Toby Thacker - British Culture and the First World War: Experience, Representation and Memory

British Culture and the First World War

Experience, Representation and Memory

TOBY THACKER

Bloomsbury Academic

An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

A number of people and institutions have helped in the writing of this book, which has been a long time in the making. Many of the ideas developed here have sprung from an undergraduate course on Britain and the First World War, which I taught first at Swansea University, and which has evolved further at Cardiff University. I must record my thanks to Noel Thompson, my then head of department at Swansea, who encouraged me to develop the idea of a course examining both the military history of the war and also its artistic representation, and to successive generations of students at both universities who have sharpened my understanding and spurred me to explore new aspects of the British experience of the war.

I am indebted to the staffs of all the libraries and archives in which I have worked for their great help in identifying and finding relevant source materials. Many have been generous with their time in discussing individual sources and in trying to locate the rights holders for particular papers. I wish to thank particularly Peter Keelan and Alison Harvey who have been so helpful in opening up the varied resources of the Special Collection at Cardiff University Library to me.

I am also grateful to the trustees of a number of literary estates who have generously allowed me to quote from previously unpublished private papers, and to libraries and museums which have allowed me to reproduce pictures. I wish to thank Professor Jon Stallworthy, trustee of the Rupert Brooke Estate, for permission to quote from the papers of Rupert Brooke at the Archive Centre, Kings College, Cambridge; the trustees of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust for permission to quote from the papers of T. E. Lawrence in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the Estate of Michael Ayrton for permission to quote from the journals of Henry Nevinson in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the authorities of Somerville College, University of Oxford, for permission to quote a poem from the Margaret Kennedy Collection and to reproduce a photograph of students and dons at the college in 1914; the executor of the Edward Thomas Estate for permission to quote from papers in the Edward Thomas Archive at Cardiff University; the Elgar Birthplace Museum for permission to quote from the papers of Edward and Alice Elgar held there; the trustees of the David Jones Estate for permission to quote from the papers of David Jones at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, and to reproduce a drawing now held at the Museum of the Royal Welch Fusiliers; Laura Ponsonby for permission to quote from the papers of Hubert Parry and to reproduce photographs held at Schulbrede Priory; the Wellcome Library, London, for permission to reproduce photographs; and the Glenside Hospital Museum, Bristol, for permission to reproduce photographs. Quotations from Vera Brittains Great War Diary, from her correspondence, and from her poems are included by permission of Mark Bostridge and Timothy Brittain-Catlin, literary executors for the Estate of Vera Brittain, 1970. Extracts from the unpublished letters of Paul Nash in the Tate Gallery Archive are Tate Trustees, and are reproduced here by permission of Tate Trustees. I am grateful to the trustees of the Spencer Estate for permission to reproduce previously unpublished quotations from the letters of Stanley Spencer at the Tate Gallery Archive, and to Faber & Faber for permission to reproduce quotations from Geoffrey Keynes (ed.), The Letters of Rupert Brooke (London: Faber & Faber, 1968). Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions there may be in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future editions of this book.

Many scholars and friends have helped to develop my ideas and understanding in conversation, by suggesting lines of enquiry, and by supplying me with books and articles. In no particular order, I would like particularly to thank Kevin Passmore, Tracey Loughran, Chris Williams, Karen Arrandale, Helen Ashton and Christopher Mitchell. I am grateful to Ian Dennis and Kirsty Harding for drawing the maps.

It would have been impossible for me to have explored in any depth the Welsh experience of the First World War without the active help of a number of Welsh-speaking colleagues and students. I wish to record my thanks to Eluned Lewis, Sioned Treharne and Siobhan McGurk, who helped with the difficult task of translating Welsh-language poems, and also to Martin Wright, Bill Jones and Gethin Matthews. Colin Hughes very kindly shared with me his unique knowledge of the Battle of Mametz Wood. Others have helped similarly with particular areas: Dr Claire Wilkinson of the Cheltenham Ladies College helped me with a number of Greek and Latin allusions, and I wish to acknowledge my larger debt to two great interpreters of Elgar, Stephen Jackson and Tim Morris, who have both helped me enormously in understanding him as a man and a composer. Laura Ponsonby and Kate Russell were generous not only in throwing open the private papers of Hubert Parry and his relatives to me at Schulbrede Priory, but also in providing hospitality there. Special thanks go to Susan who has put up with me through the whole period I have worked on this book, and accompanied me on many excursions to sites associated with it.

I am grateful finally to all at Bloomsbury who have helped in the preparation of this book, especially to the anonymous readers who made such positive and helpful suggestions for improvement to it. Any errors remaining are my own.

Toby Thacker, Gloucester, 2014