BBC History Magazine 2014-08

WHAT KILLED TUTANKHAMUN?

MAGAZINE historyextra.com August 2014

BRITAIN’S BESTSELLING HISTORY MAGAZINE

The big

CENTENARY ISSUE

The First World 100 War

YEARS ON

FROM PEACE When TO WAR Britain stumbled towards catastrophe Life on the

front line

questions

of the

war such as…

Was this the

worst war to

fight? Were

machine guns the biggest killer? Was German defeat

inevitable? by Dan Snow, Max Hastings, David Reynolds and more

WORLD THE BEST FIRST WORLD WAR REMEMBERS THE WAR TODAY

HOW THE

PLUS

BOOKS

n a le c g in p e e k o t e The Tugduttoerrs, pgigsuanid lizabethan age E e th in ts o p er b am ch d Dealing with

Two wars Honoured and remembered The Folio Society has selected the most poignant and insightful works about the First and Second World Wars and, through expert craftsmanship and a meticulous eye for detail, has turned them into collectible editions to be cherished for generations.

your firs t Folio p urcha QUOTE:

se

E20AS

Whether you’re looking for the perfect gift or starting a Folio Society collection of your own there’s £20 off your first purchase, with many of our books starting from just £24.95.

Discover beautiful books at foliosociety.com New customers only. ‘£20 off’ code cannot be used on limited editions, with any other discount offer or against delivery charges. Offer ends 31 July 2014.

AUGUST 2014

WELCOME A hundred years ago this month Britain declared war on Germany. Five frantic weeks of posturing, manoeuvring and diplomacy after the killing of Franz Ferdinand were over. The Great War had begun. As foreign secretary Edward Grey famously said: “The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” To mark the centenary, we have made this issue a First World War special. On page 24 Nigel Jones charts the final few days of peace, conveying the atmosphere in Britain as all attempts to avert war failed. Then on page 30 we’ve gathered a roster of historians including Max Hastings, Dan Snow and David Reynolds to pick apart some of the great misconceptions of the conflict. We’ve also been taking an international approach to the war, asking experts around the world what the conflict means to their countries today (page 41). It’s not all about the First World War this month though. To coincide with a major new exhibition on Tutankhamun in Oxford, we’ve asked Egyptologist Chris Naunton to compare the different theories about the teenage pharaoh’s death. His analysis appears on page 46. On a lighter (albeit smellier) note, Pamela Hartshorne has been digging into the archives of Tudor York to discover how our 16th-century ancestors met the challenges of waste disposal. You’ll find that on page 61, if you have the stomach for it. Rob Attar Editor

ON THE COVER: POPPY: ALAMY, TUTANKHAMUN: ALAMY, RAT: BECCA THORNE. THIS PAGE: OLIVER EDWARDS, JENI NOTT, JAMES CLARKE

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

MAGAZINE historyextra The website of BBC History Magazine historyextra.com

Weekly podcast Download episodes of our awardwinning podcast for free from our website, or subscribe via iTunes and other providers historyextra.com/ podcasts

Our digital editions BBC History Magazine is now available for the Kindle, Kindle Fire, iPad/iPhone, Google Play and Zinio. For more details of prices and availability for all of these, please visit our website historyextra.com/digital

The Story of the Tudors Over 116 pages – and with insights from leading Tudor historians – this special edition of BBC History Magazine lifts the lid on the dynasty that transformed England. Buy your copy today for just £9.99, and subscribers get free UK P+P*. Order at buysubscriptions.com/ thetudors or call 0844 844 0250**

Facebook and Twitter twitter.com/historyextra facebook.com/historyextra

CONTACT US Paddy Ashdown The story of the Second World War Vercors resistance fighters is a powerful example of the dire consequences for those on the front lines when those at the top think too little about what their decisions mean on the ground.

P Paddy discusses his new book on a ‘glorious’ French victory on page 69

Kathryn Ferry Researching seaside history has taken me right round the coast and one of my favourite discoveries was the 1930s promenade at Hastings. The Modernist vision of its engineer really put the resort on the map. P Kathryn visits Hastings and St Leonards on page 86

Pamela Hartshorne York’s wardmote court records offer a fascinating glimpse into the concerns of people living in the Tudor city, who dealt more effectively than we think with the problems of dirt, waste, disrepair and anti-social neighbours. P Pamela describes the Tudor war on dirt on page 61

* Subscribers to BBC History Magazine receive FREE UK P&P on this special edition. Prices including postage are: £11.49 for all other UK residents, £12.99 for Europe and £13.49 for Rest of World. All orders subject to availability. Please allow up to 28 days for delivery ** Calls to this number from a BT landline will cost no more than 5p per minute. Calls from mobiles and other providers may vary. Lines are open 8am–8pm weekdays and 9am–1pm Saturday. BBC History Magazine

PHONE Subscriptions & back issues 0844 844 0250 – Those with impaired hearing can call Minicom 01795 414561 Editorial 0117 314 7377 EMAIL Subscriptions & back issues [email protected] Editorial [email protected] POST Subscriptions & back issues BBC History Magazine, PO Box 279, Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8DF Basic annual subscription rates: UK: £55.25, Eire/Europe £56.25, ROW: £58 Editorial BBC History Magazine, Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN In the US/Canada you can contact us at: PO Box 37495, Boone, IA 50037 [email protected], britsubs.com/history, Toll-free 800-342-3592

3

AUGUST 2014

CONTENTS Features

Every month 7 HISTORY NOW 7 The latest history news 10 Backgrounder: Celebrity scandals 13 Past notes

14 ANNIVERSARIES 18 LETTERS 21 MICHAEL WOOD’S VIEW Discover how the First World War affected people’s lives around the world on page 41

66 EVENTS

24 Countdown to catastrophe Nigel Jones describes the final fateful days leading up to the outbreak of war in August 1914

30 The great misconceptions of the First World War A panel of experts challenge popular myths about the conflict, from the death of Franz Ferdinand to the eventual Allied victory

38 “Our First World War” Ordinary people recall the tumultuous events of the first weeks of war

41 The world remembers Experts from across the globe explain what the war means to their countries now and how it is being remembered

46 What killed Tutankhamun? Chris Naunton weighs up competing theories about the pharaoh’s demise, including the suggestion of foul play

54 The bloody rise of Augustus Adrian Goldsworthy shows how the first emperor of ancient Rome slaughtered his way to the top

61 Tudor dirt and dung Pamela Hartshorne offers her advice to a Tudor householder seeking to keep his or her environment clean

4

Experts review new releases, plus a First World War roundup and Paddy Ashdown talks about his new book on the French resistance

83 TV & RADIO The pick of this month’s history programmes

86 OUT & ABOUT 86 History explorer: Kathryn Ferry on the British holiday boom 90 Ten things to do in August 92 My favourite place: Delphi

95 MISCELLANY 95 Q&A and quiz 97 Sam’s recipe corner 98 Prize crossword

106 MY HISTORY HERO David Olusoga on Hendrik Witbooi

52 SUBSCRIBE Free one month trial to the digital edition*

AKG IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES/SCRAN/JAMES ALBON/BECCA THORNE/OLIVER EDWARDS

69 BOOKS FIRST WORLD WAR SPECIAL

38 “We heard the engine stop and the awful crash, which once heard is never forgotten” 69 Paddy Ashdown on a ‘glorious’ French victory

*The trial period is for 30 days and after your trial period your subscription will continue at £2.99 per month. All offers, prices and discounts are correct at the time of being published and may be subject to change USPS Identification Statement BBC HISTORY (ISSN 1469-8552) (USPS 024-177) August 2014 is published 13 times a year under license from BBC Worldwide by Immediate Media Company Bristol Ltd, 9th Floor, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN, UK. Distributed in the US by Circulation Specialists, Inc., 2 Corporate Drive, Suite 945, Shelton CT 06484-6238. Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, CT and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BBC HISTORY, PO Box 37495, Boone, IA 50037-0495.

BBC History Magazine

WW1 SPECIAL ISSUE

30 “WERE SHELL SHOCKED MEN REALLY SHOT BY THEIR OWN COMRADES?” 61 The streets of Tudor England were no place for a delicate nose

24 How people reacted to the onset of war 46 Can modern science solve the mystery of Tutankhamun?

BBC History Magazine

54 Augustus had to fight his way to power

5

The latest news, plus Backgrounder 10 Past notes 13

HISTORY NOW Have a story? Please email Matt Elton at [email protected]

Buried treasures The Valley of the Kings, famously home to the remains of ancient Egypt’s royals, may in fact have housed a wider cross-section of the population than previously thought

Exhuming the secrets of ancient Egypt’s burial grounds

CORBIS

A huge collection of human remains found in the Valley of the Kings is causing experts to rethink the story of the worldfamous site. By David Keys

BBC History Magazine

rchaeologists have discovered the largest group of mummified remains ever unearthed in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings – and the find is offering new clues about the famous royal cemetery. An investigation into one of 10 previously unexplored tombs has yielded the mummified remains of at least 33 people, as well as the inscriptions that bear most of their names. They suggest that a large

A

proportion of the valley’s burial chambers were probably used for the offspring of minor wives, of which most pharaohs had many. However, most surprisingly, the tomb was discovered to have also been used for their non-royal staff – ladies-in-waiting and other assistants. The newly discovered mummified remains date from between 1400 and 1350 BC and have been uncovered by a team

7

History now / News WHAT WE’VE LEARNED THIS MONTH…

A looted French tapestry, which is thought to date from around 1720

from the University of Basle in Switzerland. Although identification work is at a preliminary stage, archaeologists believe that the tomb includes between 10 and 12 princesses and four or five princes, all of whom are likely to have been the sons and daughters of pharaohs Thutmosis IV and Amenhotep III. The other individuals are thought to include five or six Egyptian ladies-inwaiting, and around the same number of female servants born outside of Egypt. All but one of the foreign servants have Levantine or Mesopotamian names, while it is thought that the fifth may have hailed from the Nile valley’s Nubia area – a colonial possession of ancient Egypt. It is thought that many of the women could originally have been part of the entourage of secondary wives that were given to pharaohs by foreign kings in order to cement treaties with the powerful Egyptian state. Traditionally, the nearby Valley of the Queens has been linked with royal wives and offspring, so this find blurs the distinctions between the two tomb complexes. University of Basle Egyptologist Susanne Bickel told BBC History Magazine: “This is a unique opportunity to investigate the range of people who

“This find is likely to change our understanding of the way in which tombs in the Valley of the Kings were used” 8

were laid to rest in the Valley of the Kings. We are continuing our research, and plan to examine the skeletal material to work out the ages and genders of the various individuals – and, if possible, to try to match them with the name inscriptions. We also hope to carry out a range of tests, including DNA testing, to help us in that process.” University of Bristol Egyptologist Dr Aidan Dodson said: “The discovery of the remains of non-royal individuals is of great importance, because it reveals that they were being laid to rest directly alongside the royal personages they served. It is likely to change our understanding of the way in which many of the valley’s tombs may have been used.” As well as discovering the mummified remains, archaeologists on the current project have also found thousands of shards of pottery, some of which bear inscriptions giving the names and titles of the mummified individuals, and the remains of approximately 17 other mummies deposited in the same tomb five centuries later. The investigation has also led to the discovery of a previously unknown tomb, complete with a royal mummy – the first such discovery in the Valley of the Kings since Tutankhamun’s final resting place was unearthed in 1922. Experts believe that it was built as the eternal home of an elderly Egyptian royal, who it is thought may have been a daughter or wife of a 14th-century BC pharaoh. For more on the discovery of Tutankhamun, and efforts to establish what killed him, see our feature starting on page 46

A tapestry that has been on display at the University of Sheffield since its acquisition in 1959 has been returned to a French chateau after it was revealed to have been looted by Nazi forces in the Second World War. The story only came to light when the university wrote to the owners of the Chateau de Versainville in Normandy – indicated by a coat of arms on the artwork – enquiring about its history.

Second World War ‘sex slaves’ call for apology Five women involved in sex slavery in countries occupied by Japan in the Second World War have submitted hundreds of official documents to the country’s prime minister and called for him to formally apologise. Although Japan issued an apology in 1993 over the so-called ‘comfort women’, it insists that there is no proof that the women were systematically coerced by the government.

‘Lost’ medieval villages given legal protection A series of deserted medieval villages in Northamptonshire have been designated as scheduled monuments, protecting them from future development. The earthworks, including the settlements of Clipston, Walgrave and Ashby St Ledgers, were largely founded in the 9th and 10th centuries. The fact that the sites have remained largely undisturbed since their decline – often caused by economic and agricultural changes – means they may yield new clues about their original communities. Stay up to date with the latest stories at historyextra.com/news

BBC History Magazine

MATJAZ KACICNIK-UNIVERSITY OF BASLE / LINDA BUSSEY

Tomb raiders The interior of the newly explored tomb, showing the destruction caused by ancient Egyptian and 19th-century looters. Despite the damage, experts have discovered that the remains are those of both royals and servants

University tapestry was looted by the Nazis

ARCHAEOLOGY

SUPERSTOCK

Experts express concern over damage to Istanbul’s architectural heritage S panning almost four miles in length and dating, in some sections, from as far back as the fifth century AD, Istanbul’s land walls are one of the most complex defensive fortification systems in the world. However, experts have raised concerns that the walls are now at serious risk from development. Initially commissioned during the reign of the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius II, the walls surrounded the new city of Constantinople on all sides. They were largely maintained during Ottoman rule, although sections were dismantled as the city expanded beyond its original boundaries. They now run throughout the city, linking a series of civilian structures including palaces, gardens, cemeteries and mosques. However, despite being declared a heritage site by international culture agency Unesco in 1985, archaeologists in the city believe that increasing real estate development and unmonitored restoration work is resulting in irreversible damage to the structures. Dr Alessandra Ricci, an assistant professor in the department of archaeology and the history of art at Koç University in Istanbul, spoke to BBC History Magazine about the concerns. She predicts that up to half of the walls’ length may suffer irreversible damage before the end of the decade unless new measures are put in place. “Entire portions of the walls were rebuilt during the 1990s after the monument was declared a Unesco site, but this pattern only seems to be continuing,” she said. “Despite the fact that each Unesco monument comes with a ‘buffer zone’, designed to provide protection for the monument’s integrity and uniqueness, we have witnessed development of this zone. Impulsive construction projects and major urban regeneration work have wiped away entire historic neighbourhoods.” Peter Frankopan, director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research at the University of Oxford, shares some of the concerns. “These walls need to be protected: few capital cities feature such ancient and important structures, particularly ones that represent a common global culture so vividly.

BBC History Magazine

The walls and the area immediately around them should be treated with the utmost of care to preserve a heritage that shows the ingenuity of mankind. It’s deeply regrettable that, in some cases, sections have been bulldozed overnight, destroying in hours what has been standing for 15 centuries. “Urban renewal of such historic sites is difficult, and requires collaboration between many different groups of people. However,

particularly in Turkey today, there’s a sense that major projects are being pushed through with no consultation with historians, archaeologists or other experts.” BBC History Magazine contacted both Unesco and the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, which is responsible for the land walls, for their response to the concerns. However, neither was available for comment before we went to press. Matt Elton

City of architecture Istanbul’s Hagia Irene church, situated in the outer courtyard of the Ottoman Topkapı Palace. Urban development and unsupervised renovations to the walls of the city have raised fears that a “common global culture” is at risk

9

History now / Backgrounder

The historians’ take on…

Celebrity scandals Nothing fires the media’s imagination more than the spectacle of the rich and famous falling from grace – and Rolf Harris and Max Clifford are just two of the many to have done so in recent months. Yet is this a new phenomenon? Or have we always been obsessed with celebrities’ travails? Two historians offer their verdicts Interviews by Chris Bowlby, a BBC journalist specialising in history

The media appetite for scandal has certainly been strong for many, many years – discussing scandal while moralising was typical of the tabloid press throughout the 20th century. The press has always known that ‘sex sells’ and tried to find a way of satisfying that demand in what it presented as ‘family newspapers’. But that moralising language was always accompanied by a willingness to turn a blind eye. Until the 1960s, for example, there was a sort of upper-class acceptance that people would have affairs, and that that was acceptable as long as it was kept private. It would not be publicised in newspapers. In the first half of the 20th century, major newspaper proprietors such as Beaverbrook and Rothermere – who had their own affairs to conceal – policed the system. But then there began a shift in the boundaries of public and private. What is interesting about the Profumo scandal in 1963 is that the newspapers knew a lot about the story, and had all sorts of evidence, but didn’t publish it until [cabinet minister

10

John] Profumo had admitted in the House of Commons that he had not been telling the truth. That undoubtedly encouraged newspapers to be slightly more intrusive. At the same time, however, libel laws have been stringent in Britain, inhibiting the media unless they had strong evidence. Jimmy Savile, for example, was very litigious. So while he was often labelled ‘eccentric’ or ‘extraordinary’ in reporting – journalists knew he was odd – he also made it clear he would sue if you suggested anything more sinister. This caution was challenged in some cases in the 1980s when the freewheeling, brash tabloid press, personified by Kelvin MacKenzie, editor of The Sun, calculated ‘we might have to pay some legal costs but let’s just take that into account’. There was less concern with respectability – encouraged by a new breed of proprietor like Rupert Murdoch who, as an outsider to the establishment, didn’t mind people’s infidelities being exposed. And yet there was still a reluctance to antagonise celebrities who were a good source of stories, supplied to favoured journalists. While some publications, such as Private Eye, reported more contentious matters, most mainstream papers were much more cautious. The stories they tended to get were celebrity serialisations. The News of the World approach was to buy up these big stories – which were on the one hand scandalous but done in conjunction with celebrities’ agents. There are ways of producing scandal without necessarily

alienating people in the public eye. It suited everyone to not rock the boat and just get the stories that keep everyone happy. There have been similarly cosy relationships between lobby correspondents and politicians or reporters and the police – as the Leveson inquiry has been investigating. Another factor in keeping some misconduct concealed was that news organisations were very male dominated. It was a chauvinistic culture up until the 1980s, really – women had very little power at editorial level. There wasn’t much impetus to challenge male behaviour. So all this can cast a damaging light on media ethics in the past. But audiences have always had an appetite for this material, so to some extent everyone is guilty.

Dr Adrian Bingham is a reader in modern history at the University of Sheffield

BBC History Magazine

GETTY IMAGES

“Until the 1960s, there was a sort of upper-class acceptance that people would have affairs, and that that was acceptable as long as it was kept private” Dr Adrian Bingham

Photographers train their lenses on Max Clifford as he arrives in court on 2 May 2014. ABOVE RIGHT: Playwright Oscar Wilde pictured in c1882

CORBIS

“Those in power have long sought to associate themselves with the aura of celebrity, particularly if they had a reputation to make” Dr Simon Morgan Celebrity is so prominent in our society that it has started to increase interest in its antecedents. Academics who used to write about such matters, like the American historian Daniel Boorstin, assumed celebrity to be a tawdry modern invention, a product of the superficial film and TV age that contrasted with a kind of golden age when people were heroes. Yet celebrity and the manipulation of image has much deeper roots than the late 20th century. Public figures in the past were aware of their image and tried to present themselves in a particular way with whatever form of media was available. You can trace that back to the invention of print, or further back into history. Monarchs have always found ways of projecting their power and

BBC History Magazine

image, through the use of coins for example. Even in the 19th century, images of famous people had a global reach. When American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe toured Britain in 1853, boys on the streets of Edinburgh recognised her from prints in shop windows. Those a society chooses to elevate as celebrities are significant too. The journalist and social commentator Harriet Martineau wrote in 1838 that one of the best ways of understanding the character of a particular nation was to look at its heroes and idols. Nor are those convicted today of sexual offences the first to be ‘exposed’ in the same media that made their reputations. A century earlier, and in a society with different mores, Oscar Wilde saw his reputation as a playwright ruined by revelations of his sexual activities. And one of those men built up as a Victorian business hero – ‘railway king’ George Hudson – was then revealed as a fraud and cheat and endured a spectacular fall from grace. But celebrity is a capacious concept which can absorb notoriety as well as other things. Think of the 18th-century highwaymen written up as popular heroes. And the commercial exploitation of celebrity doesn’t stop at those seen as morally virtuous.

All sorts of murder cases in the 19th century were exploited, with Staffordshire pottery figures of infamous crime scenes sold as ‘murder houses’. What was as striking then as now is how celebrities commanded ever-wider attention, and the way in which the public steadily ‘invested emotionally’ in them. Those in power have long sought to associate themselves with the aura of celebrity, particularly if they had a reputation to make. But that means the shock is all the more acute when a celebrity associated with heroism or good works proves to have a darker side. Because they’re such major figures within the popular culture it is almost like they’re the bank that’s too big to fail. There’s great reluctance to take decisions that might potentially pull them down. So historians’ interest in celebrity is likely to grow, as its role becomes harder to ignore. They will always risk being criticised for being interested in something fundamentally trivial. And yet you can’t understand modern societies without also understanding their obsession with famous people. Academics think of celebrity as a kind of system. The individuals within it are ephemeral – they are not the key element. It’s also very important to understand the role of the audience – without that, you’re just writing the history of ‘great men’.

Dr Simon Morgan is a historian at Leeds Metropolitan University’s School of Cultural Studies and Humanities

DISCOVER MORE BOOK E Family Newspapers? Sex, Private Life,

and the British Popular Press 1918–1978 by Adrian Bingham (OUP, 2009)

11

MEN OF LETTERS 7KHOLYHVDQGORVVHVRIWKH3RVW2IÀFH5LÁHVLQWKH)LUVW:RUOG:DU

DUNCAN BARRETT 7KHEHVWVHOOLQJDXWKRURI6XJDU*LUOVDQG*,%ULGHV

“The Post Office Rifles story is an incredible one… This narrative will add to the proud history of a great national institution, and to those who like their history reading to be about more than dates and places.” Alan Johnson MP £8.99 Paperback ISBN: 9780749575205 Available now in all good bookshops and online. eBook also available

SPECIAL OFFER 10% OFF ONLINE (including free delivery) VISIT: theAA.com/shop/letters

@theAA_Lifestyle Web: theAA.com/shop

PAST NOTES BRITISH COMIC BOOKS

OLD NEWS

The explosive story of the goat that ate dynamite for dessert Hull Daily Mail / 10 Sept 1931

O

The Eagle gave us the world’s number one space hero, Dan Dare, while Roy of the Rovers was so popular, they named a comic after him

As US comic heroes the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles star in a new film, Julian Humphrys leafs through the early history of their British counterparts When was the first British comic published? It depends what you mean by ‘comic’. By the last third of the 19th century, popular publications like Funny Folks were including strip cartoons but the first comic paper to include a regular starring character was Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday, first published in 1884. Who was Ally Sloper? He was essentially a 19th-century Andy Capp, who first appeared in Judy magazine in 1867. Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday remained a hit for 30 years and sales were boosted by the marketing acumen of its publisher, Gilbert Dalziel. One of his most inventive schemes was promising up to £150 in life insurance to anyone found dead in a railway accident with a copy of his comic on their person. ILLUSTRATION BY BEN JONES

ALAMY/BENJONESILLUSTRATION.COM

n 10 September 1931, the Hull Daily Mail wailed: “Mrs Nash’s goat is loaded with dynamite.” Goats are renowned for eating anything, but this one’s most recent escapade had brought a neighbourly dispute to dangerously explosive heights. Wandering into a neighbour’s yard, the goat had stuffed itself full of garden refuse – this refuse was a commodity, as it was the best free fertiliser the neighbour could find. In retaliation – and as an exercise in future deterrents – the neighbour claimed to have “playfully tossed it a stick of dynamite for dessert”. Mrs Nash called the police, and the neighbour was arrested. It’s not difficult to imagine the crowd that must have gathered once news of this internal arsenal spread around the neighbourhood. This would have included kids, workers and curious passers-by, who would have come running to watch the police sergeant deal with a bleating weapon of mass destruction. Luckily, the explosive seems to have been a dud, and the sergeant announced to those nervously waiting that when “he gave the goat a hard knock, it didn’t explode”. By Fern Riddell News story sourced from britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

BBC History Magazine

What about children’s comics? These really took off in the interwar years. The kings of the kids’ comic were DC Thomson of Dundee, regional newspaper publishers who produced story comics like Rover, Wizard and Hotspur. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War they produced the legendary Dandy and Beano, featuring

characters like Desperate Dan and Minnie the Minx, both of whom now have statues in Dundee. Is it true there was a moral backlash against comics after the Second World War? In the early fifties an influx of slightly violent American comics enabled Britain to indulge in one of its periodical moral panics. Parliament passed the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act in 1955. The Rev Marcus Morris had already launched a counter-attack of his own, publishing The Eagle and Girl comics, which sought to promote what he saw as Christian values. Indeed The Eagle’s most famous character, Dan Dare, was originally portrayed as a chaplain in the Interplanetary Space Fleet. Who was Britain’s greatest comic book hero? A leading candidate has to be Roy Race, who made his debut for Melchester Rovers in the Tiger in 1954 and was given his own publication in 1976. His retirement in 1993 made national headlines and the phrase ‘Roy of the Rovers stuff’ is still used to describe improbable sporting triumphs achieved against the odds.

13

Dominic Sandbrook highlights events that took place in August in history

ANNIVERSARIES 6 August 1890

13 August 1913

The electric chair claims its first victim… eventually

A former lion tamer is crowned king of Albania

O

n 6 August 1890, William Kemmler was woken at 5am. He put on his best clothes and ate a quick breakfast. Then, after one of his prison warders had shaved Kemmler’s head, it was time to leave. Shortly after 6.30am, Kemmler walked into the last room he would ever see, where the warden and 17 witnesses were waiting. “Gentlemen, I wish you all good luck,” Kemmler said. “I believe I am going to a good place, and I am ready to go.” A year earlier, Kemmler had murdered his lover, Matilda Ziegler, in their home town of Buffalo, New York. Sentenced to death, he spent his last days in Auburn Prison. For years the state authorities had been trying to find a more humane alternative to hanging. Now they had the solution: the electric chair. Alas, Kemmler’s ground-breaking execution was something of a shambles.

When the executioner threw the switch, a current of some 1,000 volts coursed through Kemmler’s body. After 17 seconds, the power was turned off. Kemmler was dead – or so it seemed. But then, despite the smell of burned flesh, somebody spotted him breathing. “Have the current turned on again, quick – no delay!” said the doctor. The power was turned up, and smoke poured from Kemmler’s head. “An awful odor began to permeate the death chamber,” reported The New York Times. “The hair under and around the electrode on the head and the flesh under and around the electrode at the base of the spine was singeing. The stench was unbearable.” This time, though, Kemmler was definitely dead. “It was an awful spectacle,” one reporter wrote afterwards. “Far worse than hanging.”

An artist’s impression, from 1888, of a new method of execution: the electric chair. In 1890, William Kemmler became the first person to be executed in this way

14

Otto Witte enjoys a brief taste of the royal high life – or does he?

F

or Otto Witte, 13 August 1913 was a memorable occasion: the day he was crowned king of Albania. Born in Germany in 1872, Witte first appeared in the circus as an eight-year-old lion tamer, before becoming an acrobat. His friends knew him as a great raconteur, always inventing daring and implausible adventures. But nothing could match his tale of his ascent to the throne of Albania. According to Witte’s account, he was performing in Budapest in early 1913 when he read a newspaper story about Albania, a former Ottoman possession but now independent. The newspaper explained that some Albanians wanted the Ottoman sultan’s nephew, Halim Eddine, to be their new king. To Witte’s amazement, the printed picture of Halim Eddine showed an uncanny resemblance to… himself! Witte set off for Albania where he declared himself to be Halim Eddine: on 13 August, he was crowned king. The next five days were very good for Witte, as he sampled the pleasures of his royal harem and even declared war on Montenegro. Alas, all good things come to an end. Increasingly anxious that locals had seen through his ruse, Witte mounted an audacious getaway, making off with a considerable portion of the royal treasury. But there was one flaw in Witte’s story: it was totally untrue. No Albanian sources supported it, and Halim Eddine did not exist. Still, people liked to believe it and the story was featured in books and newspapers. Back in Berlin, the authorities allowed Witte to include the words ‘Former King of Albania’ on his identity card, and Witte toured Germany in uniform, telling his story. Even his tombstone in Hamburg, where he was buried in 1958, carries his royal title.

BBC History Magazine

HERITAGE TIMES

The ‘humane alternative’ to hanging proves anything but as the condemned takes minutes to die

ULLSTEIN BILD

Dominic Sandbrook’s latest book is Seasons in the Sun: The Battle for Britain, 1974–1979 (Allen Lane). He recently presented the series Strange Days: Cold War Britain on BBC Two

Otto Witte, the self-titled ‘Former King of Albania’, poses for a photograph with his daughter ‘Princess Elfrida’ in 1935. Despite Witte's life-long protestations to the contrary, there is no record of him ever taking the crown of the former Ottoman possession

BBC History Magazine

15

Anniversaries 17 August 1998 US president Bill Clinton (right) admits to a grand jury that, contrary to his earlier denials, he had had an “improper relationship” with intern Monica Lewinsky.

12 August 30 BC After learning that her lover Mark Antony has been defeated and killed, Cleopatra, effectively the last Egyptian pharaoh, commits suicide by forcing an asp to bite her.

29 August 1842 In China, the Treaty of Nanking marks the end of the First Opium War, opening five treaty ports to British trade and handing over Hong Kong as a British colony.

22 August 1485

Richard III is hacked to death at Bosworth The divisive king’s two-year reign comes to a bloody end

I

t is one of Shakespeare’s most memorable scenes. As Richard III sleeps before the battle of Bosworth, he is visited by the ghosts of the men and women he has murdered. “Despair and die!” they tell him again and again. Richard wakes with a start: “Give me another horse. Bind up my wounds,” he gasps. “Have mercy, Jesu!” In reality, we have no idea what passed through Richard’s mind in the early hours of 22 August 1485, one of the

16

most decisive days in English history. The former Duke of Gloucester had been king for just over two years, having seized the throne from his young nephew Edward V in a controversial coup. Even now Richard continues to divide opinion: while some see him as a childmurdering usurper, his admirers point to his well-earned reputation as a soldier and administrator. Yet when Richard woke that morning, he must have known that his crown hung by a thread.

Two weeks earlier his rival Henry Tudor had landed at Milford Haven in Wales with an army of Lancastrian exiles and French mercenaries. On paper, Richard could count on some 10,000 troops, double that of Henry’s army. But which way would the powerful Stanleys, who controlled much of the North West, jump? Richard had Lord Stanley’s son, George, as a hostage. But would that be enough to secure their support? Historians still argue about exactly what happened – and where – that day. What seems certain is that somewhere outside Market Bosworth, the two rivals clashed, while the Stanleys’ men stood by and waited. When Henry made to ride towards the Stanleys, Richard tried to intercept him, but was cut off from his main forces and hacked to death.

BBC History Magazine

BRIDGEMAN/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ARCHIVE

A 19th-century illustration shows Richard III leading the charge on the battlefield at Bosworth in a desperate attempt to retain his crown

18 August 1612

Pendle ‘witches’ take the stand Sensational trial sees villagers sent to their deaths

O

n 18 August 1612, one of the most extraordinary trials in British history opened at Lancaster Assizes. Earlier that year, 16 or 17 people, all of whom lived in or near Pendle Hill in Lancashire, had been accused of murder by witchcraft. Many of them belonged to two families, the Demdikes and the Chattoxes, who were believed to have been rival witch clans. In the suspicious, even paranoid atmosphere of Jacobean England, the trial was a sensation. The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster read the title of an account by Thomas Potts, the clerk to the assizes – which turned the case into perhaps the best-known witch trial of the century. The trial’s first day opened with the examination of Anne Whittle, alias Chattox, “a very old withered spent and decrepit creature, her sight almost gone,” who had reputedly sold her

Witches dance with the Devil in this woodcut from 1608. One of the defendants in the Pendle witch trial was accused of selling her soul to the Devil and calling him by the name of ‘Fancy’

soul to the Devil some years earlier. According to Potts, “the Devil then further commanded her, to call him by the name of Fancy; and when she wanted any thing, or would be revenged of any, call on Fancy, and he would be ready”. The interrogation of Anne Whittle – who had, it transpired, sent Fancy to kill four men – set the scene for what was to follow. For the next two days the trial

heard a bizarre series of confessions and accusations, with the rival Demdike and Chattox families each claiming that the other was a den of witchcraft. Eleven of the accused were found guilty under the Witchcraft Act: 10 were sentenced to death by hanging, one died in prison, while another was imprisoned for a year. The remaining members of the group were all acquitted.

COMMENT / Professor Owen Davies

BRIDGEMAN

“The trial delivered far more thrills and horror than most witch prosecutions” There are several reasons why the Lancashire witch trials of 1612 – the Salem of England, if you like – became the most widely known of the British witch trials. It was sensational in its own era, with its mix of family feuds, confessions of Devil worship, murder, royal interest, and suspicions of Catholic meddling. Retold in plays, ballads and even puppet shows, this potent mix delivered far more thrills and horror than most witch prosecutions, which concerned run-ofthe-mill accusations of bewitching farm animals and humans. Neither did most witch trials result in a hanging let alone a mass execution. In a

BBC History Magazine

country that forbade the torture of suspected witches, much of the interest in, and significance of, the Lancashire case rests on the unforced confessions of diabolism and collective witchery. These echoed – and were clearly influenced by – continental notions of orgiastic witches’ sabbats. The enduring fascination with the case is not just inspired by its atypical and sensational nature, though. More than any other English trial, the torrid magical world of the Demdikes and Chattoxes is rooted in landscape and local identity. Pendle Hill and its environs – little changed from 1612 in some respects –

continue to provide an evocative stage for the public re-imaging of the days when witches were believed to wreak mischief and death across the countryside.

