Overview

A Welsh County at War is not a military history of horror in the trenches, but a social and cultural history of life in one Welsh county during World War I. Through detailed historical research, Jenkins shows the impact of the Great War on the everyday lives, opinions and actions of people at home. -- Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru

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9781784619695

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Meticulously researched and written in an accessible style, this book will be read profitably by anyone interested in how world events can change the lives of ordinary people. PROF. PAUL O'LEARY, PROFESSOR OF WELSH HISTORY AT ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY A Welsh County at War offers an unusual view of the First World War. Rather than a military history of horror in the trenches, this is a social and cultural study of the impact of the Great War on the everyday lives, opinions and actions of those on the home front. The fruit of detailed historical research in primary and secondary sources, the book highlights changing attitudes to the military before the war, army recruitment methods, differing responses of religious leaders, treatment of Germans living in the county, feelings about 'unpatriotic' farmers, the workings of military appeal tribunals, family and school life, patriotism and pacifism, and how returning soldiers dealt with coming home. Although the detail relates to Ceredigion, its relevance is much wider. -- Publisher: Y Lolfa Gwyn Jenkins spent most of his career as an archivist at the National Library of Wales, where he served as Keeper of Manuscripts and Records, and as the first Director of Collections Services. A modern historian interested in the course of the Great War ever since childhood, he is the author of several important works, including a pioneering biography of the north Wales trades union leader Dr Huw T. Edwards (1892-1970), Prif Weinidog Answyddogol Cymru (Y Lolfa, 2007), and a comprehensive study Cymru'r Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf (Y Lolfa, 2014). In the present work the focus is on the author's home county of Cardiganshire or Ceredigion. For every chapter, the underlying research is admirably complete and based on painstaking archival research among the rich resources of the National Library of Wales and the Ceredigion Archives Service, as well as widespread secondary reading. All discoveries have been welded into a readable, compelling narrative. Throughout, the study comprises an avid perusal of social and communal rather than military, political and diplomatic history. A portrayal of Cardiganshire on the eve of the Great War in the opening chapter gives attention to the area's religious observances and deeply entrenched attitudes displayed to militarism and pacifism, still to some extent perpetuated by the memories of Henry Richard MP (1812-88), the Apostle of Peace whose statue adorns the square in Tregaron. These attitudes inevitably governed local reactions to the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 and responses to the recruitment drives which followed. By 1915 it was estimated that 85 of the students at the local university college had enlisted with one of the services, and Jenkins estimates here that a total of a little over 3000 Cardis were on active service by the spring of 1916 - most of these volunteers, together with a few already serving in the Regular Army. Predictably there was much greater reluctance in the rural areas. One of the county's foremost opponents of the war was the Rev. T. E. Nicholas, or 'Niclas y Glais', who held a pastorate at Llangybi. The varied methods of recruitment, some harsh, practised in the county are outlined here. Chapter 3 is devoted to an assessment of the cruel treatment meted out to the 70-year-old German-born Professor Hermann Ethe, a member of staff of the local university college ever since 1875, who was cruelly hounded out of Aberystwyth by an enraged mob on his return from the continent at the beginning of the war. Other Germans resident locally were pursued with gusto too, and the disparate motives of their assailants are examined in this chapter. And the unpleasant affair led to a long-term rift between the Aberystwyth town council and the university authorities. Attention is given to the contrasting attitudes to the war of two prominent local personages namely Rev R. J. Rees, minister of Tabernacl CM chapel, Aberystwyth, and Professor T. Gwynn Jones, a Welsh intellectual, academic and poet of national stature who proudly held heartfelt pacifist beliefs. The blatant clash between these two was never resolved. In chapter IX, two other local worthies come to prominence, namely the Rev. T. E. Nicholas, a local early Communist supporter, and Major John Fitzwilliams, a diehard Tory who became a lieutenant with the Royal Horse Artillery. He met his death in August 1918. Other themes pursued include the ambivalent attitudes of the local farming communities to the war effort. Some farmers were accused of profiteering as a result of escalating food prices and the passage of the Corn Production Act, 1917, by the coalition government. But Jenkins adds a timely corrective by underlining the difficulties and shortages also suffered by these rural folk. The disparate local reactions to the passage and implementation of the conscription legislation during 1916, and the setting up of the military service tribunals are examined in chapter VI. Two local men took their lives as a result of the personal anguish which overwhelmed their lives. Sympathetic attention is then given to the impact on many county families of the loss of their loved ones at the front. Timely consideration is also given to the far-reaching changes in the status of the county's women, many of whom served as nurses and in local shops for the first time. There was also a lasting effect on the county's schools on their teaching staffs and, above all, the children who could suffer disruption in their education as well as loss in their family lives. The last chapter examines local reactions to the signing of the Armistice and the return to their homes of the military personnel fortunate enough to have survived, some of these the prisoners of war who had endured enormous hardship. Insult was then added to injury by the spread of the Spanish Flu which claimed 50 million individuals across the globe. The post-war careers and deferred educational opportunities now available to the ex-servicemen are dissected here together with some account of the local memorials erected to commemorate the fallen and the memoirs penned by those who had returned. Appendices detail the numbers of recruits from Cardiganshire and the county's monthly casualty rates. We are also presented with a list of the membership of the local Military Tribunal which functioned during the second half of the hostilities. A helpful list of the main sources used in each chapter is appended. Finally, some truly evocative photographs are provided throughout the text. -- J. Graham Jones @ www.gwales.com

