Untold lives blog

The contribution of women during the First World War, whether as munitions workers, members of the Women’s Land Army, determined knitters or sustaining correspondents, is commemorated in our current exhibition Enduring war: grief, grit and humour. One of the individual women featured is Albinia Wherry (1857-1929) whose collection of posters and postcards, donated to the Library, includes material relating to the Women’s Emergency Canteen in Paris which you can see in the exhibition.  (Now extended until 26 October!)

During the First World War she worked at the Women’s Emergency Canteen beneath the Gare du Nord in Paris. Opened in April 1915, initially as an initiative of the Women’s Emergency Corps (a suffrage organisation), with a staff of mostly British women, it was also known as the Cantine Anglaise.

These women are doing their bit: learn to make munitions. Poster [London, 1916]  

Over the course of the war, it provided meals, drinks, cigarettes, magazines, washing facilities and sleeping accommodation for Allied troops. An illustrated account of the canteens in France compiled by Josephine Davies (Work of the Women’s Emergency Canteens in France) gives a flavour of what life was like and the hectic nature of the work especially in the period when the ambulance trains were routed through the Gare du Nord. The chapter on the Paris canteen includes a description of the wonderment of a soldier when he descends the gloomy stairs to find a huge hall, hung with flags and bunting, the inviting smell of sausages and a ready welcome. This sense of the warmth of the welcome is also reflected in the comments quoted by Davies from the Visitors’ Book which include the following accolade: “the most homely place I’ve been in since leaving my home in 1914”.

Albinia Wherry worked at the Paris Canteen from 1915 to 1918 and is recorded in Davies as one of the Paris workers who had been awarded a badge for her service there. Postcards from her collection relating to that period feature both in Enduring war and in the related display Postcards, stamps and covers from the First World War (in the Philatelic Exhibition space on the Upper Ground Floor) and colleagues have posted in our European Studies blog about some of the French posters and Russian postcards from her collection.

Albinia was the daughter of Robert Needham Cust the orientalist (whose diaries are held by the Library: Add MS 45390-45406) and Maria Adelaide Hobart. In 1881, she married George Edward Wherry, a surgeon at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge and a member of the Alpine Club. Her own wide range of interests is reflected in her pre-war publications, including several about art which were aimed squarely at both school children and the lifelong learner. Some biographical material, including a photograph and a family tree, can be found in The Albinia book (about women named Albinia descended from Albinia Cecil), a work she compiled with her cousin Albinia Stewart but which was published posthumously, with the assistance of her brother Robert Henry Hobart Cust, following her death in a car accident in 1929.

See our blog about Sophia Duleep Singh to learn about another remarkable woman who worked for the welfare of soldiers during the First World War.

Alison Bailey
Co-Curator, Enduring war    

Further reading:

The Albinia book…Compiled by Albinia Lucy Cust (Mrs. Wherry). Illustrations and genealogies collected by Albinia Frances Stewart. London: Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, 1929. British Library shelfmark: 10824.b.7.

The Work of the Women’s Emergency Canteens in France 1915-1919. Compiled by Josephine Davies. [London]: [Women's Printing Society], [1919] B.L. shelfmark: YA.1989.a.3456.

Explore over 500 historical sources from across Europe, together with new insights by World War One experts in our World War I online resource

Finding information in the India Office Records about the native soldiers serving in the Indian Army is very difficult. With a growing interest in genealogy in India and Pakistan and the Asian community here in Britain, we receive more and more enquiries relating to Asians. In most cases we are unable to help as the biographical records relating to native Indians were not generally sent to London, but there are exceptions.

At a time when many people are looking for their ancestors fighting during the First World War, the Casualty Appendices to the War Diaries are a great source of information for Indian soldiers who were killed or injured.

There are dozens of volumes covering various fronts:  France, East Africa, Egypt, Aden and Persia. Strangely there are not any casualty appendices for the Force D station in Mesopotamia. The War Diaries exist for the force, but it is quite difficult to extract the names of the killed and wounded. The volumes are not indexed, so it might take days to find a soldier.  The fact that some deaths are reported much later adds yet one more obstacle.

 
 IOR/L/MIL/17/5/4194 

 The entries are brief, but give the most important details: name, rank, regiment, whether killed or wounded, cause of death and the date. All ranks are included: the death of Sepoy Bharat Singh of the 16th Rajputs was recorded on 12 September 1917. Even followers are listed, for example Naik Moonsamy of the 23rd Field Veterinary Section, who died of acute lobar pneumonia at Ronen on 3 July 1916.

