Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Wirral and the Great War

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Artistic and Cultural Responses to War since 1914

  • 592 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter analyses the people of Wirral’s understanding of the Great War of 1914–1918 by focusing on the reasons why they remained committed to its successful prosecution. Wirral was a microcosm of British society and contained structures which facilitated mass involvement in the war, both on the home and on the fighting fronts. These structures, combined with beliefs and attitudes, sustained the population during the war’s darkest days. It was both a modern and a traditional society with growing prosperity and urbanisation balanced by a reverence for tradition and social hierarchy. This chapter reveals that the home and fighting fronts were more intimately linked than is often thought to be the case.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Anthony D.M. Phillips and Colin B. Phillips, eds., A New Historical Atlas of Cheshire (Chester: Cheshire County Council and Cheshire Community Council Publications Trust, 2002), 74, 90, 92 and 102.

  2. 2.

    Census figures in Eric H. Rideout, The Growth of Wirral (Liverpool: E.A. Bryant, 1927), 99 and The History Data Service, University of Essex, http://www.histpop.org/.

  3. 3.

    Edward Hubbard and Michael Shippobottom, A Guide to Port Sunlight Village Including Two Tours of the Village (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1988); Stephen J. Roberts, A History of Wirral (Chichester: Phillimore, 2002), 151–153; Adam MacQueen, The King of Sunlight: How William Lever Cleaned Up The World (London: Corgi, 2011), 55–81.

  4. 4.

    Peter J. Aspinall, Daphne M. Hudson and Richard Lawton, Ellesmere Port: The Making of an Industrial Borough (Ellesmere Port: Ellesmere Port, Neston and South Wirral Borough Council, 1982), 55–56.

  5. 5.

    Geoffrey Place, Neston 1840–1940 (Burton: Burton and South Wirral Local History Society, 1996), 57–98; Stephen J. Roberts, Hoylake and Meols Past (Chichester: Phillimore, 1992), 70–77.

  6. 6.

    An estimate based on the proportion of Cheshire’s population employed by the railways with a small increase to take into account Wirral’s comparatively dense railway network.

  7. 7.

    George Philip & Son, A New Historical Atlas, 78–79; The Liverpool Echo 25/4/1911 and The Birkenhead News 3/6/1911.

  8. 8.

    Liddle Collection WW1/Gall/041.

  9. 9.

    David R. Lewis, ed., Remembrances of Hell: The Diary of Norman Ellison (Shrewsbury: Airlife, 1998), 22.

  10. 10.

    Mafeking in this context refers to the type of hysterical nationalistic celebration which occurred after the relief of Mafeking in South Africa on 17 May 1900 following a 217-day Boer siege.

  11. 11.

    For an example of a district which did not welcome the declaration of war, see G.J. Bryant, “Bolton and the Outbreak of the First World War,” The Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 138 (1988), 181–190; Stephen J. Roberts, “Did the People of Britain Welcome the Declaration of War in August 1914?,” The History Review, 52 (December 2005), obtainable at http://www.historytoday.com/stephen-roberts/did-british-people-welcome-declaration-war-august-1914 and Catriona Pennell, A Kingdom United: Popular Responses to the Outbreak of the First World War in Britain and Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 22–56 for discussions of the complexity of reactions throughout Britain.

  12. 12.

    The West Kirby News 22/8/14.

  13. 13.

    The West Kirby News 12/9/14.

  14. 14.

    The West Kirby News 17/10/14.

  15. 15.

    The Birkenhead News 15/8/14.

  16. 16.

    The Birkenhead Advertiser 26/9/14.

  17. 17.

    The Birkenhead News 21/11/14.

  18. 18.

    The Birkenhead Advertiser 27/3/15.

  19. 19.

    Helen B. McCartney, “North-West Infantry Battalions and Local Patriotism in the First World War,” in N. Mansfield, ed., The Great War in the North West, Manchester Region History Review, 24 (2013), 1–13 (5).

  20. 20.

    Gerard J. De Groot, Back in Blighty: The British at Home in World War One (London: Vintage, 2014), 435.

  21. 21.

    A phrase used by several veterans, such as Thomas Brown, Cecil Tomlinson, William Tobey, and John Mallalieu when answering questions during the 1980s and 1990s; their interviews are available at the Imperial War Museum Sound Archive.

  22. 22.

    The Birkenhead News 9/9/1914.

  23. 23.

    Pat Thane, Foundations of the Welfare State (London: Longman, 1998), 49–53 and J. Winter, The Great War and the British People (London: Macmillan, 1986), 240–242.

  24. 24.

    The Birkenhead News 12/8/14.

  25. 25.

    The Birkenhead News Victory Souvenir (Birkenhead: Willmer Bros, n.d.), 133.

  26. 26.

    The Wallasey News 12/8/14 and 26/8/14.

