Conscription

Conscription is where if you where between the ages 18-41 your name was put in a sort of raffle and random names where chosen.

If your name was picked you would receive a calling letter telling you that you have been chosen and that you have to go to your nearest recruitment point

        The role of Lord Kitchener

Kitchener was a British military leader, as he was secretary of state of war in the first years of World War One, he would organise armies, Kitchener was also responsible  for the  military strategies

He was also on the most famous British army recruitment poster ever produced.

            Munitions workers

Women started working in factories when men where away fighting .because their wasn’t enough men to work, women would make metal, aircraft wood work, bullet and shell making. The chemicals that the women where working with was very dangerous, in fact because of the sulphur in the gunpowder their skin would turn yellow giving them the name canaries

                           DORA

DORA means defence of the realm act

This is a law that the government presented in 1914, these where things that citizens where not aloud to do

For example

-No-one was aloud to ring church bells

-Beer was to be watered down

-The government could take over media

-The government could take over land

-No bonfires or fireworks

-No-one is aloud to buy binoculars

-No rumours about the war

-No-one was aloud to melt silver or gold

-customers in pubs where not aloud to buy a round of drinks

– opening hours in pubs where

White feather campaign.                       

The white feather campaign was introduced by Lord Kitchener (see page two) in 1914. This campaign was where women (of all ages) would patrol the streets/shopping centre humiliating men they thought should join the army. The women would hand out white feathers (a sign of cowardice) to men that were fit to join the army. For the men this would be very embarrassing so they would join up straight away. A few women would also hold up signs with writing on them.

Pals battalion.                                           

This was a method of increasing the amount of men joining up. Lord Kitchener introduced this method in 1914. Pals battalion was where a group of men e.g. football teams, cricket teams, choirs, etc would join the army/war as a group. The advantages of being part of pals battalion was that you were with people you knew/friends, the war was more enjoyable you would not need to make friends , the atmosphere would be a little more enjoyable. The disadvantages were… unfortunately if you were attacked you may see your friends die, get injured, get shell shocked, be in agony! Etc you may loose hope and there sprits would decrease rapidly, groups of people would die together , you may quarrel with a friend and not be able to sort things out…  Pals battalion was soon gone because less and less men were joining the army/war voluntarily this was because friends and relatives were seeing each other getting slaughtered.  (Lenham had quite a few pals battalions)

FOOTBALL TEAMS

The government encouraged women to take part in sports like football, so they would stay fit and healthy whilst at work. Football became the official sport of Munition Workers, nearly every factory across Britain had a women’s football team. Women played football to raise money for charities that help wounded soldiers. Women were encouraged to play football so that the country could act as if the war was not happening.

Women did not wear a football kit; many wore a loose fitting blouse and long shorts, as well as knee-high socks. Some teams that could not afford to buy long shorts or blouses, had to use what they had. Some wore knickers instead of shorts, which was frowned upon by the Football Association.

The Football Association tried to get rid of Women’s Football as they thought it would become more popular than men’s. However, when the war ended and the men returned, men’s football became popular again and women’s was overshadowed.

Dick Kerr factory in Preston was said to be the best football team in the country during the war. They played across the UK as well as going abroad to Holland and France. A more local team is Crabble Mill Dover, which was one of the best in Kent.

Competition during ww1

English club Harrogate town were due to play their first ever match on 5 September 1914, but the match was cancelled due to the outbreak of the war.

Between 1915 and 1919 pro football was called off in England. Many footballers signed up to fight in the war and as a result many teams were depleted, and played  guest players instead. Many teams joined the forces and made pals battalions there were a lot of sport team based battalions during  the war but these were split up after they stopped allowing pals battalions. The first of the footballers pals  battalions was formed  in Edinburgh in November 1914 by a man called Sir George McCrae. The 16th Royal Scots included players and supporters from Hearts, Hibernian, Falkirk and Raith Rovers, and recruitment of 1350 officers and men was completed in only six days.

Walter tull

Walter tull was an English professional footballer who played as an inside forward for Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town. He was the second person of mixed race to play in the top division of the Football League, the first mixed race outfield player in the top leauge of English football, and the first to be singed up as an infantry soldier in the British Army. His pro football career began after he was spotted whilst playing for his local club, Clapton FC. He started playing for Clapton in 1908 and within a few months he had won medals in the FA Amateur Cup,Walter Tull was brought up in an orphanage in

London, along with his brother, after the death of their parents. He joined Tottenham in 1909, and moved to Northampton Town in 1911, where he made 111 first-team appearances.

During the First World War walter  Tull served in both Footballers Battalions of the Middlesex Regiment, 17th and 23rd, and also in the 5th battalion, getting to the rank of sergeant and fighting in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. In may 1917 he became the first black combat officer in the British Army, despite his race and coulor.He was killed in action on 25 March during the Spring Offensive, near the village of Favreuil in the Pas-de-Calais.

Conscription

Conscription was introduced in 1916 due to the lack of men joining the front lin. The number of soldiers weren’t high enough, so the British government had to do something.

Conscription led to people becoming conscientious objectors (c.o’s or conshies). Some of these people would go to war as doctors or ambulance drivers, where as others completely refused to go any where near the war.

There was nearly 20,000 c.o’s in all, most had settled for non-fighting roles in the army but, about 1000 others refused to have anything to do with the war.

Conscription is a law which stated that any man aged between 18 and 41 could be forced to join the army if their name was randomly selected.

Before conscription was introduced the government used a national register of all men between the ages of 15-65 and the derby scheme, this was introduced to ask men to promise to sign when needed. This didn’t work because when the men where needed they just said that they’d changed their mind.

Christmas day truce The Christmas truce was an unofficial truce between the soldiers fighting on the front lines in the western front  during ww1 ,World War One had been on for several months but German and Allied soldiers got out of their trenches, and agreed a truce so the dead could be buried. The soldiers also used that truce to to eachther and it is believed even play a football match. Unofficial truces between opposing forces occurred at other times during World War One but never on the kind of levelof the first Christmas truce.