Morality and the Metropolis: London during The First World War

This article is by Maximillian Jones who completed a work placement at London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) while studying at Goldsmiths University of London. Maximillian looked at tribunal notes, charge books, photographs and newspapers and through analysis of these sources, he developed an understanding of the pressures men in London faced during the First World War.

Propaganda Plaguing the City

The themes tackled in this article cater not only to the experience of men in London, but the United Kingdom as a whole. Before conscription came into effect in January 1916, men were faced with the overwhelming decision on whether to enlist for the British army or avoid the pleas of the government. In this article I argue that through propaganda, media and societal constraints citizens were constantly questioning their moral duties, and as a result British men in 1914 were submerged in pressure by the beckoning call from the western front.

When it comes to enlistment, most if not all men had the motivation of ‘king and country’ as their primary reason for signing up. Again, most if not all men would have been faced with individual pressures that may have given them the nudge to enlist. How else could the government raise an army 2.4 million in strength prior to conscription? The possibility of death is a hard sell and to make British men question their morality through posters on every street corner was just one tactic to apply the pressure.

As the topic of war swept the nation in 1914, so did an overwhelming bombardment of propaganda. Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, who served for ‘king and country’, was the figure used to manipulate the formation of the British Army. Kitchener’s face was stapled on every street corner around the capital and is the trademark figure when looking back on Britain’s propaganda campaign during the First World War. The iconic image of Kitchener pointing at whoever’s eyes fell upon him, with the caption ‘your country needs you’, is quite possibly the most famous of his posters. With the flags of Britain’s allies flying high above his head, he was asking the individual to make a stand for something meaningful and make a difference on the world stage.

This table records much severance pay soldiers would receive when joining the army, taken from a recruitment poster. ‘RATE OF PAY: Lowest Scale 7s. per week with Food, Clothing &c’. We can also read the rate of pay for soldier’s wives received in the absence at the bottom of the poster, written out clearly in the table. For working class men especially, this was an essential benefit that came with joining the army. For those unemployed or with unstable jobs with minimal pay, the army provided a reliable steady income that meant men could provide for themselves and their families.

This poster advertised a public meeting where Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, leader of the conservative party Andrew Bonar Law and Sir Charles Johnston, Lord Mayor of London were all present. To try draw men into these recruitment meetings, they had to have big names at the events. Asquith and Bonar Law’s full speeches from the event at Guildhall can both be found by clicking the weblink in the Bibliography. Below are two small sections extracted from these speeches.

In this extract and throughout his speech, the Prime Minister exaggerates on how this is a righteous war between the Triple Entente and the Barbaric Germans and Austro-Hungarians. Also, that the German assault was not a clear act of ‘unprovoked aggression’ as the Prime minister puts it. Historian Christopher Clark argues that through growing tensions within Europe, there was an inevitability that war would break out in 1914. However, the government of Britain had to really demonise the German army if they wanted to rally a strong one of their own. With the unpredictability that characterised Kaiser Wilhelm II in trying to attain Germany’s ‘place in the sun’ and the destructive civilian killing war tactics carried out by his army, this was rather simple to do. With a ‘true evil’ enemy laid out before them, what was stopping the men of Britain from going to the western front and bestowing themselves in honour?

Asquith's speech:

"But let me ask you, and through you the world outside, what would have been our condition as a nation to-day if we had been base enough, through timidity or through a perverted calculation of self-interest, or through a paralysis of the sense of honour and duty [cheers], to be false to our word and faithless to our friends? [Cheers.] Our eyes would have been turned at this moment with those of the whole civilized world to Belgium -a small State which has lived for more than seventy years under a special and collective guarantee, to which we, in common with Prussia and Austria, were parties -and we should have seen, at the instance and by the action of two of these guaranteeing Powers, her neutrality violated, her independence strangled, her territory made use of as affording the easiest and most convenient road to a war of unprovoked aggression against France. [Cheers.] We, the British people, should at this moment have been standing by with folded arms and with such countenance as we could command, while this small and unprotected State, in defence of her vital liberties, made a heroic stand against overweening and overwhelming force."

‘What can I do to help my country’, again is a tactic to make men question their duty in this war. In many cases throughout history, when someone is constantly forced to question their decisions, then they are slowly broken down and cave into the philosophy they are told to believe in. This was the government’s most powerful tool in manipulating men into enlisting prior to conscription in 1916. It is as though they are implying that they were not forcing men to serve in the army, but the amount of pressure they kept applying to these men between the ages of 19 and 38, may as well have been an ‘enforced enlistment’.