Owen Davies is professor of history at the University of Hertfordshire. His books include America Bewitched: The Story of Witchcraft After Salem (OUP, 2013)

17

Your views on the magazine and the world of history

LETTERS

I enjoyed Admiral Lord West’s article on the modern navy’s achievements (What the Modern Navy Did for Us, June). However, I had to take exception to the representation of the Royal Navy’s involvement in Tanganyika in 1964 as “defending democracy”. Just the year before, in 1963, President Nyerere had instituted a one-party system, so a democracy it most certainly was not. Moreover, while arguably underpinned by an earnest drive for ‘ujamaa’ or ‘unity’, Nyerere’s collectivisation programme led to the violent eviction of entire villages, and so the extent to which the navy’s support for his regime “protect(ed) the interests of (Britain’s) former colonies” is contentious.

that the Royal Air Force and air power had little to do with it. I am reminded of a moment in 1937 when Admiral Tom Phillips was director of plans at the Admiralty and Group Captain Arthur Harris was his counterpart at the Air Ministry. They often had wrangles on the subject of air power over sea power. When the question of what would happen in the event of war with Italy was being debated for the umpteenth time, the admiral insisted that the Royal Navy have free use of the Mediterranean, however strong the Italian air force might be. Harris exploded: “One day Tom you will be standing on your bridge and your ship will be smashed to pieces by bombers and torpedo aircraft. As your ship sinks your last words will be, ‘That was a great mine’.” Admiral Phillips stood on the bridge of HMS Prince of Wales off the Malayan coast when it was sunk by Japanese aircraft outside the range of Allied aircraft in the Second World War. What matters in modern warfare is the co-operation of the three branches of the nation’s armed forces.

Dr Jamie Hall, Bournemouth

John A Campbell, Moray

Roman tolerance

Ships smashed to pieces

Unfair on the gospels

To describe the emperor Julian as “Rome’s last pagan emperor” (Anniversaries, June) perpetuates a simplistic view, implying that he was a throwback. In fact he was the last major Eurasian ruler publicly to advocate religious and philosophical toleration until Frederick the Great. The connection? Neither was a Christian. Julian was followed by centuries of religious persecution by Christian emperors which culminated in the rise of Islam which, as everyone knows, started off much more tolerant.

Admiral Lord West claims that Britain was not invaded by Germany in the Second World War due solely to the presence of the Royal Navy. He claims

I was struck, reading Jonathan Wright’s review of Reza Aslan’s Zealot: The Life & Times of Jesus of Nazareth (Books, June), how both men demonstrate that weird double-think of the ‘Real Jesus’ hypotheses. This states that, whereas the gospel writers’ remove from events of a few decades means they are wholly unreliable, the modern sceptic, at a distance of 2,000 years, is so confident in his theories he can publish an entire book.

A flying start In July’s News you had a story about remote warfare. It reminded me of the fact that my late uncle, Professor AM Low, had LETTER invented a guided missile in 1917. It OF THE MONTH was a monoplane with a 4ft wingspan, a small petrol engine and was controlled by radio waves. The flight was tested in March of that year on Salisbury Plain, I believe, before many army generals. It was not a complete success as the plane made a short flight, only to get out of control, which alarmed the onlooking generals. However the idea was kept in mind by the Air Ministry and I gather that the model monoplane is now in the Imperial War Museum, London. P We reward the writer of the letter of the month with our ‘History Choice’ book of the month. This issue it is Waterloo: A New History of the Battle and its Armies by Gordon Corrigan. Read the review on page 71

Antony Black, emeritus professor in the history of political thought, University of Dundee

A revolution in pain We read with interest the essay by Joanna Bourke (Pain Through the Prism of War, June) and noticed that anaesthesia, or the lack of it, was mentioned once during the article. There are always tremendous advances in military surgery during

Richard Griffiths and Trish Willis, The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, London

Trouble in Tanganyika

Steve Cooper, Leicester

A vivid record of slavery An anaesthetic kit from the First World War. Anaesthesia played a crucial role in relieving pain in the conflict

In the June issue the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool is stated as being “the world’s first and only slavery museum” (Michael Wood’s View). However I would like to draw your readers’ attention to the excellent Wilberforce House Museum in Hull, the birthplace of William Wilberforce, which deals with the history of slavery. The house was opened as a museum in 1906 and features displays on slavery and

The opinions expressed by our commentators are their own and may not represent the views of BBC History Magazine or the Immediate Media Company

18

BBC History Magazine

WELLCOME LIBRARY LONDON

Peter G Low, Twickenham

conflicts, but perhaps, and this is debatable, the biggest single step forward during the First World War was the development of anaesthesia and pain relief for victims of the conflict.

SOCIAL MEDIA What you’ve been saying on Twitter and Facebook

@HistoryExtra: Saturday 28 June marks 100 years since the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. How important was the event as a trigger for WWI? @MGtoffee Significantly, it gave Austria Hungary and Germany the excuses they needed to act - Austria against Serbia; Germany, Russia. Cass O’Little More like the straw that broke the camel’s back? WW1 had been percolating since the decentralizing 1300’s peasant revolts A Second World War poster emphasises British sea power. But was it really the sole saviour of Britain?

abolition from the very beginning. I have vivid memories of visiting on a school trip in the 1980s and seeing the plans of the slaving ships and slave manacles. Neil Hutty, East Yorkshire

It must be Richard

MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY/ALAMY

Michael Dean writes (Letters, July) that where the identification of Richard III’s remains are concerned the “evidence is neither foolproof or conclusive”. Firstly, I would like to ask Mr Dean if he has seen the as-yet-unpublished results of the University of Leicester’s research? Much more work than was shown on the television has been done and the results of that are due later this year. Until that research is published, I think that it is unfair for academics and enthusiasts to disregard it out of hand. Secondly, I would like to point out that English law requires less circumstantial evidence to identify human remains as a specific individual than currently seems to exist for the case of Richard III’s

remains. Yes, I do accept that there was an awful lot of luck involved, but how many coincidences do there need to be before the identification is accepted? I eagerly await the published research later this year to study in more detail. But based on what has been released so far, I would say that if it looks like Richard and sounds like Richard, then it ought to be called Richard. Lauren Gillham, Westerham

Corrections P Thanks to the many of you who have written in to point out that the materiel pictured on page 26 of June’s issue (It’s Time to Silence the D-Day Doubters) was not Allied equipment abandoned at Dunkirk – as described – but self-propelled guns of the German army. P In the July issue we omitted a credit that should have appeared next to the image of the battle of Bannockburn on page 25. The credit should have read: “Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 171B, f.265r. Reproduced with kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge”. We apologise to the university for this error.

WRITE TO US We welcome your letters, while reserving the right to edit them. We may publish your letters on our website. Please include a daytime phone number and, if emailing, a postal address (not for publication). Letters should be no longer than 250 words. Reader Neil Hutty recommends a visit to Wilberforce House Museum in Hull

BBC History Magazine

@Frakkyfire Difficult to say. One could argue that WW1 would have happened regardless of the specific trigger. “Powder keg” situation etc. Eugene ShermanGreeley Catalyst for the inevitable. Bev Harding Most major countries had been building up armies, weaponry and signing various alliances - the murder was only one factor in a long line of causes Tracy Coat Dunne I think it just hastened something that was going to happen anyway. @HistoryExtra: Braveheart was shown in Edinburgh this week to mark the Bannockburn anniversary. Do people rely too much on films for hist knowledge? @Jackadorey absolutely, most films have a primary objective of making money. Accurate history in that environment will be compromised Barbara Ruth I’ve rarely seen a movie that got the history right. Even Shakespeare messed with it. @GlobetrotterSam Yes they do. Films should come with a disclaimer that they are historically inaccurate. Josh Hewson maybe we should be asking if we can make movies a more accurate representation of the past, rather than saying there is an over reliance on them for the public Jennie O’neill it was historical fiction & films that got me to explore the non-fiction - Now I’m history mad Anne Golledge I like to term that sort of film as Hysterical Fiction.

email: [email protected] Post:

Letters, BBC History Magazine, Immediate Media Company Bristol Ltd, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN

19

Classic Expert Led Battlefield Tours 52#0+5* %+8+.9#4

6*'9#4+06*' &'5'46670+5+#

September

September

The conflict that is becoming regarded as the ‘dress rehearsal’ for the Second World War; this was a civil war that drew over 40,000 volunteers from around the world to fight on both sides. With resonances to the conflicts of today, this is an ideal time to examine its causes and events. With soldier and expert guide Colonel Ray Wilkinson.

Our tour to the beautiful country of Tunisia investigates Montgomery’s defensive battle of Medenine, the brilliant New Zealander Mareth Line outflanking manouever, and the 8th Army advance on Tunis, and also visits the ancient city of Carthage, El Djem and Matmata’s curious Troglodyte houses. With North Africa expert Captain Mick Holtby.

(1464'55 /#.6#

&76%* %174#)'

November

November

Standing in the crossroads of the Mediterranean, the beautiful island of Malta has played a strategic role for centuries. The brutal seige by the Axis powers during WW2 is a fascinating story of heroism, resilience, love, loss and sacrifice which earned the island itself the George Cross. Join Major General Ashley Truluck for this relaxing winter sun themed break.

On three occasions during the Napoleonic Wars, the British Army chanced their luck in Holland. Each time, the result was abject failure. Historian Nick Lipscombe explores the reasons for this lack of success along the iconic coastline and flatlands of the Netherlands, and explains the lessons learnt and put to later good use by many of the Peninsular Generals.

See our full programme of tours & request a free brochure at our website: www.theculturalexperience.com or telephone 0345 475 1815 Teachers & Educators - to see the wealth of destinations and subjects that we offer for KS3, GCSE and A-Level students, please visit our dedicated school groups website: www.tceschooltrips.co.uk The Cultural Experience The Old Glove Factory Bristol Road Sherborne DT9 4HP

Company registered in England and Wales No. 02819354

Comment

Michael Wood on… democracy

“The people didn’t write Magna Carta but they understood it”

Michael Wood is professor of public history at the University of Manchester. His most recent TV series was King Alfred and the Anglo-Saxons

society was appallingly violent – but the path to restraining royal power had begun long before 1215. Things changed with the Norman Conquest. When William the Conqueror was crowned king of the English he made the same promises. But the Old English ruling class was removed, and their land shared out, beginning a century of barefaced colonial exploitation. Yet the English people never lost the idea of royal law as a cornerstone of the state, as Henry I’s judges recognised in going back to the pre-Conquest codes for his laws. It was King John’s flagrant abuse of this tradition that led to Magna Carta. To be sure it was forced on him by the barons, but they had listened to their communities, whether Devon knights or Kibworth freemen. The king must be subject to the law. Local responses to the charter (and its successive reissues) over the next 50 years can be found in the fascinating King’s College Fine Rolls site: finerollshenry3.org.uk/index.html In 1264 the Barons’ Revolt was supported by popular opinion across the land, well aware of the significance of Magna Carta. The huge people’s army, assembled at Barham Down in Kent, showed the level of support for these ideas. Days after its defeat, when the king’s men rampaged through Peatling Magna in Leicestershire, the villagers organised a defence fund and went to the courts, asserting that the king’s men were “against the barons and against the Community of the Realm”. So 50 years on, the message of Magna Carta had percolated to the grass roots. Through village juries and local courts the separation of the monarchy from the law was understood, and ‘foolish peasants’ of an East Midlands village could take their case to the King’s Bench. It was not democracy, of course, but the idea that English medieval society, repressive as it was, was consultative was well and truly sown. Today we describe ourselves as a democracy, but to be more precise, we are a parliamentary state. And, while the origins of that system may lie in the Anglo-Saxon period, Magna Carta is a key landmark on the way. Made by the barons, sure – but the people understood.

REX FEATURES

You can tell there’s another big national anniversary on the way when politicians and pundits begin to pontificate about history and its lessons. After this year’s First World War and D-Day commemorations, 2015’s Magna Carta anniversary looks set to dwarf those of Waterloo and Agincourt (also next year). As the British Library plans a blockbuster exhibition, bringing the ‘original’ copies from 1215 together, David Cameron is already citing Magna Carta as one of the cornerstones of ‘British values’, showing Britain as “the birthplace of constitutional liberty and the rule of law”. Meanwhile, the likes of David Starkey chastise us for thinking that Magna Carta has anything to do with democracy. To be sure, the ‘Great Charter’ was an agreement forced on the king by the barons, not the people. Most of its statutes had nothing to do with the people, but the privileges of lords, landowners and merchants. Yet to argue that it didn’t concern the people is to misunderstand early 13th-century English society. The tale takes us back to the birth of the English state in the 10th century. Its core achievement was the creation of an allegiance: to the king, and to his law – but with a clear understanding that the two were distinct. Inspired by the Carolingian Renaissance in ninth-century Europe, a system of local government was created through which the opinions of local courts could be transmitted to the king’s council. Assembly politics, the roots of parliament, began in Æthelstan’s reign (924–39). And the king’s assemblies included local thegns as well as bigwigs. A letter to the king from the people of Kent is from “your people high and low”, the lesser thegns representing their communities like the local knights of King John’s day. And there was give and take: “I am sorry our peace is so badly kept,” Æthelstan says, “and my councillors say I have put up with it for too long!” English kings, then, were anointed to an office. They promised to rule justly, to protect the poor, and deal with the over-mighty. Only ideals maybe – Anglo-Saxon

ILLUSTRATION BY FEMKE DE JONG

BBC History Magazine

21

ED IT

Taught by Professor Emeritus Stephen Ressler

TIME O F

������ ������ �������� ������� �� ���� �����

R FE

55%

BER

LIM

Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: From Catapult to the Pantheon

D

EM

OR

off ER

BY

P 14 SE

T

Explore the Golden Age of Engineering in Greece and Rome Famed for great thinkers, poets, artists, and leaders, ancient Greece and Rome were also home to some of the most creative engineers who ever lived. Modern research is shedding new light on these renowned wonders—impressive buildings, infrastructure systems, and machines that were profoundly important in their own day and have had a lasting impact on the development of civilisation. Now, in Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: From Catapult to the Pantheon, get an appreciation for what the Greeks and Romans achieved and how they did it. Your guide is Dr. Stephen Ressler, a former professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, a civil engineer, and a nationally honoured leader in engineering education.

Offer expires 14/09/14

T��G����C������.��.��/6���� 0800 298 9796

������� ������ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

Technology in the Classical World The Substance of Technology—Materials From Quarry to Temple—Building in Stone Stone Masonry Perfected—The Greek Temple From Temple to Basilica—Timber Roof Systems Construction Revolution—Arches and Concrete Construction in Transition—The Colosseum The Genesis of a New Imperial Architecture The Most Celebrated Edifice—The Pantheon Cities by Design—The Rise of Urban Planning Connecting the Empire—Roads and Bridges From Source to City—Water Supply Systems Engineering a Roman Aqueduct Go with the Flow—Urban Water Distribution Paradigm and Paragon—Imperial Roman Baths Harnessing Animal Power—Land Transportation Leveraging Human Power—Construction Cranes Lifting Water with Human Power Milling Grain with Water Power Machines at War—Siege Towers and Rams Machines at War—Evolution of the Catapult Machines at Sea—Ancient Ships Reconstructing the Greek Trireme The Modern Legacy of Ancient Technology

Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: From Catapult to the Pantheon Course no. 1132 | 24 lectures (30 minutes/lecture)

SAVE £30 DVD £54.99

NOW £24.99

+£2.99 Postage and Packing

Priority Code: 96572

Please note: This work is not the product of an official of the United States Army acting in his official capacity. The contents of this work are not to be considered as the official views of the United States Military Academy, United States Army, or Department of Defense. Neither this product nor its content is endorsed by the United States Military Academy, United States Army, or Department of Defense.

For 24 years, The Great Courses has brought the world’s foremost educators to millions who want to go deeper into the subjects that matter most. No exams. No homework. Just a world of knowledge available anytime, anywhere. Download or stream to your laptop or PC, or use our free mobile apps for iPad, iPhone, or Android. Over 500 courses available at www.thegreatcourses.co.uk. The Great Courses®, Unit A, Sovereign Business Park, Brenda Road, Hartlepool, TS25 1NN. Terms and conditions apply. See www.thegreatcourses.co.uk for details.

ILLUSTRATION BY FEMKE DE JONG

SPECIAL ISSUE

The First World War 100

YEARS ON

24 Countdown to catastrophe The story of the fateful inal days of peace 30 The great misconceptions of the First World War Eleven major myths exploded 38 “Our First World War” Five personal testimonies from August 1914 41 The world remembers How 10 combatant nations re lect on the war 76 The best First World War books The must-reads that mark the centenary BBC History Magazine

23

First World War / Outbreak

COUNTDOW CATASTRO From 23 July to 4 August 1914, Britain was transformed from a nation willing to watch a European war from the sidelines to a determined combatant. Nigel Jones follows the fateful diplomatic wrangling that pitched the country into conflict 24

A

s the high summer of 1914 reached its broiling climax, for the first time in the century since Napoleon’s downfall, Europe stood on the brink of a general war. The diplomatic fallout from the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife at Sarajevo on 28 June had taken a month to splutter from a spark into a fatal flame, but by the end of July, ultimatums had been issued, reservists called up and armies mobilised. In Berlin, Vienna, Paris and St Petersburg, long-prepared war plans were put into action. Only in London were ruling statesmen seemingly oblivious to the gathering storm. On 23 July, as Austria’s lethal ultimatum to Belgrade (responding to the assassination by BBC History Magazine

WN TO OPHE REX FEATURES/AKG IMAGES/TIME & LIFE PICTURES

demanding the virtual surrender of Serbia’s national independence) was sent, the British government was preoccupied with another conflict rather closer to home. Protestants in Ulster, armed with smuggled German rifles, had flocked to the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force to resist the government’s Irish Home Rule Bill. Meanwhile in the south, nationalists, also armed with smuggled German weapons, were organising in the rival Irish Volunteers: the island seemed on the brink of civil war. As an anxious cabinet discussed the Ulster crisis on 24 July, Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey interrupted to read out the text of a dispatch he had just received: Austria’s ultimatum. As the impact of his quietly spoken words sank in, “The dreary spires and steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone,” recalled First Lord of the Herbert Asquith, the ‘wait Admiralty Winston Churchill, BBC History Magazine

and see’ prime minister who hoped that the war would simply go away

EUROPE ON THE MARCH ABOVE LEFT: Women weep as Austro-Hungarian troops head to the front, 1914. ABOVE: Men wait to enlist outside the central recruiting office in Scotland Yard shortly after the outbreak of war. British attitudes to Germany had hardened rapidly in the first days of August

“faded back into the squalls and mists… and a strange light began to play upon the map of Europe.” Could Britain avoid the European war that was about to break out between Germany and Prime Minister Austria on one side, Asquith, 24 July 1914 and Serbia’s protector Russia and her ally France on the other? True to his political motto, ‘wait and see’, Liberal prime minister HH Asquith dithered for a week after receiving news of the Austrian ultimatum. Always inclined to obfuscate and dawdle in the knowledge that most political crises blew over in a short time, Asquith’s attitude as Europe slid towards war was that of the

“There seems to be no reason why we should be anything other than spectators”

25

ostrich: hoping against hope that it would all go away. “Happily,” he complacently concluded to his constant confidante and mistress Venetia Stanley on 24 July, after acknowledging that a European war looked increasingly likely, “there seems to be no reason why we should be anything other than spectators.” At 62, the ageing Asquith’s obsession with Venetia, who, 35 years his junior, was a friend and contemporary of his daughter Violet, distracted him from the drama at hand. He wrote long, passionate and indiscreet daily letters to her – sometimes during cabinet meetings – which are one of our most important historical sources on the crisis. Asquith’s own bland irresolution was bolstered by the fears of the City of London that war would mean a financial crash; by the initial refusal of the Conservative opposition to commit themselves to the conflict; and by the knowledge that half of his own cabinet – 10 out of 20 ministers – opposed British involvement in the coming war.

Signing the peace away The German order for mobilisation, signed by Kaiser Wilhelm II and Reich Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg on 1 August 1914. Soon thousands of troops would be massing on the Belgian border

Austria ups the ante But as Britain marked time, across the Channel the war clouds darkened. On 25 July, having received from its German ally a secret assurance – subsequently known as ‘the blank cheque’ – that Berlin would support Vienna in whatever action “Is there noth- she chose to take against Serbia, ing that my Austria upped the country can ante. Rejecting conciliatory do? Nothing Serbia’s answer to the that I can ultimatum, and having already do towards withdrawn its stopping diplomats from this dreadful Belgrade, Austria moved troops to the war?” banks of the river US ambassador Danube marking the James W Gerard writes to the German border with Serbia. On the same day, chancellor, 31 July Grey belatedly sought to defuse the growing crisis by proposing a European summit conference in which Britain would act as an impartial mediator between Austria and Serbia. Grasping at this straw, Germany’s anglophile ambassador in London, Prince Lichnowsky, eagerly told Berlin the good news. Keen to avoid a war on two fronts, against Russia and France, a grateful Kaiser Wilhelm II, whose inherent instability saw him bouncing from belligerent aggression to nervous pusillanimity and back again, summoned his army chief of staff, Hellmuth von Moltke, to the imperial palace. Waving 26

Lichnowsky’s telegram, the ‘Supreme Warlord’ ordered Moltke to turn around his troops, already boarding train transports to invade Luxembourg, Belgium and France, and ship them hundreds of miles to the east to face Russia. An aghast Moltke, appalled by the ‘All Highest’s’ ignorance of military realities, almost collapsed. When he had recovered, he icily informed the kaiser that his order was impossible. The German invasion of western Europe was already under way. According to meticulously calculated railway timetables, hundreds of thousands of men were streaming across the Rhine towards their jumpingoff points for the assault. It was simply not feasible to halt the avalanche in its tracks and reverse it by 180 degrees. A disconsolate kaiser bowed to the inevitable. The SchlieffenMoltke Plan to knock out France with an unprovoked violation of Belgian neutrality would proceed on schedule.

Wilhelm draws the sword It was Germany’s attack on Belgium that would change everything for Britain. Before Berlin took that disastrously reckless gamble, the London government – even the Francophile Grey – was resisting sustained French pressure to convert the Entente Cordiale of 1904, and subsequent military ‘conversations’ between the two nations’ top military brass, into a formal agreement to co-operate in the event of war. Although the jingoistic Northcliffe Press – including the establishment Times and the popular Daily Mail – were urging the

government to stand up to Germany, the three leading liberal newspapers, the Daily News, Daily Chronicle and Manchester Guardian, were all against British intervention. And Asquith knew that he could not carry his own cabinet – let alone the Liberal party in the country – into war unless Germany committed an act of outright aggression. Obligingly, this is what Germany was planning to do. With German troops seemingly poised to violate Belgian neutrality – guaranteed by international treaty – reluctant warriors in Britain who had been hesitating, now fell into the parade of war. Asquith, though hesitant about going into coalition with his Tory enemies, was cautiously and covertly in touch with the Conservative leaders. At a secret meeting on 30 July he agreed to a Tory proposal to kick the Ulster question into the long grass by putting Home Rule on the statute book, but not actually bringing it into force, until what the prime minister was still calling ‘the Eastern Crisis’ between Austria and Serbia, was settled. The same day, Jean Jaurès, the leader of the French Socialist party and Europe’s leading pacifist and internationalist, was assassinated by a nationalist fanatic as he sat in a Paris cafe. All over Europe, Jaurès’ fellow socialists such as Kurt Eisner in Germany, Robert Blatchford in Britain and Charles Péguy in France, put patriotism before international brotherhood and supported their various national governments. After the Reichstag’s Social Democratic majority voted for war credits, with only the future leader of German communism, Karl Liebknecht, dissenting, the kaiser exulted: “I see no more parties – only Germans.” In Britain, which had the luxury of the English Channel as a barrier against foreign invasion, pacifist feeling was still strong. Labour’s founding father, James Keir Hardie, addressed an anti-war meeting in Trafalgar Square, while the future first Labour prime minister, James Ramsay MacDonald, and his future chancellor, Philip Snowden, urged the country to stay out. Increasingly, however, their voices were those of a small minority. On 31 July, James W Gerard, America’s ambassador to Germany, sent the imperial chancellor, Theobald von BethmannHollweg, a despairing message: “Your Excellency: is there nothing that my country can do? Nothing that I can do towards stopping this dreadful war?” There was no reply, and the next day, 1 August, Germany declared war on Russia. In London, the first faltering steps down the slippery slope of war were taken. Warning telegrams were issued to all naval and BBC History Magazine

TOPFOTO

First World War / Outbreak

The final provocation German troops in Brussels on 20 August 1914. Prime Minister Asquith recognised he had little chance of carrying his cabinet into war unless the Germans carried out an act of blatant aggression. By invading Belgium, they did just that

military vessels and bases across the empire to be ready for war; Churchill ordered the fleet, which had been on manoeuvres off Portland on the Channel coast, to stay together. Writing to his wife, Clementine, he confided a guilty secret: “While everything tends towards catastrophe and collapse, I am interested, geared up and made happy…” Meanwhile the cabinet instructed Grey to inform France that Britain could not guarantee joining the coming conflict – but would not promise Germany to stay out of it either if her vital interests were threatened.

AKG IMAGES

A German weeps The cabinet was now meeting daily, even on the hitherto sacrosanct sabbath, and on Sunday 2 August, Asquith received a breakfast visit from an “emotional” German ambassador, Prince Lichnowsky, who “wept… and implored me not to side with France”. Asquith replied that Britain would stay out so long as Germany refrained from invading Belgium and did not use the Channel ports to attack France. Lichnowsky, Asquith informed Venetia Stanley, “was bitter against his government in not restraining Austria and seemed “Prince quite heartbroken”. At 11am, with Lichnowsky reports arriving that wept… and German forces were implored me massing on the Belgian border, the not to side cabinet convened with France” and Grey was HH Asquith, 2 August authorised to harden BBC History Magazine

Britain’s stance, telling the French ambassador in London, Paul Cambon, that Britain would not permit Germany “to make the Channel coast the base for hostile operations”. This reaffirmation of Britain’s traditional foreign policy of allowing no single power to dominate western Europe, was too much for the cabinet’s only workingclass member, John Burns, president of the Board of Trade, who resigned immediately. Asquith was determined to hold his government and pacifically minded party together, and, with his usual emollience, he persuaded other members of the cabinet’s ‘peace party’ who were minded to quit along with Burns, to delay doing so. That night, as he returned to Downing Street from a dinner with three of his children and a couple of his closest colleagues, war fever was already raging. Not concealing his disdain, Asquith reported to Venetia: “There were large crowds perambulating in the streets and cheering the king in Buckingham Palace and one could hear the distant roaring as late as 1 or 1.30 in the morning. War, or anything that seems likely to lead to war, is always popular with the London mob. You remember Sir R[obert] Walpole’s remark: ‘Now they are ringing the bells; in a few weeks they’ll be wringing their hands.’ How one loathes such levity.”

British hackles rise On the morning of 3 August, Asquith heard from three of his ministers – John Morley, John Simon and Lord Beauchamp – declaring that they were resigning in protest at Britain

joining the war. But once more he persuaded them to delay announcing their move to avoid the government publicly breaking up at a moment of supreme national peril. He was heartened by the support of his influential chancellor, David Lloyd George, a “Just for radical Liberal who a scrap of had led opposition paper, Great to the Boer War a Britain is go- decade before. As a Welshman, Lloyd ing to make George was a keen war on a kin- defender of the rights dred nation?” of small nations, and Germany’s belligerGerman chancellor, ence towards Bethmann-Hollweg, Belgium had to Sir Edward propelled him out of Goschen, 3 August the pacifist camp. Opinion across the country was rapidly hardening, with the City and the Tory opposition falling into line as the smoothly pacifying Asquith assumed the unwelcome role of war leader. The Commons sat that afternoon and heard Grey, speaking for an hour, carefully lay out the steps that had reluctantly led the nation to war. His speech, said Asquith “…for the moment reduced our extreme peace-lovers to silence, tho’ they will soon find their tongues again”. The moderate Irish nationalist leader, John Redmond, made a conciliatory offer that all troops garrisoning Ireland could withdraw to fight in Europe, leaving the island to be defended jointly by the Irish 27

First World War / Outbreak

Volunteers and their bitter enemies, the Ulster Volunteer Force. Asquith finally agreed to the urgent pleas of the cabinet’s leading hawk, Winston Churchill, to mobilise the Royal Navy. The former war secretary Richard Haldane, despite his notorious Germanophilia, gave similar orders to the army. The nation’s leading soldier, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, was recalled from a ship at Dover, bound for Egypt, so he could take nominal charge of the war effort. Grey returned to the Foreign Office from parliament through cheering crowds, and that evening made his famous observation, as he watched a lamplighter in St James’s Park from his office window: “The lamps are going out all over Europe: we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”

The die is cast In Berlin the following day, the kaiser, dressed in full military uniform complete with gleaming top boots and shining helmet, attended the Reichstag. “We draw the sword,” declared Wilhelm, “with a clear conscience and clean hands.” Meanwhile, the German chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg, announcing that “necessity knows no law”, informed the Reichstag that Belgium had rejected a German demand for free passage of its armies across Belgian territory, and that consequently German troops had crossed the frontier by force, with the first soldiers moving across the border at Gemmerich near Liège at 8 that morning. Germany’s leading writers put their pens at the service of the national cause, with the novelist Thomas Mann writing to his brother

“Winston, who has got on all his war-paint, is longing for a sea fight in the early hours” HH Asquith describes Winston Churchill, the cabinet’s leading hawk, on 4 August

Heinrich that he felt “the deepest sympathy for this loathed, enigmatic and fated Germany… which has at least assumed the responsibility of destroying the world’s most degraded police state” [ie Russia]. Hermann Hesse wrote to a friend that he “esteemed the moral value of war rather highly,” adding: “To be torn out of a dull capitalistic peace was good for many Germans.” These bellicose feelings, and the idea that the war was a healthy reaction to the corruption of too long a peace, were curiously echoed by poets in England, including three who would die in the coming conflict. Rupert Brooke’s sonnet Peace thrilled: “Now God be thanked who has matched us with his hour/ And caught our youth, /And wakened us from sleeping…” Edward Thomas in his poem The Trumpet responded: “To the old wars/ Arise! Arise!” In France, where he was tutoring a French family, Wilfred Owen, who would become the war’s premier poet of protest and pity before dying in its last week, callously told his mother that the conflict’s

casualty lists would “effect a little useful weeding,” little knowing that he would become one of the ‘weeds’. At that morning’s cabinet meeting in London, definite news was received that Germany had declared war on France and invaded Belgium. This was enough to choke off any further cabinet resignations, apart from that of John Morley, Lord President of the Council, who insisted on going. Invoking the fact that both Britain and Germany had guaranteed Belgian neutrality, the cabinet immediately issued an ultimatum, demanding that unless German forces withdrew from Belgium by midnight Berlin time (11pm in London), the two countries would be at war. “Winston,” Asquith told Venetia “…who has got on all his war-paint, is longing for a sea fight in the early hours of tomorrow morning… The whole thing fills me with sadness… we are on the eve of horrible things.” The British ambassador in Berlin, Sir Edward Goschen, presented the cabinet’s ultimatum to Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg in person. The German statesman was thunderstruck. “Just for a word, ‘neutrality’ – a word that in wartime has so often been disregarded – just for a scrap of paper, Great Britain is going to make war on a kindred nation, which desires nothing more than to be friends with her?” he demanded incredulously. Goschen made no reply, but asked for passports for himself and his staff to leave the country. With the die cast at last, Asquith, Grey and their colleagues sat in the cabinet room in Downing Street, silently smoking and waiting for the deadline to expire. The windows were thrown open to the sultry summer night and the distant noise of the celebrating crowds. Then, as the chimes of Big Ben rang out, signalling the first seconds of the greatest war the world had known, the prime minister’s wife, Margot, saw Winston Churchill “with a happy face striding towards the double doors of the cabinet room”. Britain’s leading 20th-century warlord was taking up his post.

