The First World War

[haroldeye]

The Kings soldiers at Culloden were mainly products of the Scottish education system.

[Ennath]

French casualties from August 14th through September 12, 1914 (the period of the Battles of the Frontiers and of the Marne) amounted to nearly 20 percent of their total losses for the entire First World War.

Although the British Army had been preparing for military operations alongside the French for many years, when the BEF went into action in France and Belgium in August of 1914, maps were in such short supply many officers had to rely on Michelin guides.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by rupertramjet

In regard to Mr Chips, one of the most touching versions of this I have seen was the Television version starring Martin Clunes, another under rated British Actor!

Goodbye Mister Chips is only a work of fiction, but it is a very useful document of Britain's social history between 1870, when Mr Chipping takes up his post as a junior Latin and History teacher, and 1933, when he dies peacefully in his sleep, consoled by 63 years of memories of which he has a good right to feel proud. He is a little symbol of Britain's best self; every country has a best self, partly a propaganda illusion but always partly true, or else it wouldn't work as a propaganda illusion.

The original novel (very short, a novella really) is well worth the read, in its own right and also as an introduction to traditional British culture; very conservative and riddled with snobbery and class prejudice, but also humane and with a strong sense of duty to others. In the book, Chipping's new wife, who dies tragically young giving birth to their first child, who also dies, has a fundamental impact on his character during their short and happy time together. Part of this is that she opens his eyes and he starts to notice all the servants and functionaries who he was raised to ignore and take for granted. He becomes a more humane and considerate man, partly because she makes him want to be a better man, so he can be worthy of her.

This is a small parable of how Britain very slowly became a more democratic place in spirit and culture. For example, during the 1926 General Strike, the kids patrol their local railway line to spot any attempts to sabotage it (Churchillian paranoia) and are startled to see their old former headmaster chatting amicably with the leader of the strike picket at the station, and a bit crestfallen when the strikepicket greets them amiably and their own sense of right conduct forces them to return the greeting courteously and without showing any ill will. Chipping, from a sense of mischief and because here is one more important lesson he can teach, even as a retired teacher, introduces them all by name to the shop steward and lightly points out that he is the station signalman, and that they have trusted him with their lives many times. If anyone wonders why Britain's 1926 general strike passed off with almost no violence, here is a clue as to why; the two divided parties were aware of a shared love of their nation which neither of them could betray by using violence.

In the same vein, Mrs Chipping persuades Chipping to persuade the headmaster to relent his initial refusal and allow her a "dangerous experiment", inviting a school in East London's tough docklands to send a football team to Brookfield and play against Chipping's house football team. They come, with a small retinue of teachers and relatives, they get beat, but put on a good performance and make a good game of it, and to their surprise, the people in Brookfield who were against the experiment thoroughly enjoy the visit and start to pretend it was their own idea and tell Chipping to organise a repeat visit next year; the match soon becomes a school tradition and little by little, the two schools become informally "twinned". In fact even a posh fee paying boys school finds there's something to be said for having local contacts in a tough old dive like Docklands.

An Army training camp is built quite close to the school and several times during the WW1 section, Mr Chipping receives social visits from privates and NCOs who remember how nice he was to them when they visited Brookfield as members of the other school team. One very poignantly finishs their delightful conversation over tea and scones, reliving those good days, with the haunting little comment:

I wish it was still then and not now, straight up I do. I'm back off to France tomorrow.

[Ennath]

Among the dignitaries invited to the German Army maneuvers of 1909 was Winston S. Churchill, who attended in his uniform as a major in the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars, a yeomanry regiment, and who was photographed shaking hands with Kaiser Wilhelm II.

During World War I, casualties among lieutenants who were commissioned from West Point averaged 195 per thousand men engaged, as against 30.3 for officers commissioned by other means.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by Ennath

...During World War I, casualties among lieutenants who were commissioned from West Point averaged 195 per thousand men engaged, as against 30.3 for officers commissioned by other means.

By what other means could they be commissioned - does anyone know?

[blueballsdc]

Originally Posted by palo5

By what other means could they be commissioned - does anyone know?

There are other military colleges in the US. VMI and the Citadel are two that come to mind

[richardoe]

They were also commissioned in the National Guard, Harry S Truman was a National Guard officer. After he left the Presidency his only income was his National Guard pension of $112 dollars a month.

[tygrkhat40]

Texas A&M also has a strong military presence. One could also rise through the ranks and go from an enlisted man to a non-com to becoming a commisioned officer.

[Ennath]

During World War I the people of Basutoland -- now Lesotho -- donated 24 aircraft to the fledgling RAF, which were presented to No. 72 Squadron, a feat the Basuto repeated in World War II, donating Spitfires for the same squadron, which still exists as a reserve component and bears the nickname “Basutoland”.

British nurse Flora Sandes (1876-1956) went to Serbia in 1914 with the Red Cross, but shortly afterwards enlisted in the Serb Army, served in combat, won the Karageorge Cross and was ultimately promoted to captain.

[rupertramjet]

Flora Sandes the only British woman to fight in the Great War.

Daughter to Reverend Samuel Dickson Sandes, Flora gave up her life in St Paul’s Road, Thornton Heath to join a nursing unit in 1914 traveling to Serbia where she became attached to a regiment and swapped medicine for the military.

Rising to the rank of sergeant major in the Serbian army, Flora was wounded badly in 1916 defending her position, an act of bravery for which she was awarded the Karageorge Star. Unable to continue fighting due to her injury, she spent the remainder of the war running a Hospital.

At the end of the war she was commissioned as an officer (the first woman to be commissioned), and was finally demobilized in October 1922.

Such was her dedication Flora, who settled in the then Kingdom of Yugoslavia with her Russian husband, even attempted to fight during World War Two, aged 65, but was captured by German forces.

Following the war she returned to Britain and died in 1956 in Suffolk, aged 80.

Ms Miller, whose book A Fine Brother: The Life of Captain Flora Sandes, was published last week, said: "The story is little known but really quite remarkable. Rejected from fighting by her own country she realised her dream in Serbia and as far as I am aware was the only British woman fighting on the frontline."

Her connection with Croydon is perhaps most obviously commemorated through the naming of the Weatherspoon pub on Brigstock Road, Thornton Heath. Ms Miller said: "She was a heavy drinker and smoker so I think she would have liked a pub being named after her."