Bonar Law's speech:

"What can I do to help my country?" Many of those whom I am addressing are, like the Prime Minister and myself, unable to take their places in the fighting line. It is not right, it is not fair, that we should make an appeal for sacrifice to the patriotism of those only who are able and willing to fight our battles. An equal sacrifice is demanded of those who remain behind, and let us not as a Government merely, but as a nation, realize our obligation and let us make a vow and keep it that no dependent of any man who is fighting our battles shall go hungry while we have bread to eat. [Cheers.] Let us realize, also, as we have not always realized in the past, that our soldiers are children of the State, and that they have the first claim upon the resources of our nation. [Cheers.]

Pressure from the Papers

During the First World War, newspapers could be deemed as an equally affective form of propaganda compared to the government funded posters that covered the streets. Through powerful imagery, and haunting reports, journalists would recount on acts of bravery from men defending the front line. Horror was embedded in articles in The Illustrated London News, London Evening Standard, Daily News (London) and the many other papers reporting in the capital. However, although one would imagine that articles about the front would persuade men not to enlist prior to conscription, I believe for many, it had the opposite effect. Journalistic depictions of heroic men carrying out their moral duty and the emphasis on honour in these readings, may have overcome some men’s fear of death. Furthermore, if one must die, to die in arms fighting alongside fellow countrymen and defending the king meant they were carrying out their service as an early 20th century man.

The Illustrated London News played a unique role in its method of distributing content through its use of images. Intriguing front-page art and photography drew Londoners into reading war propaganda scattered among its pages. An image can be often easier to interpret than a piece of text, making the newspaper and its content more accessible than a lot of the newspapers being distributed in London. The images and texts that depict men serving on the front line are constant tales of heroism. Christian imagery is another heavy feature which is highly influential because of The Church of England’s support for the war. Whether intentional or unintentional, The Illustrated London News and other papers like it across the country, were producing mass propaganda that was enticing men to enlist prior to January 1916.

Visual depictions of brothers fighting in arms are typical in capturing what it meant to fight alongside fellow brethren. The motive behind joining the local pals’ battalion during the early years of the war meant, that one would have the opportunity to fight alongside men they knew and grew up with in their local area. This image from The Illustrated London News, portrays this sense of brotherhood one would find in a local pals’ battalion, or the warm sense of belonging often associated with the army. The wounded man rests his head against another wounded comrade highlighting the undeniable support British troops would provide one another. To a young man back in London viewing this image, it can act as propaganda because the soldiers depicted are draped in valour, which is something to be desired. The caption below the image emphasis this as it reads, ‘On Britain’s roll of honour: the return from the charge’. 

“He was a good Pal”: A Highlander’s Grave in France, with the dead man’s shell-torn coat upon the cross of wooden strips wrenched from an ammunition box. Upon a hill outside La Ferti stands a grave with a profoundly touching epitaph written, in pencil. The comrades of the dead man have raised to his memory a rough cross made from an ammunition-box, with this inscription: “Here lies Private _ No. _, _ Highlanders. Killed in action. He was a good pal.” Their kind hearts also prompted them to bring a tribute of flowers, and the soldiers’ hands dropped the death-dealing rifles for the moment to be laden with blossoms, the tenderness of home-instincts not failing them even upon the field of battle. War has its redeeming humanities as well as its repulsive horrors.

With The Church of England supporting the war, it can be argued that in the eyes of God, this was a just war. For the vast majority of religious British troops fighting in Belgium and France, this is what they believed, and certainly a form of motivation for enlistment. The cross with the fallen soldier’s coat was important imagery for Christians. I suggest that it can be interpreted thus: if one was lost on the battlefield, they would be remembered by their military brothers but most importantly by God. To fight for king, is to fight for God, and if one feared the fighting and chose not to enlist because of it, then morality and religion would start to seep into the everyday thoughts. It was a sacrifice in God’s name and to some, this would have been the only redeeming option.

A small article in The Daily News highlights how religious figures tried to reach out to their followers through the media. With a population of roughly 250,000 to 300,000 Jewish residents in Britain in 1914, the largest Jewish communities could be found in London, particularly around Spitalfields and Whitechapel. Religion and the media come together more clearly here to try and inspire young Jewish men living in London to fight.