DISCOVER MORE BOOKS E The War That Ended Peace

Death of diplomacy German ambassador Prince Lichnowsky leaves London following Britain’s declaration of war. He was bitterly critical of the kaiser’s sabre-rattling

28

by Margaret Macmillan (Profile, 2013) E July 1914 by Sean McMeekin (Icon, 2013) E Letters to Venetia Stanley by HH Asquith (eds Michael and Eleanor Brock) (OUP, 2014) BBC History Magazine

MARY EVANS/GETTY IMAGES

Nigel Jones’s Peace and War: Britain in 1914 is published by Head of Zeus, who are reissuing an updated version of his biography Rupert Brooke: Life, Death and Myth later this year

Master’s in International Affairs and Diplomacy

in S a L em Pa ond inar ll M on s all Clu b

October 2014-September 2015 A one-year, London-based course of ten The ten seminars are currently led by evening seminars and individual research internationally distinguished experts including: examining key issues in global power politics and diplomacy, directed by • Sir Richard Dearlove, Professor David Armstrong and former Head of MI6 Professor Richard Langhorne. • Professor Sir Adam Roberts, Emeritus Professor of International The seminars will be given by some of Relations, University of Oxford Britain's most distinguished authorities in the field, including historians, • Sir Malcolm Rifkind, ambassadors and former intelligence former Foreign Secretary chiefs. Each seminar is followed by a • Bridget Kendall, private dinner, in the elegant Diplomatic Correspondent of the BBC surroundings of a London club in Pall Mall, SW1, at which participants can • Geoffrey Robertson QC, engage in questioning and argument former UN Appeal Judge for with the speakers. Sierra Leone

Examination is by a research dissertation. Others wishing to take part in the programme may join the course as Associate Students - attending the seminars and dinners, but not submitting for examination. Course enquiries and applications: Claire Prendergast [email protected] or Google ‘Buckingham Diplomacy Research’

LONDON PROGRAMMES

The University of Buckingham is ranked in the élite top sixteen of the 120 British Universities: The Guardian Universities League Table 2012-13

First World War / Misconceptions

The great mis of the First Wo Eleven leading historians explode some major myths that have clouded our understanding of the Great War over the past 100 years Interviews by Rob Attar, Charlotte Hodgman and Matt Elton

1

The killing of Franz Ferdinand was merely the straw that broke the camel’s back Wrong, says Christopher Clark The assassination of Franz Ferdinand was a kind of 9/11 moment for the Austrian leadership. It altered their politics and produced a completely unbroken consensus in favour of war. Prior to the killing, records show that the Austrians were focusing on diplomatic solutions to the Balkans crisis, but after the assassination everything changed. The archduke was not a popular man in Austria but nonetheless the fact that he was killed upset people hugely. This, after all, was also an attack on the monarchy and the Habsburg state, so it caused an immense shock. At the same time, his dying words to his wife about the couple’s children generated a lot of sympathy for him. Ironically, Franz Ferdinand was one of the most outspoken exponents of peace in the Balkans and he was planning to fire Conrad von Hötzendorf,

30

the hawkish chief of the general staff. By killing the archduke, the murderers removed one of the best opportunities for peace, and kept in power the most influential exponent of war. Some people argue that war was on the cards anyway but this is based on an overly deterministic view of the alliance system that operated in Europe at the time. It was far more wobbly and open-ended than we tend to think today. Levels of distrust within the alliances were very high and we know that, for example, in the summer of 1914 the British were toying with the idea of dropping Russia and seeking an understanding with Berlin. So, had Europe managed to survive those months, the Entente may well have drifted apart and the outcome could have been very different. Christopher Clark is a professor of history at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (Penguin, 2012) Franz Ferdinand pictured in 1912 BBC History Magazine

sconceptions World War ALAMY

2 Britons listen to the declaration of war on Germany, 4 August 1914. We have the likes of David Lloyd George to thank for the misguided belief that the country rejoiced at the news, says Catriona Pennell

BBC History Magazine

The British were naively enthusiastic for war in 1914 Wrong, says Catriona Pennell One of the most common misconceptions of the First World War is that the British population responded with unabated enthusiasm when war broke out in August 1914. Picture the black and white photographs of crowds waving joyfully at the gates of Buckingham Palace or the grinning faces of men queuing outside recruitment offices. There is a lazy acceptance that these images equate to a joyous reaction to the onset of war, with no interrogation, verification or contextualisation. The origins of this myth lie in the postwar and interwar period, in particular the published memoirs of wartime politicians like David Lloyd George, chancellor of the exchequer in 1914. Two decades after the war had begun, he described scenes of wild enthusiasm that were, in his mind, unprecedented; quite a statement considering he was of an age to recall the boisterous celebrations that marked the end of the siege of Mafeking (during the Second Boer War) in 1900. In his mind it was these enthused masses who had demanded war against Germany while British statesmen did their best to keep the country neutral. However, it is important to remember that history, while written in retrospect, is lived

forwards. As historians, we must try to recapture what was known at the beginning of the war as accurately as possible, rather than imposing assumptions in the light of what happened later. My research into local, regional and national responses to the outbreak of war reveals that it is far too simplistic to describe the reactions of over 40 million people in the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland (as it was at the time) with a single adjective: enthusiastic. There was no single emotional reaction to the outbreak of war. Instead, responses were ambiguous and complex, and changed over time. The outbreak of war on 4 August was greeted with a sense of shock and surprise. This was followed by a fortnight of chaos and dislocation as people tried to make sense of their newly frightening situation. By early September, people were firmly ‘inside the war’ of which they could see no end. While they accepted the need for Britain to fight, this did not equate to a blindly enthusiastic lust for war. Dr Catriona Pennell is author of A Kingdom United: Popular Responses to the Outbreak of the First World War in Britain and Ireland (OUP, 2012)

31

First World War / Misconceptions

3

Russia secretly mobilised several days before it claimed to have done Wrong, says Anthony Heywood

Anthony Heywood is chair in history at the University of Aberdeen, specialising in Russia and the Soviet Union

Russian troops on review, 1914–18. The speed with which they mobilised has prompted intense debate

32

British and German troops in no man’s land, Christmas Day, 1914. They didn’t, it seems, take each other on at football

4

British and German troops played a game of football on the front line Wrong, says Dan Snow The idea that British and German troops played an organised game of football on the front line during the Christmas truce of 1914 has been so pervasive because it’s a wonderful story: that people can play sport on a battlefield that, just a day before, was covered with high-explosive shrapnel and machine-gun bullets. Sadly, there’s virtually no evidence for such an organised match taking place. What did happen is that there was a lot of talk about a football match being organised if the truce had gone on any longer – and, behind the lines, there were lots of balls being kicked around by troops, but not between the Brits and the Germans. Yet the idea of an international match is so powerful because it would seem to be an affirmation of what we have in common, of our joint humanity. Football is also the working man’s game, the game of the troops on the front line, so it’s come to symbolise a particular myth of the First World War: this idea of the exploitation of the working man by the ruling elite. In fact, the story of the Christmas truce is far bigger than one football match. Of course, there was fraternisation: there were all sorts of wonderful things

going on, all sorts of affirmation of our common humanity. I read a great article that argued that, if we’d had social media in 1914, the First World War would have stopped, because everyone would have known that everyone else was trucing. The trouble was that everyone thought that it was just them, and they thought, ‘ooh, this is a bit naughty’. If they had been aware that it was going on up and down the entire front then they would have realised that they were part of something much bigger and much more profound. Perhaps even revolutionary. I think the scale of the truce, and the excitement of this chink of light in what could have been this extraordinary revolutionary moment, is really exciting. So don’t focus on the football match; focus on the fact that hundreds and thousands climbed out of their trenches and expressed brotherhood with those opposite them. It was an extraordinary moment in history. Dan Snow is a historian and broadcaster. He has presented numerous history documentaries for the BBC and has produced content for the BBC’s online First World War hub bbc.co.uk/ww1 BBC History Magazine

DAILY MIRROR/GRANGER COLLECTION

On 31 July 1914 (18 July by the Julian calendar, then in use in Russia) the Russian empire announced general mobilisation for war. This was three days after AustriaHungary had declared war on Serbia and a day before Germany declared war on Russia. However, from the interwar period on, a number of historians have said that, in fact, Russia’s general mobilisation began in secret several days earlier. If true, this would have great ramifications on the debate about war guilt because if Russia was embarking on full mobilisation at this stage then Germany would have had little choice but to respond. Germany may not then have been primarily responsible for the war. But did this really happen? I have been researching in the Russian archives and it is absolutely clear that there was no secret general mobilisation before 31 July. What was happening was what the Russians described as the ‘period preparatory to war’. This referred to a set of secret measures that were designed to facilitate mobilisation. For example, summer camps were ended, the mobilisation transport plans were sent to army units, and training was intensified. But these measures did not mean mobilisation as such, and they did not automatically mean Russia was heading for war. Crucially, they did not include large-scale inter-district troop movements nor did they put the railways on a military footing. The Russian archives show that neither of these core features of general mobilisation occurred before 31 July. French, German and other foreign nationals in Russia who saw troop movements taking place may have misinterpreted the dispersal of summer camps as mobilisation. However, since the misconception first arose, it has been propagated by those seeking to exculpate the German leaders of 1914. Given the evidence now available from Russia’s archives, this argument can no longer be upheld.

A British heavy gun in action. On the western front between 1915 and 1918, seven out of ten British casualties were victims of artillery shells, says David Olusoga

6

Machine guns were the deadliest weapon on the western front Wrong, says David Olusoga

5

The First World War was the most unpleasant war to fight Wrong, says Max Hastings One of the things we should be striving to do in this centenary year is to win back a sense of perspective about the First World War. On a quantitative scale it is true that Britain lost more people than in any other war but it is a myth that this was the worst battlefield experience in history. Anybody who lived through the Thirty Years’ War in the 17th century, or had followed Napoleon on his catastrophic Russian campaign in 1812, would have laughed at the idea that the Somme or Passchendaele represented the worst thing men could do to each other. And, for that matter, far worse things happened in the Second World War but they happened to the Soviets on the eastern front and therefore we don’t take them as seriously. This myth has been hugely influenced by the poets who wrote about the First World War.

What was unusual about this conflict was that it was fought by a new breed of citizen-soldiers who had not seen combat before and were stunned and appalled by the misery of the battlefield. In previous wars you had had professional warriors who regarded it as part of their duty to make light of what they had gone through in their memoirs, even if they had – as in the Napoleonic Wars – fought over 30 battles requiring them to stand and face opposing armies 50 yards away and fire volleys at each other. I am certainly not trying to suggest that the First World War was anything other than unspeakable, but it was not the worst thing that men have done to each other in wars, or indeed anything like it. Sir Max Hastings is the author of Catastrophe: Europe Goes to War 1914 (William Collins, 2013)

AKG IMAGES/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

French troops depicted during the catastrophic retreat from Moscow in 1812

In Britain when we think about the First World War perhaps the most powerful image that comes to mind is that of massed ranks of infantry going ‘over the top’ to face the deadly German machine guns. The slaughter of those set-piece offensives has placed the machine gun at the centre of our vision of the war. Yet it was not the biggest killer on the western front; that dubious honour went to the artillery. In almost all wars of the modern age, the vast majority of soldiers killed had been the victims of small arms – rifles, pistols and, before them, muskets. This was the key to land warfare and the appearance of the machine gun seemed to have made the dominance of the bullet over the shell even greater. Yet on the western front between 1915 and 1918 it was the artillery piece that was king. Seven out of ten British casualties were victims of artillery shells and the statistics were similar for the French. None of the armies of 1914 had gone to war expecting a conflict dominated by artillery; they all planned for a war of manoeuvre and movement. But once the western front had stabilised in late 1914, the importance of artillery and high explosive shells increased enormously. Howitzers and mortars, once seen as specialist siege weapons, were manufactured in huge numbers and with each offensive the number and the calibre of the guns increased. So why has this misconception come about? I think it is partly because many of those who were killed by the machine gun fell in tragic but dramatic offensives, calamities like the first day of the Somme, when the sheer scale of the bloodletting was so shocking that the events seeped into our national consciousness. The death toll reaped by artillery, by contrast, was an incessant part of daily life. You did not have to be in an attack to be hit by a shell, you could be having breakfast deep in your trench. You could be miles behind the lines but still within the killing zone. Churchill put it best. In a parliamentary debate in May 1916, he said: “What is going on while we sit here, while we go to dinner, or home to bed? Nearly a thousand men – Englishmen, Britishers, men of our own race – are knocked into bundles of bloody rags every 24 hours.” David Olusoga is presenting The World’s War on BBC Two this month. The accompanying book of the same name will be published by Head of Zeus in early August

BBC History Magazine

33

First World War / Misconceptions 7

Shell-shocked soldiers were usually shot for cowardice during the First World War Wrong, says Fiona Reid them for desertion and 18 for cowardice. We cannot say what happened to shell-shocked men with such precision or brevity. Since the battle of Mons in September 1914 military doctors had recognised that soldiers were suffering from nervous disorders as a result of the fierce, industrial fighting. Mindful of the stigma usually attached to mental health problems, the War Office had insisted that these men “should not be treated like ordinary lunatics”. Consequently, shell-shocked men usually experienced an array of medical treatments, sometimes close to the firing line, sometimes in hospitals at home. Some,

despite the War Office commitment, were sent to lunatic asylums. Overall, there were about 80,000 recorded cases of psychological injury among British troops during the war and, by 1921, 65,000 men were receiving pensions for shell-shock and neurasthenia (nervous debility). Clearly, most shell-shocked men were not shot, as the figures attest. But can we assume that those executed were all shell-shocked? It is possible that some of them were, as contemporaries recognised. Yet we cannot assume that all of those designated as cowards or deserters were mentally ill. Men suffering severe trauma were removed from the trenches on medical

grounds because they were both unfit and bad for morale. However those men who had shown courage in the past – those who had ‘done their bit’ – were considered sympathetically and more likely to be treated with medical care than punishment. The real tragedy of the shell-shock story is not that men were routinely executed but that mentally wounded men lived in real fear of being sent to a ‘pauper asylum’ and that many of them spent the postwar years trying to live on scanty pensions with irregular and inadequate health care. Dr Fiona Reid is the author of Broken Men: Shell Shock, Treatment and Recovery in Britain 1914–1930 (Continuum, 2010) A soldier surrounded by a mountain of empty shells in France. Tens of thousands of British troops suffered from shell-shock but few were executed

34

BBC History Magazine

SCRAN

The idea of young, frightened, shell-shocked men being court-martialled, denounced as cowards and then shot by their own comrades seems to sum up the brutal futility of the First World War. But is it true? Certainly men were sentenced to death in the war. Capital punishment was legal in Britain and during the conflict 3,080 men were court-martialled and sentenced to execution: 346 of those executions were carried out, 266 of

8

The First World War saw few civilian casualties Wrong, says Heather Jones

ULLSTEINBILD–TOPFOTO/GETTY IMAGES

The belief that the First World War was a soldiers’ war with few civilian casualties stems from the fact that soldiers’ lives were valued more than civilians. Soldiers could fight and were thus a valuable resource; they were also ready to sacrifice themselves for their country and they were male in a world that valued men over women – particularly in central and eastern Europe, where most of the war’s civilian casualties occurred. We still do not know how many civilians died in total in the First World War. The conflict saw an estimated 500,000 excess civilian deaths triggered by malnutrition in Germany and over 1 million Armenian civilians deported to their deaths by the Ottoman empire. The German army shot 6,500 civilians during its invasion of Belgium and northern France in 1914, including women and children. The Russian state deported its Jewish population from its borderland, causing untold hardship. The war also saw the widespread execution of civilians in occupied Serbia by the Central Powers, as well as civilians starving in the Ottoman empire because of the Allied blockade of the Mediterranean. Major cities were occupied: Warsaw, Brussels, Belgrade, Bucharest, Baghdad and even Tbilisi in Georgia. Civilians accused of civic resistance acts were executed in occupied Belgium. The war at sea also saw numerous civilian casualties – most famously the 1,200 who drowned on the Lusitania – but such sinkings grew relatively frequent as the war went on. Then there was the war in the air. Who today remembers the children of Poplar, east London killed by the aerial bombardment of their school or the children in Karlsruhe killed when a circus tent was bombed by a plane? The First World War destroyed countless civilian lives, and their memory should matter as much as the soldiers. Dr Heather Jones is associate professor of international history at LSE and author of Violence Against Prisoners of War in the First World War: Britain, France and Germany, 1914–1920 (Cambridge University Press, 2011)

BBC History Magazine

Berliners queue for food in Alexanderplatz, 1917–18. Several hundred thousand German civilians lost their lives to malnutrition during the First World War

9

The Americans intervened too late Wrong, says Nick Lloyd

An American recruitment poster. “US forces showed an impressive ability to learn at speed,” says Nick Lloyd

Eurocentric accounts of the war are apt to be dismissive of the American contribution to victory. The Americans were too late, they say. It took them until the summer of 1918 to get a sizeable army into the field, and even then it was not decisive. Their troops were inexperienced, ill-trained and lacking the extensive logistical support required. When they finally attacked in September 1918, in two large offensives at St Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne, the offensives were characterised by poor tactics, heavy casualties and missed opportunities – in stark contrast to the effective ‘all-arms’ co-operation pioneered by British forces. Such has been the verdict of history on the US involvement in the First World War. Yet, in truth, President Woodrow Wilson’s decision to

enter the war as an Associated Power in April 1917, in response to the German declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare, was of enormous consequence. American industrial strength had been supporting the Allied war effort for three years, but the full participation of US military and naval power not only ensured the Allies did not collapse, it meant they were also able to drive the German armies back in the late summer and autumn of 1918. US forces may have lacked the experience and firepower of the British and French, but they showed an impressive ability to learn at speed. This forced German commanders into the stark realisation that they must sue for peace as soon as possible, knowing that if the war continued for much longer, then American combat power would be overwhelming. Without US involvement the war may even have ended in a German victory, either in 1917 or 1918. Nick Lloyd is author of Hundred Days: The End of the Great War (Viking, 2013)

35

First World War / Misconceptions A painting shows a German U-boat sinking a fishing-steamer. By spring 1917, British shipping losses were causing sleepless nights in the Admiralty

11

The ‘soldier-poets’ are the supreme interpreters of the First World War Wrong, says David Reynolds

Wrong, says David Stevenson There’s an idea that’s been put forward recently that the economic advantages on the Allied side were so enormous that there wasn’t any chance that the Central Powers could have won the war. However, I think that the Germans – if, perhaps, not capable of winning the war outright – could have forced some kind of compromise in which the Allies would not have achieved many of their objectives. The Allies were, after all, in a real mess in 1917. The Russians were in the midst of a revolution that would take them out of the war. And the failure of a massive French offensive in April 1917 produced widespread mutinies in the army. As for the British, they were experiencing a major financial crisis at the beginning of 1917, and didn’t know for how much longer they were going to be able to keep funding imports from the US. The Admiralty had no answer to the amount of shipping that German U-boats were sinking – by 1917, the Germans had twice as many U-boats as they had in the spring of 1916 – and was extremely worried. 36

What denied Berlin the opportunity to capitalise on these Allied weaknesses was its decision to implement a campaign of what was called unrestricted submarine warfare in 1917. Unrestricted submarine warfare essentially meant torpedoing merchant ships and passenger liners, whether they were Allied or neutral, without warning. The Germans had tried this before, but it was against most people’s interpretations of international law, and they’d been forced to abandon it on both occasions due to protests from the Americans. Yet, in 1917, they introduced it again. It was a decision that was to have enormous consequences, for it precipitated America’s entry into the conflict. The Americans soon sent 35 of their destroyers to help convey shipping across the Atlantic – and, for the Germans, an opportunity to exploit British vulnerability and potentially alter the outcome of the war had gone. David Stevenson is the author of With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918 (Penguin, 2012)

David Reynolds is the author of The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century (Simon and Schuster, 2013)

DISCOVER MORE EVENTS E You can listen to Dan Snow, David Olusoga and

Heather Jones discuss the First World War at BBC History Magazine’s History Weekend. For more details, go to historyweekend.com E For a round-up of events around the UK marking the centenary of the outbreak of war, turn to page 90 TV AND RADIO E The BBC is marking the centenary of the

outbreak of the First World War with a raft of programmes across TV and radio. To read our full preview, turn to page 83 BBC History Magazine

AKG IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

German defeat in the war was always an inevitability

10

The writings of soldiers like Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen (pictured below) are staples of the school curriculum. Owen has been called the most studied author in English literature after Shakespeare. From them we have derived a sense of 1914–18 as pointless, trench-bound slaughter, directed by boneheaded generals. Yet over 2,200 people from the UK published some form of poetry about the First World War, from 1914–18. Of these, a quarter were women and four out of five were civilians; so ‘soldier-poets’ were very definitely a minority. Moreover, writers such as Sassoon and Owen were atypical soldiers – being young, unmarried officers, often with complexes about their sexuality and courage. It was the poetry anthologies of the 1960s – imbued with the anti-war, anti-nuclear spirit of the time – that privileged a few of these soldier-poets as the true interpreters of the war. Only in the last 30 years have we developed a broader conception of Great War poetry. And, as it happens, the soldier-poets weren’t unequivocally anti-war. Owen, for instance, knew the ecstasy as well as the agony of battle. He won his Military Cross for mowing down Germans with a machine gun: a point his brother Harold tried to conceal when publishing Wilfred’s biography. Owen’s own writings testify to his ambivalence. His famous draft preface for a future collection of poems is usually remembered for these sentences: “My subject is war, and the pity of war. The poetry is in the pity.” But a few lines later Owen expresses the hope that his book “survives Prussia”. He sometimes used that term as a shorthand for creeping militarism at home, but his essentially antiGerman thrust is clear. Owen came to loathe war but, to the end, a part of him still felt that this struggle had meaning.

WORLD WAR ONE

BRITAIN’S FIRST MUSEUM

THE GREAT WAR REMEMBERED

Take a journey back in time with some of the greatest heroes, moving eyewitness accounts, and self-guided tours of the Western Front in the Somme, Aisne, Nord, Pas-de-Calais and West Flanders. Download these amazing FREE apps now and immerse yourself in the events like never before.

LEST WE FORGET

DOWNLOAD FREE

Until 28 September Book now at www.nhm.ac.uk/britainmillionyears Free for Members

BOOK NOW 24 July–2 November 2014 www.ashmolean.org/tut

WWI eyewitness accounts

PART 3

“Our First World War” In a new series, Peter Hart tells the story of the First World War via interviews, letters and diary entries left to us by 20 men and women who lived through it. In part three, he takes us to August 1914 when the mounting international crisis finally catapults Britain into war with Germany

NEW SERIES

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JAMES ALBON

Harold Bing

Sir Douglas Haig

Born in Croydon in 1897, Harold was brought up heavily influenced by the pacifist beliefs of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. He was still at school, and just 16-years-old on the outbreak of war.

Lieutenant General Haig was commander of the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the British Army which, in early August 1914, headed to France to face the advancing Germans.

There was a tense atmosphere in the air at the start of August 1914. The war had already begun on mainland Europe when, on 2 August, Germany demanded that Belgium open her frontiers to allow it to attack France. Yet anti-war sentiment remained strong in Britain, as Harold witnessed first-hand.

I heard that a big anti-war demonstration was to be held in Trafalgar Square on 2 August, and that [former Labour leader] Keir Hardie was one of the speakers.

James McCudden James McCudden was born in 1895, and joined the Royal Flying Corps as an air mechanic in 1913. August 1914 saw him performing ground-crew duties with No 3 Squadron during the early phases of the war.

38

So I walked up from my home to Trafalgar Square – about 11 miles – took part in that demonstration, listened to Hardie and walked home again afterwards, which perhaps showed a certain amount of boyish enthusiasm for the anti-war cause. It was quite a thrilling meeting with about 10,000 people there. But at the same time while we were demonstrating in Trafalgar Square the cabinet was sitting at Downing Street deciding on the ultimatum that brought the country into the war two days later.

When war came on 4 August 1914, the mobilisation plans swung smoothly into action as the British Expeditionary Force – under the command of Field Marshal Sir John French – was prepared take up its place on the left flank of the French army. Douglas Haig had been designated to command the I Corps and was held by his contemporaries to be the ultimate ‘educated soldier’. Indeed, his whole life had been spent preparing for this moment. Yet Haig was beginning to doubt the suitability for command of Sir

As part of the BEF preparations, the fledgling Royal Flying Corps was gathered at Netheravon in Wiltshire ready to fly to France. This brought an exciting new dimension to warfare at the cutting edge of modern technology. On 12 August, James had just swung the propeller and was watching the take-off of the Blériot aircraft piloted by Lieutenant Robert Skene, accompanied by his observer, Air Mechanic Keith Barlow. Unfortunately, in 1914, aircraft were by no means reliable. On this occasion, tragedy struck with little warning.

We then heard the engine stop and following that the awful crash, which once heard is never forgotten. I ran for half a mile, and found the machine in a small copse of firs, so I got over the fence and pulled the wreckage away from the occupants, and found them both dead. I shall never forget that morning kneeling by poor Keith Barlow and looking at the rising sun and then again at Barlow – who had no superficial injury and was killed by concussion – and wondering if war was going to be like this always.

John French, a dashing cavalryman who had little time for the theory of war.

From my experience with Sir John in the South African War, he was certain to do his utmost loyally to carry out any orders which the government might give him. I had grave doubts, however, whether either his temper was sufficiently even, or his military knowledge sufficiently thorough to enable him to discharge properly the very difficult duties which will devolve upon him during the coming operations with Allies on the continent. In my own heart, I know that French is quite unfit for this great command at a time of crisis in our nation’s history.

BBC History Magazine

AUGUST 1914 William Holbrook Hornchurch-born William Holbrook was 21 in June 1914. He had been recruited underage into the Royal Fusiliers back in 1908 and was a regular soldier.

William Collins Bill Collins (20) was born into a working-class family in Croydon. He worked in a shop and as a gardener before joining the Royal Army Medical Corps as a stretcher bearer in 1913.

MARY EVANS

Private William Collins was a medical orderly attached to 7th Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery. They left Aldershot on Saturday 15 August to begin their journey over to France. They had quite a reception when they arrived at Boulogne two days later.

We stole out of Southampton Water about 3am, no goodbyes on the quay, there was not a sound when we slipped out. I knew that we were going to war; I just wondered what it would be like. When we got to off Folkestone we made a sharp right turn and on either side of us as we went straight across – there was a destroyer to keep the submarines away. We arrived at Boulogne at about six in the evening. We went in on the following tide early on the 17th. The French were all out. They gave us a huge greeting – plenty of people there to cheer us!

Once the BEF got to France in mid-August, they began to advance into Belgium. It was on 23 August that they encountered the massed strength of the German 1st Army at the battle of Mons. Here William found himself in a very tight spot by the canal bridges at Nimy.

We were on the bank – a bit of cover, nothing much, no trenches. The machine guns were on the bridge on my left. The Germans were getting close to the canal bank, very near, waves coming over. Our fellows were very rapid – the fire from the bank was more like machine gun fire, different altogether from the German fire. Our fire was terrific. Every man was firing what he’d been taught to fire, 15 rounds per minute. They were being reinforced. They didn’t fall back from the canal bank, they were doing their best to get across, there were so many of them. We had a few casualties where I was – they had the worst part on

the bridge – quite a number got killed and wounded. Lieutenant Dease, in charge of the machine gun party, was wounded about three times, but he still went to the gun. Godley was firing. Dease died there, leaving Godley in charge of the gun. There were some village kids up there, quite near the canal bank and I remember Godley shouting at them: “Get out of the way! Get away!” These kids were within about 50 yards – during the attack! When the Germans started crossing the bridge, Godley had sense enough to take the breech block out of the gun and pitched the gun over into the water, so they couldn’t use it on us as we retreated. He got captured there. Maurice Dease (posthumously) and Sidney Godley were both awarded the Victoria Cross for their courage that day. In the ‘Great Retreat’ that followed, the BEF was sorely strained but just about held together. William Holbrook

“Godley took the breech block out of the gun and pitched it into the water, so they couldn’t use it on us as we retreated” British troops clash with Germans around the time of the battle of Mons, the BEF’s first major action of the war

was witness to a famous incident on 27 August, when Captain Tom Bridges of the 4th Dragoon Guards rallied stragglers in an unorthodox fashion in the Grande Place of St Quentin.

A lot of men fell out of the retreat and they had to be picked up. We had to carry their rifles! Some were in a bad way. I saw a couple; their feet were so bad they were bleeding. They took their puttees [cloths worn on the lower leg] off, threw their boots away, tied their puttees round their feet and marched back in their puttees. When we got to St Quentin, we halted. They were in a bad way, some of them were sitting at the side of the road crying. There was a toy shop and Captain Bridges went in the shop and got this drum out of the shop window – whether he paid for it or not I don’t know! He came out: “Come on, we’re all right now!” He got this drum going, got them together and they marched behind the drum! One helped another – the more fit stragglers helped the elderly ones. Some were left behind – you couldn’t get them all back. The fighting in France would be desperate indeed. The first battles of Mons and Le Cateau were little more than skirmishes compared to the ordeals that faced the BEF. But for the men that fought them they were dreadful baptisms of fire. Peter Hart is an oral historian at the Imperial War Museum and the author of several books about the First World War DISCOVER MORE BOOK E The Great War by Peter Hart

(Profile, 2013) WEBSITE E You can read previous

instalments of “Our First World War” at historyextra.com/ ourfirstworldwar

NEXT ISSUE: “Darkness descended… when I awoke I found I was on the edge of a glorious shell-hole” BBC History Magazine

39

‘Highly accomplished’ Sunday Times ‘Part love story, part grail quest, part historical detective novel’ Financial Times ‘An ambitious meditation on history and fiction’ Independent on Sunday

Out now in paperback and eBook

Australia

The world remembers Soldiers from Sydney to Seattle, Delhi to Düsseldorf fought and died in the first global conflagration. We asked members of 10 combatant nations how they are marking the centenary of the conflict, and what the First World War means to them today Interviews by Rob Attar, Charlotte Hodgman and Matt Elton

“The First World War was the irst great test faced by the nation” How important is the First World War to Australia’s history? The war began 14 years after the Australian colonies formed the Commonwealth of Australia. It became the first great test faced by the nation, and the Australians’ dramatic (if unsuccessful) invasion of Gallipoli was described at the time as the place where Australian nationhood was born. Many Australians still believe this, though others question exactly what it means or how it worked. Whether the war deserves the prominence claimed for it remains debatable. The centenary may well entrench a skewed view of Australia’s history. What were the defining events in the First World War for Australia? The invasion of Gallipoli, with its association with national identity, was central to Australia’s experience. Then the costly battles on the western front (especially Pozières and Ypres) prompted two bitter referenda over conscription. The Australian people rejected conscription, but the resulting divisions profoundly affected politics and society for decades.

GETTY IMAGES

How does Australia view its role in the war nowadays? Until the 1990s most Australians expected Anzac Day – the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli – to wither, as veterans of the world wars died. But for the past 30 years it has grown. Now Anzac Day – 25 April – has become Australia’s de facto national day, supplanting Australia Day (26 January), the anniversary of settlement in 1788. The war remains central to Australia’s national identity, despite the huge demographic changes it has undergone since 1945. Australian servicemen stand in silence in Sydney on Anzac Day 2014. “The war remains central to Australia’s national identity,” says research professor Peter Stanley

How is Australia planning to commemorate the First World War centenary? Australia has been planning its Great War centenary for longer than any other nation, starting with a 2010 bipartisan commission chaired by two former prime ministers. It will be more expensive than any other nation’s – gaining about $300m of government funds (despite budget cuts to health and welfare) and perhaps as much again in corporate sponsorship. The centenary will see a focus on Gallipoli; less on the western front, and hardly any on the civilian experience. Peter Stanley, research professor in the Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society at the University of New South Wales

41

First World War / The global view

“In the former front zone of West Flanders, it has taken over 80 years for the economy to recover”

“Canada was forced to grow up – but that was set against the backdrop of more than 60,000 dead”

How important is the First World War to Belgium’s history? It is extremely important. Prior to 1914 Belgium had become one of the world’s first industrialised nations and the war was a great economic setback for the country. Studies have shown that in the former front zone of West Flanders, it has taken over 80 years for the economy to recover.

How important is the First World War to Canada’s history? Canada was forever changed by the First World War. The British Dominion of fewer than 8 million people put 620,000 civilian soldiers in uniform. At home, the war saw the introduction of income tax, greater government intervention into the lives of Canadians, and sped along a greater sense of Canadian identity. A conscription crisis of 1917 was one of the most divisive events in the nation’s history. Canada was forced to grow up – but that maturation was set against the backdrop of more than 60,000 dead.

What were the defining events in the First World War for Belgium? For West Flanders, one key event was when the final gap in the line was closed in autumn Belgium battle zone: 1914, and that was the Menin Road in Ypres followed by the first gas during and after the war attack the following spring, which also affected civilians. Within German-occupied Belgium the atrocities of 1914 were a major event, which led to a quarter of the population becoming refugees. Later on in the war we had the third battle of Ypres: the biggest slaughter to have ever taken place in Belgian territory. How does Belgium view its role in the war nowadays? People here are generally proud of Belgium’s role. They feel that the country did its best in the circumstances. In some ways, the answer depends on where you are in Belgium as there is a great difference between the areas that were part of the front zone, where there is a landscape of cemeteries and monuments, and the rest of Belgium, where the war is remembered for the severe military occupation. How is Belgium planning to commemorate the First World War centenary? The Belgian federal government is planning a number of solemn international events, beginning with one in Liège on 4 August where many international heads of state will be attending. There will also be special events taking place at key sites such as Ypres and Nieuwpoort. At my museum, for example, we will be launching a daily commemoration where we will remember the names of all the casualties who fell in Belgium, 100 years to the day after they died. Piet Chielens, co-ordinator at In Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres inflandersfields.be

42

Canada

What were the defining events in the First World War for Canada? The Canadian Corps, four divisionsstrong by late 1916, fought at major battles such as the Somme, Vimy, Hill 70, Passchendaele and during the Hundred Days – these were all defining moments for the country. How does Canada view its role in the war nowadays? The Great War is remembered by most Canadians as one of the seminal events in the nation’s history. Yet the memory of the war is fragmented. It is seen as both a nation-building event and one that nearly tore the country apart from the extremity of the war effort. Over the last 100 years, it has been presented as a symbol of Canada’s independence and evidence of the horror of war. How is Canada planning to commemorate the First World War centenary? The Canadian War Museum is developing multiple temporary and travelling exhibitions devoted to Canada and the First World War. Meanwhile, digital exhibitions, like Canada and the First World War, will be relaunched with several thousand new artefacts, artworks and images, and a new database of Canadian medal recipients. Dr Tim Cook, historian at the Canadian War Museum and author of Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917-1918 (Penguin, 2008) Canadian gravestones at Vimy Ridge in northern France

France “The French are proud to have won the war and consider that they were the main army on the main front” How important is the First World War to France’s history? The Great War is still considered a defining moment in French history. It was overshadowed for a long time by the Second World War but there is clearly a growing interest in 1914–18: new books dealing with this topic come out every week. Great War museums are being opened or remodelled. In French schools, all 13 and 15-year-olds must learn about this period. What were the defining events in the First World War for France? The battle of Verdun remains the symbol of the Great War for France. Its trenches and overlapping shell holes embody the sacrifices of thousands of men who held out in atrocious conditions. The battle of the Marne, which saved the Allies, is also remembered for the taxis that motored the men to the front in 1914. Here, Armistice Day is still a bank holiday. How does France view its role in the war nowadays? The French are proud to have won the war and consider that they were the main army on the main front. However, there have always been, and there still are, many voices asking whether victory came at too high a price. Over 1.3 million Frenchmen died during the war. The questions of mutineers and of those ‘shot at dawn’ by their own side still cause heated debates. How is France planning to commemorate the First World War centenary? Many spontaneous, grass roots projects are already being carried out to restore a monument, build a database, re-enact a battle… in fact, there are so many that the French government has set up a Mission Centenaire (Centenary Mission) in order to co-ordinate those that it finds most interesting. Major ceremonies will take place around key dates such as the outbreak of the war and Armistice Day. Frédérick Hadley, curator, Historial de la Grande Guerre, Péronne ALAMY

Belgium

BBC History Magazine

Germany “The outcome of the war was its de ining event: the decline of the German empire and the revolution of 1918” How important is the First World War to Germany’s history? Usually, the First World War is characterised as the ‘seminal catastrophe’ of the 20th century. But in Germany the ‘Great War’ is overshadowed by the Second World War and the Holocaust. Many more Germans died in the second of the two global conflicts, and the consequences were much more serious for Germany. Yet it’s possible that the centenary will lead the public to pay much more attention to the First A memorial to World War, and to the war dead in see it not just as the Lower Franconia, seminal catastrophe Germany of the 20th century, but also as the catastrophic culmination of the 19th. What were the defining events in the First World War for Germany? The outcome of the war was its defining event: the decline of the German empire and the revolution of 1918. Most battles are now almost forgotten in Germany.

TOPFOTO/REX FEATURES

How does Germany view its role in the war nowadays? Christopher Clark, in his book The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 [which challenged the idea of German war guilt] initiated a broad discussion about the beginning of the conflict. A lot of historians have also criticised his thesis. But for most Germans, the war is history and far away. How is Germany planning to commemorate the First World War centenary? There are a lot of activities inspired by the centenary: discussions, conferences, exhibitions, documentaries and more. The exhibitions at the German Historical Museum in Berlin, for instance, offer a multifaceted overview of the First World War, as well as its causes and consequences. Andreas Mix, curator, 1914–1918: The First World War, German Historical Museum, Berlin

BBC History Magazine

India

Jamaica

“The links between the war and the nationalist movement were complex and vital”

“The activism of returning soldiers stimulated nationalism and working-class consciousness in Jamaica”

How important is the First World War to India’s history? The war years were crucial: you had a massive recruitment drive; you also had the formation of the Home Rule League in 1916; Montagu’s declaration in 1917 promising “progressive realisation of responsible government in India”; and the rise of Gandhi in the postwar years. The links between the war and the nationalist movement were complex and vital.

How important is the First World War to Jamaica’s history? It was the first international conflict in which Jamaicans actively participated, and Jamaica was the leading Caribbean territory to send money, soldiers (more than 11,000 men over the course of the war) and other aid (including a gift of £50,000 worth of sugar) to Britain. Jamaican women were granted limited franchise in 1918, partly as a result of their war work. Returning soldiers – disillusioned by menial roles during the war, racism, and the poverty in which they lived after coming home – grew increasingly engaged in protest action in the interwar years. Their activism stimulated nationalism and working-class consciousness in Jamaica.

What were the defining events in the First World War for India? A million Indian men served overseas – that itself is a momentous event. Also, the battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915; the Siege of Kut in April 1916, in which 10,000 Indians died; and the taking of Haifa in September 1918 where the Indian cavalry finally rode into action. How does India view its role in the war nowadays? The nationalist struggle understandably casts its shadow over those soldiers who fought for the British empire. But today, a definite space is being created to weave the war and its effects more broadly into India’s complex and contradictory history. How is India planning to commemorate the First World War centenary? More than 1 million Indians were sent overseas for the war, serving in places as diverse as France and Flanders, Mesopotamia, east Africa, Gallipoli and Palestine. There used to be a national amnesia around this. Yet, in the lead-up to the centenary, there has been a quiet but steady swell of interest. An ambitious four-year programme of commemoration has been launched, including plans to hold a conference in Ypres in October, to stage a Remembrance Day parade, to send a party to Gallipoli on Anzac Day in 2015, and to commemorate VC winners. Dr Santanu Das, lecturer at King’s College London. He will be presenting India and the First World War on BBC Four in October 2014

What were the defining events in the First World War for Jamaica? The very fact that Jamaica was able to assist the war effort was very significant. So I’d say that the defining event was the first contingent leaving Jamaica’s shores, rather than any particular battle. How does Jamaica view its role in the war nowadays? The average ‘person on the street’ is unlikely to be aware of Jamaica’s contribution to the war. However, teachers of history, and older members of society who recall their parents’ and grandparents’ experiences, would see the island’s role as being very important, as a leading British colony that sent aid and personnel to help the mother country. How is Jamaica planning to commemorate the First World War centenary? One of the main aspects is an exhibition that will feature ammunition from the war, images of soldiers, excerpts from remembrances and other artefacts. Dalea Bean, lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Mona

West Indian sailors in July 1917. More than 11,000 Jamaicans fought for the Allies during the First World War

First World War / The global view

“During the Soviet era, the war was marginalised and criticised as being an imperialist con lict, and its heroes denigrated” How important is the First World War to Russia’s history? It’s tremendously important because it changed our history in many ways. It led to the collapse of the empire and the formation of the Soviet Union. It also greatly increased secessionist nationalism in the peripheries of the empire and undermined Russian nationalism. What were the defining events in the First World War for Russia? If we’re thinking about a narrative of glorious achievement then it would be the Brusilov offensive against the Habsburg empire in 1916. However, in historical terms it was the 1915 German offensive that captured a huge portion of the western borderlands of the empire, changed the public mood dramatically and set in train the events that would lead to the 1917 revolution. How does Russia view its role in the war nowadays? Most people in Russia feel nothing about the war. There is no equivalent to Britain where you have monuments such as the cenotaph as a site for collective memory. During the Soviet era, the war was deliberately marginalised and criticised as being an imperialist conflict, and its heroes were denigrated. If people do think about the war today, it is normally about how it led to the collapse of social order and the revolution, which is now generally viewed as mostly bad. How is Russia planning to commemorate the First World War centenary? The plans are not totally clear yet but there will probably be some renovation of cemeteries and opening of new monuments, although this isn’t always possible because many battles took place in areas that do not belong to Russia any more. In the past, the First World War was largely a forgotten event, overshadowed by the 1917 revolution, but now the government is trying to build it into a narrative of Russian military glory, as part of the growing patriotic mood. Alexei Miller, visiting professor at Central European University and professor at the European University in St Petersburg

Serbia

The USA

“Among Serbian historians, the view that Germany is to blame for the war seems to be dominant”

“The war signalled the US’s emergence as a world inancial power and major player in global politics”

How important is the First World War to Serbia’s history? It’s hugely important, although it wasn’t discussed much until the centenary approached. After the Second World War a communist-led Yugoslavia emerged, founded on the anti-fascist struggle and the rejection of the interwar Yugoslavia, so Serbia’s sacrifices in the First World War seemed less relevant. Another reason for it not being discussed may be that one of the outcomes of the war was that Serbia ceased to exist – not something to celebrate from a nationalist point of view!

How important is the First World War to US history? The war is seen as a turning point in several ways: the emergence of the US as a financial power and major player in global politics; the emergence of the possibilities of civil rights for minorities; women’s contribution to the war effort; and the creation of a large military force.

What were the defining events in the First World War for Serbia? The AustroGavrilo Princip awaits Hungarian his trial in 1914 attack on 28 July 1914, the heroic resistance of the Serbian army, and the epic withdrawal to the Greek island of Corfu. The other major event was the liberation of Serbia and other South Slavs, which led to the creation of Yugoslavia in December 1918. The main themes are defiance against AustriaHungary, the struggle for independence, huge sacrifices and an ultimate victory, with the Allies’ help. How does Serbia view its role in the war nowadays? The dominant view is that Serbia was a victim of Austro-Hungarian imperialism, that Franz Ferdinand’s assassin, Gavrilo Princip, was a freedom fighter, and that Serbia was not responsible for the war. Although there are different interpretations among historians, the war is blamed on Germany and Austria-Hungary. How is Serbia planning to commemorate the First World War centenary? The government has repeatedly stated it will mark the centenary, but hasn’t done much as of yet. There have been other priorities: the country had elections earlier this year, and has recently had catastrophic floods. Leading government figures have touched on the war in recent speeches, often criticising historical ‘revisionism’ that allegedly places blame on Serbia.

What were the defining events in the First World War for the US? One of the major events was the mobilisation of the country for war, followed by the training of hundreds of thousands of troops. Another key development was the emergence of the American Expeditionary Forces as a fighting outfit. How does the US view its role in the war nowadays? It is hard to gauge the entire country’s view. In areas where there were military camps and where army units were raised, there tends to be more of a collective memory. The war is taught in public school systems, but sometimes not in great depth. However, the centenary has inspired a growing interest in the war, as Americans are fond of anniversaries. How is the US planning to commemorate the First World War centenary? The United States World War I Centennial Commission is marking the American years of direct involvement, 1917–18, through programmes, conferences, online presence and community support. Here, at the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, we have identified different themes for each year of the conflict. We’re beginning in 2014 with the question of why global war broke out. Doran Cart, senior curator at the National World War I Museum For details of First World War centenary events in Britain, turn to page 90

´ director of the Centre for the Dr Dejan Djokic, Study of the Balkans, Goldsmiths A woman working in an College, University of London

44

American munitions factory, 1914–18

BBC History Magazine

GETTY IMAGES

Russia

History in your hands William Shakespeare 450th Birthday

Invest in a piece of history from Jersey Stamps Military to literature, Royalty to Romans, Jersey Stamps have history covered. All Jersey stamp issues are available as First Day Covers and Presentation packs, each providing fascinating insights into the subject. New titles are being issued all the time so why not take a look at www.jerseystamps.com and pick up your very own piece of history.

Artistic representations of Shakespeare’s most famous plays are presented on a set of six stamps with a dramatic portrait of the playwright featured on the Miniature Sheet.

D-Day +70 Anniversary of the Normandy landings Six stamps and a Miniature Sheet commemorate the Normandy landings of 6 June 1944, a key turning point of World War II in Europe.

A first for British stamps! Real growable poppy seeds on stamps

su is g in m co

Jersey Post is making a donation to the Jersey branch of the Royal British Legion from the sales of this issue.

e

This set of six stamps and a Miniature Sheet presents delicate watercolours of field poppies to commemorate the Centenary of the First World War. th

The Royal Mace was presented to the Bailiff of Jersey by King Charles II in 1663 in gratitude for the Island’s hospitality and protection during the future King’s years of exile.

Remembrance 2014

Issue date 27 August 2014 Featuring original illustrations by Time Team’s Victor Ambrus, this set of six stamps and a Miniature Sheet offer a fascinating insight into the Roman occupation of the island of Jersey and its influence on local lifestyle and culture.

Fo r

350th Anniversary of the Jersey Royal Mace

Jersey’s Roman connections

View the full range and order online

www.jerseystamps.com Email: [email protected] or call us on +44 (0) 1534 516320 Write to us at Jersey Philatelic Bureau, POHQ, JERSEY, JE1 1AB @JerseyStamps Follow us: / jerseystamps

The Great War 100 Years See website for details

Tutankhamun

THE HISTORY ESSAY

WHAT KILLED TUTANKHAMUN? Ever since Howard Carter found his tomb 90 years ago, Egyptologists have been striving to establish how the iconic pharaoh met his end By Chris Naunton

46

BBC History Magazine

GRIFFITH INSTITUTE/UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

The archaeologist Howard Carter examines Tutankhamun’s coffin. Carter lamented how little we know about the boy-king’s life and death, but modern investigative techniques are slowly shining a light into the gloom

THE HISTORY ESSAY

n 1922, Howard Carter and his team made what would become perhaps the greatest archaeological discovery of all time. It was the intact tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty: Tutankhamun. The ‘boy-king’ has since become one of the most famous figures from the ancient world and his face – more

CHRIS NAUNTON

I

particularly his golden death mask – provides us with one of the most iconic images from anywhere, and at any time. The Valley of the Kings was the burial place of the pharaohs throughout the great era we now call the New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC), and its use helps to define the period. Fast-forward 3,000 years, and the valley was the site of a series of spectacular discoveries in the 19th and early 20th centuries AD. A map made by Napoleon’s scientific expedition in the early 1800s recorded the position of 16 tombs. By the time of the First World War, that number had risen to 61. The great American lawyer and patron of work in the valley, Theodore Davis, was responsible for many of the more recent of these discoveries, but in 1914, after a couple of disappointing seasons, he declared the valley to be “exhausted”. Carter, however, thought otherwise, believing there still to be tombs left undiscovered, including that of Tutankhamun. Under the patronage of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon he began excavations in the valley in 1917. After a few unproductive seasons, and with Carnarvon’s patience very nearly exhausted, he made the greatest discovery of them all. Although he does not appear in any contemporary king-lists, scholars were aware of Tutankhamun prior to Carter’s masterstroke, and that he had reigned at least into a ninth year. He was believed, correctly, to have been a king of the Amarna period (when the pharaohs’ residence was sited in the city of Amarna). He was also noted for his role in reintroducing the worship of the god Amun, following the reign of his predecessor and probable father, Akhenaten, who had abandoned traditional Egyptian polytheism and introduced worship centred on the god Aten. This much is revealed by the fact that Tut changed his name at some point from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun. A scattering of decorated blocks bearing Tutankhamun’s inscriptions showed that he had been a builder, but otherwise he remained shrouded in mystery. Although the contents of his tomb were astonishing, they did not lead to any great leaps forward in what we know about the king or his times. This led Carter to lament that “of what he was and what he did we are still sadly to seek”. The one element of the discovery that had the potential to tell us most about the life and death of

the king was his mummified body. Tutankhamun’s remains have been studied at first-hand on four occasions. First, on 11 November 1925, the body was examined by Carter and a team of forensic experts led by Douglas Derry, an anatomist at the Government School of Medicine in Cairo. In 1968 a team from Liverpool University, headed by Ronald Harrison, produced a series of x-ray images of the mummy, which enabled Egyptologists to carry out a more detailed study than had previously been possible. Then, in 1978, Dr James Harris conducted a closer examination of the skull and teeth, with the help of new x-ray technology. Finally, in 2005, a team led by Dr Zahi Hawass performed a CT scan of the mummy and, in doing so, generated the most detailed images of the body yet. Collectively, these studies have established that Tutankhamun died between the ages of 17 and 19, more or less as Carter and Derry had concluded, and was between 1.6 and 1.7 metres (5ft 2in and 5ft 6in) tall. Beyond this, however, very little is certain. There has been a great deal of speculation about the various medical conditions that may have afflicted Tutankhamun during his lifetime, and to what extent these contributed to his death. Possibilities suggested over the years include general physical weakness, perhaps caused by in-breeding within the royal family (which almost certainly did occur); pectus carinatum, or pigeon chest; and even ‘Tutankhamun syndrome’, with symptoms such as breast development, sagging abdominal wall and flat feet. Secondary evidence, such as the presence of walking sticks in the tomb, and Tutankhamun’s representation in the art of the times, has sparked further speculation. The debate has also been influenced by depictions of Akhenaten, who was often shown as being a grotesque, almost deformed figure. Yet, no one knows whether this was an attempt to capture the likeness of a king genuinely suffering from some kind of illness or a mere artistic convention. Foremost among the theories on Tutankhamun’s death – at least in terms of the amount of attention it has gathered – is the idea that he may have been the victim of foul play. During the 1968 investigation, Harrison observed a small piece of bone inside, and apparently detached from, the skull. This led Tutankhamun’s solid-gold death mask has helped make the king one of the most instantly recognisable figures in history

BBC History Magazine

47

Tutankhamun THE HISTORY ESSAY

“CT scans from 2005 revealed that Tutankhamun had suffered a fracture to the left femur, and it appears that this occurred during the last few days of his life” At this point, it’s worth emphasising just how unusual Tutankhamun’s mummy is. It displays a series of highly unusual features, particularly around the torso, where a number of the ribs and a section of the left pelvis are completely missing. The embalming incision through which certain internal organs would have been removed – as was standard – is in the wrong place and considerably larger than normal; much of the soft tissue inside the chest cavity was removed and replaced with rolls of linen; and the arms were crossed in an unusually low position. Finally, the heart, which would not normally have been removed and which was crucial for the survival of the individual into the afterlife, was missing. It was clear that if these anomalies were the result of some kind of injury, they might well provide the clues as to the cause of death.

him to suggest that the king may have suffered a blow to the head, and others to conclude that this was evidence that the boy-king had been murdered. In light of further scrutiny of Harrison’s x-rays and the 2005 CT scan data, most experts now agree that the detached bone was the result of a postmortem, and nothing whatsoever to do with the king’s demise. Yet this still hasn’t prevented the theory taking hold that he was murdered. Dr Hawass’s investigations in 2005 led to a new theory gaining traction. The CT scans revealed that the king had suffered a fracture to the left femur. Perhaps more important was the observation that an amount of embalming fluid had entered the break. This suggested that the wound that caused it was still open at the time of death, and also that there were no signs that it had started to heal. On this basis, the fracture probably occurred in the last few days of the king’s life. While this alone could not have killed the king, Hawass’s team has suggested that the wound may have become infected, and that it was this that finally finished Tutankhamun off. Yet, even this has failed to persuade everyone. In a recent book on the subject, Hawass notes that his theory was not shared by every member of the team.

B

The first x-ray of Tut – showing a piece of bone (circled) detached from the skull – sparked speculation that his death was the result of foul play

48

BBC History Magazine

CHRIS NAUNTON/UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL

A cartouche of the king when his name was Tutankhaten, ‘the living image of Aten’. He later reintroduced worship of the god Amun, and changed his name to the more familiar Tutankhamun

ut one question we have to answer is to what extent these injuries might have been caused by Carter and his team when they removed the mummy from its nest of coffins. Carter’s notes on the process, which are freely accessible online thanks to the magnificent efforts of our colleagues at the Griffith Institute in Oxford, are full of references to the difficulties in separating each of Tutankhamun’s three coffins, first of all from the sarcophagus and subsequently from one another. (The two smaller coffins sat snugly inside the largest one in a ‘Russian doll’ arrangement.) The mummy itself was a very tight fit for the innermost coffin, and was stuck fast to the inside by a layer of embalming oil, which had been poured over the king’s body. The team tried various methods to loosen it, and even left it out in the sun in the vain hope that the heat would help to melt the oils. Derry’s autopsy had, in the end, to be carried out while the mummy was still in the coffin and the death mask still in place. Tutankhamun’s body was adorned with jewels and other precious paraphernalia, much of which the team had difficulty in removing. At the time the body was reinterred in the tomb, having finally been unwrapped and lain on a sand bed, the king was still wearing a skullcap and a beaded necklace. By the time of Harrison’s examination in 1968, both were missing. Harrison’s x-rays showed clearly the damage to the thorax and missing ribs, but this was something that Derry had not observed. This has led some to suggest that at some point the mummy was illicitly disturbed in order that the skull cap and necklace could be stolen, and that the robbers removed a section of the human remains, including the missing ribs, in order to free the booty. However, it is perfectly possible that Derry was unaware that the ribs were missing given he did not have the benefit of x-rays. What’s more, there is evidence that they were removed in ancient times: while some of the ribs were broken, others were cut smoothly, and the linen packing beneath them was

BRIDGEMAN

THE HISTORY ESSAY

King Tut’s bust is carried from his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, after the initial discovery of the mummy in 1922. Egyptologists are still trying to establish how much damage Howard Carter’s team did to the body when they removed it from its innermost coffin

BBC History Magazine

49

Tutankhamun THE HISTORY ESSAY

undisturbed. Egyptologist W Benson Harer argues that the direction of the cuts suggest they could only have been made prior to the body being packed, and also that the bones must have been fresh when this took place, as older bone cannot be cut so cleanly. Harer also suggests that the king’s torso was damaged in a massive accident, which forced the embalmers to remove the ribs, heart and perhaps other parts of the soft tissue to give the body a superficially normal appearance in preparation for mummification. This is persuasive. But what kind of accident could have brought this about? While filming a 2013 Channel 4 documentary examining the death and burial of Tutankhamun, we ascertained that the damage to the mummy seemed to be concentrated around the left-hand side of the torso, from the clavicle downwards, as far as the pelvis: a tall, blunt object, it seemed, had struck the king with great force. No weaponry we knew of could have caused the necessary injury. However, we felt that another theory was worth investigating again: the possibility that Tutankhamun died in a chariot accident, and that, more specifically, the fatal impact was caused by a chariot wheel. A team from Advanced Simtech – a company that, among other things, provides computer-generated simulations of car crashes for the UK courts – used a replica New Kingdom chariot to model the maneuverability and maximum speed that could be achieved using one of these vehicles. (Several chariots were found in Tutankhamun’s

Howard Carter (left) and his patron, Lord Carnarvon, pictured as they were about to enter the burial chamber

50

tomb, and were a common feature of the iconography of kingship during the New Kingdom.) This information, and what is known of the king’s height and likely weight, was then used to test a series of accident scenarios to establish whether any could have produced the injuries Tutankhamun sustained. Given the forces involved, it was not difficult to create a situation that would have led to serious injury. In almost all cases, however, the most serious injury sustained would have been to the head and neck, and as we have seen, the mummy presents no clear evidence of any such trauma. However, one scenario did appear to result in precisely the injuries we had observed in the mummy. Had the king been kneeling or crouching down and struck by the wheel of the chariot, he would undoubtedly have suffered massive injuries to his torso; and crucially – although the head would, on impact, have been thrown violently forward – it would, at the last moment, have been pulled away before striking the wheel. The victim would undoubtedly have suffered from whiplash but by this point that would hardly have mattered. A team from Cranfield University was called upon to help ascertain whether the injuries sustained in such an accident would have been enough to cause the king’s death. To do this, we needed to know what the effect of a chariot wheel impacting the human rib cage at high velocity would be. The team modelled the forces involved and conducted a test using the rib cage and flesh of a pig procured from a local butcher. Unsurprisingly the test showed that the impact would puncture the ribs and that the wheel would have penetrated the soft tissue underneath by at least an inch or two, enough to cause massive internal damage. In modern times, had paramedics been on hand quickly enough, there is a chance that the victim of such an accident could survive. In New Kingdom Egypt this would not have been the case. We can only speculate as to how the king might have come to be in such a position. He may have fallen out of his own chariot and been picking himself up when another came careering into him from behind. Or could, just could, he have been killed in battle? It had been thought for a long time that Tutankhamun had never been actively engaged in war – there was no clear evidence for it. But that has now changed. Dr Raymond Johnson of the University of Chicago has spent many years studying the decorated blocks scattered throughout the temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor, which represent the remains of now-dismantled temples. Many of these appear to have come from monuments erected by Tutankhamun and, after years of painstaking work piecing together these vast jigsaw puzzles, Dr Johnson has concluded that the young king may well have been actively engaged in battle. Several scenes have emerged, apparently showing a military campaign in Nubia. Another shows Tutankhamun in a chariot leading the Egyptian forces against a Syrian-style citadel. This strengthens the possibility that Tutankhamun may have been injured in a chariot accident on the battlefield.

BBC History Magazine

CORBIS

“One Egyptologist suggests that the king’s torso was damaged in a massive accident, which forced the embalmers to remove the ribs, heart and perhaps other parts of the soft tissue”

THE HISTORY ESSAY

“Tutankhamun may have fallen out of his own chariot and been picking himself up when another came careering into him from behind”

CHRIS NAUNTON

The gods Anubis (left) and Hathor (shown in part, far right) flank Tutankhamun on the southern wall of the king’s burial chamber. They are holding Ankhs which symbolise the pharaoh’s eternal life in the afterworld

We cannot know for certain that this is what happened, but it is as credible as any other hypothesis put forward so far, and provides an explanation for the mummy’s most puzzling anomalies. We have no idea, in fact, how the vast majority of Egyptian kings died but it’s perhaps worth noting also that, in most other cases, few people have cared enough to ask the question. Tutankhamun, by contrast, continues to fascinate us. In terms of his life and achievements, the king remains almost as obscure as he was before his tomb was revealed. And yet its contents, including the remains of the man himself, have, more than 3,000 years after his demise, made him one of the most famous individuals ever to have lived. Like all ancient Egyptians, Tutankhamun would have wished for that very Egyptian immortality encapsulated in the phrase ‘to cause his name to live’. Whatever his Earthly achievements, whatever the circumstances of his life and death, he has perhaps been more successful in this than anyone else from that great civilisation.

BBC History Magazine

Dr Chris Naunton is an Egyptologist and director of the Egypt Exploration Society DISCOVER MORE EXHIBITION E Discovering Tutankhamun is telling the story of Howard

Carter’s famous 1922 excavation, at the Ashmolean Museum from 24 July–2 November. ashmolean.org BOOKS E The Shadow King by Jo Marchant (Da Capo Press, 2013) E The Complete Tutankhamun by Nicholas Reeves

(Thames & Hudson, 2007) WEBSITE E For Howard Carter’s notes, official excavation photographs

and other documents relating to the discovery of the tomb visit the Griffith Institute website: griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringTut

51

Free one month trial to the digital edition

All offers, prices and discounts are correct at the time of being published and may be subject to change

BBC History Magazine is Britain’s bestselling history magazine. We feature leading historians writing lively and thought-provoking new takes on the great events of the past.

FREE

one month trial* Have BBC History Magazine delivered straight to your device when you take out a one month FREE trial* *The trial period is for 30 days and after your trial period your subscription will continue at £2.99 per month

All offers, prices and discounts are correct at the time of being published and may be subject to change

The first Roman emperor

THE BLOO AUGUSTU Adrian Goldsworthy, author of a new biography of Augustus, reveals how Julius Caesar’s teenage heir slaughtered his way to power

efore his death 2,000 years ago in August AD 14, the ageing Roman emperor Augustus composed a political statement that recorded his unprecedented bid for power, half a century earlier. “At the age of 19 on my own responsibility and at my own expense I raised an army, with which I successfully championed the liberty of the republic when it was oppressed by the tyranny of a faction.” The events to which he was referring began on the Ides of March 44 BC when Roman dictator Julius Caesar was murdered by the self-proclaimed ‘liberators’. It was only at Caesar’s funeral that it was discovered that his great-nephew Augustus – then called Caius Octavius and from an obscure family – had been named as the murdered ruler’s principal heir. The teenager chose to interpret this legacy as full adoption, and announced that he intended to succeed not simply to Caesar’s wealth and name, but also to his high office. That was not the way politics normally worked in Rome, but these were disturbed times, with the old Republican system of elected magistrates crumbling after decades of violent competition and spells of civil war. The young Augustus used Caesar’s money and name to start raising an army from serving or former soldiers of his charismatic ‘father’. Mark Antony (one of Caesar’s leading subordinates) was already trying to rally the same people to him and did not take his

B

54

young rival seriously, dubbing him “a boy who owes everything to a name”. A Senate urged on by the famous orator Cicero saw Antony as the big threat and feared that he was aiming to seize supreme power by force. In a political system where a man had to be in his forties before he could seek the highest offices of the state, a 19-yearold with no political record seemed to present little danger. Cicero saw a teenager at the head of legions of veteran soldiers and decided that he could be useful. They should “praise the young man, reward him, and discard him”. At first it went well, and Augustus’s veterans played the key role in defeating Antony and driving his army across the Alps. Discarding the young Augustus, however, proved difficult, for his soldiers served him and not the Senate. In the meantime Antony allied with another of Caesar’s old supporters, Lepidus, and so became stronger than ever. Augustus now decided to join them, so that all of the murdered dictator’s supporters and

soldiers were on the same side – at least for the moment. They declared a triumvirate – a board of three supreme magistrates to restore the state, and effectively a joint dictatorship. The first thing the triumvirs did was to order the murder of prominent opponents including Cicero. Marching unopposed into Rome, they posted up proscription lists with names of men who were set outside the protection of law. Anyone could kill a proscribed man, and if they brought his severed head to the authorities they would be rewarded with a share of the victim’s BBC History Magazine

DY RISE OF S

AKG IMAGES

The statue of Imperator Caesar Augustus at Villa of Livia, northern Rome. The first emperor presided over a period of peace and stability but his ascent had been pockmarked by chaos and savagery

BBC History Magazine

55

property, the rest going to the triumvirs to pay their army. Antony, Augustus and Lepidus traded names in a scene brought chillingly to life by Shakespeare: “These many, then, shall die, their names are pricked.” Quite a few of the proscribed managed to escape abroad, but hundreds died. In later years there was a whole genre of stories of dramatic escapes and grim deaths, of rescue and betrayal. The senator Velleius Paterculus concluded that “…one thing, however, demands comment, that toward the proscribed their wives showed greatest loyalty, their freedmen not a little, their slaves some, their sons none”. Opinion was less certain about which of the triumvirs was most brutal in their pursuit of the proscribed, as after the event each tried to shift the blame to his allies. Yet many were shocked that the young Augustus should have had so many enemies he wanted to kill. In the years that followed, a reputation for excessive cruelty clung to him, helped by the frequency with which impassioned pleas for mercy were met with a simple: “You must die.” Antony and Augustus took an army to Greece and defeated two of Caesar’s murderers, Brutus and Cassius, at the battle of Philippi in 42 BC. Antony got most of the credit, both for winning the war and treating captured aristocrats and the remains of the dead with fitting respect. The alliance between the three triumvirs was always based on self interest and came under increasing pressure in the years that followed. It narrowly survived a rebellion led by Antony’s brother Lucius against Augustus, and, after a long struggle, defeated Sextus Pompeius, the son of Julius Caesar’s former

“Many were shocked that Augustus should have had so many enemies he wanted to kill. A reputation for excessive cruelty clung to him” ally, son-in-law, and finally enemy, Pompey the Great. By 36 BC the triumvirate became an alliance between two when Lepidus was marginalised. Augustus kept him in comfortable captivity for the rest of his life, a gesture that mixed mercy with cruelty as it prolonged the humiliation of an ambitious man.

The dispossessed Mark Antony was placed in charge of Rome’s provinces and allies in the eastern Mediterranean after the clash at Philippi. Augustus remained in Italy, where he carried out the task of providing the farms promised as rewards to the triumvirs’ loyal soldiers. The estates of the proscribed were insufficient, and so more and more confiscations were arbitrarily imposed on the towns of Italy. The local gentry suffered the most, leading the poet Virgil to write of the plight of the dispossessed: “Ah, shall I ever, long years hence, look again on my country’s bounds, on my humble cottage with its turf-clad roof?… Is an impious soldier to hold these well-tilled fallows?… See where strife has brought our unhappy citizens!” A reputation for great cruelty clung to Augustus, yet that didn’t stop the Ara Pacis, or altar of peace (pictured here), being built during his reign

56

Augustus got most of the blame for the confiscations in an Italy exhausted by civil war and desperate for stability. As relations with Antony broke down, it was better to wage war against a foreign threat, and so Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, was demonised as a sinister eastern temptress who had corrupted a noble Roman, and turned him against his own people. (In 41 BC, Antony had taken the queen as a lover, renewing the affair three years later). Privately few were fooled, but publicly the ‘whole of Italy’ took an oath to follow Augustus and save Rome from this ‘threat’. Relations between the remaining triumvirs deteriorated until, in 31 BC, the two clashed in battle at Actium in Greece. Antony was defeated and took his own life the next year. With Antony dead, the 33-year-old Augustus faced no serious rivals and, since he took care to monopolise military force, there was no real danger of new challengers appearing. However, that did not mean that the man who had slaughtered his way to power was safe from assassins’ knives, or that it would be easy to create a stable regime. There was little affection for Augustus, but Romans of all classes were desperate for peace, and hoped simply to be able to live without fear of proscription lists and confiscations. This security is what he gave them. His control was veiled, expressed in a way that appeared constitutional, even though the veil was thin since no one could take his powers from him or break his hold over the loyalty of the legions. What mattered was that years and then decades passed, and stability and the rule of law persisted as it had not done in living memory. Peace and the simple virtues of an idealised and now restored past dominate the art and literature of these years. It is also no coincidence that one of the most striking monuments of the Augustan age is the Ara Pacis – the altar of peace (shown left). The peace that Italy enjoyed (after generations of civil strife) did not mean Rome was no longer at war. For at the same time, Augustus boasted of victory after victory won over foreign rulers and peoples, often adding new territory to the empire. Augustus presented himself as the greatest servant of the state, and defeating external enemies was a glorious means of service. He also laboured untiringly and publicly to restore good government throughout the empire, spending his days receiving petitions and resolving the problems long neglected by the inertia of the Senate under the Republic. Rome itself – and, to a degree, communities across Italy and the provinces – was physically renewed, so that Augustus could boast that he had found the city “brick and left it marble”. BBC History Magazine

BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY

The first Roman emperor

TIMELINE

Augustus’s life and times Augustus is born with the name Caius Octavius. His father is a member of the country gentry and the first in the family to enter the Senate at Rome. His mother is Julius Caesar’s niece. Despite this, there is no reason to expect him to have an exceptional career.

