Family
life was to be severely challenged by the Great War. With mass recruitment in
the early parts of the war came the possibility of the loss of husbands,
fathers, and sons. Though the Edwardian Era that preceded the war is seen as a
more progressive society that that which had come before, family values were
still strongly stratified, with relatively few women working, men the primary
breadwinners. Despite their responsibilities, many joined in the first months
of war believing in its just cause; many others would be persuaded, and still
more emotionally blackmailed. Such peer pressures saw many a man join the
colours without due regard to the inevitable consequences for his family if he
should be killed, maimed, or otherwise incapable of work.
The
Government recognised that married men of recruiting age might need financial
inducement to leave their families: separation allowances for an average
married private were paid at a weekly rate of 12s 6d for a wife alone, 17s 6d
for a wife and one child, 21s for a wife and two children, and so on; but this
took into account a compulsory ‘allotment’ of money from the soldier’s own
wages – of 6d a day (half the basic shilling a day earned by privates without
other enhancements). Those soldiers with other ‘dependants’, that is, ‘any
person who is found as a fact to have been dependant on the soldier…to whom the
soldier is bound by some natural tie…’ would also need help. In such cases, the Government pledged to make
up the amount lost to the dependant by the soldier having joined the army –
after the appropriate deductions, of course. How important these factors where
in influencing soldiers to join up is a moot point. For many middle class men, further
enticement might be the opportunity to return to a good job with a decent
employer after the war. Some employers went out of their way to support their
employee recruits; not only would their positions be held open, but they would
also receive other benefits such as support of the family in some way, or the
periodic sending of ‘comforts’ to the frontline. For those injured by the war,
and for the wives of soldiers killed in the war, there would be pensions. These
would not be generous. Some 2,414,000 men were to be entitled to a war pension,
the maximum they could hope to receive being twenty-five shillings a week. Not much for such staggering commitment.
Peter Doyle's Book First World War Britain, published by Shire Publications, is out now, and is available here