Michael Goode - The Lengthening War

Praise for The Lengthening War

In the preface to the second volume of his World War Two diary, James Lees-Milne, arguably the greatest British diarist of his time, laid down the ground rules for diary-keeping. A diary, he wrote, is necessarily spasmodic and prosaic. But it must be spontaneous. It must not be doctored it will be full of inconsistencies and contradictions. It reflects the authors shifting moods, tastes, prejudices and even beliefs, too few of which he remains constant for long. The First World War diary of Mabel Goode meets all these criteria and more. It offers a superb contemporary portrait of a nation coming to terms with the demands of total war. To the historian it offers fresh evidence of how life was lived on the home front during the First World War, complete with the most extraordinary rumours and misplaced optimism. Thus on the 12th September 1914, we read that one really does not see how the War can go on much longer. The French say it will be over Christmas. It seems quite likely. The diary also offers readers not only the minutiae of Britain at war including the rise in food and fuel prices, but vivid accounts of the Zeppelin raids. Personally, one has only two regrets. The first, that the diary stops in December 1916, with news of the fall of Romania to the Central Powers and the accession of Lloyd George, (I dont trust LG but he has great energy & will probably get things done ), to the premiership. The second, that Mabels diary was not available to me when I was writing my history of the British home front, 19141918. Extracts from it would have undoubtedly enhanced my own account. But at least it is now available to the historian and to the general reader alike, both of whom will delight in it. And I have no doubt that it will have an honourable place on the history shelves alongside the diaries of Ethel Bilbrough and Georgina Lee and the works of Constance Peel and Caroline Playne in giving us such a splendidly readable picture of Britain at war a century ago.

Terry Charman, former Senior Historian at the Imperial War Museum and author of The First World War on the Home Front 191418

This book is dedicated to my Grandparents and my Mother who made me the man I am today.

The book also comes with special thanks to the following for their patience, insight and friendship:

James M. Wakeley who is the Sam to my Frodo, the Frodo to my Sam, and a profoundly good friend all round

Hetty Saunders whose wit and fortitude bring a beauty more powerful than any source of despair

Professor Andrew Blake who means more to me than he will ever know

Professor Menderes inar & Reyhan nal who are beginning to mean more to me than they will ever know

Dr Sian Pooley for her careful advice and endurance

Louise Jones who is the best lexical guinea pig a chap could ask for

Anni Ludhra whose eagle eye and positivity are to be treasured for the wonders they are

Jake Richards who is both one of the smartest and one of the most decent people I know

Jack Wiseman, Tara Smith, Jordan Sisson and Joey Chavoshi-Nasab for being with me in the library (along with Marc Hobbs and Ryan Baker for being there in spirit)

The author would also like to thank both Tony Allen & the Brighton and Hove Collection for their kind generosity in allowing the reproduction of their images

And finally, Id like to mention my sister Jasmine, who Im sure will grow up to be every bit as creative and talented as Mabel

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
Pen & Sword History
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Michael Goode 2016

ISBN: 978 1 47385 151 1
PDF ISBN: 978 1 47385 154 2
EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47385 152 8
PRC ISBN: 978 1 47385 153 5

The right of Michael Goode to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

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Contents

Figure 1: The first page of Mabels Great War Diary.

Figures 2 & 3: Family diagram showing the authors connection to the diarist and the family shield.

Zeus, whose will has marked for man
The sole way where wisdom lies;
Ordered one eternal plan:
Man must suffer to be wise.

Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 458 BC

The great battle has not yet begun, but all the news so far is good, Mabel Goode wrote in her diary on 17 August. The Germans & Austrians are being drawn back on all sides Mabel was impressed by the million bags of flour sent by the Canadians and the emergency hospitals springing up all over the country, but she couldnt help wondering whether all the fuss was really necessary: One wonders a little, will it really be all wanted? One week later, reports that the French and British had fallen back in Belgium dispelled her insouciance. The first important news is bad, she wrote. It is sad, as it will certainly prolong the war.

The war that raged without cease for the next four years was the primal catastrophe of the twentieth century. It destroyed four world empires, consumed the lives of at least ten million young men and wounded between fifteen and twenty-one million more. Without it, it is hard to imagine the ascent of Fascism to power in Italy, or the October Revolution in Russia and the subsequent establishment of a one-party Bolshevik state with no precedent in world history. Without the deep ruptures of war, defeat and revolution, German history would surely not have followed its catastrophic course into dictatorship, war and mass extermination.

The fascination of this diary lies in the fact that it enables us to trace the history of Britains home front through the eyes of a lucid contemporary. Mabel Goode was a middle-class woman living with her mother and her brother, Henry, who was a doctor in York. She was interested in the great events of her time: the sinking of the Lusitania, the defeat of Romania by the Germans, the war in Russia and the Balkans. Some of this was gleaned from the newspapers, but much of her news came from conversations with friends and acquaintances. She interweaves her thoughts on these great matters with poignant observations of life at home in wartime: the food shortages, the Zeppelin raids, the anxious pursuit of the latest news, not just of events, but of loved ones, friends and acquaintances fighting at the front. The war did not suspend ordinary life entirely, but it is astonishing to see how completely it dominated the awareness of contemporaries, squeezing out everything else. Sympathy with men at the front, fear for their welfare and joy in their victories, pity for those who had already lost loved ones, rage at the enemy, whose atrocities were the subject of detailed press reports, the pervasive fear of air attack and an oppressive sense of the fragility of life suffuse this chronicle, as we register the deepening weariness of a woman for whom war gradually becomes an all-embracing existential condition. In December 1914, a friend lent her the score of a waltz to play on the piano, but she had little confidence that the opportunity would arise to play it. People are not thinking of valses this winter & there will, I suppose, be very few balls.