23 September 63 BC

15 March 44 BC 43 BC

36 BC Relying heavily on the skill of his friend Agrippa (right), Augustus defeats the fleet of Sextus Pompey. The war has pushed Augustus to breaking point . After one defeat, he was cast ashore with a few attendants and considered suicide.

2 September 31 BC

16 January 27 BC

AKG IMAGES/BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY/ALAMY

Caesar’s heir is given the name Augustus to honour him for his service to the state. He is now Imperator (or ‘generalissimo’) Caesar Augustus, a personal name without any precedent.

Having raised a private army and helped the Senate defeat his great rival Antony, Augustus leads his army back to Rome and demands to be elected consul. Soon afterwards, he joins Antony and Lepidus in the triumvirate. Augustus, once again relying on Agrippa to command his forces, defeats Antony at the battle of Actium fought off the coast of Greece. Antony flees, with no hope of recovering from this disaster. Within a year, he and Cleopatra will kill themselves A cameo commemorates Augustus’s victory at Actium

23 BC Augustus falls seriously ill and is not expected to survive. He publicly hands his signet ring to Agrippa, but doesn’t name a successor to his position. He eventually recovers.

Augustus is named Father of his Country by the Senate. Later in the year scandal rocks his family when he exiles Julia (right), his only child, for serial adultery. Augustus has already adopted her two older sons with Agrippa, but both will die young, leaving Tiberius to succeed.

AD 9

Augustus dies in a family villa at Nola. It’s later rumoured that he was poisoned by his wife, Livia (right), who feared that he planned to change the succession. Augustus’s body is carried in state to Rome, and after a public funeral he is declared a god.

19 August AD 14

BBC History Magazine

On the day Julius Caesar is murdered, Augustus is in Greece, receiving military training ahead of the dictator’s planned invasion of Parthia. A few days later, it emerges that Caesar has nominated Augustus as his principal heir.

2 BC

Three Roman legions led by Varus are wiped out by allies turned enemies among the Germanic tribes at Teutoburg Forest. It is the most serious defeat of Augustus’s career. For days he roams the palace calling out: “Quinctilius Varus, return my legions!”

A re-creation of a Germanic defensive wall at the time of the battle of the Teutoburg Forest

57

The first Roman emperor

There were monuments to his glory, but Caius Julius Caesar (100 44 BC) many of them were also practical amenities The iconic general Caesar was Augustus’s for the wider good, such as aqueducts, great-uncle and joined fountains and sewers, bath-houses for in an informal alliance with Pompey and comfort, temples to restore a proper Crassus, the two most important men in relationship with the gods who protected the state. In 49 BC Pompey and Caesar became rivals when the latter crossed the the Roman people, and theatres and circuses Rubicon and began a new for entertainment. civil war. Caesar won, and Life was more stable under Augustus, and copied Sulla by using the for most people it was also more comfortable. dictatorship as the basis No one was left in any doubt that this happy of his power. When this condition relied upon his continued activity, was made permanent, for Augustus’s name and image was everyhe was murdered by where. Relief at the end of civil war slowly conspirators including became more or less grudging gratitude and Brutus and Cassius. eventually turned into genuine affection. Time played an important part. Augustus Nero (AD 37 68, emperor from 54) ruled for 40 years after the death of Antony, Nero was the last of the and everyone became used to his leadership The bon vivant four members of Augusand the system he had created, while the tus’s extended family to rule. A teenager memories of his bloody rise to power when he came to power, he was fonder of gradually faded. There was no enthusiasm to luxury and performance than government. swap the present peace and prosperity for a Yet his ability to remain in power for 14 return to the violently unpredictable decades years testified to the preceding it. Honour after honour was voted affection for Augustus’s to him by the Senate and people, including family and the acceptance of imperial rule as the title of Father of his Country. natural. In the end he Thanks to this reincarnation as a man lost the support of the of peace, Augustus – the first emperor of army, followed by the Rome – would for centuries also be Senate, and took his remembered as one of the best. own life.

Dr Adrian Goldsworthy will be talking about Augustus at BBC History Magazine’s History Weekend in October – see historyweekend.com. His new book, Augustus: From Revolutionary to Emperor, is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in August

Trajan (AD 53 117, emperor from 98)

The last conqueror Trajan’s family were Roman citizens from Spain, making him the first nonItalian emperor. He was the last of the great conquerors, adding Dacia – modern-day Romania – to the empire in In our September issue, read Harry Sidebottom’s campaigns celebrated on feature about the chaos and bloodshed that plagued Trajan’s Column still the Roman empire in the third century AD visible in Rome. In the last years of his life he DISCOVER MORE invaded Parthia but most of his conquests LISTEN AGAIN there were abandoned E Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss by his successor, the Augustan age on Emperor Hadrian. In Our Time at bbc.co.uk/ programmes/b00ktfmw

58

Lucius Cornelius Sulla (c138 79 BC) The first dictator

In 88 BC Sulla was the first Roman commander to turn his legions against the city of Rome and seize power by force. After fighting a war in the east, he returned in 83 BC and stormed the city a second time. He made himself dictator – turning a temporary emergency measure into the basis for long-term power – and created the first proscriptions, posting up death lists in the Forum, that named hundreds of his opponents.

Tiberius (42 BC AD 37, emperor from AD 14)

The unpopular heir

Augustus’s stepson Tiberius was not first choice as successor, but was adopted in AD 4 after the deaths of Augustus’s grandsons. By the time of Tiberius’s succession, few people were able to imagine a world without an emperor. Tiberius was unpopular and far less active than Augustus. Yet the imperial system became even more firmly established during his rule.

Vespasian (AD 9 79, emperor from 69) Vespasian was the fourth The outsider man to win power in a civil war that raged for over a year after Nero’s death. Neither related to Augustus nor from the old Roman aristocracy, he came from the local gentry of Italy. All of the powers accumulated by Augustus were awarded to Vespasian, and he was followed as emperor by his two sons in turn, giving the empire three decades of stability. He wasn’t loved, but he was widely respected.

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121 180, emperor from 161)

The philosopher

The last of Edward Gibbon’s ‘five good emperors’, Marcus Aurelius was an earnest man, who wrote a philosophical work, The Meditations, and tried to rule virtuously and in the style set by Augustus. His reign was beset by a series of catastrophes, with warfare and plague ravaging the empire. After Aurelius’s reign, civil war would bedevil the empire for over a century.

BBC History Magazine

BRIDGEMAN ART LIBRARY/AKG IMAGES

“Honour after honour was voted to Augustus by the Senate and people, including the title of Father of his Country”

SEVEN OTHER GREAT RULERS OF ROME

W 14 NE 20 R FO

ANNOUNCING THE NEW

FIRST WORLD WAR CENTENARY £5 COIN

OFFER FACE VALUE

£5 for £5

This year, the nation marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.

• Yours for just £5 POSTFREE • FREE Presentation Pack • Historic Heirloom

Today you can own the special commemorative coin that honours all those who served or made the ultimate sacrifice. It is available today for just its FACE VALUE – £5 for £5. The Centenary of the First World War £5 Coin is the perfect heirloom to hand down to your children and grandchildren to ensure we never forget the 16 million who gave their lives during the conflict. As the coin so poignantly reminds us, “At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.”

Diameter: 38.61mm Weight: 28.28g Metal: Cupro-nickel Obverse design: Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS Legal tender only in Guernsey

FREEPOST ORDER FORM Post to: The Westminster Collection : Freepost RSCR-JHCL-HBGT : PO Box 4848 : POOLE : BH12 9GB

3 YES Please send me the First World War Centenary £5 Coin(s) ordered below. (max 5)

Presented in a FREE Presentation Pack, demand for this historic tribute is anticipated to be high.

First World War Centenary £5 coin(s) at £5 each Postage and packing Total

FREE

Order Ref: SFD/626J/0

I enclose my cheque/P.O. for £5 payable to The Westminster Collection Please charge my Mastercard/Visa on despatch. My card no. is EXPIRES

It is available to order now for just £5 POSTFREE. Simply log on to www.westminsterorders.com/SFD626J0, call 0333 0032 777 or complete and return the FREEPOST Order Form opposite.

Your credit card will not be charged until your coin is despatched

Telephone No: (

–––/––––––

) (Please help us to keep you up-to-date with selected special offers)

Email address: (Please help us to keep you up-to-date with selected special offers)

Signed: (All orders must be signed and are subject to acceptance and status)

Mr/Mrs/Miss: Address:

Calls cost 5.105ppm from BT Unlimited Weekend Plan. Mobile and other providers’ charges may vary. © 2014 The Westminster Collection - a trading division of 288 Group Limited : Registered No. 2000413 : Russell House, Oxford Road, Bournemouth, BH8 8EX

Postcode: We offer you the opportunity to receive information from other respected organisations about their products and services. If you prefer not to receive this information, please tick this box [ ].

Reflecting on Liverpool’s Home Front

We were founded to provide ‘comfort, cheer and entertainment’ to those wounded in the Great War and for the last 94 years we have supported men and women wounded in all wars and campaigns since. Each year thousands of individuals of all ages benefit from our unique programme of holidays, events, concerts, outings and the provision of televisions and TV licences. $VDVPDOOQRQIXQGUDLVLQJFKDULW\ZHUHO\WRWDOO\RQ WKH JHQHURVLW\ RI WKRVH ZKR UHFRJQLVH WKH YDOXH RI RXU ZRUN ,W LV RQO\ ZLWK VXFK VXSSRUW WKDW ZH FDQ FRQWLQXH WR HQVXUH WKDW WKRVH ZKR VXIIHU LQ WKH FRXUVHRIWKHLUGXW\DUHQRWIRUJRWWHQ

7RÀQGRXWPRUHFRQWDFW 7KH1RW)RUJRWWHQ$VVRFLDWLRQ *URVYHQRU*DUGHQV/RQGRQ6::'+ WHO ZZZQIDVVRFLDWLRQRUJ &KDULW\1R HPDLOLQIR#QIDVVRFLDWLRQRUJ

�*LOHV3ULFH

FIRST WORLD WAR

)URP&RPUDGHVKLSWR&KDOOHQJH™

&$5',))�'85+$0�*,//,1*+$0 /,&+),(/'�/21'21�35(6721

23 July 2014 to 1 March 2015 FREE ENTRY liverpoolmuseums.org.uk @MuseumLiverpool

Find out about our commemorative partnership exhibitions taking place across the country. For information about more First World War activities visit: ZZZQDPDFXN¿UVWZRUOGZDU

The Tudor war on dirt

“Mooke, fylthe and other vyle things” Pamela Hartshorne describes householders’ daily battles with rotting vegetation, dung heaps and overflowing cesspits in Tudor England ILLUSTRATIONS BY BECCA THORNE

BBC History Magazine

61

The Tudor war on dirt

aeces, dung and droppings… blood, urine and slops. These words hardly conjure the drama and glamour of Shakespeare’s Globe or the Elizabethan court, but for the ordinary inhabitants of Tudor towns, they were an everyday fact of life. The average householder lived on a narrow street crowded with people and animals: horse-drawn carts blocked the way, flocks of geese were herded to market, sheep and cattle were driven to be sold or slaughtered, hens pecked in the yards, dogs and cats scavenged, and then there were the rats, mice and pigeons… Together, they produced a mountain of “mooke and fylthe”: entrails, bones and scales, fur and feathers, which mingled with rotting vegetation, food scraps, general household rubbish, dust, mud, ashes, the sweepings from workshop floors and “other vyle things”. So if you’d have been a householder in Tudor England, how would you have gone about winning the daily war with waste? Here, with some help from the city archives of 16thcentury York, are some tips… 62

TOPFOTO

F

BBC History Magazine

As a Tudor householder, how would you have dealt with your rubbish? You’d probably have had some hens scratching around in your back yard, and they’d have eaten most of the vegetable waste. Any other scraps went to the pig, assuming you had one. Pigs eat everything – it was known for some wretched maids who had given birth to unwanted babies to try and dispose of them in pigsties – and you could feed them blood, entrails, bones or anything else you couldn’t use in your cooking. Pigs had to be penned in a sty and not allowed to root around in the streets where they spread muck and posed a threat to children. You had to make sure your servant didn’t carry any buckets of such refuse before 9pm, or risk a fine of 6s 8d. Maidservants cleaned the house of dust and ashes, sweeping the floors and changing the rushes. All these ‘sweepings’ and any other rubbish could be piled up outside the front door from where it was taken away on dung carts by officials called ‘scavengers’ (see cesspits box on p64) three times a week. In 1580, collection days were Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The rubbish was collected early in the morning, but householders had to beware of allowing their servants to put out the household filth before 7pm – as the barker (a kind of tanner) Thomas Rogerly did – or they’d be liable for a fine of 3s 4d. Rubbish put out too early blocked the narrow streets and was a nuisance to everyone. You could always send your servant to the midden (a dump for domestic waste) with any rubbish, too. A convenient place was set aside within every ward for a neighbourhood dung heap. The 1575 Monk ward midden was in Thomas Barker’s garden in Elbow Lane, just inside York’s city walls at Monk Bar. Unfortunately, Barker was a rogue who restricted access to the midden and tried to sell the dung for his own profit. However, if you were a householder in the ward, you were entitled to take anything you needed for free.

If the street outside your front door was filthy, could you complain to the council?

XXXXXXXXXXX

No. As a householder you were responsible for cleaning and maintaining the street adjoining your property, up to and including the gutter. You had to sweep any dirt or rubbish into a pile at your front door, repair any paving and scour the gutter to make sure there were no obstructions to the flow of water. If your street was narrow, there would have been just one gutter running down the middle of the street, but in wider streets there was a gutter on either side. The city’s chamberlains were responsible for cleaning and paving that middle part, as well as the markets. You could certainly complain that they hadn’t done as they should and ask them to maintain it better. BBC History Magazine

63

The Tudor war on dirt

Send for the scavengers! They were paid to clear away filth and rubbish from the cesspits, which were lined with brick so that they could be cleaned out. It wasn’t the most pleasant job in the world, but the scavengers were happy to sell the contents of cesspits as fertiliser for the fields and gardens outside the city walls. Human and animal waste might smell, but it was only regarded as a problem when causing an obstruction in the street or sewers. The rest of the time it was a valuable commodity, and none of it went to waste. It didn’t pay to let it accumulate in a dung heap at your door or let your servant be lazy and toss it over the wall. Your neighbours wouldn’t have appreciated it, and you might well have been fined, like Miles Robinson, a butcher, who was told to remove “all that great dunghill” lying in his yard in Davygate, central York. Not only was this “very noisome” to his neighbours but also “most perilous for infecting the aire”.

Where would you have gone to the loo? The average Tudor householder would have had a pot in their chamber – just in case they got caught short at night – but that didn’t mean they could dispose of the contents out of the window with a careless warning of ‘Gardyloo!’ Contrary to popular belief, the practice was frowned upon, and might incur a fine. For example, one York resident, John Myn, had to stump up 2s in 1495 for throwing human urine and other “sordida” into the street at night. Instead, you were best advised to empty your chamber pot into the cesspit in your yard, which probably had a privy built over it. If your property backed on to a river or ditch, you may have considered building a latrine, or a ‘jakes’, out over the water – but only if you weren’t worried about offending your neighbours. The ditches were sewers, and as faeces built up under private latrines, they tended to block the flow of water. It didn’t matter how rich or important you were. The Dean of York himself was threatened with a massive £3 fine in 1579 if he didn’t remove a privy over the Queen’s Dike, a major ditch that ran through the city. Of course, he might have ignored the warning, but still, people didn’t like it so if you wanted to fit in, you were best advised to use your cesspit.

How often did you have to clean the street? Usually once a week, although in 1550 it was decided that all the inhabitants of York were to ensure that the street in front of their houses was “twyse clensyd and swepyd every weyk”. If you only needed to set your servant to sweeping and scouring once a week it would probably be on Saturday so that the city was clean for the holiest day. In 1572 householders were ordered to “make clene before their dores every Saturday at night and to cary away the filth or myre soo that no filth or myre remayne ther apon any Sonday in the morning”.

What if you were unfortunate enough to live next door to a filthy neighbour? You could complain to the wardmote jury. Twice a year, all the men in the ward were summoned to a meeting. At this wardmote, 15 to 20 men were appointed to an inquest jury. Their task was to walk around the parishes that made up the ward and make a note of any problems that affected the community: blocked gutters, potholes, obstructions, broken fences, anti-social behaviour, and infringements of common grazing rights. The juries were quick to clamp down on those who didn’t do their bit to maintain the environment. So, your neighbour would have been required to scour the gutter and to clean and repair the paving in front of their house before a given date. If they didn’t, they’d have been fined at the next wardmote court. A list was made of everyone who was ‘laid in pain’, as this process was known, and it was then checked at the following court, when all those who hadn’t complied were recorded as having been fined. Luckily, a complete set of records for the years 1575–86 survives in the 21st-century York city archives. A comparison of people ‘laid in pain’ and those that the authorities went on to fine shows that most people did as they were told. To our 21st-century noses, the Tudor city would have seemed a smelly place, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that your ancestors didn’t care about the conditions in which they lived or that they didn’t try their best to keep their city clean by their own standards. Pamela Hartshorne is a research associate at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, and is also an author and freelance editor. pamelahartshorne.com

DISCOVER MORE BOOK E Hubbub: Filth, Noise and Stench in England

by Emily Cockayne (Yale, 2007)

64

BBC History Magazine

BECCATHORNE.CO.UK

What did you do when your cesspits started overflowing?

I M P O R TA N T N E W C O I N A N N O U N C E M E N T The Union Flag is proudly accented in full colour Fully layered with pure 24 carat gold

Each coin uniquely numbered here

Apply now and it may be yours for just £9.95

A new crown commemorating com mmemoratting tthe mmem he

Shown larger than actual size of 38.6 mm in diameter

First World War Centenary

fully layered with pure 24 carat gold, yours for just £9.95 KEY DETAILS EVENT: The First World War Centenary, honouring all who fought for their country LIMITED RELEASE: The edition limit of this coin is 49,995. Only 1 in every 500 British households will be able to own one AUTHENTICATION: Each coin is uniquely numbered and comes with a certificate of authenticity. HIGH SPECIFICATION: Intended as a collectors’ item this crown is fully layered with pure 24 carat gold and the Union Flag is accented in full colour YOURS FOR ONLY £9.95 (plus £2.99 S&H)*: an informative Certificate of Authenticity is included FREE of charge and successful applicants enjoy other benefits (see right)

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM: This year marks the centenary of the First World War, the “war to end all wars”. There are generations alive today who have no direct knowledge of this conflict or of the sacrifice made by all who fought for their country, making it more important than ever that we remember them with a lasting commemoration using the words from the famous 1914 war poem known as the ‘Ode Of Remembrance’. A crown coin has been released to mark this important anniversary. Struck to a high specification, only 49,995 are available. Applications are now open for the ‘Ode Of Remembrance’ Golden Crown, fully layered with pure 24 carat gold and accented in full colour, for just £9.95 (plus £2.99 S&H)*. This offer is likely to attract considerable interest, and not just from collectors.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR APPLICANTS 1. You may apply now to secure the 'Ode Of Remembrance' Golden Crown for just £9.95 (plus £2.99 S&H)*. A Certificate of Authenticity is included at no additional cost. 2. Apply now: Applications will be approved in strict order of receipt. if your application is successful you will be notified in writing within 7 days. Offer is limited to one coin per household. 3. Successful applicants will qualify to view the next coin in 'The First World War Centenary Crown Collection', a series of six gold layered crowns commemorating major campaigns of the First World War. These further crowns, which may be yours for only £29.95 (plus £2.99 S&H)* each will be sent at monthly intervals after your 'Ode Of Remembrance' Golden Crown. Each will be yours to view on approval for 14 days. You may cancel at any time. 4. To apply now, send the coupon below, or for priority call free on 0333 003 0019. Lines open Mon-Fri 9.00am-8.00pm and Sat 9.00am-5.30pm. *Calls to 0333 numbers are chargeable at local rates from both UK landline and mobile phones but they are also included in most network providers’ ‘free minutes’ packages.

FORMAL APPLICATION

THE ‘ODE OF REMEMBRANCE’ GOLDEN CROWN

YES, I wish to formally apply for the 'Ode Of Remembrance' Golden Crown, to be delivered to my UK mainland address, for just £9.95 (plus £2.99 shipping and handling). An informative Certificate of Authenticity is included, free of charge. I do not need to send any money now. If my application is successful I will be notified in writing within 7 days. I understand I can apply for only one coin, and that my application should be made within 7 days. I may return the coin within 14 days if I am not satisfied. I confirm I am aged 18 years or over. Applications are only open to UK mainland households and is limited to one coin per household.

Send this coupon postfree to: FREEPOST RRHH RCLL BCAC, BRADFORD EXCHANGE, STOKE ON TRENT, ST4 4RX Order reference:

306829 Title

Apply by telephone on Mr

Mrs

Ms

Miss

0333 003 0019 Other _______________

Name Address

Postcode

Telephone (0

)

Signature

From time to time, the Bradford Exchange may allow carefully screened companies to contact you. If you do not wish to receive such offers, please tick box © The Bradford Exchange. Offer applies UK only and is subject to availability. Full Terms and Conditions are available on request. The Bradford Exchange Ltd, 1 Castle Yard, Richmond, Surrey TW10 6TF. Our guarantee is in addition to your Statutory Rights, which include a right to cancel your order for any non-personalised item under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations. * S&H – Service and Handling Calls to 0333 numbers are chargable at local rates from both UK landline and mobile phones but they are also included in most network providers “free minutes” packages. 426-COM14.01

The 3LZ[>L-VYNL[-PN\YPUL has been endorsed by the Lest We Forget Association (charity number 200390).

Join us at BBC History BBC History Magazine’s

History Weekend 2014 Thursday 16 October – Sunday 19 October 2014 Malmesbury, Wiltshire Head to historyweekend.com for a full rundown of the programme, talk timings, speaker details and to buy tickets. There you will also find information about travel and accommodation for the weekend. *Reduced ticket prices for BBC History Magazine subscribers. Turn to page 52 to subscribe today

MAGAZINE IN ASSOCIATION WITH AND

/thehistoryweekend

@historyweekend

This BBC History Magazine event is held under licence from BBC Worldwide, who fund new BBC programmes.

Magazine’s weekend of historical talks Tickets on sale now*

THE SPEAKERS

Paddy Ashdown The French Resistance and the Battle for the Vercors 1944

Roderick Bailey Killing Benny: Britain’s Plans to Assassinate Mussolini

Juliet Barker The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381

Peter Barton World War One Sessions: Challenging History

Tracy Borman Who was the Real Thomas Cromwell?

Helen Castor Joan of Arc: A History

Jessie Childs Bloody Bess? Terror and Faith in Elizabethan England

Saul David Wellington: The Iron Duke

Adrian Goldsworthy Caesar Augustus: From Revolutionary to Emperor

Janice Hadlow The Strangest Family: The Private Life of George III

Charlotte Higgins Under Another Sky: Journeys in Roman Britain

James Holland The Second World War in the West: A New History

Tom Holland Islam: Grave-Digger or Climax of Antiquity?

Ronald Hutton Britain’s Pagan Heritage

Dan Jones The Wars of the Roses: Fall of the Plantagenets and Rise of the Tudors

Heather Jones World War One Sessions: British PoWs in German Captivity

Giles Kristian Viking Adventures and Chasing the Muse

Kwasi Kwarteng War and Gold

Suzannah Lipscomb Hilary Mantel Magnificence, Love and Thomas Cromwell in Fiction Scaffolds: Politics at the Court of Henry VIII

Rana Mitter Forgotten Ally: Why China’s World War II Matters

David Olusoga World War One Sessions: The World’s War

Janina Ramirez The Hundred Years’ War in 20 Objects

Andrew Roberts Napoleon the Great

Miles Russell The Lost Voices of Celtic Britain

Dominic Sandbrook Anthony Sattin The Top 10 Defining Lawrence of Moments in British Carchemish History Since 1945

Harry Sidebottom The Crisis of the Roman Empire in the Third Century AD

Chris Skidmore Dan Snow Richard III: Inside the Myths and Realities Mind of England’s Most of World War One Controversial King

Charles Spencer The Killers of the King

Mark Stoyle Witchcraft and Propaganda During the English Civil War

Richard Vinen Conscription and the National Service Generation, 1945–1963

Justin Marozzi Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood

Anna Whitelock In Bed with the Queen: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Intimacy

Book now at historyweekend.com Toby Wilkinson The Nile: Downriver Through Egypt’s Past and Present

Sam Willis Britain’s Greatest Naval Dispatches

or call 0871 620 4021

Calls to this number cost 10p per minute plus network extras. Lines are open 24 hours a day.

*Reduced ticket prices for BBC History Magazine subscribers

the best of writing from the front and beyond with B

Birlinn Limited

B

For more information visit www.birlinn.co.uk

World War I

Debating the Issues, Debunking the Myths b Did alcohol kill more soldiers than weaponry? b Why were wounded soldiers offered more medical and financial help than diseased soldiers? b Did the British public actually believe that the war would be over by Christmas 1914? Find out the answers to these and more in a brand new collection from Routledge History:

bit.ly.WWIcentenary

LISTEN TO MORE FROM THIS INTERVIEW historyextra.com /podcasts

New history titles, reviewed by experts in their field

BOOKS Paddy Ashdown at his home in Somerset. “The French were fighting not only to get rid of the Germans, but also to decide what the nature of the new France was going to be after the shame of occupation,” he says

Photograph by Oliver Edwards

OLIVER EDWARDS

INTERVIEW / PADDY ASHDOWN

“The French talk about this as a glorious disaster, when actually it was a glorious victory – albeit an extremely cruel one” Paddy Ashdown talks to Matt Elton about his book on the French resistance in the Second World War, and the key, tragic role that the maquis du Vercors played in securing the country’s freedom BBC History Magazine

69

Books PADDY ASHDOWN

What inspired you to write this book? What has always fascinated me, having been in the Royal Marines and the special forces, are the mistakes that are made by people at the top for which people at the bottom pay the price. This, in a way, is that kind of story par excellence, because the screw-ups were made at the very top – and many of them were politically perfectly understandable – but the price paid by ‘ordinary’ people in the resistance was immense. What’s heartbreaking is that, whereas I was a professional soldier who took my chances where I could, the people that I explore in my book – the maquis du Vercors, a rural group of French resistance fighters who converged on the Vercors plateau in south-east France – were young and naive. In the heady days post-D-Day, they still believed that war was glorious and were trying to do something to liberate their country. I became obsessed by the utter tragedy of these young men who genuinely believed, as most soldiers don’t, in the glory of war and the importance of patriotism. Why do you think that people joined the maquis du Vercors? The extraordinary thing is that the idea of the Vercors plateau as a centre of resistance, a place of refuge in which the shattered elements of broken France could retreat, was already quite old at this point. But suddenly at the same time, in 1941, three groups of absolutely different people – intellectuals, the defeated French army, and the socialists – all had pretty well the same idea: to create a place that could, when liberation came, hold as a fortress for the Allies to fly into. But I think that it’s really important to understand that without the young men of France, this would just have been a middleaged man’s dream. The Nazis had suddenly ordered young men into compulsory work in Germany, and many went to the Vercors to avoid it. Others were drawn in by the romance: that this was a place of clean living and pure air. There was a whole mixture of motives, but it’s fascinating to see that these disparate elements all came together, albeit sometimes uncomfortably. The young men became hardened maquisards, committed to the cause, and the groups largely set aside their differences to take on the Germans. There was, however, always a divide between the rightwing military men and the primary civil organisations, which were

70

socialist. This divide extended into what they were fighting for, which was not just how to get rid of the Germans, but also what the nature of the new France was going to be after the shame of occupation. The army wanted to keep France as it was: hierarchical, Catholic and rightwing; the socialists, who ran the civil organisation, wanted to have a new France more in tune with the tenets of the French Revolution. In the end, it worked, and their motives coagulated into a single aim as a result of the act of German oppression. There were huge internal tensions, though. What problems were faced in efforts to manage the resistance up until D Day? Muddle, in unclear lines of communication and unclear thinking. The original plan was to get the resistance in the north of France to rise, but keep the resistance in the south – in places like Vercors – undercover to be used in the course of a southern landing. One of the agents dropped in to the Vercors reported back that, if that’s what happened, the Germans would know that the Allies were only going to land in the north. And so the US army general Dwight Eisenhower took the decision – which was correct, but cost thousands of French lives – to make the entire resistance simultaneously rise when it was vastly premature for those in the south. The leader of France’s government in exile, Charles de Gaulle, on the other hand, was desperate to make sure that France would play a part in her own liberation. So he had this plan, which was mad by anyone’s calculation, to instead do a French landing into the Massif Central. In the end that’s what the Vercors was sacrificed for: the resources that could have gone into saving it at the last minute were held in abeyance for de Gaulle’s plan. The Allies’ failure to tell him that this wasn’t acceptable was also a factor. But I can’t blame de Gaulle. He was trying to do something enormous: to restore the greatness of France when it had nothing to bring to the table. She had been shamefully

“To continue with the Vercors was stupidity of a very high order indeed”

LISTEN TO MORE FROM THIS INTERVIEW historyextra.com /podcasts

defeated, had no resources, no troops, was not even going to play a big part in her own liberation. De Gaulle’s magic, with nothing in his hand, was to restore France to a great power after the war. It was extraordinary.

