Maintaining Morale

The popular image of the First World War is of young men leaving the tedium of the factory or the mine to volunteer for service on the Western Front in one of Kitchener’s new armies. Less well known is the background effort that went into maintaining and strengthening morale as casualty lists lengthened, and news filtered back to Britain of the true horrors of the war on the ground. It did not work because eventually conscription had to be introduced. In this article John Beckett looks at some of the early efforts of private organisations, notably in this case the Central Committee for National Patriotic Organisations, which had the support of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith...