University of London Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS)
Experiences of World War One: strangers, differences and locality
28 February 2014 at Senate House, University of London.
This is an introduction to researching war experience and its legacy: taking individual, family and community perspectives through the prism of the local, national and international. It will raise questions such as:
How did local communities interact with colonial and Dominion troops? in what ways did racial issues impact on local community relations during the war, and in its aftermath? what relationships evolved between communities, hospitals where colonial/Dominion troops were treated and individual soldiers? how might the war's legacy be informed by ethnic minority histories? during the war years, and after, how was the idea of Empire experienced, understood and imagined by people in British localities? to what extent did war change European colonial victors' views of their extended Empires?
Themes will be illustrated by reference to sources such as newspapers, local authority records, diaries, correspondence, Imperial War Museum archives, The National Archives and websites.
PROGRAMME
10.00 registration, and coffee/tea
10:30 welcome and introduction: Professor Philip Murphy, Director, Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICwS).
10:45 keynote: The relationship of locality to national and international events in the First World War. Dr Catriona Pennell (Exeter)
11:30 Local responses to 'the other': 1. Whose remembrance? a study of available research on communities in Britain, and the colonial experience of the First World War. Dr Suzanne Bardgett (Imperial War Museum) 2. Responses to Black and Indian soldiers in Britain. Dr Richard Smith (Goldsmiths, University of London)
13:00 lunch
14:00 Localities, nations and Empire: Britain and Ireland in times of crisis, 1912-1922.
Professor David Killingray (Goldsmiths, University of London; and ICwS)
15.00 Using The National Archives colonial records. Dr Mandy Banton (ICwS),
15.45 final discussion, and tea.
For flyer, further details and registration:
http://events.sas.ac.uk/icws/
FACT SHEET
Oatlands during World War One
It's easy to forget the impact that the first world war had on Oatlands but the events across the channel brought about changes that altered the way of life for every town and village in Britain - life would never be the same again.
There was the obvious loss of family members, and the war memorial at the junction of Vale Road and Oatlands Drive bears witness to that, but the changes went much deeper than that.
Try and imagine the effect on the small, close knit community when children and families were evacuated from London to escape the Zeppelin bombing raids, the sudden influx of wounded troops arriving at the hospitals that were established at the Oatlands Park Hotel and Barham Lodge and the dramatic increase in traffic along Oatlands Drive that the ambulances and other transport vehicles would have created.
Probably for the first time in their lives, the ordinary folk of Oatlands met and socialised with people from a 'foreign country' - the Oatlands Park Hotel was primarily for New Zealand troops, a secondary unit to Mount Felix at Walton. This is what led to the naming of New Zealand Avenue.
The children from London's East End were probably just as 'foreign' as they joined classes at the two schools in St Mary's Road - the girls and infants at what is now The Village Hall and the boys at the 'Old School' where Old School Mews is now situated.
Soldiers recovering from their injuries would have enjoyed a drink, a chat and a game of darts or 'shove hapenny' in the village pubs and would have bought postcards to send home from John North.
Our horizons were expanded amongst the loss and sadness.
The British Association for Local History are having a one-day workshop in February 2014 entitled "Strangers". Looking at the effects of the war on local comminities. It will be worth attending - read more here. (opens in new window)