How did German forces respond to the resistance in June and July 1944? The French in London had developed the idea of using fortresses throughout 1943 and 1944. They sought to have a static defence in three places after D-Day, and in each case the Germans attacked with more men than it was thought that they could muster and obliterated them. This happened three times and yet people still continued with the Vercors plateau, I think, because they thought that it was too big to be surrounded and that people would be able to get away. But, on 21 July 1944, the Germans set up a cordon and simultaneously attacked from four directions so the French couldn’t respond to a single threat. All of this shouldn’t have been surprising. There were three very clear dress rehearsals, and that somebody thought that fortresses would be a good idea is pretty bizarre in my view, because the essence of guerilla warfare is movement rather than static defence. To continue with the Vercors was, in my opinion, stupidity of a very high order indeed. So how did this defeat turn into the ‘cruel victory’ of your book’s title? Several people who know this story well wrote to me when I told them that I was going to include the word ‘victory’ in the title. They all said that it wasn’t a victory, but a complete disaster. But when the maquisards were left to do what they did best – go into the forest – they survived, and came back to help drive the Germans out. It actually was an extraordinary victory, built on individual courage and leadership. They were preserved, and the Germans failed in all of their aims. The French have been talking about this as a glorious disaster, when actually it was a glorious victory, albeit an extremely cruel one infected with folly. Yet, nevertheless, the winners were not the Germans, but the French. The Cruel Victory by Paddy Ashdown (William Collins, 496 pages, £25)

BBC History Magazine

OLIVER EDWARDS

Born in New Delhi, Ashdown served in both the Royal Marines and the Special Boat Service before working for the Secret Intelligence Service. He went on to serve as leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988–99. He will be speaking about his new book at this year’s History Weekend festival: see historyweekend.com for details

WANT MORE ? For reviews of hundreds of recent history books, go to our online archive historyextra.com/books

“Corrigan does not hesitate to undermine the popular British vision of Waterloo” regimental morale. And though he undoubtedly approaches the subject from a British perspective (and delights in occasional swipes at the French in footnotes and asides), this is not an exclusively British history of Waterloo. Corrigan does not underestimate the role that Britain’s allies played on the battlefield – whether Prussians, Dutch or Belgians – and recognises Napoleon’s strengths as a military strategist, even though these were not especially evident at Waterloo itself. In short, he offers a balanced analysis of the battle and of the armies that fought in it. Nor does Corrigan’s book hesitate to undermine the popular British vision of the battle as a glorious tactical triumph over Napoleon that can be ascribed to the genius of the Duke of Wellington. “Today Waterloo is seen as a stunning British victory against almost overwhelming odds,” he writes. “Perhaps An 1898 depiction of the battle of Waterloo. “Gordon Corrigan understands armies and in reality it was an allied victory against how they operate, and writes with a keen awareness of military tactics,” says Alan Forrest odds that weren’t all that bad.” Wellington planned carefully and he fought, as he liked to do, a predominantly defensive campaign. His ALAN FORREST on a comprehensive, thoughtful look at the care paid off, and was in striking MAGAZINE battle of Waterloo, and its importance to European history CHOICE contrast to the shoddy staff work and poor command of comhegemony and was later commemorated munication that characterised the Waterloo: A New History as the last occasion when Britain had French. But that is all. “At no stage in of the Battle and its Armies defeated her oldest military rival, France, the battle did Wellington have to direct by Gordon Corrigan on land. Unsurprisingly, it has proved to manoeuvres of any sophistication, nor Atlantic, 368 pages, £30 be a popular subject for military historiwas his tactical acumen put to any great Waterloo is often seen ans and historical re-enactors, as well as test: he simply had to stick on that ridge by the British public as a source of considerable patriotic pride. [of Mont St Jean, in Belgium] and hold one of the great battles Gordon Corrigan’s Waterloo urges the French off until the Prussians could of modern history, caution on a number of fronts. A former arrive in their rear,” Corrigan notes. and as the action that army officer with the Gurkhas and Indeed, “there were many other British sealed the Duke of a military historian who has written generals who could have done that just Wellington’s reputaa well-received biography of the Duke as competently as Wellington”. tion as a military of Wellington, he writes from an unLike much modern scholarship on commander. It was apologetically military standpoint. He the battle, the book tends to play down praised by 19th-century British politiunderstands armies and how they operits significance and to relativise Britain’s cians as the moment when Britain saved ate, and writes with a keen awareness of role. The battle did not change the war’s Europe from the threat of Napoleonic military tactics and an appreciation of outcome, since there were huge Austrian

BRIDGEMAN

Redrawing the battle lines

BBC History Magazine

71

Books COMING SOON… “Next issue, our experts will be exploring new books on subjects including the collapse of Christendom, the history of the Caribbean and a notorious 19th-century murder trial. Plus, I’ll be talking to Janice Hadlow about The Strangest Family, her look at the life of George III.” Matt Elton, books editor

and Russian armies ready in the wings, and, with or without Waterloo, Napoleon would surely have been defeated. Corrigan argues, therefore, that it was an allied, rather than a British victory: without a firm assurance that the Prussian field marshal von Blücher would join him, Wellington would not have risked an engagement on his own. The real difference that it made was in the diplomatic sphere since, without Waterloo, Britain’s influence in the peacemaking that followed would have been diminished, with important consequences for the 19th century. These judgments are well-founded, and they complement a strong military

“It is in the discussion of the experience of battle that Corrigan makes his most original contribution” narrative explaining in some detail how the fighting evolved. But they cause little real surprise. It is instead in his discussion of the action itself, and of the experience of battle, that Corrigan makes his most original contribution. He gives clinical verdicts on the competence of various commanders, and of the different arms and national armies. He compares the quality of the staff on both sides, and shows how allied and French artillery was more evenly matched than has often been supposed, while in 1815 the Prussians no longer boasted the allconquering army of Frederick the Great. Napoleon may have lost because he made key errors, but Wellington is criticised, too, particularly for his reluctance to delegate or even consult others. This, Corrigan suggests, did long-term harm to the British Army, since it meant that a whole generation of senior commanders “were discouraged from thinking for themselves”. Such a considered observation is characteristic of a compelling take on the battle and its consequences. Alan Forrest is emeritus professor of modern history at the University of York

72

The personal is political enjoys a biography of a socialist and feminist campaigner whose private life was as radical as her politics JUNE PURVIS

Eleanor Marx: A Life by Rachel Holmes Bloomsbury, 528 pages, £25

Eleanor Marx, born in 1855 to the renowned but impecunious philosopher Karl Marx and his wife, Jenny, was the apple of her father’s eye. The youngest of three surviving daughters, her earliest memories were of being carried on his shoulders, holding tight to his great mane of hair. Books and her father’s study being her classroom, she grew up living and breathing historical materialism and socialism. Yet in 1898 the talented Eleanor, a passionate campaigner for socialist internationalism and trade unionism, committed suicide. In this enthralling biography, Rachel Holmes vividly captures the energy and spirit of her subject, exploring the contradictions that led to this tragic end. By the time she was 15, Eleanor was her father’s right hand. Putting theory into practice, in 1871 she took part in the doomed revolutionary Paris Commune government of 1871, and became the lover of the French revolutionary socialist Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray. Seeking independence from her family, which relied upon the financial aid of the wealthy Frederick Engels, the defiant Eleanor moved to Brighton and began working as a private tutor. Following her reluctant return to London, she immersed herself in the politics of the city’s radical bohemian scene, carryEleanor Marx in 1860. “Holmes captures the spirit of her subject,” argues June Purvis

ing out research in the British Library for her father, Lissagaray, and others. It was only following her parents’ death that she was able to branch out on her own. In 1884, Eleanor took the radical step of living in a ‘free union’ with Edward Aveling, a fellow secularist campaigner who was already married. Eleanor loved him, and they had much in common. However, their union was not equal: while Eleanor worked harder than ever – researching, teaching and agitating – Aveling became embroiled in allegations of financial mismanagement. Worse, he was a philanderer and spendthrift. For some time Eleanor had been developing an engagement with political feminism and, in 1886, she and Aveling published a long essay arguing that the abolition of sexual inequality was integral to the working-class movement. As industrial unrest gathered pace in the 1880s and 1890s, Eleanor was in the thick of the action. A powerful orator, she addressed massive crowds in Hyde Park. Eleanor was shattered when the dying Engels revealed that it was not he but her beloved father who had had a child with a housekeeper in his household. Although Engels left her well off, happiness was elusive. Just before she took the poison that killed her, Eleanor discovered that her ‘husband’ – who had never told her that his first wife had died – had recently married a 20-year-old actress. Holmes’s enthusiasm for her subject is infectious, although at times it oversteps the mark. It is unconvincing to claim that Eleanor Marx “changed the world”, for instance, and the assertion that feminism “began in the 1870s” must be challenged. But this engagingly written book tells with warmth and admiration the story of an extraordinary socialist feminist for whom the ‘personal’ was always political. June Purvis, University of Portsmouth

BBC History Magazine

WANT MORE ? For reviews of hundreds of recent history books, go to our online archive historyextra.com/books

Members of a trip to the Torres Straits – including William Rivers (left) – in 1898. “Shephard’s book gives readers a powerful sense of human science being forged,” says Charlotte Sleigh

Head tripping CHARLOTTE SLEIGH on a look at pioneering efforts to explore

human psychology – by journeying deep into Australasia Headhunters: The Search for a Science of the Mind by Ben Shephard

CAMBRIDGE MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY

Bodley Head, 336 pages, £25

George Romanes found it in the intellectual capacities of the snail. Freud found it in the dreams of his patients. Wilhelm Wundt found it in his laboratory’s splitsecond reaction tests. At the turn of the 20th century, it seemed that everyone was on the trail of the natural phenomenon that would yield the key to the human mind. This book is about another such attempt, which saw its hunters – William Rivers, Grafton Elliot Smith, Charles Myers and William

BBC History Magazine

McDougall, who had met at Cambridge in the 1890s – embark on various trips to the islands of the Torres Straits. There, by observing the behaviours and customs of ‘primitive’ people, and gathering cranial measurements, they hoped to unlock the secrets of how the human brain works. The characters in Ben Shephard’s book were broadly motivated by the sense that, just as the inductive powers of science had recently been extended to the realm of zoology and the question of species, so now humans were next in line for its revealing attentions. Quite what this science was, or should be called,

“In the early 20th century, everyone was on the trail of the key to the human mind”

was unclear. The voyagers referred to themselves as naturalists, anthropologists – even, daringly, sociologists. Their backgrounds were diverse: you could hardly cast it better if you were making a Victorian version of The Island with Bear Grylls. There was the urban Jew, the bullying show-off, and the sensitive, closeted intellectual. Put them together in the jungle, among snakes and reputed cannibals, and the science had to be forged through intense personal negotiation. If nothing else, their achievements were testament to the creeping democratisation of science, which had until a generation previously been more or less restricted to amateur gentlemen. The explorers found that their instruments did not always work away from the English contexts in which they had been developed. Nor were the natives in a state of untrained ‘nature’ as they had hoped. Educated out of their ‘primitive’ customs by missionaries, they had to be persuaded to re-enact them – not exactly an exemplary observational set-up. Nevertheless, the explorers’ notes provided fodder for their careers, and for future science. After the jaunt, several factors brought retrospective coherence to the diverse experiences of the explorers. The British Psychological Society was founded – a filter for acceptable science – and Freud’s theories and therapies hit Britain. But most importantly, the First World War intervened, compelling our heroes to enter or re-enter the clinical domain. Here the book is perhaps less successful, as the continuity of the men’s experiences from the 19th-century part of the story is not always evident, and Shephard’s narrative occasionally struggles to yield a unified account from his subjects’ disparate lives. Despite this, however, the book gives a powerful sense of human science being forged amid the conflicting forces of trade, proselytism and war. As historian Alice White has noted, the key outcome of psychologists’ participation in the First World War was arguably that they successfully established that their science was not a study of the ‘other’ – the primitive, the insane, the animal – but of ‘us’. The hunters had become the hunted. Charlotte Sleigh, University of Kent

73

Books A shipment of Guinness is prepared for shipping on the river Liffey, Dublin. “This new account of the city has ‘classic’ written all over it,” Cormac Ó Gráda exalts

CORMAC Ó GRÁDA has high praise for a study of the multi-

faceted, and sometimes divisive, history of Ireland’s capital Dublin: The Making of a Capital City by David Dickson Profile Books, 720 pages, £30

James Joyce likened his native city to a beauteous riverwoman, Anna Livia Plurabelle, in his 1939 novel Finnegans Wake. But Dublin was also known in Joyce’s day by the less flattering moniker of ‘dear, dirty Dublin’, and both descriptions are apt. David Dickson’s account of the city is a magnificent, comprehensive and exciting evocation of these contrasting Dublins and of Dubliners through the ages. In the day of Leopold Bloom, the fictional hero of another Joyce tale – 1922’s Ulysses – the city still wore its somewhat faded Georgian and Victorian architecture and its magnificent public spaces. But Dublin always had its edgy, raucous side, and since the early 19th century

74

much of its history has been one of relative decline, urban squalor and inept planning. In that period she regressed from being one of Europe’s great cities to being an unremarkable and rather ugly metropolis in its periphery, before going on to reinvent herself in recent decades as both modern (think of Thin Lizzy and U2) and cosmopolitan (one in seven of Dublin’s population in 2011 were non-Irish nationals). Dublin’s location always meant that it would be a port city. Its location also predestined its role as colonial enclave, when Viking, Norman and English invaders presided over its early growth. But for a millennium or so – and the beginnings remain pretty vague – the city did not count for much. Dickson whizzes through that misty first millennium quickly, which was a wise decision: the

“This is an exciting account of contrasting Dublins and Dubliners across the ages”

Cormac Ó Gráda is author of Famine: A Short History (Princeton, 2009) and Jewish Ireland in the Age of Joyce (Princeton, 2006)

BBC History Magazine

GETTY

The real Dubliners

sources are much better and the story gets much more interesting from about 1600 onwards, when Dublin was still a pretty insignificant place. Its rapid growth would hardly have been predicted even in 1646, when it barely escaped its only siege, or in the few years immediately afterwards when it haemorrhaged population as a result of forced emigration and plague. But both population and productivity rocketed after the Restoration, and by the mid-18th century Dublin was already not just the ‘second city’ of the British empire but also a major city by European standards. And even though no longer in the premier league of cities, it has always, except for a brief period about a century ago, contained more people than its northern rival, Belfast. For much of its existence, the Dublin that Dickson describes differed from the rest of the island in religion, language and sentiment, and it dealt brutally with those of all confessional persuasions who demanded a more inclusive and democratic city. Dickson’s sympathies are with those marginalised people. He also repeatedly highlights the subaltern position – firmly outside of the central group in power – of aspirational and middle-class Catholics. Although nationalists ran the city from the mid-19th century on – Daniel O’Connell, the political leader and campaigner for Catholic rights had, after all, been mayor in 1842 – even a century ago Dublin’s Catholics were discriminated against in professional terms, in trade, and in the public sector. In ambition and achievement, Dickson’s Dublin recalls and matches two other monumental and sumptuous histories of the city: Whitelaw, Warburton and Walsh’s History of the City of Dublin (1818) and Maurice Craig’s 1952 Dublin: A Social and Architectural History. This new account has ‘classic’ written all over it. Thumbs up to Profile Books for producing such a handsome, well-indexed and copiously illustrated volume at such a reasonable price.

TOUCHING AND INSPIRING STORIES FROM THE FIRST WORLD WAR

One of the sources behind the BBC drama ‘The Crimson Field’. Fourteen vignettes record the real-life experiences of a volunteer nurse, and paint a vivid picture of life in a front-line hospital.

This touching, brutally honest diary gives a richly rewarding account of daily life in ‘the suicide club’. An evocative, yet matter-of-fact personal history of the First World War from one of its unsung heroes.

The First World War trench newspaper that inspired the BBC drama. Full of black humour and pastiche articles, this compilation constitutes an extraordinary insight into life on the wartime front line.

Hardback l £8.99 l 9781844862580

Hardback l £9.99 l 9781844862559

Hardback l £9.99 l 9781844862337

Presents a fascinating history of the First World War through the great houses of the National Trust, with poignant anecdotes for the people who lived and worked in the houses. Includes never-before published photographs and diary extracts.

Illustrated with evocative paintings and posters from the time, this anthology comprises over 100 poems from the trenches and the Home Front, including famous poets Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Edward Thomas, and previously unpublished poets.

The classic children’s book and winner of the Smarties Grand Prize, about the legendary Christmas Day cease-fire football match in no-mans-land. With beautiful and newly remastered illustrations using Michael Foreman’s original watercolour paintings

Hardback l £20.00 l 9781907892776

Hardback l £12.99 l 9781909881105

Hardback l £12.99 l 9781843651789

20% off these books when you order direct from www.pavilionbooks.com with offer code Centenary14

Books

War of words GARY SHEFFIELD highlights the best books published to

mark the First World War centenary – and some classics

O

ne hundred years on, the causes, course and consequences of the First World War are still bitterly contested. Publishers love anniversaries, and so it is not surprising that the centenary of the outbreak of this most controversial of conflicts has been marked by a torrent of new books and reissues of old ones which range in quality from excellent to worthless. For the uninitiated it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

76

Without doubt, the most impressive publishing achievement of the new batch is the multi-volume Cambridge History of the First World War, edited by Jay Winter. He assembled a large international cast of scholars (I must admit an interest; I was one of them) to produce a comprehensive study. The three doorstop volumes cover, respectively, the

the Abyss of War and Exile (Cambridge), offers

a formidable array of evidence that it was launched by imperial Germany in collusion with its Austro-Hungarian ally. Röhl’s book is strong meat. He builds on the work of Fritz Fischer in the 1960s, who made a powerful case for German war guilt. Röhl’s view of the degree of Wilhelm’s personal power within Germany is not held by all historians. Nonetheless, his book, founded upon a lifetime of archival research, is the single most important recent contribution to the debate on the causes of the First World War. I found it convincing and compelling: it should be prescribed as an antidote to the ‘sleepwalkers’ line of shared culpability. Austria-Hungary’s key role in starting the war is a central theme in Geoffrey Wawro’s A Mad Catastrophe (Basic Books). Wawro, a distinguished American historian of the German Wars of Unification, takes as his focus the decline of the Habsburg empire.

BBC History Magazine

ALAMY

Wounded British soldiers return from the front line during the First World War. “The centenary has been marked by a torrent of books which range in quality from excellent to worthless”

global war, the state, and civil society. Individual chapters range from broad topics that speak to a general audience, such as Robin Prior’s treatment of the western front, to much more specialised studies. One of the most dynamic areas in First World War studies is socio-cultural history, and the volumes reflect this; if I have a criticism, it is that the Cambridge history would have benefited from more military history chapters. Unfortunately, the volumes are eye-wateringly expensive, which will restrict their readership. This is a shame, as the Cambridge history is likely to be the single most important piece of collective scholarship to emerge from the centenary. Perhaps surprisingly, the origins of the First World War has once again become a hot topic, not only among academics but in the media. Christopher Clark’s The Sleepwalkers (Penguin, 2012) and Margaret MacMillan’s The War That Ended Peace (Profile, 2013) both argue, albeit in different ways, that the blame for the outbreak of the war should be apportioned among the Great Powers. This is effectively a return to the consensus of the interwar years. Yet this is not a view shared by John CG Röhl, the third volume of whose magisterial biography of the kaiser, Wilhelm II: Into

Books / The First World War CLASSIC BOOKS ON THE FIRST WORLD WAR He makes much of the dysfunctional nature of the Hapsburg regime, arguing that Vienna “madly leaped into a great war that it had no hope of winning”. The story of woefully incompetent Austrian military decision-making that emerges from these pages certainly substantiates Wawro’s latter point. A Mad Catastrophe is a welcome contribution to the small but growing number of scholarly studies of the eastern front that have appeared in English over the last few years. His style is folksy American, but don’t be misled – this is a serious piece of scholarship. Of the individuals who have shaped views of the British Army in the First World War, one of the most significant was BrigadierGeneral Sir James Edmonds. Editor of the British official military histories of the First World War, Edmonds was also the author of many individual volumes in the series. Everyone who has written on Douglas Haig’s army is indebted to him. Edmonds was an inveterate gossip, and in his postwar lunchtime conversations with the likes of Basil Liddell Hart, he painted contemporaries such as Haig and Julian Byng in unflattering colours. Clearly, Edmonds was jealous of their success, and his tittle-tattle has had a greater influence on some historians than is healthy. Now his previously unpublished memoirs have appeared, expertly edited by Ian Beckett (Tom Donovan). They have been available to scholars in an incomplete form for many years, but the addition of ‘lost’ chapters is welcome. These memoirs are a very valuable source, but need to be used with care. More than most conflicts, this war was fought on home fronts as well as battlefields. My University of Wolverhampton colleague Laura Ugolini breaks new ground in her book Civvies (Manchester University Press) by examining the experience of English middle-class men who remained at home during the war. The question of First World War masculinity came to prominence with Joanna Bourke’s work in the 1990s, and Ugolini poses the interesting question of the relationship of civilian men on the home

BBC History Magazine

front to soldiers, the apparent apogee of manliness. British society during the war was infiltrated by military culture; many civilian men, for example, illicitly acquired items of army attire. In many ways British society simply continued and extended pre-1914 trends: there was nothing new in aping military dress. But some civilian men, Ugolini argues, adopted it as a “consumer choice” to enhance their manliness. The appalling costs of modern industrialised warfare are nowhere more graphically illustrated than in the ‘silent cities’, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemeteries in France and Belgium. In Empires of the Dead (William Collins), David Crane tells the story of their creation. As he argues, the decision to opt for equality in death, for officers to be buried next to ordinary soldiers under headstones of the same basic pattern, was revolutionary. No longer were wealthy families able to exhume their dead and bring them to be buried at home, an option denied to the poor. Crane tells the story with insight and sensitivity, making excellent use of CWGC archives. The book is not quite as original as some laudatory reviews imply, but it covers its topic in depth. If I was forced to choose just one book produced for the centenary, it would be David Reynolds’ The Long Shadow

(Simon and Schuster). This hugely impressive work examines the impact of the war on the following century, focusing largely on the British perspective. Reynolds argues that the current view is of “a literary war, detached from its moorings in historical events”, based on a narrative of futility and disillusionment. He exposes the shallowness of this view in a series of perceptive and intellectually exciting essays on such grand themes as the ways in which the war shaped empires, political systems and remembrance. It is a book that deserves to be read, and that deserves to endure.

The Guns of August Barbara Tuchman (1962) First published in 1962, this tells the story of the first month of the war, with a glance back to the prewar period. It is a wonderful narrative history, outdated in many ways, but a great read that yields acute insights.

The Smoke and the Fire: Myths and Anti-Myths of War, 1861–1945 John Terraine (1980) Terraine was an important historian and a leading defender of the reputations of British generals against their often ill-informed detractors. This is a typically trenchant example of his work that debunks many myths.

1914–1918: The History of the First World War David Stevenson (2004) Despite numerous rivals, this remains the best single-volume history of the war. Stevenson’s command of the various threads of military, political, social, economic and diplomatic history is immensely impressive.

Kitchener’s Army: The Raising of the New Armies, 1914–1916 Peter Simkins (1988) On being appointed as secretary of state for war, Lord Kitchener set out to raise a mass army of volunteers. Simkins’ book is the definitive study of this initiative that gave Britain an army of continental size for the first time. Gary Sheffield is professor of war studies at the University of Wolverhampton. His Short History of the First World War is set to be published by Oneworld in September

77

#

Dates for your Diary Bexhill Remembers:

Exhibition until 7 Dec 2014, Bexhill Museum Explore Bexhill’s contribution to the Great War.

Fabulous Festivals

in Historic Settings

Pevensey Food and Wine Festival 30 & 31 August, Pevensey Castle Local food and drink fit for a king.

Hastings Seafood & Wine Festival: 20 & 21 Sept 2014, Stade Open Space Experience Hastings’ maritime heritage and indulge your tastebuds at the 9th annual festival.

Re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings: 11 & 12 October 2014, 1066, Battle Abbey & Battlefield.

Rye Wild Boar Festival: 25 October - 2 November 2014, Rye Medieval Food in a Medieval Town.

Hastings Herring Fair: 1 & 2 November 2014, Stade Open Space A celebration of the ‘silver darling’ and its importance to the Hastings fleet.

www.visit1066country.com/events

11)"

Ĵ

"5%&))

Ĵ

01&+$0

Ĵ

"/01*,+ "25

Ĵ

"3"+0"6

Ĵ

6"

SEE THE FIRST WORLD WAR FROM A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW With 150 maps from the archives of the Imperial War Museums and expert commentary from Dr Peter Chasseaud.

Available to buy from all good booksellers and online. Facebook.com/CollinsMaps Map: German Order of Battle, Western Front, 18 May 1916. 1st Printing Company RE, Advanced GHQ (2508), IWM 05691.

@CollinsMaps

Books / Paperbacks LISTEN TO ORLANDO FIGES historyextra.com /podcasts

Perilous Question by Antonia Fraser

BRIDGEMAN

Phoenix, 448 pages, £9.99

Britain was in uproar in 1832; it was the closest the nation came to revolution in the 19th century. The ‘perilous question’ that prompted this was the reform of an electoral system that was manifestly corrupt and unrepresentative to the point of absurdity. It was not just the fact that parliamentary seats were bought and sold in pocket and rotten boroughs, but that entire new cities such as Manchester had no representation. Despite this the prime minister, the Duke of Wellington, resisted reform with one of the great political misjudgments in history, announcing that the system “possessed the full and entire confidence of the country”. The country disagreed, and in her usual excellent style Antonia Fraser recounts the furore over constitutional reform as a thrilling adventure story. Fraser vividly describes a nation on the brink through the lives of its protagonists. William IV and Lords Grey and Wellington are major players, but she does not neglect the banker Thomas Attwood, who represented the “new intelligent middle class”, or Francis Place, the radical tailor of London, who spoke for the masses. The crisis saw Whig statesmen urging progress with caution, the middle class insisting on immediate reform and the radicals calling for revolution. Fraser weaves personal anecdotes, mocking verses and parliamentary events in a tale in which each side was stretched to its limits. The

BBC History Magazine

PAPERBACKS House of Lords’ rejection of reform proposals led to rioting; the middle class joined in the national destabilisation, and there was a run on the banks. Finally the king agreed to create new peers if the House of Lords continued to obstruct the bill that became law in 1832. It was a boon only for the middle class, establishing their rise over the gentry, but at least it opened the door for further reform. Jad Adams’ Women and the Vote will be published by Oxford University Press in September

Revolutionary Russia, 1891–1991 by Orlando Figes Pelican, 496 pages, £7.99

After a gap of 25 years, the Pelican series of nonfiction books has been relaunched. Revolutionary Russia is one of the first five titles, and the first on history. Orlando Figes’ time-span of a century is neat and original. Communist rule ended in 1991. The events of 1891 are less well known: relief of a famine in that year was mishandled by the imperial government,

discrediting it and activating a response by Russian society. This choice of scope, however, will provoke reservations. The year 1891 was not the start of ‘revolutionary Russia’, which would have to include the Populists of the 1860s and 70s; their movement culminated in the assassination of the tsar. And one need not be a Trotskyist to think that the Russia of Stalin and Brezhnev was not actually ‘revolutionary’. But Figes makes an interesting case for continuity, with Gorbachev as the ‘last Bolshevik’, whose election was “the most revolutionary act in the history of the party since 1917”. There is an inevitable tradeoff between narrative and analysis. Most of the material on the period before the 1920s could have been written 30 years ago – which is not to say that it is wrong. And, for today’s readers, it would have been useful to relate more closely Lenin, Stalin and the ‘revolution’ to the failure of liberalisation in the 1990s and to the conservative ideology of the current government, with Putin’s open praise for counterrevolutionary ‘White’ generals. Nevertheless, this is a finely judged, highly readable volume. Evan Mawdsley, University of Glasgow

Churchill and Sea Power by Christopher M Bell Oxford University Press, 448 pages, £14.99

In this richly detailed study, Christopher Bell re-examines Churchill’s relationship with the Royal Navy and the wider concept of ‘sea power’ that underpinned Britain’s great power status. Despite serving as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911 to 1915, and again between September 1939 and May 1940, Churchill’s attitude towards the service and British sea power was equivocal. His misunderstanding of maritime strategy led to the Dardanelles debacle – the First World War Gallipoli campaign – and his fall from office. He opposed naval spending in the 1920s as chancellor of the exchequer, and in 1939 cut naval construction to provide resources for army and air force. At heart Churchill’s view of war was total, and continental, while the natural strategy of Britain was maritime and limited. Ultimately, as Bell observes, Churchill “willingly sacrificed the nation’s maritime interests in the pursuit of victory over Nazi Germany, and in so doing hastened the process by which the US replaced Britain as the world’s greatest maritime power”. This book is an essential corrective to assumptions about the great wartime premier. Andrew Lambert, King’s College London

A Soviet propaganda poster. Figes “makes an interesting case for continuity” between the communists and later Russian rule

79

Books / Fiction THREE MORE NOVELS STARRING REAL AUTHORS The Pale Blue Eye Louis Bayard (2006)

FICTION Death is served NICK RENNISON tucks into an enjoyable tale of murder and

mayhem featuring the real-life author of a famous cookbook The Art of Killing Well by Marco Malvaldi Maclehose Press, 192 pages, £12.99

In 1890s Tuscany, an impoverished noble family entertains a famous author at its run-down hilltop castle. Pellegrino Artusi has spent a lifetime compiling his magnum opus, The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well, and is happy to accept an invitation to tickle his taste buds with the local cuisine. His host, the 7th Barone di Roccapendente, is gracious to his guest but haunted by worries about where the money is to come from to maintain the family in the aristocratic style to which it is accustomed. His various dependents take different views of Artusi’s arrival. Snobbish sensualist Lapo, the barone’s oldest son, is appalled by the man’s vulgarity; Gaddo, the other son, a would-be poet, is horrified by the fact that he is no more than a cookery writer and dismayed to discover that Artusi is reading the novelettish adventures of a character

80

named Sherlock Holmes. Only the daughter of the household, Cecilia, an intelligent woman trapped in dull domesticity, finds Artusi interesting and they form an unlikely friendship. The tranquillity of the author’s visit, in which the main excitements were meant to be the rich meals served up by the barone’s cook, is suddenly disrupted by murder and violence. The young butler Teodoro is found dead in the locked wine cellars, a victim of poisoning, and someone takes a potshot at the barone himself. The police inspector, Ispettore Artistico, arrives to investigate and finds an invaluable ally in the shrewd and kindly Artusi. Together they begin to work out what exactly has been happening in the castle of Roccapendente. With its tongue-in-cheek wit and lively characterisation, Malvaldi’s novel is a delight to read. In taking a real individual – the writer whose book laid the foundations for modern Italian cooking – and plunging him into a fictional murder case, he has created an entertaining tale that holds the reader’s attention but never takes itself too seriously. Nick Rennison is the author of Carver’s Quest (Corvus, 2013)

Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders Gyles Brandreth (2007) Gyles Brandreth’s idea of transforming fin-de-siècle writer Oscar Wilde into a Sherlock Holmes-like detective works well in the first novel of what is now a series. Wilde stumbles upon the body of a teenage rent boy and, when the police seem baffled, embarks on his own investigation into the murder. Brandreth does a creditable job of recreating his hero’s wit and wisdom in a mystery that twists and turns satisfactorily towards its solution.

An Expert in Murder Nicola Upson (2008) Nicola Upson’s debut novel revolves around Josephine Tey, author of several mystery novels including 1951’s The Daughter of Time. Tey is here drawn into a murder mystery that seems inextricably linked to a hit West End play she has written. The book cleverly echoes many of the elements of the so-called ‘Golden Age’ crime fiction of which Tey was so notable an exponent and yet also succeeds in presenting a story to appeal to 21st-century readers.

BBC History Magazine

BRIDGEMAN

The Tuscan landscape as depicted in an 1827 painting. The area’s tranquility is “disrupted by murder and violence” in Marco Malvaldi’s novel, says Nick Rennison

At West Point in 1830, a cadet is murdered and his body mutilated. Private investigator Gus Landor needs an ally within the military academy and finds one in Edgar Allan Poe, fledgling literary genius and unwilling trainee officer. Together the two men work to reveal the secrets at the heart of West Point. Louis Bayard’s novel combines a compelling crime story with a convincing portrait of a brilliant writer in the making.

FOUR CLASSSIC ACCOUNTS OF

WWI IN THE AIR £16

£9.99

£12

£14

THE GRE AT WAR in books from

Bodleian Library Publishing

Compendium of WW1 spy stories.

Hardback £8.99 ISBN 978 1 85124 260 3

Eye-witness accounts of the conflict.

Hardback £19.99 ISBN 978 1 85124 393 8

Available from your local bookshop or online Grub Street Publishing Ltd. 4 Rainham Close, London SW11 6SS. Tel: 0207 924 3966 Email: [email protected]

A rare glimpse into everyday life.

Explore the causes and clashes of the First World War

Beautiful illustrated biography.

Hardback £14.99 ISBN 978 1 85124 394 5

Hardback £8.99 ISBN 978 1 85124 399 0

Fictional account of a German invasion, 1906. Unique insight into trench life.

Hardback £7.99 ISBN 978 1 85124 422 5

Poignant photographic images from the front line.

Hardback £8.99 ISBN 978 1 85124 391 4

Available from all good bookstores For a free cheat sheet, visit:

www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/firstworldwar

Paperback £8.99 ISBN 978 1 85124 402 7

Fascinating historical example of war-induced farce.

Hardback £9.99 ISBN 978 1 85124 416 4

Available from all good bookshops and

www.bodleianbookshop.co.uk Email [email protected] for your free catalogue

SUMMER SALE Get 5 issues of your favourite magazine or try a new one for just £5!

