Next Meeting: Friday, 23 April 2010
The British Naval Staff in WW1: Just Cabbage Heads? - Dr Nicholas Black
This talk will examine the role of the Naval Staff of the Admiralty in the 1914-18 war, reassessing both the calibre of the Staff and its function and structure. Dr. Black challenges historians such as Arthur Marder and naval figures such as Captains Herbert Richmond and Kenneth Dewar who were influential in creating the largely bad press that the Staff has received subsequently, showing that their influence has, at times, been both unhealthy and misinformed. The way in which the Staff developed during the war from a small, overstretched and often manipulated body, to a much more highly specialised and successful one will be examined. The roles of key individuals such as Jellicoe and Geddes will be considered, and Dr. Black will suggest that the structure of the Staff has been misunderstood and that it was a rather more sophisticated body than historians have traditionally appreciated. He will look at how the Staff performed in various major naval issues of the war: the role of the Grand Fleet, the war against the U-boat, the Dardanelles Operation and the implementation of the economic blockade against Germany. Dr. Black's views both complement, and at times challenge, the operational histories of the war and the biographies of the leading individuals involved.
Nicholas Black teaches History at Dulwich College, where he is currently Head of the Middle School. He completed a PhD at UCL in 2005, and published 'The British Naval Staff in the First World War' with Boydell and Brewer in 2009.
March Meeting Report
This was rather a special occasion, as it started with the presentation of the prizes for the St George's School (year nine) Trench Diary project. Our speaker, Dr Jean Moorcroft Wilson, presented book tokens and framed certificates to the three prize-winners. Framed certificates were later awarded to the seven runners-up. Our thanks to David Waters of the school's history department for making this all possible, and we very much hope to develop our link with the school, and indeed widen our educational activities.
Dr Moorcroft Wilson's talk, Isaac Rosenberg - The Making of a Great War Poet, brought to us a remarkably talented man, who, but for his death on the Western Front, would surely have become one of this country's most significant figures in the worlds of art and literature. Yet it was not an auspicious start. Born in Bristol in 1890 to Lithuanian Jewish refugees, he spoke only Yiddish until the age of seven, and then moved to a poor district of London's east end. He left school at 14 to become an apprentice engraver, but was able to attend the Slade School of Art, where he developed as an artist, and started to write poetry. Ill-health led to his decision to emigrate to South Africa, where his sister lived. He was there when war broke out, which he opposed. It was only the need to support his mother in England that led to his return home and enlistment in the army. Rosenberg was not a natural for service life! Sickly, thin and just 5'2" in height, it was the creation of the "bantam" battalions that enabled him to join up, which he did in October 1915. He had hoped to go into the medical corps, but went into the 12th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, and in the spring of 1916 he was transferred to the 11th Battalion, the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. In June that year he was sent to France.
Throughout his twenty-one months in France he maintained a correspondence with Edward Marsh, Gordon Bottomley, and Laurence Binyon, all of whom took an interest in his poetry (little of which was published in his lifetime). His trench poems, written on whatever scraps of paper he could find, went through many drafts which he sent home to his sister Annie to be typed and then forwarded to his friends. Despite the difficult conditions under which he worked, he produced remarkable and powerful poems, although these were not published in a single volume until 1922.
Rosenberg (serving by then as a stretcher bearer) was killed early on the morning of 1st April 1918 during the German spring offensive. His body was not immediately found, but in 1926 the remains of eleven soldiers of his regiment were discovered and buried together in Northumberland Cemetery, Fampoux. His body could not be individually identified, but he was known to be among them. Later his remains were reinterred at Bailleul Road East Cemetery, St. Laurent-Blangy, near Arras where his headstone reads ‘Buried near this spot'. Beneath his name, dates and regiment, are engraved the Star of David and the words ‘Artist and Poet'.
Rosenberg provides a contrast with the more famous poets of the war, such as Graves, Owen and Sassoon. He was the only fully Jewish war poet (Sassoon was only Jewish on his father's side, and raised as an Anglican) and his experience of war as a private soldier was very different from theirs. It was entirely fitting that in 1985, Rosenberg was among 16 poets of the war commemorated on a slate stone in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.
An excellent talk and the first we think delivered to our branch by somebody wearing a hat! Also present was Bernard Wynick, a nephew of Rosenberg, and Jean's husband, Cecil Woolf, a nephew of Leonard and Virginia Woolf.
Newsletter Quiz
Answer to quiz 202: Maurice Dease (23/8/14) and Brett Cloutman (6/11/18). Congrats to Simon Goodwin who sets quiz no. 203: Whose peace proposals of August 1917 came to nothing?
"Great War" Videos
A set of videos of the 1964 BBC-TV series is available at no cost (except perhaps carriage) from Joanne Holmes. Ring 01582 821350 or e: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Researcher Wanted
I have been contacted by WFA member Alan Gregson who lives in Cheshire. He is seeking information on 271609 Private Frederick Charles Groom, 1st Battalion Hertfordshire Regiment, attached to 234th Field Company Royal Engineers, who died of wounds on 26 July 1917. He came from Leighton Buzzard. Alan's great great uncle was attached to this field company and was killed in action on the same day. He asks if there is any information about Pte. Groom in the Leighton Buzzard library (possibly in the newspaper archives) or elsewhere in our area. If you can help, please contact Alan: 07971 511319, or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Branch Diary
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.
Next Issue
Copy by 24 May to Andrew Gould.