There are weekly summaries of casualties and losses from particular actions,such as Nanyati on 5 August 1917.

There are reports of deaths that occurred years earlier.  In telegram No. 244-A, which was sent on 7 October 1917, Subadar Ramji Savant witnessed that Private Ismail Khan died at Karagoro in January 1915 and Private Suleman Khan died in November 1915 at Tabora. They were prisoners of war in German East Africa.

There are also accounts of casualties by regiments:

Not all news was bad news. For example Sepoys Firoz Khan of the 51st Sikhs and Indar Khan of the 53rd Sikhs were removed from the dangerously ill list on 25 August 1915 and Havildar Mohammed Ali of the 17th Infantry was invalided to India in August 1917 because of  problems with his ankle.

Dorota Walker
Reference Specialist, Asian and African Studies

Further reading:

Volumes used in the article: IOR/L/MIL/17/5/3134, 3135, 3212, 3258, 3938 and 4010.

Casualty Appendix to War Diary:

Indian Expeditionary Force ‘A’ France 1914-1919 IOR/L/MIL/17/5/3112-3149

Indian Expeditionary Force ‘B’ East Africa 1914-1919 IOR/L/MIL/17/5/3182-3218

Indian Expeditionary Force ‘E’ Egypt 1918-1919 IOR/L/MIL/17/5/3938-3949

Aden Force 1915-1919 IOR/L/MIL/17/5/4009-4055

Persia 1916-1919 IOR/L/MIL/17/5/4182-4216

Amid the more famous items in Enduring war such as Rupert Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’ and Siegfried Sassoon’s Statement nestles a letter from Mabel Dearmer dated March 1915 (Society of Authors Collection, Add MS 56690, f.151) which refers to the fact that both she and her husband were imminently going to Serbia to work for the field hospitals there. How did this children’s writer and artist come to serve as a linen orderly in Serbia for a unit of women doctors and nurses led by another Mabel - Mrs Stobart? 

   From: Round-about Rhymes. Written and pictured by Mrs. Percy Dearmer. London: Blackie & Son, [1898]. (B.L. shelfmark: 12809.u.27.). Dedicated to Geoffrey and Christopher. 

Mabel Dearmer, born in 1872, was primarily known as a dramatist, writer and artist. She was opposed to the war on the basis of her Christian faith but threw herself into work with the Women’s Emergency Corps, as Chairman of the Publicity Department, and into fundraising for Belgian refugees. Her younger son Christopher enlisted soon after the outbreak of war followed by his elder brother Geoffrey (subsequently renowned for his war poetry). In March 1915, busy organising the production of one of her own plays, she attended a farewell service for the Third Serbian Relief Unit to support a friend. There she heard her husband, Percy, then vicar of St. Mary’s Primrose Hill, announce that he had just been appointed Chaplain to the British units in Serbia and would soon be departing there. 

Mabel made the sudden and dramatic decision to volunteer to join the Third Serbian Relief Unit and approached Mrs Stobart at the end of the service. Although Mabel’s own account, quoted in Letters from a field hospital and Mrs Stobart’s in The Flaming sword in Serbia differ in a few details, both agree that Mrs Stobart was not gripped with instant enthusiasm for the idea and made a few brisk observations about Mabel’s suitability. However, she agreed to take her as a hospital orderly.

Mabel left for Serbia in early April, appointed orderly in charge of linen. She proved an efficient and effective member of Mrs Stobart’s team in Serbia and describes her happiness there (slightly guiltily) in a letter of 16 May. However, by June 1915 she had fallen ill with enteric fever (typhoid). Although she subsequently appeared to rally, another letter in the Society of Authors Collection, dated 23 July, tells of the sad conclusion to this story, namely that Mabel died in Serbia on 11 July 1915 (Add MS 56690, f.153). Poignantly her son Christopher died at Suvla Bay (Gallipoli) only a few months later in October 1915.

Alison Bailey
Co-Curator, Enduring war

Further reading:
Mabel Dearmer, Letters from a field hospital. With a memoir of the author by Stephen Gwynn. London: Macmillan and Co., 1915. British Library shelfmark: 9082.gg.34.
Mabel Annie Saint Clair Stobart, The Flaming Sword in Serbia and elsewhere. London; New York: Hodder and Stoughton, 1916. B.L. shelfmark: 09082.cc.12.

Enduring war: Grief, grit and humour until 12 October 2014
The Folio Society Gallery - admission free

Tonight BBC2 broadcasts the first episode of a new series presented by David Olusoga, 'The World’s War', which explores the contribution of the millions of Indian, African and Asian troops who fought during the First World War.