Try 5 issues for £5* then... Food and Travel

Homes and Gardening

...SAVE 20%

...SAVE 25%

...SAVE 33%

...SAVE 30%

...SAVE 20%

...SAVE 31%

...SAVE 30%

£18.70 every 6 issues

£17.55 every 6 issues

£9.20 every 5 issues

£15.90 every 6 issues

£19.20 every 6 issues

£17.55 every 6 issues

£16.75 every 6 issues

Lifestyle

...SAVE 30%

...SAVE 30%

...SAVE 25%

...SAVE 30%

...SAVE 30%

...SAVE 35%

...SAVE 25%

£19.30 every 6 months

£36.20 every 26 issues

£17.95 every 6 issues

£36.40 every 26 issues

£20.95 every 6 issues

£19.45 every 6 issues

£19.00 every 6 issues

Science and Nature

Wedding and Parenting

Craft

...SAVE 25%

...SAVE 30%

...SAVE 35%

...SAVE 30%

...SAVE 30%

...SAVE 44%

...SAVE 33%

£19.00 every 6 issues

£16.75 every 6 issues

£15.55 every 6 issues

£20.95 every 6 issues

£12.60 every 6 issues

£10.00 every 6 issues

£19.99 every 6 issues

Great reasons to subscribe:  Try your first 5 issues for £5  Save up to 44% after your trial period  Enjoy easy and convenient delivery direct to your door  Never miss an issue  Perfect summer reading

SEE OUR FULL RANGE OF MAGAZINES ONLINE

Your two easy ways to order: Order online at

www.buysubscriptions.com/summersale or call our hotline: 0844 844 0260†

OFFER

CODE SS14PSA

*The 5 issues for £5 offer is only available for UK delivery addresses (excluding BFPO addresses). For overseas rates visit www.buysubscriptions.com/summersale. This is a Direct Debit only offer where the first 5 issues will be charged at £5. The discounts and prices shown are follow-on rates payable by Direct Debit. All savings are calculated as a percentage of the full shop price, excluding Radio Times. The Basic Annual UK Subscription Rate of Radio Times is £92. This price is for 51 issues, which includes the Christmas double issue and a contribution towards first class postage. We reserve the right to limit the number of consecutive short term trial subscriptions a customer signs up for if their subscription is repeatedly cancelled during the trial. You are free to cancel your subscription at any time – if you cancel within 2 weeks of receiving your fourth issue you will pay no more than £5, this is with the exception of Radio Times and Match of the Day, which you will need to cancel before your 3rd issue. This offer ends 31st August 2014. †Calls to the number above made from a BT landline will cost no more than 5p per minute. Calls from mobiles and other providers may vary

Jonathan Wright previews the pick of upcoming programmes

TV&RADIO “These are 12-minute plays, and together they add up to a mosaic look at a relatively small section of society, but presenting as far as we possibly can a range of class, education, gender, patriotism and religion,” says Dromgoole. This poses huge challenges for the writers. Not only must they tell compelling stories that “access the oddness and emotionality of the time” but these stories have to be rooted solidly in history. Indeed, each episode features at least one reference to something that happened exactly 100 years previously, even if this is just a minor story from a local newspaper. Plot lines in the first series include that of Kitty Wilson, whose loving boyfriend has a steady job as a waiter. Only trouble is, he’s called Dieter… “There were huge numbers of Germans in Britain before the war,” says Dromgoole. “Nearly all pork butchers were German, for some reason, and a lot of barbers, and a lot of waiters in the ports and coastal areas.” Looking ahead, future episodes of Home Front will be set in Newcastle and Belgian civilians pictured Devon in order to reflect the experiences of in Antwerp, October 1914. those working in industry and agriculture. Hundreds of refugees would The series will return at regular intervals flood Folkestone in the wake until November 2018. of the German advance Elsewhere on the BBC in July and MAGAZINE August, with the centenary of the CHOICE outbreak of the First World War approaching, How Britain Went to War (Radio 4) sees Peter Hennessy charting A new drama reminds us that the First World War affected all how Britain secretly prepared for conflict. corners of British life. We speak to series editor Jessica Dromgoole The World’s War (BBC Two), presented by David Olusoga, reminds us that this was a Home Front says Dromgoole. When the first eight-week global conflict; as does international RADIO Radio 4, run of shows begins, this means dealing with co-production Great War Diary (BBC scheduled for Monday 4 August the outbreak of the conflict, as seen through Two), which draws on journals and letters. the eyes of those living in Folkestone, where For The Story of Women in World n the face of it, there isn’t much to link it was immediately obvious hostilities had War One (BBC Two), Kate Adie looks at the meanest streets of contemporary begun. “The town changed overnight,” says how the conflict transformed women’s lives. Baltimore with the England of a century Dromgoole, “and the influx of Belgian Our World War (BBC Three) is a drama past. Nevertheless, when she was putting refugees utterly changed the profile of the that uses the imagery of modern warfare, forward her ideas for Home Front, a new town, and the wounded coming in and the such as POV cameras and night-vision, to daily drama set in First World War England, soldiers going out meant that it became an show life and death on the western front. series editor Jessica Dromgoole looked to extraordinary [military] machine.” The Wire for inspiration. Each of the episodes will be set exactly Just as the HBO drama focused on a century before its broadcast, and it’s a “Each episode will be different areas of city life, such as Baltimore’s measure of the show’s ambition that it will self-contained and school system, each of the 15 series of Home eventually run to over 500 episodes. But Front will deal with a different facet of don’t expect a kind of historical Archers. tell the story of a wartime Britain. “I pitched the idea that each Every instalment is self-contained and tells specific character” season should be set in a thematic world,” the story of a specific character.

Total war

PA IMAGES

O

BBC History Magazine

83

TV & Radio FIND WEEKLY TV & RADIO UPDATES AT historyextra.com /tv-radio

DON’T MISS Korea’s Forgotten Battle: Kapyong (PBS America, Thursday 24 July) Veterans recall how, in 1951, they gave up their Anzac Day barbecue to confront the Chinese army.

Shackled by class and war BBC History Magazine pays a visit to the set of a saga that tells the story of a community through the 20th century TV BBC One, scheduled for Sunday 3 August

he pony and skip come belting up Kinder Road at a frankly alarming speed. Not to worry though, this isn’t some kind of curiously retro boy-racer moment. Rather, it’s a scene being played out for the cameras because Hayfield, set within the grandeur of the Peak District, is doubling as the community at the centre of The Village, screenwriter Peter Moffat’s saga of the 20th century as observed through a single settlement. First time around, the focus was on the First World War, and how events at the front affected those in Britain. The second season picks up the story in the 1920s and has a different tone to its predecessor. The central character, farmer’s son Bert Middleton, a boy when we first met him, is now a young man. “He’s such an honest person, not very good at hiding his feelings, wears his heart on his sleeve,” says Tom Varey, the newcomer who plays Bert. The new series reflects Bert’s twentysomething energy and vitality, but also a sense of frustration with his lot in life, a desire to break free. But that’s easier said than done. While, in the words of producer Tim Whitby, the 1920s usher “in modernity in the shape of music, industrialisation and transport”,

T

The second season of The Village follows the fortunes of a rural community in postFirst World War Britain

84

this is still a class-ridden rural society. “Your social flexibility is tied to [land] ownership,” says Whitby. Accordingly, the series deals with the way local bigwigs the Allinghams try to enclose the land they own. Expect a mass trespass in protest. Not that we’re invited to see the Allinghams as villains. Moffat’s far too subtle a writer for this. Indeed, former soldier and “diehard Liberal” reformer George Allingham is a sympathetic figure to whom status means little after his experiences on the western front. He’s a character who also serves as a reminder that, even after the shooting was over, the conflict continued to haunt our forebears. “George is very much the focal point for a study of trauma, the plight of veterans in the twenties, and how society related to these people they didn’t really understand,” says actor Augustus Prew, who plays George, and carries around a piece of shrapnel he found while visiting Passchendaele as part of his research. “Any remote bang will trigger George’s flashbacks,” he adds. “You’re dealing with some pretty serious stuff.”

“The 1920s usher in modernity in the shape of music and transport”

Actor Tamzin Outhwaite is among the stars appearing in the 11th series of Who Do You Think You Are?

Celebrity stories Who Do You Think You Are? TV BBC One, scheduled for August

The genealogy series returns for its 11th season. Those taking part are actors Julie Waters, Brian Blessed, Martin Shaw, Tamzin Outhwaite, Sheridan Smith and Brendan O’Carroll of Mrs Brown’s Boys fame. There’s also disc jockey Reggie Yates, Bake-Off matriarch Mary Berry, model Twiggy and comedian Billy Connolly. The new series will be preceded by a special episode celebrating the show’s first decade.

A life of work The Mill TV Channel 4, scheduled to begin in July, available on 4oD

This drama featuring stories based on the archives held at Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire was one of Channel 4’s biggest hits last year. Season two focuses on the years between 1838 and 1842. This was the era when the Chartists were agitating for electoral reform, and when the effects of the infamous Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which forced so many into workhouses, began to bite. Look out too for The Real Mill. Presented by Tony Robinson, this is a two-part documentary that explores the lives of workers during Britain’s industrial revolution, and which looks more closely at Quarry Bank’s records.

BBC History Magazine

BBC/GETTY/PBS

The Village

WANT MORE ? We’ll send news of the best history shows direct to your inbox every Friday. Sign up now at historyextra.com/newsletter

Pictures on walls Art of the Nation RADIO Radio 4, scheduled for late July

T

BBC/IMC VISION

Laurence Rickard and Mathew Baynton star in a First World War Horrible Histories special

The Secret History of Our Streets (BBC Two), which traces the story of London thoroughfares, looks set to return for a second series in late July. Also on BBC Two, a more lighthearted approach to history may be evident in the second season of Jessica Hynes’ suffragette sitcom Up the Women (August). As part of the BBC’s First World War commemoration programming for younger viewers, there’s a special edition of Horrible Histories (CBBC, August), while Harriet’s Army (also CBBC, August) is a drama that focuses on the lives of children in the conflict. On CBeebies Radio, Poppy’s Day (August) tells the story of a little girl learning from her family why people wear poppies. Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell (Yesterday, Tuesday 29 July) highlights a 1917 confrontation that formed part of the battle of Arras and in which Canadian forces played a crucial role. Our Pals (ITV, August) features interviews with First World War veterans from the archive compiled by Testimony Films. For those with satellite TV, Lost Nuke (PBS America, Tuesday 29 July) recalls how, in 1950, a B-36 bomber that was carrying an atomic bomb was lost. Also on PBS America, Building the Alaska Highway (Wednesday 6 August) charts the construction of a road through harsh northern wilderness in 1942. In Nazi Death Camp: The Great Escape (National Geographic, Tuesday 5 August) survivors of Sobibor concentration camp in Poland share their memories of rising up against their captors in October 1943.

BBC History Magazine

he artworks in our homes may not, at least in most cases, be as grand as the pieces you’ll find in galleries and museums, but that doesn’t mean they’re somehow without significance. “It’s a sort of collective consciousness of the nation, all this art that’s in our homes,” says radio producer Neil George, “and some of it may be worth 50p and some of it may be worth £5m, but it’s what it represents that’s so fascinating.” This art is explored in a three-part series presented by Will Gompertz. It is a follow-up to 2012’s Art of Monarchy, albeit one that takes place in rather more modest dwellings. “What I wanted to do was keep that idea of going into places and discussing art, but I wanted to go into ordinary people’s homes and uncover extraordinary stories,” George says. “It’s about the people and why they have these collections, or even a single item.”

DVD REVIEW

Losing the peace WWI Armistice: The End Game of World War One (IMC Vision, £11.99)

Amid the commemoration events to mark the onset of the First World War, here’s a reminder that, after so much carnage, the guns did eventually fall silent. If only, as Professor David Reynolds of the University of Cambridge here argues, later to start up again in part because of German resentment at the terms of the peace imposed upon the nation. For a documentary first broadcast by the BBC to tie in with the 90th anniversary of the Armistice in 2008, Reynolds takes as his starting point the events leading up to the ceasefire. In March 1918, seeking a breakthrough at a time when its forces temporarily enjoyed a numerical advantage, Germany’s generals launched the Spring Offensive.

Those featured in the series include Luke Gertler, son of Mark Gertler, who painted Merry-Go-Round, which was purchased by the Tate Gallery in 1984. “Luke now has an astonishing collection, not only of his father’s work… but he has also been inspired to collect illustrations and cartoons,” says George. “Luke will be donating his father’s paintings to the nation, and the cartoons and illustrations to the Cartoon Museum.”

Art of the Nation reveals how Alasdair Riley came to own this painting by Yong Mun Sen

It soon became clear momentum wasn’t going to be maintained and, a few months later, in November, came ignominious defeat. Reynolds looks at how leaders haggled and bickered while so many soldiers and sailors in their charge died through these final months of fighting. Worst of all, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, with its punitive reparation payments and war guilt clause, would later be exploited by Hitler with disastrous consequences.

David Reynolds traces the events of 1918

8585

OUT&ABOUT HISTORY EXPLORER

The interwar holiday revolution

Listen to Kathryn Ferry ON THE PODCAST

Kathryn Ferry visits Hastings and St Leonards in East Sussex, where 1930s sun worshippers could enjoy a fashionable, but thrifty, summer holiday

T

he British seaside was at its most glamorous during the interwar years. Art Deco railway posters sold a vision of the coast that was drenched in light and vivid with colour, evoking French Riviera style, Hollywood movie sets, Modernism and mass sun worship. The De la Warr Pavilion at Bexhillon-Sea is well known but, five miles east, the promenade between Hastings and St Leonards tells its own story about fashions in leisure and architecture. From the massive liner-like apartment block of Marine Court to Britain’s first underground car park, its interwar gems are still there to be found. The £3m redevelopment of Hastings seafront was masterminded by borough engineer Sidney Little (1885–1961) whose love of the era’s wonder material earned him the title ‘concrete king’. Before Little’s arrival in 1926 the roads were poor, sanitation was inadequate and visitor numbers were in decline. A decade later, politician Leslie Hore-Belisha was so impressed with Hastings he declared it was “in the forefront of all other seaside towns”. Competition within the domestic holiday market was intense but Hastings managed something unique in its response to the huge challenge posed by the motor car. Between 1914 and 1930 motor vehicle numbers had risen from a mere 140,000 to 1.5 million. By 1939 there were 3 million, of which 2 million were private cars. Summer weekends were already distinguished by coastward traffic jams and resorts were struggling to meet the demand for parking. As Hore-Belisha told

86

assembled dignitaries in 1936: “Every single day since I became minister of transport [in 1934] there has been a net addition of 500 cars to the road.” To ease traffic flow along Hastings seafront, Sidney Little reclaimed a strip of land from the top of the beach in which he built a new sea wall, the promenade and a wider road. This left a gap between the old and new sea defences into which Little proposed to insert a subterranean car park. Completed in 1931, it was the first of its kind to be built under civic auspices anywhere in the world. There are not many car parks that can be recommended for their aesthetic qualities, but the Carlisle Parade example is a mini masterpiece of 1930s design. Its sequence of shallow, squared-off arches converges to give a cinematic quality that is perfectly in tune with the era. Cars did not revolutionise the seaside simply because of the space they took up. They were evidence of an increasingly affluent middle class that took the annual summer holiday for granted. The habit of taking a week off was spreading among workers more generally throughout the decade, and after the Holidays with Pay Act of 1938 some 15 million people were eligible. As HB Brenan put it in The Architectural Review: “Before the war many villagers in central England had never seen the sea. Today, members of a Women’s Institute in a Cotswold village... will visit Aberystwyth one year and Bournemouth the next as unconcernedly as 30 years ago they would have gone picnicking.” In the past, destinations were dictated by rail routes but cars, coaches and motorbikes opened up wider possibilities.

BBC History Magazine

“The promenade between Hastings and St Leonards tells its own story about fashions in leisure” KATHRYN FERRY Kathryn Ferry enjoys the sea air from one of Sidney Little’s concrete shelters on Hastings promenade. The town was a magnet for 1930s holidaymakers in search of Hollywood-style glamour Photography by James Clarke

BBC History Magazine

87

Out & about / History Explorer

Sidney Little’s double-decker promenade included a covered walkway, known as ‘Bottle Alley’, that was decorated with pieces of bottle glass salvaged from a rubbish tip

Leonards since 1934 retains most of its original elements. The concrete may be showing signs of age but it’s still easy to imagine young women sauntering along its length dressed in the beach pyjamas made fashionable by socialites holidaying at Juanles-Pins. When the sun was out they could traverse the pink and yellow chequer-board paving of the top deck, stopping to rest in one of Sidney Little’s distinctive modern shelters. In less clement weather they could take the covered lower deck, known as Bottle Alley because of the bottle glass Little salvaged from a local rubbish tip and embedded in the rear wall for decoration. You can still enjoy a rhythmic run of ‘sun-trap shelters’ as the promenade continues above the shingle beach at St Leonards, but the real star here is Marine Court (pictured on page 89), a ‘liner on land’ docked as a permanent reminder of the interwar fashion for cruising. Few people could afford to set sail for their holidays but if the seaside was the everyman’s escape, part of its remit was to give a sense of what it might be like to live a different life. Buildings designed to imitate ocean liners were a feature of several resorts and 1930s holiday camps but the scale of Marine Court is exceptional. At 14 storeys high it was the tallest residential building in Britain when it opened in 1937 and, just in case its debt to the Queen Mary was not self-evident, Cunard-

“IF THE SEASIDE WAS THE EVERYMAN’S ESCAPE, PART OF ITS REMIT WAS TO GIVE A SENSE OF WHAT IT MIGHT BE LIKE TO LIVE A DIFFERENT LIFE” 88

The underground car park in Hastings was the first of its kind anywhere in the world

Little’s love of modern designs like this shelter earned him the title ‘concrete king’

White Star Line lent a 24ft-long model of their latest vessel to be displayed inside. With its steel-framed construction, rooftop sun parlour and dramatic silhouette Marine Court cost more than £400,000 to build. Though it was nothing to do with Sidney Little, its construction showed just what an impact the borough engineer’s changes had made to perceptions of the resort as a fashionable place. The scaffolding on its exterior and the ‘wet paint’ signs on the seafront shelters that I saw during my recent visit suggest these structures may at last be on the way back to their 1930s heyday. Kathryn Ferry is a historian and writer who specialises in architecture, design and seaside culture. kathrynferry.co.uk ON THE PODCAST

Kathryn Ferry discusses seaside holidays, from Hastings beach, on the podcast E historyextra.com/podcasts

BBC History Magazine

JAMES CLARKE

And, critically, if a resort did not live up to its guidebook hype, holidaymakers could go somewhere else, not next year but next day. This pressure drove a massive investment in up-to-date attractions, foremost of which was the open-air swimming pool or lido. Despite the obvious abundance of water at the seaside, no self-respecting resort could afford to be without one. The St Leonards Bathing Pool, designed by Little, opened in 1933. Its vast D-shaped arena had the look of a concrete amphitheatre with raked seating for 2,500 spectators and a curved deck for sunbathing. It was uncompromisingly ‘modern’; the perfect place to show off your new streamlined bathing costume. And its 330x90ft pool was nearly as big as Blackpool’s. At a cost of £60,000, it put Hastings in the same league as bigger northern resorts. But the love of lidos proved short-lived and Little spectacularly over-estimated visitor demand. The pool is therefore one of the lost elements of his grand plan, as is the contemporary block of 90 beach chalets built next door. These were flat-roofed to allow for sunbathing and like the lido were built with integral garaging. So unadorned were they in their concrete simplicity, they must have seemed an astonishing incursion amid the town’s Victorian terraces. Thankfully the double-decker promenade that has connected Hastings with St

THE INTERWAR HOLIDAY REVOLUTION: FIVE MORE PLACES TO EXPLORE VISIT

Hastings and St Leonards

East Sussex P visit1066country.com

2 Rothesay Pavilion, Argyll and Bute

4 Tinside Lido, Plymouth

P argyll-bute.gov.uk

What better way to recreate the feel of the 1930s seaside than with a trip to the lido? Few coastal examples survive but the 1935 pool jutting into Plymouth Sound was restored in 2003 and is now open for public swimming between June and September. In its heyday visitors could enjoy floodlit bathing accompanied by an orchestra, but even if that’s no longer possible the turquoise pool remains an impressive sight when viewed from the contemporary sun terrace of Tinside Colonnade.

P visitplymouth.co.uk

The fashion for sunbathing began in the 1920s, famously championed by designer Coco Chanel. The influence of this trend on architecture was profound, with long rows of glazing and flat roofs for sunbathing, typical of International Modernism. In 1938 Scotland got in on the act with James Carrick’s Rothesay Pavilion, designed to give Glasgow holidaymakers a taste of this glamorous style and offering a range of attractions with a dance hall at its centre. The pavilion remains open today but has yet to be restored to its former glory.

1 Midland Hotel, Morecambe P midlandhotel.org

When the London, Midland and Scottish Railway decided to replace its two existing Morecambe hotels in 1933, it employed the best designers of the day. Architect Oliver Hill responded to the curve of the promenade with a streamlined building three storeys high. Its central circular tower contains the entrance and an elegant spiral staircase above which is the ceiling medallion of Neptune and Triton by Eric Gill. Other decorative works by Gill also survive and can be enjoyed if you choose to stay at the restored hotel or just take afternoon tea in its circular cafe.

2 Holidaymakers still enjoy the turquoise waters of Tinside Lido today

5 Saltdean, East Sussex

1

P visitbrighton.com

3 5 4 Hastings and St Leonards

The Brighton suburb of Saltdean experienced significant development during the 1930s reflecting the seaside’s increasing popularity as a permanent home for commuters using the new electric trains to London. Not only does Saltdean have some fine examples of interwar housing, in a range of styles from Tudoresque to Spanish, Italian and Cubist, it also boasts one of the best lidos of the period, due to re-open in 2016 following refurbishment. Its architect, RWH Jones, also designed the 426-bedroom Ocean Hotel, now converted to apartments.

3 Labworth Restaurant, Canvey Island JAMES CLARKE/ALAMY/CORBIS

P thelabworth.com

The spiral staircase at the Midland Hotel with its original ceiling medallion

BBC History Magazine

Canvey Island was first developed for tourism by the Victorians, but really grew in popularity during the early 20th century when many of London’s eastenders chose to holiday at the resort. Its contribution to seaside Modernism is the Labworth Restaurant, designed to look like the bridge of an ocean liner, by Anglo-Danish engineer Ove Arup. Rescued from dereliction in 1998, it still operates as a restaurant.

Lidos like the one in Saltdean were the height of fashion for 1930s holidaymakers

89

Out & about

TEN THINGS TO DO IN AUGUST Britain’s First World War We preview a selection of exhibitions and events marking the centenary of the start of the irst global con lict useums up and down the country are staging events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. IWM London’s new First World War galleries are now open to the public (iwm. org.uk), while the National Army Museum has partnered with six regimental and corps museums to co-curate a series of temporary exhibitions – in Kent, Lancashire, Durham, Staffordshire, London and Cardiff – exploring the early months of the war (nam.ac.uk). The Museum of Liverpool will be exploring how the conflict affected the city in its exhibition From Waterfront to Western Front (liverpoolmuseums.org. uk/mol). Elsewhere, National Museum Cardiff will be displaying 66 prints from 1917, commissioned by the Ministry of Information, which depict Britain’s war objectives, military activities and efforts on the home front (museumwales.ac.uk).

M

“The Museum of Liverpool will be exploring how the conflict affected the city”

MAGAZINE

CHOICE

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery will be examining the experiences of the men who served with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment (bmag. org.uk), while in Oxford, the Bodleian Library will use the letters and diaries of politicians, soldiers and civilians to explore some of the personal stories of the Great War (bodleian.ox.ac.uk). The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich will remember the vital contribution made by Britain’s naval forces during the conflict in its new gallery: Forgotten Fighters: the First World War at Sea (rmg.co.uk). And the naval conflict is also considered at Chatham Historic Dockyard with an exhibition that examines the role played by the dockyard, its workers and the Chatham division of the Royal Navy (thedockyard.co.uk). National Museums Scotland has already launched its First World War centenary programme, sharing Scottish memories of 1914–18 in a range of exhibitions and events that will take place at museums and sites across the country (nms.ac.uk). Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s Great War commemorations include an exhibition of nearly 60 First World War posters at Ulster Museum (nmni.com/um). Find out how other countries are commemorating the Great War on p41

EXHIBITION

EXHIBITION

TALK / FREE ENTRY

EVENT / FREE ENTRY

STATIC: Still Life Reconsidered

Virginia Woolf: Art, Life and Vision

An Introduction to Bristol China

Coventry Festival of Motoring 2014

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

National Portrait Gallery, London Until 26 October S 020 7306 0055 P npg.org.uk

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery 7 August S 0117 922 3571 P bristolmuseums.org.uk

Stoneleigh Park, nr Coventry 23–24 August S 024 7623 4270 P festival-of-motoring.co.uk

Explore the life of one of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century through portraits and rare archival material.

Curator Karin Walton explores the history of Bristol’s pottery and porcelain on a tour of the museum’s Ceramics Gallery.

26 July–31 December S 0121 348 8007 P bmag.org.uk

An exhibition of more than 50 works exploring the art of still life – from the late 19th century to the present day.

A two-day celebration of Britain’s transport heritage, which includes a historic vehicle parade through the Warwickshire countryside.

Writer Virginia Woolf, by Roger Eliot Fry

90

BBC History Magazine

Charlotte Hodgman previews some of the latest events and exhibitions EXHIBITION

Medals, such as these awarded to Able Seaman Hubert Samuel Bevis, are among items on show in a new gallery at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, which commemorates the contribution made by the Royal Navy during the First World War

EVENT

EVENT

Defence of Blaenavon – A Welsh Town at War

Hadrian Festival

Blaenavon Ironworks 9–10 August S 01495 792615 P cadw.wales.gov.uk

A weekend of plays, stories, demonstrations and music illustrating what life was like during the Second World War.

BBC History Magazine

Segedunum Roman Fort, Wallsend 2 August S 0191 236 9347 P twmuseums.org.uk/ segedunum-roman-fort

Take part in a day of Roman-inspired fun, with falconry displays and recruitment sessions to join the Roman army – including drill practice.

NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM,LONDON/ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/(C) HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2014/MULTIMEDIA ART MUSEUM, MOSCOW/MOSCOW HOUSE OF PHOTOGRAPHY MUSEUM/BRIDGEMAN

Royal Childhood Buckingham Palace, London 26 July–28 September S 020 7766 7300 P royalcollection.org.uk

Toys and clothes are just some of the objects on show at Buckingham Palace this month, as the Royal Collection examines what life as a royal child has been like over the past 300 years. Previously unseen photographs and film footage will be on display alongside items such as a silver rattle once shaken by the future George III, and a pair of blue velvet shoes (pictured above) worn by Prince Albert Edward, Queen Victoria’s eldest son.

ONLINE SLIDESHOW historyextra.com /royalchildhood

EXHIBITION

Mackintosh Architecture Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow From 18 July S 0141 330 4221 P gla.ac.uk/hunterian

The work of Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh is being celebrated in Glasgow this month, as more than 80 architectural drawings, archival material and specially commissioned films and models go on show at the Hunterian Museum. The exhibition, which marks the completion of a major research project, covers both high and low-status buildings, as well as the domestic designs that comprise some of Mackintosh’s most significant achievements. EXHIBITION

Primrose: Russian Colour Photography The Photographers’ Gallery, London 1 August–19 October S 020 7087 9300 P thephotographersgallery.org.uk

More than 140 early colour photographs from Russia go on show at the Photographers’ Gallery this month, tracing developments in Russian photography, and changes in the country’s social history. The images, which date from the 1860s to the 1980s, include works tinted with oil paints and watercolours, and depict subjects such as sporting ONLINE and art events, war and architecture. SLIDESHOW historyextra.com /russia

Rain by Dmitri Baltermants, taken in the 1960s

91

Out & about

The Sanctuary of Athena at Delphi, with its tholos (circular building). Located about a mile east of the main archaeological site, it’s a location not to be missed, says Michael Scott

MY FAVOURITE PLACE

Delphi Greece

MICHAEL SCOTT DISCUSSES DELPHI AT historyextra.com /podcasts

by Michael Scott

here’s nowhere quite like Delphi – known to the ancient Greeks as the navel of the Earth, and now the second most popular archaeological site in Greece after the Acropolis. It’s somewhere I’ve visited many times (the last in 2012), and it never fails to impress. Today, visitors arrive by the bus-load, either on day trips from Athens – about 110 miles away – or as part of a week-long dash around Greece’s famous ancient sites. But if you have a little more time, it would be well spent doing Delphi properly. It was, after all, one of most magnetic places in the ancient world, imbued with a sense of

T

This bronze statue of Heniokhos, the Charioteer of Delphi, once stood at the Sanctuary of Apollo

92

mystery and the promise of divine power. The prospect of meeting the famous Oracle and communicating with the gods drew people to the site from all over the Mediterranean for a thousand years. Above all, Delphi offered visitors the opportunity to go on a voyage of self-discovery, as a carved inscription in the Temple of Apollo testifies. “Know thyself,” it reads. Wise words indeed! Sitting 600 metres above sea-level, clinging to the face of Mount Parnassus and overlooking the Gulf of Itea, it is still a magnificent site, with views to match. I recommend walking to the remains as the sun rises above the peaks, making your way past the international flags that testify to Delphi’s status as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Turning the final bend in the road, travellers encounter the ancient site of Delphi itself, nestled in a crag of the mountains. This is how the ancients would have first seen it, having wound their way up from the ancient port below. Just imagine

it: against the grey/blue harsh rock of the mountains, a sanctuary and town perched in the heavens, shining resplendent in marble, littered with bronze, gold, ivory and silver offerings. You can beat the crowds by beginning your visit at the Sanctuary of Athena, about a mile east of the main site. Tour buses start hitting Delphi first thing and the main sanctuary is quickly crowded, but these tours often miss out on Athena. The site boasts a large rock that sits in the middle of one of Athena’s temples. For me, it is testament to the active rock and mud slides that the site has had to endure throughout its long history. The huge rock-face of

the mountains behind Delphi follows the path of a seismic fault-line deep under the Earth. Heading back towards the centre of Delphi, I always make sure I take a trip to the remains of the gymnasium. It is the earliest archaeologically attested gymnasium in all of ancient Greece and included a narrow covered colonnade where athletes could train in bad weather. Delphi Archaeological Museum is another must-see. It holds some of the most incredible surviving sculptures from the ancient town – including a bronze statue of Heniokhos (pictured left), and Tournaire’s 19th-century watercolour reconstruction of the whole site,

BBC History Magazine

CORBIS

In the second instalment of our new historical holidays series, Michael Scott explores the ancient site of Delphi – where ancient Greeks came to consult their gods, and find themselves

ADVICE FOR TRAVELLERS

The prospect of meeting the famous Oracle drew people to the site from all over the Mediterranean

BEST TIME TO GO To avoid the crowds, book outside the peak seasons of April to May and July to September. Temperatures in the summer can reach 34°C. visitgreece.gr

GETTING THERE Direct flights to Athens leave from London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester and Edinburgh. Buses to Delphi run from Athens bus station, and the journey takes around three hours each way. A day trip to Delphi with Viator Travel (viator.com) costs from £70.

WHAT TO PACK Water, good shoes with non-slip soles (the marble walkway at Delphi is a killer!), a good guidebook to the site, and time to spare.

WHAT TO BRING BACK A sense of the atmosphere at Delphi – like few other places on Earth – and the feelings of peace and calm that come with it.

MARTIN SANDERS - WWW.MAPART.CO.UK

READERS’ VIEWS

which can be found in the museum’s entrance. If you’re in need of a breather after exploring the museum, it’s pleasant to find a spot away from the museum cafe to enjoy some fresh orange juice or perhaps the mountain water of the ancient Castalian spring – used by the ancient Delphic oracular priestess to bathe in before she made her pronouncements – and which now emerges, helpfully, in a public fountain on the roadside.

Been there… Have you been to Delphi? Would you like to share a top tip with our readers? Contact us via Twitter or Facebook

The best time to approach the Temple of Apollo – the main sanctuary at Delphi – is as the tour buses leave for the restaurants in the nearby town. The route there means walking up the ‘sacred way’, past the multitude of once-astonishing architectural and sculptural marvels that crammed themselves into the sanctuary. Exploring the temple itself is a must for Delphi tourists, but you can also go one level above, to the theatre. There you can take a seat that not only offers a bit of shade but a wonderful view of the site. Many also make the climb to the stadium hidden higher up the mountainside. But it’s lovely to just take time to sit and

ponder. The breathtaking views and the sense of other-worldliness and serenity that Delphi brings is magnificent. You may, just may, in the hazy heat of the early afternoon, be lucky enough to get the site to yourself. Who knows, you might even come to ‘know thyself’!

Go in spring – amazing flowers made the site look fantastic and with fewer visitors it was wonderful @hummingbirdab Don’t forget your camera, walking shoes and sunglasses – whatever the season @mamakanela Delphi is truly magical esp. under stormy clouds! @Bukowski1944

Dr Michael Scott is the author of Delphi: A History of the Centre of the Ancient World (Princeton University Press, 2014) @drmichaelscott/ michaelscottweb.com Read more about Michael’s experiences of Delphi at historyextra.com/delphi

Next month: Sam Willis visits the Caribbean island of Antigua

twitter.com/historyextra facebook.com/ historyextra

93

In Howard Brenton’s epic new play about the First World War, 19 year old soldier Jack Twigg goes on a journey he never imagined – nor did the rest of the world. On his way, he meets the pioneering medic Harold Gillies, who saves his life and his sanity. But who is the mysterious ‘Doctor Scroggy’ who appears at night in Gillies’s hospital dispensing champagne to the patients?

by Howard Brenton

12 september – 10 october

Howard Brenton and John Dove (Anne Boleyn) return to the Globe depicting Gillies’s war against war. Hilarious and moving, Dr Scroggy’s War gives a sideways look at the First World War a hundred years after its onset.

#ScroggysWar

The Great War for Peace

Wilfred Owen

William Mulligan

Guy Cuthbertson

The First World War is often viewed as the starting point for later twentieth-century global violence and conflict. This compelling book argues that in fact this war reshaped understandings of peace and international politics in important and lasting ways.

This new biography of one of Britain’s most loved poets provides a fresh account of Wilfred Owen’s life and formative influences.

