his remarks by answering the oft-repeated query of some misinformed or thoughtless Americans as to why America should send an army to France. Why not wait till they attempt to invade our own country, then every American would rise up and repel the invaders. Private Reynolds told of the firing of homes, "the levelling of cities, "the killing of innocent men, the defilement of women and girls, crippling of little children by cutting off their hands and feet," and asked if we wanted such a foe to land on our own shores and begin their hellish work before going to war with them. He advocated meeting them with every force at our command on the battlefields of France so they may never have a chance to overcome England, get possession of the English fleet and land on our shores. His arguments were incontrovertible."

Society reacted equally strongly, men who refused to volunteer would be questioned and, men not in uniform would be presented with a "white feather" (A.E.W.Mason "The Four Feathers"). Some employers sacked young men to ‘encourage’ them to enlist:
"Immediately war was declared I was sacked by the Torquay Times as an economy measure and told that my place was in the Army" (Cliff, 1988, To Hell and Back with the Guards)

The horrors of the war only really came home, when families lost a father, son or brother.

Once enlisted, why didn’t the ordinary soldier mutiny after seeing their friends killed in large numbers at the idea of "going over the top"? From the experiences of the brothers’ Tall, it is evident that individual soldiers were not regularly ‘going over the top’ ….
"The average stay for a soldier in the front line was at most a week – men could not normally stand much longer. After a tour in the front line soldiers were rotated to the second support line, then the third reserve trench, then to the relative quiet of base camps in the rear." (Winter&Baggett p101)

Denis spent his time in a hot, dry climate inevitably cutting his uniform trousers into shorts – for comfort. Prior to the battle in which he died, his battalion regularly swam in the sea . By contrast William, during the same period, was fighting in atrocious muddy conditions in Europe.

Bourne (1989 p204) argues that the British/Anglo-Saxon characteristic of ‘fairness’ was crucial. Unlike Russia and France where mutiny/revolt arose, it wasn’t only the working classes who suffered. Military enlistment was high amongst the middle and upper classes - casualty rates among the officers, though not the number of deaths, were roughly double those of the men. The Government ensured adequate supplies of food – indeed rationing helped raised the working class standard of living. Bourne (p215) emphasises the value of the Regiment to the soldiers. The officers were expected to lead by example – "Quite simply, British soldiers continued to follow because they continued to be led." (Bourne p223). Regiments taught recruits their History. The concept of "Live and let Live" between the opposing armies clearly occurred – but not with elite regiments like the Grenadier Guards. "The Grenadiers on going out had reported to us that the Division on our right had been fraternising with the enemy. A Sgt was seen to go and meet a German and drink with him. The case was reported and orders given to shoot anyone going out" (Brown p288)

Well-known Posters used in WW1

Conscription in Britain started for:
                      single men on the 6^th January 1916;
                      married men in May 1916.

Additional Information

Trousers did not flap with British uniforms because cloth wrappings, or puttees, were bound around the lower leg. This was a necessity in trench conditions. However in the desert, soldiers abandoned puttees and commonly transformed their trousers into ‘shorts’, without the agreement of their commanders.

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