The Indian contribution to the First World War is documented in the India Office Records, the vast archive of the British administration of India, which is kept at the British Library in London.

Tonight’s programme features an exceptional collection of reports of the Censor of Indian Mails in France held at the Library, filled with extracts from letters of Indian soldiers writing home to their families during the War.  The chief purpose of the Censor’s Office was not to suppress letters, but to gather information about the morale of the soldiers. The British Government feared that uncensored letters detailing Indian soldiers suffering in France could distress their families at home, and so lead to political instability in India, and also might provide military information to the enemy.

You can see a sneak preview of Santanu Das examining the letters in the British Library in the first episode of 'The World’s War', which airs tonight:

The hundreds of letters testify movingly to the trauma the soldiers experienced fighting in France.

One soldier named Bachetar Singh, recovering from an injury to his foot in the Indian Hospital in Brighton in March 1915, wrote to a friend in India: “How can I describe this war?  It is like a furnace in which everything becomes ashes on both sides. When will Ishwar (God) have mercy so that this furnace will be stopped?”.  Murli Dhat Chandola wrote in April 1915: “I have simply come here to die because of my sins, but this is now the last time that I am writing you”.

In the same month, Giyan Singh, stationed at the Indian Artillery Depot in England, described the terrifying weaponry which the Indian soldiers faced on the battlefields of France: “The German is very strong. His ships sail the clouds and drop shells from the sky; his mines dig up the earth, and his hidden craft strike below the sea. Bombs and blinding acid are thrown from his trenches which are only 100 or 50 yards from ours. He has countless machine guns which kill the whole firing line when in attack. When he attacks we kill his men. The dead lie in heaps”.

The Indian soldiers also wrote about the many strange sights they saw. Zabu Shah, a Lance Daffadar with the 6th Cavalry, wrote excitedly in June 1917 to tell his mother about having been in an aeroplane: “I have been up in an aeroplane and was above the clouds for a long time. I am the first native of India to go up in an aeroplane in France but after me I think two or three more have gone up. It is a first class way of travelling particularly in hot weather. Very soon there will be so many aeroplanes that in India people will travel by them instead of by train”.

IOR/L/MIL/5/827/3, f.416 

'The World’s War' starts tonight on BBC2 at 9.00pm. See more details here.

The entire collection of the Censored Indian Mails is digitised and available to view for free online.

John O’Brien
India Office Records 

Read the letter of an Indian Muslim soldier writing from Marseilles

As the formal centenary of the start of the First World War grows nearer, a casual dip into the voluminous files of the India Office’s Political & Secret Department reveals details of a small, sad episode which took place in the autumn of 1915 in exotic Zanzibar.

 
From Les Lacs de l'Afrique Équatoriale. Voyage d'exploration exécuté de 1883 à 1885 (1890)

British Library flickr photostream 

This island off the east coast of Africa had become a British Protectorate in the late 19th century, opposite the mainland colony of German East Africa. When the two countries went to war this meant that an essentially European conflict came to be fought on African soil as well.

The British authorities in Zanzibar gradually came to suspect that Jaffer Thavur, an Ismaili normally resident in Bagamoya in the nearby German territory, was involved in spying for the enemy. He had come to Zanzibar in July 1914 to see his spiritual leader the Aga Khan who was then visiting the island, and on the outbreak of hostilities in the following month he had found himself unable to return home. A thorough search of his lodgings brought to light three concealed unsigned documents written in Swahili (the local lingua franca) and Arabic, both languages which he could not understand. He was put on trial on 23 September 1915 before a military tribunal, found guilty, and sentenced to death. His public execution was set for the morning of 4 October.

On the evening of 3 October, hours before the sentence was due to be carried out, his defence lawyer Mr. Boyce  – the only individual to emerge with much credit from the whole sorry tale – sent a number of communications to the India Office, the Colonial Office, the War Office and to the Aga Khan himself (c/o the Ritz Hotel in Paris) about his client’s case. The file contains a letter to the War Office  which states

   " … the Aga Khan occupies a very important position among Indian Muhammadans [sic] & has done valuable service since the outbreak of war with Turkey in bringing influence to bear on his     co-religionists to remain loyal to the British Govt".

