Next Meeting: Friday 12 February
John Oakes: Kitchener's Lost Boys: From the Playing Fields to the Killing Fields.
Before conscription was introduced in 1916, the British raised and trained around 2.5 million volunteers for Kitchener's New Armies. This was unprecedented and went against prevailing military dictum. One of the unforeseen results was that thousands of children were permitted to volunteer and a great many fought in combat regiments.
John Oakes wrote about this in his book, Kitchener's Lost Boys. He asked himself why they volunteered, why they were allowed to volunteer, what happened to them when they did so, how they survived their return to civilian life, how the wounded and the shell shocked were treated and what legends grew up about them as the war slipped into history. He found that, in the first stages of WWI, a large number of those who volunteered for commissioned service went straight from their public schools into training with their regiments. He used his own service experience, and his eight years of commanding a Combined Cadet Force, to show how schools and the OTC prepared adolescents for war and the contribution the cadet movement as a whole made to the success of Kitchener's New Armies.
He is now working on a paper about why adolescents volunteer for armed conflict. He finds that there is a comparison between the motivations of child soldiers who volunteer to fight with Islamist and African war lords today and those of the boys who joined the British Army in the first months of WWI.
John Oakes was educated at Probus School in Cornwall and St. Luke's College, Exeter. He joined the Royal Air Force with a short service commission in 1955. After a tour of duty in the UK at the RAF Signallers' School, he spent eight years in Libya. Prior to Colonel Gadaffi's coup, he left Libya and worked for a trading company in Fiji and Papua New Guinea for two years. He was severely injured in an accident in Suva, Fiji, and then taught at Reading School for 26 years. During this time he was the Contingent Commander of the Combined Cadet Force for eight years and Housemaster of a boarders' house for ten years.
For some years John Oakes has worked with Dr. Martin Parsons, the Director of the Centre for Evacuee and War Child Studies at the University of Reading. Together they wrote Old School Ties - Educating for Empire and War and Men Such As These, both published by DSN, Peterborough. They are currently collaborating on a paper about the recruiting of child soldiers. John's latest book, Kitchener's Lost Boys - From the Playing Fields to the Killing Fields, was commissioned by The History Press and published in June 2009.
January Meeting
It was with great regret that we cancelled the meeting because of the road conditions in Harpenden (the school had been closed) and the poor forecast for the evening. Our speaker, Dr Richard Grayson, was still willing to come but we felt it would not be right to encourage anyone to come out in the anticipated poor conditions. Dr Grayson may well come to us next year, or possibly in September as an alternative to the Members Evening (for which it always proves difficult to get speakers from within the branch!)
Newsletter Quiz
The quiz has been held over and, as advised, Albert Jarman set quiz no 201: What name links Coronel, Chile (1914) with Montevideo, Uruguay (1939)?
Tony Fleetwood
For personal and health reasons, Tony has had to step down as branch chairman. He has for some time been concerned that he has not been able to carry out his duties as he would wish, although I have tried to reassure him on this point. It has been decided that I should, as deputy chairman, take over and I hope that we will be able to find a new chairman at the AGM in September.
On behalf of all members I would like to thank Tony for all that he has done for the branch. He took over at a time when I was becoming increasingly desperate about the branch's future, and steered it into better times. A year ago he oversaw the move to the new location, and initiated the discussions with St George's School that have led to our involvement with the Trench Diary project (see below). Tony must now take things rather easier, but we hope to see him at branch meetings.
Trench Diaries - St George's School
As announced in the December newsletter, we are presenting prizes for the project, and this will happen at the March meeting. Please note that this will start at 7.30pm (doors open 7.00pm) to accommodate the prize-giving, the main meeting starting as usual at 8pm.
St George's School WW1 Study Day
Tony Fleetwood and I were very pleased to be asked to attend the morning sessions on 14th Jan. The day started with an excellent talk by Andrew Spooner, given to about 90 of the year nine pupils (aged 13-14). This was on the life of the ordinary soldier in the war, very well backed up by an impressive range of "kit", from rifles and machine guns, though to periscopes, eating utensils, medical equipment, uniforms and much else. Andrew runs Skylark Battlefield Tours, and specialises is giving talks to schools about life in WW1. Through two sessions he held his young audience, and there was plenty of opportunity for them to handle the exhibits! Many aspects of trench life were explained. Military equipment explained included: Shrapnel shells, rifle and bayonet, barbed wire, the Vickers and Lewis guns, and grenades. The horrors of lice and rats were covered, and the danger of getting "trench foot". After this the pupils went to the computer room to test their new knowledge on-line with the Active History website's section on WW1. This certainly provided plenty of thought-provoking questions, and I am glad to say that "computer says" that I would have had an 80% chance of surviving service in the trenches! After lunch the pupils saw a re-make of the classic film "All Quiet On The Western Front".
I also had an opportunity to speak to the pupils about the trench diary project. It is certainly very encouraging to see a school taking such a keen interest in the subject and we look forward to further developments.
Save Hill 60!
No - nobody is going to remove one of the most famous of WW1 sites, but over the decades housing has gradually encircled this key observation point with its view of the "Ypres salient" area. Now there is a planning application for building which will virtually block off the view of the town from the hill, and some local people have set up a website to counter this. See www.savehill60.org for details. Unfortunately the petition closed late January, but there is much of interest on the website. Also note that there is a forthcoming film "Beneath Hill 60", about the work of the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company.
Branch Diary
19 March: Isaac Rosenberg: The Making of a Great War Poet - Dr Jean Moorcroft Wilson. [Note: 7.30pm start to accommodate prize-giving for St George's School trench diary project.]
23 April: The British Naval Staff in WW1: Just Cabbage Heads? - Dr Nicholas Black
4 June: English Rural Communities in WW1 - Prof. Keith Grieves
9 July: Muirhead Bone: Artist & Patron - Sylvester Bone
3 September: AGM & Members' Evening
8 October: Women in the War Zone: Hospital Service in WW1 - Anne Powell
12 November: St Eloi: Village of the Craters - Christopher John
10 December: The Austro-Hungarian Conflict in 1914 - Prof. Mark Cornwall
Venue: Room SP101, 1st Floor, Sports Hall, St George's School, Sun Lane, Harpenden, AL5 4EY. Doors open 7.30pm, 8.00pm start. Requested donation min. £3.00. Tea, coffee & biscuits at half time.