Meticulously researched and written in an accessible style, this book will be read profitably by anyone interested in how world events can change the lives of ordinary people. PROF. PAUL O’LEARY, PROFESSOR OF WELSH HISTORY AT ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY A Welsh County at War offers an unusual view of the First World War. Rather than a military history of horror in the trenches, this is a social and cultural study of the impact of the Great War on the everyday lives, opinions and actions of those on the home front. The fruit of detailed historical research in primary and secondary sources, the book highlights changing attitudes to the military before the war, army recruitment methods, differing responses of religious leaders, treatment of Germans living in the county, feelings about ‘unpatriotic’ farmers, the workings of military appeal tribunals, family and school life, patriotism and pacifism, and how returning soldiers dealt with coming home. Although the detail relates to Ceredigion, its relevance is much wider. -- Publisher: Y Lolfa Gwyn Jenkins spent most of his career as an archivist at the National Library of Wales, where he served as Keeper of Manuscripts and Records, and as the first Director of Collections Services. A modern historian interested in the course of the Great War ever since childhood, he is the author of several important works, including a pioneering biography of the north Wales trades union leader Dr Huw T. Edwards (1892-1970), Prif Weinidog Answyddogol Cymru (Y Lolfa, 2007), and a comprehensive study Cymru'r Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf (Y Lolfa, 2014). In the present work the focus is on the author's home county of Cardiganshire or Ceredigion. For every chapter, the underlying research is admirably complete and based on painstaking archival research among the rich resources of the National Library of Wales and the Ceredigion Archives Service, as well as widespread secondary reading. All discoveries have been welded into a readable, compelling narrative. Throughout, the study comprises an avid perusal of social and communal rather than military, political and diplomatic history. A portrayal of Cardiganshire on the eve of the Great War in the opening chapter gives attention to the area's religious observances and deeply entrenched attitudes displayed to militarism and pacifism, still to some extent perpetuated by the memories of Henry Richard MP (1812–88), the Apostle of Peace whose statue adorns the square in Tregaron. These attitudes inevitably governed local reactions to the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914 and responses to the recruitment drives which followed. By 1915 it was estimated that 85 of the students at the local university college had enlisted with one of the services, and Jenkins estimates here that a total of a little over 3000 Cardis were on active service by the spring of 1916 – most of these volunteers, together with a few already serving in the Regular Army. Predictably there was much greater reluctance in the rural areas. One of the county's foremost opponents of the war was the Rev. T. E. Nicholas, or 'Niclas y Glais', who held a pastorate at Llangybi. The varied methods of recruitment, some harsh, practised in the county are outlined here. Chapter 3 is devoted to an assessment of the cruel treatment meted out to the 70-year-old German-born Professor Hermann Ethé, a member of staff of the local university college ever since 1875, who was cruelly hounded out of Aberystwyth by an enraged mob on his return from the continent at the beginning of the war. Other Germans resident locally were pursued with gusto too, and the disparate motives of their assailants are examined in this chapter. And the unpleasant affair led to a long-term rift between the Aberystwyth town council and the university authorities. Attention is given to the contrasting attitudes to the war of two prominent local personages namely Rev R. J. Rees, minister of Tabernacl CM chapel, Aberystwyth, and Professor T. Gwynn Jones, a Welsh intellectual, academic and poet of national stature who proudly held heartfelt pacifist beliefs. The blatant clash between these two was never resolved. In chapter IX, two other local worthies come to prominence, namely the Rev. T. E. Nicholas, a local early Communist supporter, and Major John Fitzwilliams, a diehard Tory who became a lieutenant with the Royal Horse Artillery. He met his death in August 1918. Other themes pursued include the ambivalent attitudes of the local farming communities to the war effort. Some farmers were accused of profiteering as a result of escalating food prices and the passage of the Corn Production Act, 1917, by the coalition government. But Jenkins adds a timely corrective by underlining the difficulties and shortages also suffered by these rural folk. The disparate local reactions to the passage and implementation of the conscription legislation during 1916, and the setting up of the military service tribunals are examined in chapter VI. Two local men took their lives as a result of the personal anguish which overwhelmed their lives. Sympathetic attention is then given to the impact on many county families of the loss of their loved ones at the front. Timely consideration is also given to the far-reaching changes in the status of the county's women, many of whom served as nurses and in local shops for the first time. There was also a lasting effect on the county's schools on their teaching staffs and, above all, the children who could suffer disruption in their education as well as loss in their family lives. The last chapter examines local reactions to the signing of the Armistice and the return to their homes of the military personnel fortunate enough to have survived, some of these the prisoners of war who had endured enormous hardship. Insult was then added to injury by the spread of the Spanish Flu which claimed 50 million individuals across the globe. The post-war careers and deferred educational opportunities now available to the ex-servicemen are dissected here together with some account of the local memorials erected to commemorate the fallen and the memoirs penned by those who had returned. Appendices detail the numbers of recruits from Cardiganshire and the county's monthly casualty rates. We are also presented with a list of the membership of the local Military Tribunal which functioned during the second half of the hostilities. A helpful list of the main sources used in each chapter is appended. Finally, some truly evocative photographs are provided throughout the text. -- J. Graham Jones @ www.gwales.com

A Welsh County at War opens an unusual window on the First World War. This is not a military history of horror in the trenches, but a social and cultural history of life in one county in west Wales during this fraught period. Through detailed historical research in primary and secondary sources, Jenkins shows the impact of the Great War on people's everyday lives, opinions and actions, and although soldiers do of course feature in it, it is through the prism of their relationships with their loved ones back home that we see them. Subjects discussed include: changing attitudes to the military before the war, army recruitment, responses of religious leaders, treatment of Germans resident in the county, 'unpatriotic' farmers, attitudes in military appeal tribunals, family life, children and teachers in schools, patriotism and pacifism, and how returning soldiers responded to home life again. -- Publisher: Y Lolfa

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