Major General Tighe, the British military governor of Zanzibar, made his feelings plain on 5 October:

     "… I very strongly desire to represent that the interference of civil authorities in proceedings under martial law creates a most undesirable precedent, especially in view of  the doubtful attitude of a certain section of the native population … "

The impasse was broken when the news came back that Jaffer Thavur was a follower of whom the Aga Khan had no personal knowledge, and this was enough for the authorities to abandon any lingering qualms and to proceed with the carrying out of the capital sentence. He was accordingly shot by firing squad at 08.00 in public on 20 October. 

Imaginary drawing of the execution of Edith Louisa Cavell (1865 -1915) on 12 October 1915. Inset, Edith Cavell at home with her dogs Images Online © UIG/The British Library Board 

A factor which may have tipped the balance against him – albeit nowhere mentioned explicitly in the file – was the execution in faraway Brussels on 12 October of the British nurse Edith Cavell, condemned for her role in assisting the escape of Allied soldiers from occupied Belgium. It is at least possible that this shocking and widely-reported case had repercussions very soon afterwards in east Africa.

Hedley Sutton
Asian & African Studies Reference Team Leader

Further reading:  IOR/L/PS/11/98, file P 4718

This year we are commemorating the heroes of World War One – millions from across the globe fallen and wounded . Thinking of the conflict, we have a vision of trenches, gas poisoning, and air strikes. But documents in the India Office Records show how officers and NCOs of the Indian Army met their fate in many different ways.

Most were killed in action. The actual resting place is often unrecorded: against many names there is simply Belgium, France, or East Africa. A total of 1,214 British officers serving in the Indian Army died between 1914 and 1921. Of these, 631 were killed in action and 163 died of wounds before the Armistice.  A further 84 died between November 1918 and September 1921. 

Photo 24/(162) 1/1st Ghurkhas charging and consolidating a trench in France 1915  

Major Gerald Alister Jamieson of the 9th Bhopal Infantry made it back to India after the campaign in Mesopotamia, but succumbed to his wounds a few months later in February 1916.  His fellow officers fighting in the Middle East faced heat stroke (Sub Conductor Reginald F. Goodhand), explosions (Lieutenant Arthur R. Waddams), and burns (Warrant Officer Alfred G. Hawken).  Nearly 80 officers went missing, mostly at sea. One major incident for the Indian Army was the sinking of the S. S. Persia.

Before the peace was signed, 111 officers died of natural causes, with 43 more in the next three years.  Pneumonia and enteric fever were the most common with 21 and 17 casualties respectively.

Captain Patrick Hunter Begg was murdered by his bearer and Major Andrew G. Cowan and 2nd Lieutenant Thomas N. L. Turner died at the hands of sepoys.  Captain Perceval Boyce, Lieutenant Harold S. Elliott, Major Cecil Jarvis and 2nd Lieutenant William R.M. Johnstone died during mutinies and riots.

During the four years of the conflict, 32 died as a result of accidents.  Lieutenants John W. A. Merk, Arthur N. Peckham and Frederick R. Wilkinson fell from horses.  Major General Sir Henry Macandrew died as a result of accidental burns. Lieutenant Frank H. Robertson died in a plane and eight others were accidently shot. Captain Louis P. Gagliardi, Major John O’Leary, Lieutenant Reginald F. D. Plunkett all drowned. Lieutenant Brunton of the Sappers and Miners died in a motorbike accident.

A total of 20 deaths were the result of suicide, alcohol, or poisoning.  All four suicides after the Armistice were committed in Egypt.  Captain Wilfred C. R. Savage died of melancholia in London and Major Arthur S. Noake was lost overboard because of 'delusional insanity'. Captain Eric Cummings and 2nd Lieutenant Edward J. Brown were poisoned. Captain Arthur H. M. Wilson was killed when he fell through a weak roof.

The first officer of the Indian Army who lost his life on the Western Front was Lieutenant Thomas de Burgh, who fell on or about 17 September 1914. The last was 2nd Lieutenant Thomas J. Mander, who killed himself just two days before the Armistice. The youngest casualty was just 18 and there were 12 officers who died under the age of 20. The oldest to die was 60 year old Colonel Gervase F. N. Tinley, the Base Commandant of Marseilles.

Dorota Walker
Reference Specialist, Asian and African Studies 

Further reading:

IOR/L/MIL/14/142 Alphabetical lists of casualties by death among British officers of the Indian Services in the Great War, giving rank, age, unit, date, place, and cause, 1914-1921.

On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie Duchess of Hohenberg were assassinated in Sarajevo.  King George V commanded that the British court should wear mourning for a week.  Many members of the court would have been particularly shocked by the news as the dead couple had visited England in November 1913.