‘May well be the most impressive and original [of the current crop of World War I books].’ – Daniel Johnson, National Review

‘[Cuthbertson] writes with such sincerity, telling the story of Owen’s short life and journey from provincial obscurity to the carnage on the western front and then to posthumous fame as a ‘war’ poet with diligence and empathy.’ – Jason Cowley, Financial Times

15 b/w illus. Hardback £25.00

37 b/w illus. Hardback £25.00

YaleBooks

The Making of the First World War Ian F. W. Beckett ‘This book offers genuine insight into the wider war, political and diplomatic as well as military. Written by a historian at the height of his powers, this book will get readers to think outside the box, and weigh the relative importance of the various fronts of the land war, the war in the air and war at sea.’ – Richard Holmes 12 b/w illus. Paperback £12.99

tel: 020 7079 4900

www.yalebooks.co.uk

Poilu The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914–1918 Louis Barthas Translated by Edward M. Strauss

‘Louis Barthas, cooper, citizen, cynic and reluctant reservist, is one of the truly authentic voices of the Great War. A classic in France from its first publication, his account of the fighting … speaks not only for the ‘poilu’ but for all soldiers of the conflict.’ – Hew Strachan, author of The First World War 18 b/w illus. Hardback £25.00

MISCELLANY

Q&A

Q Who was ‘The Childe of Hale’? A In the churchyard of St Mary’s, Hale in Cheshire is a gravestone which reads: “Here lyeth the bodie of John Middleton, the Childe, Nine Feet Three.” Born in 1578, John Middleton, or ‘The Childe of Hale’ as he became known, grew so tall that he was reputedly obliged to sleep with his feet hanging out of the windows of his house. Word of his great height finally reached court and he was presented to James I (and VI) in 1620, besting the king’s champion in a wrestling match and earning £20 for doing so. Middleton died three years later. It seems unlikely that he was really 9ft 3ins tall (the tallest man ever measured with certainty was 8ft 11ins), but clearly he was a giant among his contemporaries. Nick Rennison

Q What was the Sultana Disaster? A Described as “the worst tragedy in American nautical history” on one of the riverside plaques that commemorate it, the loss of the Mississippi steamboat SS Sultana cost the lives of 1,700 people. On 26 April 1865, the Sultana left Memphis and headed north. It was vastly overcrowded, carrying six times the number of passengers it was legally registered to transport – most of them Union soldiers recently released from Confederate PoW camps after the end of the American Civil War. In the early hours of 27 April, three out of four of its boilers exploded, destroying the ship and hurling people into the air and into the river. More people died on the Sultana than on the Titanic 47 years later. Nick Rennison

The cover of Alan Huffman’s 2009 book on the sinking of the SS Sultana

BBC History Magazine

ILLUSTRATION BY GLEN MCBETH

Q Did Henry VIII acknowledge any of his illegitimate children? Paige Dixon, by email

Henry VIII is believed to have fathered several illegitimate children. They include Catherine and Henry Carey, born to Mary Boleyn, who was Henry’s mistress before he switched his attentions to her sister, Anne. However, the king only acknowledged one bastard offspring: Henry Fitzroy, son of Elizabeth (‘Bessie’) Blount. His birth, in 1519, occurred at a significant time. Henry’s queen, Catherine of Aragon, then in her midthirties, had failed to provide him with a male heir. This seriously destabilised the Tudor dynasty – not to mention the king’s manhood. He was therefore overjoyed to hear that Bessie Blount had borne him a “goodly man child of beauty”. Here, at last, was proof that Henry could father a healthy son. The king openly celebrated the birth and acknowledged the boy as

A

his own, giving him the surname Fitzroy (‘son of the king’). His chief minister, Cardinal Wolsey, was godfather at the christening and superintended the boy’s care thereafter. In 1525 the six-year-old Henry Fitzroy was elected to the Order of the Garter and made Duke of Richmond. Even though illegitimacy was a serious bar to succession, it was clear to everyone that the young duke was being groomed for kingship. Henry doted on his son, calling him “my worldly jewel”, and Fitzroy remained a contender for the throne until his premature death, reportedly from consumption, in 1536. Tracy Borman’s biography of Thomas Cromwell will be published by Hodder & Stoughton in September Look out for Tracy’s feature on Thomas Cromwell in our September issue

95

Miscellany

QUIZ BY JULIAN HUMPHRYS Technological innovations such as the railway aided Britain’s industrial revolution, but slavery played its part too, argues Emma Griffin

To accompany our feature on Augustus, the irst Roman emperor, on page 54, a quiz ONLINE with an imperial theme QUIZ EVERY FRIDAY

1. What did San Francisco resident Joshua Abraham Norton declare himself to be in 1859?

historyextra.com /quiz

2. Which 1904 GK Chesterton novel is set in London in 1984? 3. Which JG Ballard novel of 1984 tells the story of the experiences of a young British boy as a prisoner of the Japanese in the Second World War? 4. What did Voltaire famously say about the Holy Roman Empire? 5. Who placed the crown on Napoleon’s head at his coronation as emperor of the French in 1804? 6. Of which empire was Maximilian I the only monarch? 7. Which empress began her adult life as a housemaid and never learned to read or write? 8. Who was born Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst ? 9. The clash depicted below has been dubbed the battle of the Three Emperors a. Name the battle b. Name the emperors

Q How closely linked was the Atlantic slave trade to the British industrial revolution? Hayley Bean, by email 9

QUIZ ANSWERS 1. Emperor of the United States. 2. The Napoleon of Notting Hill. 3. Empire of the Sun 4. That it was neither Holy nor Roman nor an Empire. 5. Napoleon himself. 6. The Second Mexican empire. 7. Empress Catherine I of Russia. 8. Empress Catherine II (the Great) of Russia. 9. a. The battle of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805. b. Napoleon of France, Alexander I of Russia, Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire.

96

This, like many historical questions, is something about which scholars still disagree. In 1944, Eric Williams, an Oxfordeducated historian from Trinidad and Tobago, published the highly influential Capitalism and Slavery, in which he argued that slavery and capitalism were intimately linked. Williams suggested that the profits from the slave trade and from slave-produced sugar in the Caribbean provided crucial funding for British industrialisation. But not all historians have agreed with the Williams thesis. Some have argued that Britain’s sugar colonies were less productive than those of some of its European rivals – nations that failed to industrialise at the same time as Britain. Others have placed greater importance on the role played by natural resources

such as coal and by technological innovation in the making of industrial Britain. Most historians now think that the industrial revolution would have occurred with or without the Atlantic slave trade. Nonetheless, it is clear that the slave trade helped rather than hindered the process. The Atlantic slave trade encouraged trade, helped to build up British ports, and created a wealthy mercantile class with the means and the vision to invest in industry. These were not critical for industrialisation to occur, but they certainly helped. Emma Griffin is professor of history at the University of East Anglia and author of Liberty’s Dawn: A People’s History of the Industrial Revolution (Yale, 2013)

BBC History Magazine

ALAMY

A

IF YOUR QUESTION IS PRINTED, WE’LL SEND YOU A RECENTLY PUBLISHED HISTORY BOOK

Q How were suicide cases dealt with in the frontline trenches during the First World War?

GOT A QUESTION? Write to BBC History Magazine, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN, email: [email protected] or submit via our website: historyextra.com

SAM’S RECIPE CORNER Every issue, picture editor Sam Nott brings you a recipe from the past. This month it’s Torta Margherita, a 19th-century cake from Italy that is both gluten and dairy-free

O Adamberry, Gibraltar

A

Many suicides would have gone unreported, as a soldier intent on taking his life could do so in a variety of ways: for example by failing to take basic safety precautions in a frontline trench and exposing himself to enemy fire, or by displaying the kind of reckless bravery and disregard for personal safety that might have earned him a gallantry award had he survived. Siegfried Sassoon (who did survive) is described as behaving in this manner. There are a number of accounts of soldiers who, wishing to shoot themselves but not having access to a revolver, placed the muzzle of their rifles in their mouths, took off a boot and depressed

the trigger with their big toe. In Goodbye to All That, Robert Graves describes finding a soldier who had taken his life in this way. His unit’s reaction to this was probably typical: in order to spare the feelings of the dead man’s family they reported him as killed in action. British and empire soldiers who did commit suicide were treated in exactly the same way as soldiers who were killed, died of disease or executed, and were entitled to commemoration by what is now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Julian Humphrys is development officer for the Battlefields Trust Soldiers launch a night attack from their trench in 1917

Torta Margherita This recipe comes from Pellegrino Artusi’s 1891 cookbook La Scienza in Cucina e l’Arte di Mangiare Bene (The Science of Cooking and the Art of Fine Dining), and is a cake that has been enjoyed in many Italian households. Artusi’s introduction to his cookbook gives an insight into the origins of the cake. He originally made it for a friend of his, Antonio Mattei, who took the recipe and, after making a few changes, sold it in his restaurant. The cake was such a success that it soon became the norm to finish a meal with Torta Margherita. The moral of the story, according to Artusi, is that if you grab opportunities when they arise (as Mattei did) fortune will favour you above someone who merely sits back and waits.

MY VERDICT When I found this recipe I was intrigued: a gluten and dairy-free cake that tastes nice? And with only three ingredients? But the picture in the recipe book looked very enticing so I gave it a try. And I’m glad I did! I ended up making several of these as they were so delicious; friends and family devoured them all. The cake is incredibly light, goes well with tea or coffee, and takes just an hour to make.

Difficulty: 2/10 Time: 60 mins Recipe courtesy of Emiko Davies: emikodavies.com

BRIDGEMAN

INGREDIENTS 120g of potato starch, sifted 120g of fine white sugar (caster sugar) 4 eggs Juice or zest of a lemon (optional) Butter and baking paper (to line the baking tin)

METHOD Separate the yolks from the whites and beat the yolks together with the sugar until pale and creamy. Add the lemon (optional) and the potato starch and beat. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then delicately fold the whites through the batter. Place the mixture into a round cake tin (buttered and lined with baking paper). Bake at a moderate heat for about an hour or until golden on top and firm to the touch.

BBC History Magazine

97

Miscellany

PRIZE CROSSWORD

What name did Elizabeth Barrett (left) take after her marriage? (see 17 down)

CROSSWORD PRIZE

You may photocopy this crossword

Across

Down 1 Ancient city (in present-day Turkey) founded by Seleucus I, one of Alexander the Great’s generals (7) 2 Common name for the Colt Single Action Army revolver used by the US military for about 20 years from the early 1870s (3-3)

98

Book worth

£50 for 3 winners

The Longest Day By Cornelius Ryan Written by a Daily Telegraph journalist who took part in bombing missions to Normandy on 6 June 1944, this 70th anniversary collector’s edition of Ryan’s 1959 book brings new depth to the history of D-Day. It includes an audio CD of never-before-heard veteran interviews, 30 previously unpublished documents, and over 100 photographs. Published in hardback by Andre Deutsch, £50

3 Spanish palace of Moorish rulers (‘the red’ in Arabic) (8) 4 Colour associated with the uniform of the Confederate army in the American Civil War (English spelling) (4) 6 English navigator, knighted in 1588 for his role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada (9) 8 Auguste and Louis, French pioneers of cinema (7) 9 King of Denmark and England (and king of Norway in 1028) (6) 10 Foreign secretary (later to become PM) who resigned in 1938 as a result of Chamberlain’s appeasement policy (4) 15 Ernest, Nobel Prize-winning (1908), New Zealand-born, British physicist (10) 17 The name taken by the influential English poet, Elizabeth Barrett, on marriage (8) 18 Region of Yukon Territory famously associated with a great gold rush in the late 1890s (8) 19 Two-handled wine etc container common in Greco-Roman times (7) 20 His allegory against the Stalin regime, in the guise of an animal story, was published in 1945 (6) 22 Hideous human-like monster featured in many myths and

fairy tales (4) 23 Simultaneous firing of guns as a broadside or as a ceremonious salute (5) 25 The charity founded in 1824 as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck (4) Compiled by Eddie James

HOW TO ENTER Open to residents of the UK, (inc. Channel Islands). Post entries to BBC History Magazine, August 2014 Crossword, PO Box 501, Leicester LE94 0AA or email them to [email protected] by 5pm on 13 August 2014. Entrants must supply name, address and phone number. The winners will be the first correct entries drawn at random after the closing time. Winners’ names will appear in the October 2014 issue. By entering, participants agree to be bound by the terms and conditions shown in full in the box below. Immediate Media Company Limited, publishers of BBC History Magazine, would love to keep you informed by post or telephone of special offers and promotions from the Immediate Media Company Group. Please write ‘Do Not Contact Magazines’ or ‘Do Not Contact IMC’ if you prefer not to receive such information by post, email or phone. Write ‘No Email BBCW’ if you do not wish to receive similar offers via email from BBC Worldwide. Please write your email address and mobile phone number on your entry so that BBC History Magazine can keep you informed of newsletters, special offers and promotions via email or free text messages. You may unsubscribe from receiving these messages at any time. For more about the BBC Privacy Policy see the box below.

SOLUTION TO OUR JUNE CROSSWORD Across: 1 Auch 3 WRNS 6/9 Light Brigade 10 Benares 11 Hamelin 13 Sanctuary 14 Bridewell 16 Ebro 20 Agra 21 Clarionet 23 Nefertiti 26 Lucca 28/12 Brigham Young 29 Scrolls 30 Latin 31 Vane 32 Eyam. Down: 1 Abbey 2 Conqueror 4 Roses 5 Schindler 6 Limits 7 Golda 8 Tennyson 15 William IV 17 Bletchley 18 Hannibal 19 Lollard 22 Urchin 24 Flint 25 Ibsen 27 Aksum. FIVE WINNERS OF THREE ‘POCKET GIANTS’ BOOKS P Glover, Essex; K Tomlinson, Herfordshire; J Shute, Derbyshire; A Smith, Leicestershire; J Scully, Herfordshire CROSSWORD COMPETITION TERMS & CONDITIONS P The crossword competition is open to all residents of the UK (inc. Channel Islands), aged 18 or over, except Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited employees or contractors, and anyone connected with the competition or their direct family members. By entering participants agree to be bound by these terms and conditions and that their name and county may be released if they win. Only one entry permitted per person. P The closing date and time is as shown under How to Enter, above. Entries received after that will not be considered. Entries cannot be returned. Entrants must supply full name, address and daytime phone number. Immediate Media Company (publishers of BBC History Magazine) will only ever use personal details for the purposes of administering this competition, and will not publish them or provide them to anyone without permission. Read more about the Immediate Privacy Policy at www.immediatemedia.co.uk/privacy-policy/ P The winning entrants will be the first correct entries drawn at random after the closing time. The prize and number of winners will be as shown on the Crossword page. There is no cash alternative and the prize will not be transferable. Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited’s decision is final and no correspondence relating to the competition will be entered into. The winners will be notified by post within 20 days of the close of the competition. The name and county of residence of the winners will be published in the magazine within two months of the closing date. If the winner is unable to be contacted within one month of the closing date, Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited reserves the right to offer the prize to a runner-up. P Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions or to cancel, alter or amend the promotion at any stage, if deemed necessary in its opinion, or if circumstances arise outside of its control. The promotion is subject to the laws of England.

BRIDGEMAN

5 Name assumed by British car magnate William Morris, when he became a peer (8) 7 King of the Visigoths, who died in AD 410, the same year as his troops sacked Rome (6) 11 Romanian fascist party from the late 1920s to early years of the Second World War, with strict Christian Orthodox ideals (4,5) 12 (Related to) a major civilisation of southern Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, dating back to 1500 BC (5) 13 Stones piled up eg as a mountain-top landmark, or to cover a grave (5) 14 German federal council, established in 1871, having its powers reduced under the Weimar Republic (9) 16 A pandemic that devastated much of Europe in the mid-14th century, the disease widely believed to have been spread by rat fleas (3,5,5) 21 Italian merchant who dictated the account of his 13th-century Asian travels while imprisoned (5,4) 23 The war production minister, and chief architect, of Nazi Germany (5) 24 A major lake of North America, named by French explorers after the indigenous people of the region (5) 26 John, a 17th/18th-century physician, whose name is perpetuated in many Oxford institutions, including the Camera (9) 27 Legendary hero of the Charlemagne romances, supposedly killed bravely leading a rearguard action in AD 778 (6) 28 A famous gunfight involving Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday took place here in Tombstone (2,6)

DIRECTORY MUSEUM

TO ADVERTISE CONTACT EMMA HUNTER,

MUSEUM

BRADING ROMAN VILLA

MUSEUM

Leiston in the Great War An exhibition and programme of talks and family activities 19th July to 1st November 2014 Main Street, Leiston, Suffolk IP16 4ES Tel 01728 832189

See some of the best preserved Roman mosaics in Europe! Award winning Museum, shop, licensed cafe & garden. Morton Old Road, Brading, Isle of Wight, PO36 0PH 01983 406223 www.bradingromanvilla.org.uk

G E N E O L O GY

See our website for further information: www.longshopmuseum.co.uk

Supported by the Leiston in the Great War Group MUSEUM

ANCESTORS Soldiers from Newcastle.

Discover Your Ancestors Let our professional genealogists trace your family history nationally and internationally Money back guarantee For the best, most economical services write to: Ancestorsgenealogy.co.uk Ancestors.co.uk 11 Crosbie Road, Harborne, Birmingham B17 9BG

(BHM)

0121 2464260

A series of exhibitions and events exploring life on the home front during the First World War. May 2014 - December 2015

Overlooking the coastal town of Maryport, Cumbria and the Solway Firth, the museum houses an internationally significant collection of objects recovered from the adjacent Roman fort and civilian settlement.

www.worlife.org.uk

Visitors can discover what life was like for the soldiers and their families on the Solway Coast Frontier of Hadrian’s Wall.

Tel: 01900 816168 [email protected] www.senhousemuseum.co.uk

PUBLISHING

WHY NOT BE A

WRITER?

As a freelance writer, you can earn very good money in your spare time, writing the stories, articles, books, scripts etc that editors and publishers want. Millions of pounds are paid annually in fees and royalties. Earning your share can be fun, profitable and creatively most fulfilling. To help you become a successful writer we offer you a first-class, home-study course from professional writers – with individual guidance from expert tutors and flexible tuition tailored to your own requirements. You are shown how to make the most of your abilities, where to find ideas, how to turn them into publishable writing and how to sell them. In short, we show you exactly how to become a published writer. If you want writing success – this is the way to start! Whatever your writing ambitions, we can help you to achieve them. For we give you an effective, stimulating and most enjoyable creative writing course… appreciated by students and acclaimed by experts. It’s ideal for beginners. No previous experience or special background is required. You write and study at your own pace – you do not have to rush – as you have four years to complete your course. Many others have been successful this way. If they can do it – why can’t you?

We are so confident that we can help you become a published writer that we give you a full refund guarantee. If you have not earned your course fees from published writing by the time you finish the course, we will refund them in full. If you want to be a writer start by requesting a free copy of our prospectus ‘Write and be Published’. Please call our freephone number or visit our website NOW! COURSE FEATURES












27 FACT-PACKED MODULES 2 SPECIALIST SUPPLEMENTS 20 WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS ADVISORY SERVICE TUTORIAL SUPPORT FLEXIBLE STUDY PROGRAMME STUDENT COMMUNITY AREA HOW TO PRESENT YOUR WORK HOW TO SELL YOUR WRITING 15 DAY TRIAL PERIOD FULL REFUND GUARANTEE

www.writersbureau.com FREEPHONE 24 HOURS

Quote: 1B17714

0800 856 2008 www.facebook.com/writersbureau www.twitter.com/writersbureau

email: [email protected] Please include your name and address

Hannah Evans, Winchester “I’ve been published in The Guardian and Good Life earning £400. And now I’ve got my first book published by Bloomsbury called MOB Rule: Lessons Learned by a Mother of Boys. The Writers Bureau course provided me with structure, stopped my procrastination but most importantly it provided the impetus to try something different.” Michael Foley, Essex “Completing The Writers Bureau course has made it possible for me to attain my life-long ambition of becoming a published writer. The level of success I have achieved has far outweighed what I was hoping for when beginning the course. I have now had seventeen books published with two more under publication at the moment.”

Jane Isaac, Northamptonshire When I started the Writers Bureau course, I wanted to explore avenues for my writing and develop and strengthen my personal style. I had no idea that it would lead to me being a published writer of novels and short stories. I still pinch myself when I receive emails and messages from readers who’ve enjoyed my work or when I give talks to book clubs and visit bookstores to do signings. These are magical moments that have changed my life – my dream has come true.” Please send me details on how to become a successful writer:

NAME ................................................................................................................................ ADDRESS ......................................................................................................................... POST CODE ............................................................................................................................................

EMAIL ...............................................................................................................................

Freepost RSSK-JZAC-JCJG

The Writers Bureau Dept 1B17714 Manchester, M3 1LE

25

Years of Success

Members of BILD and ABCC

DIRECTORY

EMMA.HUNTER IMMEDIATE.CO.UK PUBLISHING

MUSEUM

P RO D U C T S

Station Road, Amberley, Nr Arundel West Sussex BN18 9LT 01798 831370 [email protected]

Dedicated to industrial heritage with traditional crafts, over 40 buildings and exhibitions. Take the narrow gauge train or historic bus around the site. Café, gift shop, and nature trails. Large free car park and we are next to Amberley railway station. Over 30 special events throughout the season.

ïïïK~ãÄÉêäÉóãìëÉìãKÅçKìâ J E W E L L E RY SPECIAL OFFER

Poppy Lapel Pins & Brooches

Timeless, affordable jewellery for all occasions

From

A dazzlingly beautiful range of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, Poppy Earrings brooches and scarf rings. From • Vintage style enamels • Semi-precious gemstones • Freshwater pearls • Swarovski crystals • On-trend metallics • Pierced and clip-on earrings • No quibble free return service

�18

10%

off your first order * QUOTE BH24

�20

Poppy Pendant

�32 * Excl. P&P. Not valid with any other offer.

For your FREE catalogue call 08453 707071 or visit www.eternalcollection.co.uk H E R I TAG E

S T O R AG E

England’s

Greatest Elizabethan House

Burghley House Enjoy the perfect day out

Stamford, Lincolnshire, PE9 3JY

www.burghley.co.uk

The Old Chapel, 282 Skipton Road, Harrogate, Yorkshire HG1 3HE

DIRECTORY GIFTS

To advertise here please call 0117 314 7398

H I S T O RY R E S E A RC H C E N T R E

*XHUQVH\·V 1DWLRQDO/LEUDU\ dŚĞĞŶƚƌĞĨŽƌ>ŽĐĂů,ŝƐƚŽƌLJĂŶĚ'ĞŶĞĂůŽŐLJ� ŽīĞƌŝŶŐĂŶĞdžƉĞƌƚƌĞƐĞĂƌĐŚƐĞƌǀŝĐĞĂƚ ĐŽŵƉĞƟƟǀĞƌĂƚĞƐ�džƉůŽƌĞŽƵƌĞdžƚĞŶƐŝǀĞ ĐŽůůĞĐƟŽŶŽĨŬƐ�ŵĂƉƐ�ŶĞǁƐƉĂƉĞƌƐ�ƉƌŝŶƚƐ ĂŶĚƉŚŽƚŽŐƌĂƉŚƐŝŶƉĞƌƐŽŶ�ŽƌĐŽŶƚĂĐƚƵƐ ĚŝƌĞĐƚůLJ� WƌŝĂƵůdž>ŝďƌĂƌLJ�ĂŶĚŝĞZŽĂĚ� ^ƚ�WĞƚĞƌWŽƌƚ�'ƵĞƌŶƐĞLJ�'zϭϭh' dĞů�;Ϭϭϰ�ϭ�ϳϮϭ���ǁĞď�ǁǁǁ�ƉƌŝĂƵůdžůŝďƌĂƌLJ�ĐŽ�ƵŬ

PUBLISHING

R A I LWAY



AUTHORS Please submit synopsis plus 3 sample chapters for consideration to:

A GREAT DAY OUT Group Rates for pre booked Country Walks from Stations Facilities for the Disabled Tearooms & Shops  Picnic Areas

� � � � � �

Olympia Publishers 60 Cannon St, London, EC4N 6NP

� �

www.olympiapublishers.com

Picturesque views all the way along the line Trains operating throughout the year

www.llangollen-railway.co.uk Tel: 01978 860979 Email: [email protected]

�

TOURS

LLANGOLLEN RAILWAY

Pictt resq e ie s alll the a allong the line

WINE SPECIALIST

R A I LWAY

NEXT MONTH MAGAZINE

SEPTEMBER ISSUE ON SALE 14 AUGUST 2014

EDITORIAL Editor Rob Attar [email protected] Features editor Charlotte Hodgman [email protected]

Section editor Matt Elton [email protected] Production editor Spencer Mizen Picture editor Samantha Nott [email protected] Art editor Susanne Frank Deputy art editors Sarah Lambert and Rachel Dickens Picture researcher Katherine Hallett Website editor Emma McFarnon [email protected]

REX/BRIDGEMAN/GETTY IMAGES/STAFFORDSHIRE HOARD

Vol 15 No 8 – August 2014 BBC History Magazine is published by Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited under licence from BBC Worldwide who help fund new BBC programmes. BBC History Magazine was established to publish authoritative history, written by leading experts, in an accessible and attractive format. We seek to maintain the high journalistic standards traditionally associated with the BBC. ADVERTISING & MARKETING Advertising director Caroline Herbert Group advertising manager Tom Drew Senior advertising manager Steve Grigg Deputy advertisement manager Sam Jones 0117 314 8847 [email protected] Brand sales executive Georgia Riley 0117 314 8754 [email protected] Classified sales executive Emma Hunter 0117 314 7398 [email protected] Group direct marketing manager Laurence Robertson 00353 5787 57444 Subscriptions director Jacky Perales-Morris Marketing executive Gemma Burns US representative Kate Buckley [email protected] PRESS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS Press officer Carolyn Wray 0117 314 8812 [email protected] SYNDICATION Head of licensing & syndication Joanna Marshall Magazine syndication executive Simon Goodman PRODUCTION Production director Sarah Powell Production co-ordinator Emily Mounter Ad co-ordinator Jade O’Halloran IMMEDIATE MEDIA COMPANY Publisher David Musgrove Publishing director Andy Healy Managing director Andy Marshall CEO Tom Bureau Deputy chairman Peter Phippen Chairman Stephen Alexander BBC WORLDWIDE Director of publishing Nicholas Brett Head of publishing Chris Kerwin Head of editorial Jenny Potter Publishing co-ordinator Eva Abramik [email protected] www.bbcworldwide.com/uk--anz/ ukpublishing.aspx July–June 2013

89,378 April 2012 – March 2013

305,000

BBC History Magazine

ADVISORY PANEL Dr Padma Anagol Cardiff University – Prof Joanna Bourke Birkbeck College, London – Prof Richard Carwardine Oxford University – Dominic Crossley-Holland Executive Producer, Factual, BBC* – Martin Davidson Commissioning Editor, History, BBC* – Prof Clive Emsley Open University – Prof Richard Evans Cambridge University – Prof Sarah Foot Oxford University – Prof Rab Houston St Andrews University – Prof John Hudson St Andrews University – Prof Lisa Jardine Queen Mary, London – Dr Peter Jones formerly Newcastle University – Prof Denis Judd London Metropolitan University – Prof Sir Ian Kershaw formerly Sheffield University – Robert Ketteridge Head of Documentaries, Factual, BBC* – Christopher Lee formerly Cambridge University – Prof John Morrill Cambridge University – Greg Neale Founding editor, BBC History Magazine – Prof Kenneth O Morgan Oxford University – Prof Cormac ó Gráda University College, Dublin – Prof Martin Pugh formerly Newcastle University – Julian Richards archaeologist and broadcaster – Prof Simon Schama Columbia University – Prof Mark Stoyle University of Southampton – Prof Miles Taylor Institute of Historical Research* – Dr Simon Thurley chief executive, English Heritage – Prof Helen Weinstein Director of IPUP, Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past* – Michael Wood historian and broadcaster

Thomas Cromwell’s rise and fall Tracy Borman explores the volatile relationship between Cromwell and Henry VIII. Plus we speak to Wolf Hall author Hilary Mantel about the Cromwell of fact and fiction

* member of BBC Editorial Advisory Board © Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited, 2014 – ISSN: 1469 8552 Not for resale. All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction in whole or part is prohibited without written permission. Every effort has been made to secure permission for copyright material. In the event of any material being used inadvertently, or where it proved impossible to trace the copyright owner, acknowledgement will be made in a future issue. MSS, photographs and artwork are accepted on the basis that BBC History Magazine and its agents do not accept liability for loss or damage to same. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher. Immediate Media Company is working to ensure that all of its paper is sourced from well-managed forests. This magazine can be recycled, for use in newspapers and packaging. Please remove any gifts, samples or wrapping and dispose of it at your local collection point.

Operation Sealion Leo McKinstry reveals the amazing secret weapons Britain had prepared in the event of a Nazi invasion

Rome’s century of crisis Harry Sidebottom explains why the Roman empire became wracked by civil war

The Anglo-Saxon United Kingdom Nick Higham introduces a series of kings who came close to ruling all of Britain in the seventh century

105

My history hero “One German governor wrote that Hendrik Witbooi would have been ‘an immortal in world history’ if he’d not been ‘born to an insignificant African throne’”

BBC film-maker and historian David Olusoga chooses

Hendrik Witbooi c1830–1905

endrik Witbooi was born in the Northern Cape, in the tiny village of Pella near South Africa’s modernday border with Namibia, some time around 1830. He was born into the Witbooi clan of the Nama people, who have mixed ethnic origins derived largely from the Khoisan (formerly known as Bushmen) but also from early Dutch settlers to the Cape. He was a teacher turned soldier who became head of his clan, and then leader of all the Nama, resisting German colonisation in the 1900s.

H

When did you first hear about Hendrik Witbooi?

As a student reading about the colonisation of Africa. But I started to read his diaries and papers over a decade ago when researching a book and documentary about a genocide of the Herero carried out by the German army in Namibia at the dawn of the 20th century.

Hendrik Witbooi in c1900. “He launched a brilliant guerilla war” against German forces, says David Olusoga

What was Witbooi’s finest hour?

In 1904 the Germans and the Herero were at war. When Hendrik Witbooi grasped the true horror of what the Germans intended towards the Herero – genocide – he realised that the Nama people were likely to be their next target. Hendrik galvanised the Nama clans and rose up to fight against the Germans. He launched a brilliant guerilla war. Despite the fact that the German army was committing atrocities against the Herero, Hendrik ensured that his men fought according to the Nama’s military traditions and rules. This meant that German women and children were given time to evacuate and were not harmed by Nama soldiers. It was during this struggle that Hendrik was killed in battle in 1905. The war continued until 1908, by which time about half of the Nama, and around 80 per cent of the Herero, had died – on the battlefield, in concentration camps and through starvation.

What kind of a person was he?

106

Although only 5ft tall, he was a feared military commander who possessed a razor-sharp mind. He was also a devout Christian who believed it was his religious duty to free his people from German subjugation, and used his skills as a diplomat and guerilla fighter to try and achieve this.

Is there anything you don’t particularly admire about him?

What made him a hero?

Can you see any parallels between his life and your own?

What’s important about Hendrik Witbooi for me is that he was the exact opposite of the standard 19th and early 20th-century image of an African leader. Here was a man who was highly literate. He kept meticulous diaries and maintained a stream of correspondence with other African leaders, his German enemies and the British authorities. He had a good grasp of world events; he knew, for example, about the 1884 Berlin Conference in which Europe’s great powers planned to carve up the continent. Witbooi was a modern-style military commander. He led his men into battle armed with modern rifles, and deployed them according to the latest Boer commando tactics. Even his enemies understood he was a force to be reckoned with. One German governor wrote that he would have been “an immortal in world history” if he’d not been “born to an insignificant African throne”.

I wish I had a fraction of his strength and determination. All I can say that we have in common are a couple of things to do with our birth and identities. I was born on the African continent too, in Nigeria, and my racial heritage is also mixed. Also, neither of us like writing in our own hand with pen and paper. I type because I have virtually illegible handwriting whereas he had the far more impressive excuse of having lost a thumb in battle, so he dictated his letters and journal entries to a scribe. David Olusoga was talking to Clare Hargreaves

David Olusoga will present The World’s War, a series on the African and Asian troops who fought in the First World War, on BBC Two in August. Turn to page 83 for more details

BBC History Magazine

GETTY

I think most heroes are flawed in one way or another and Hendrik is no exception. If he’d buried the hatchet with the Herero people earlier and united these African peoples they might have had a better chance of resisting German power.

Discover the history of

50% off all

The First World War

with your children

Usborne History books

SIX BOOKS IN ASSOCIATION WITH IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS

With over flaps to lift

60

10

eye-witness accounts

Dress the soldiers for battle

Special offer: 50 % off ALL Usborne History books Ancient Egypt · Ancient Greece · Ancient Rome · Vikings · Knights & Castles British History · Kings & Queens · First World War · Second World War

Usborne Publishing | Children’s Publisher of the Year 2014 | www.usborne.com Valid on all books featured at www.usborne.com/history, purchased direct from the Usborne website. Enter code HISTORY2014 at the checkout to receive the discount and free delivery. (Free P&P to UK delivery addresses only). Valid until 30th September 2014.

REMEMBERING THE GREAT WAR 100 YEARS ON A collection of new histories of World War I THE FIRST WORLD WAR

CHALLENGE OF BATTLE

The War To End All Wars

The Real Story of the British Army in 1914

Fully illustrated with maps and photographs, this book traces the entire history of the war, from the trenches of the Western Front to the deserts of the Middle East.

Offering fresh insight into the performance of the British Expeditionary Force in the first months of World War I, Adrian Gilbert uses diaries and letters to build a compelling and balanced picture of the strengths and weaknesses of the pre-war British Army.

Price: £25.00

Price: £20.00

TRENCH

COLLISION OF EMPIRES

A History of Trench Warfare on the Western Front

Price: £20.00

The War on the Eastern Front in 1914

Drawing on the renowned archives of the Imperial War Museum, this book reveals the realities of trench warfare, providing a startling and comprehensive vision of life and war in the trenches for the Tommy.

An in-depth study of the clash between the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian Empires in Eastern Europe, a confrontation that saw some of the most vicious fighting of the first year of the war and would go on to change the face of Europe forever.

Price: £14.99

Price: £20.00

Price: £8.99

Price: £8.99

Available from all good bookstores and from www.ospreypublishing.com

Price: £6.99