Similar to the Church of England’s influence on enlistment, the Chief Rabbi here is acting as the religious symbol for Jewish Londoners to go to battle as he has given them another reason as to why they would be fighting a just war. The article mentions how the ‘Jewish response to Lord Kitchener’s call for men has proved eminently satisfactory’, followed by the passage from the Rabbi. I argue that this can be summarised as to all who join you will be patriotic heroes. This was a tactic to apply pressure on those who had not given up their services to the British army yet, and it was going to be instrumental in making men question their decisions to fight.

When one sees men from the same religion, background and community sign up for the army, then one may automatically feel the urge to follow in their footsteps or feel a sense of guilt if stayed behind. The government, the newspapers and the societal values that implied it was a man’s duty to go to war, were all making the men of Britain ask themselves questions in regard to the morality behind enlistment.

No Escaping the War

After January 1916, conscription came into place. With that the British government had a hold of those who had rejected the pleas for enlistment. For those who believed they should be exempt from the war, they would plead their cases at tribunal hearings. The government however made it near impossible to attain exemption and when looking at the Guildhall tribunal minutes in the City of London, this became quite clear. Men, especially those who were working class, were faced with an insuperable problem. If they had domestic hardships like sickness and rent troubles and they were across the other side of the English Channel, then they were going to struggle to support their families.

I will use as an example the tribunal minutes from 14 March, 1916 (COL/SJ/05/006-013). On the first two days of the tribunal, 26 cases were put forward and altogether, 53 men were ordered to state their cases at Guildhall. Of these men, 10 were absent. It becomes clear that as the individual cases progressed, the amount of detail written next to each name gradually decreased, which could have been presumably because they were all coming to the same outcome: No body shall be exempt. The criteria for exemption from the British army was extremely strict. There seems to be a theme that defendants who have ‘domestic’ as their reason for exemption, were often denied. Let’s take for example S. Prechner, who had a domestic issue and was granted exemption. Written next to his case was ‘14-day extension final’. His case hanged on the payment of rent which his wife and two younger children would not have been able to afford if he left for the army. It then states that he has a 16 year old boy, and an 11 year old girl and how expensive it is to cover the individual cost of his floor rent and the cost of all the individual rooms within the house. Even this difficult situation only bought him two weeks to try find a solution.

Health issues seem to be one of few worthy excuses and even then, we rarely see a huge amount of time being awarded to these men. It varies from a couple of weeks extension to several months. This can be a clear indication on how harsh the tribunal committee was; unless one had a serious health issue that would prevent them from signing up in the army, then one was most likely going to have to obey the conscription mandate. We even then see men with health issues being ordered to go to war as the British army becomes more desperate. I argue that, through conscription and the harshness of tribunals, the British government were stripping away moral freedom from the citizens of London and Great Britain.

The First World War condemned a generation of men, and the city of London felt the full force of this. In this article I have argued that the British government manipulated traditional societal values of masculinity in their favour to produce a mass wave of propaganda that would aim to attack a man’s integrity. The fighting really began when each man first wrestled with the decision on whether to sign up for the army. To those men who fought, like the London Rifle Brigade photographed below, their heroism must be commemorated. Whether it was their decision, or they felt the insurmountable pressure, or even forced by conscription, honour is associated with them all in memory.

Bibliography

Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin 1914-1919, Volume 2: A Cultural History, ed. Winter Jay and Robert Jean-Louis (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Charman Isobel, The Great War: A Nation’s Story (Arrow, 2015)

Clark Christopher, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (New York: Harper, 2013)

Connelly Mark, The Great War, Memory and Ritual: Commemoration in the City and East London 1916-1939 (Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2002)

Cook Beverley, “Establishing a Jew East End in London, 1880-1914”, Museum of London, October 2023, https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/discover/establishing-jewish-east-end-london-1880-1914

Daily News (London),
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003212/19140911/111/0006

“Great Speeches of the War/Asquith”,
https://thelonsdalebattalion.co.uk/wiki/Great_Speeches_of_the_War/Asquith

“Great Speeches of the War/Law”,
https://thelonsdalebattalion.co.uk/wiki/Great_Speeches_of_the_War/Law

London Picture Archive (https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk)

• Miles & Kaye Collection MD0060363CL
• LCC Photograph Library SC_PHL_02_0952_79_5441A
• LCC Portraits SC_PT_02_K_47
• COL/RMD/CE/04/006/013
• SC/GL/PHO/A/281/008/INT/MOO4637CL
• P7505772

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White Jerry, Zeppelin Nights: London in the First World War (London: The Bodley Head, 2014)

Wynn Stephen, City of London in the Great War (Barnsley: PEN & SWORD MILITARY, 2016)