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Cover illustration from La Domenica del Corriere 5 July 1914. Illustrator Achille Beltrame. ©De Agostini/The British Library Board. Images Online

Franz Ferdinand had visited Britain before but this was the first time he had been accompanied by his wife. To judge from the reports in the British press, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie spent their time in England shooting, shopping, and meeting dignitaries such as Prime Minster Herbert Asquith. A royal shooting party was organised at Windsor Park led by the King and the Prince of Wales. It is not clear if the Duchess took part, but she was said to be a splendid shot and a regular participant in hunts in Austria.  The weather was varied – ‘delightful’ on 19 November, raining all day on 21 November.

On 22 November the Archduke and Duchess left King’s Cross by special train to pay a visit to the Duke and Duchess of Portland at Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire.  On arrival at Worksop, the platform  was covered with crimson carpet and the station decorated with shrubs and flowering plants. Crowds had gathered to greet the royal couple. 

The Duke organised another shoot for his guests.When they left for London on 28 November, they were driven in an open carriage drawn by four horses with postilions.  As they passed through Worksop, they were cheered along streets decorated with flags. 

Franz Ferdinand and his wife indulged in a little retail therapy in London’s West End.  The Archduke visited one shop just as it was closing and ‘not knowing who he was the assistant showed the usual unceremonious activity that is displayed when they wish to get rid of a customer who has come in at an awkward time’.  However the Archduke was not going to be bustled and took his time over his purchases.  When the assistants began sweeping the floors, raising clouds of dust, and banging chairs about, Franz Ferdinand told his aide that it was time to go ‘before they do worse things to us’  (Yorkshire Evening Post 2 December 1913).

On 29 November Franz Ferdinand and Sophie visited the theatre in London. The next day they attended Mass at the Jesuit Church in Farm Street and then took a train to Dover en route to Calais and Vienna.

Many Austrian honours were conferred in connection with the visit, for example the Duke of Portland was awarded the Grand Cross of the Stephan Order, and John Fortescue the librarian at  Windsor Castle was made Knight Commander of the Order of Franz Joseph. Gifts were sent to the King and Queen – mounted hunting trophies, and Tuscan lace and embroidery. The staff at the Ritz had fond memories of the visit, holding the Archduke in high esteem because of his generosity when tipping.

Margaret Makepeace
India Office Records 

Further reading:
British Newspaper Archive

In our exhibition Enduring war: grief, grit and humour which opens in the Folio Society Gallery at the British Library in London today, we consider how people coped during the First World War both at home and at the Front.  Looking at themes such as family, friends, faith and humour we commemorate the contribution so many made to the war effort and the ways they were subsequently honoured,  giving a voice to some of the men, women and children who lived through the war.

 
"Fall in” answer now in your country’s hour of need. London: Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, 1914. (Poster no. 12.).  Tab.17748.a.(156). Images Online 

The exhibition brings together material that has come to have national significance, such as the manuscripts of now famous war poets, with more ephemeral items, like Christmas cards and knitting patterns, that you might not expect to find in the Library’s collection. We’re displaying posters, trench journals, letters from Indian soldiers at the Western Front and a schoolboy’s essay about a Zeppelin raid over London together with manuscripts of works by Wilfred Owen, Vaughan Williams and Laurence Binyon. To give you a flavour - if you’re interested in Rupert Brooke, we have both a manuscript of his poem ‘The Soldier’ and a card sent to him about socks.

Enduring war is part of the Library’s wider involvement in the First World War Centenary. The Library has been leading the UK’s contribution to Europeana1914-1918.eu, a major, online digitised resource, and the exhibition includes a specially-commissioned and deeply- moving audio-visual installation and soundscape, which focuses on postcards sent home from soldiers drawn from the extensive collections contributed by members of the public to Europeana 1914-1918.

As you can see, the exhibition is a mix of the public and the personal – and one of the most poignant items is a letter dated 20 July 1916 from Roland Gerard Garvin, known as Ged, writing to his family, expressing his love and bidding farewell, knowing that his letter would only be sent if he did not return from battle.  He was killed on the Somme a few days later aged only 20. There is more about him in our World War One website which includes over 500 items from across Europe selected from Europeana1914-1918 as well as articles by leading experts and teachers’ notes. His is just one of the individual and shared stories you can find in Enduring war which has been curated by Alison Bailey and Matthew Shaw, project coordinator for Europeana 1914-1918. 

Alison Bailey
Curator Printed Historical Sources 1914- 

Read more about Enduring war: grief, grit and humour

See what our colleagues in Collection Care have to say about some of the items they worked on for the exhibition.