  27. 27.

    Ibid.

  28. 28.

    For example, the Birkenhead and District Women’s Local Government Association was very active. See its records at Wirral Archives YPX/98.

  29. 29.

    Julia Torr née Holmes (1845–1920), wife of Canon William Edward Torr (1851–1924) of Carlett Park in Eastham; the family’s wealth derived from Liverpool trade. See R. Hutchings, Carlett Park: A College With a History (Birkenhead: Countyvise, 1994), 15–21.

  30. 30.

    The Birkenhead News 15/8/14, 22/8/14, and 12/9/14, The West Kirby News 3/10/14.

  31. 31.

    The Liverpool Daily Post 25/1/1915.

  32. 32.

    The Birkenhead Advertiser 12/6/1915.

  33. 33.

    The Birkenhead Advertiser 19, 22, and 29/8/14.

  34. 34.

    Cammell Laird Board Meetings Minute Book 10, 179, Wirral Archives Z/CL2.

  35. 35.

    The Liverpool Daily Post 31/3/16.

  36. 36.

    The Liverpool Daily Post 11/4/16, The Birkenhead News Victory Souvenir, 49. Kenneth Warren, Steel, Ships and Men: Cammell Laird and Company 1824–1993 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1998), 173–200.

  37. 37.

    Advertisement in The Liverpool Echo 13/4/18.

  38. 38.

    Cammell Laird Minute Book 10, 16/1/18.

  39. 39.

    The Liverpool Daily Post 31/3/16.

  40. 40.

    The Belfast Newsletter 21/6/15.

  41. 41.

    The Ellesmere Port Advertiser 14 and 21/3/17.

  42. 42.

    Winter, The Great War and the British People, 213–245. For example, The Birkenhead News 26/1/18, 10/7/18, and 27/7/17 which talk about the efficacy of rationing. There are also references to council allotments, for example, The Birkenhead News 12/5/17—a photograph of women working on a new plot in Birkenhead. Poverty figures are difficult to find; for example, the minutes of the Birkenhead Guardians (Wirral Archives B/500/33-37) do not contain any references to numbers of people in receipt of relief, and relevant newspaper reports are erratic and imprecise.

  43. 43.

    The Birkenhead News 25/5/1910, 6/9/1911, and 8/10/1912. Anne Summers, “Militarism in Britain Before the Great War,” History Workshop, 2 (Autumn, 1976), 104–123 and Arlie J. Hoover, God, Germany, and Britain in the Great War: A Study in Clerical Nationalism (New York: Praeger, 1989).

  44. 44.

    Imperial War Museum Recording 10081.

  45. 45.

    See J.O. Springhall, “The Boy Scouts, Class and Militarism in Relation to British Youth Movements 1908–1930,” The International Review of Social History, 16 (1971), 125–158.

  46. 46.

    The Liverpool Echo 11/5/11.

  47. 47.

    MacQueen, The King of Sunlight, 232–233.

  48. 48.

    The Birkenhead Advertiser 12/9/14.

  49. 49.

    Edward George Villiers Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby (1865–1948); Randolph S. Churchill, Lord Derby, King of Lancashire (London: Heinemann, 1959)184–352, Peter Simkins, Kitchener’s Army: The Raising of the New Armies 1914–16 (Barnsley: Pen and Sword 2007), 58–59.

  50. 50.

    Graham Maddocks, Liverpool Pals: The 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Battalions of The King’s Liverpool Regiment 1914–1919 (Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 1991), 22–28.

  51. 51.

    Figures based on casualty lists in Maddocks, Liverpool Pals, 216–245.

  52. 52.

    The Ellesmere Port Advertiser 8/9/15.

  53. 53.

    Douglas Haig’s Diaries and Letters, The National Archives, London, WO 256/10.

  54. 54.

    The National Archives, London, WO 363.

  55. 55.

    The Deeside Advertiser 22/12/22.

  56. 56.

    Mike Finn, “The Realities of War”, History Today, 52(8) (August 2002), 26–31 and “Local Heroes: War News and the Construction of ‘Community’ in Britain, 1914–18”, Historical Research, 83 (2010), 520–538.

  57. 57.

    Helen B. McCartney, Citizen Soldiers: The Liverpool Territorials in the First World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

  58. 58.

    The Deeside Advertiser 18/8/16.

References

  • “About the History Data Service Collection”. History Data Service. Accessed January 15, 2018. http://hds.essex.ac.uk/history/data/introduction.asp.

  • Anon. The Birkenhead News Victory Souvenir. Birkenhead: Wilmer Bros.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aspinall, Peter J., Daphne M Hudson, and Richard Lawton, Ellesmere Port: The Making of an Industrial Borough. Ellesmere Port: Ellesmere Port, Neston and South Wirral Borough Council, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birkenhead Board of Guardians Minute Books B/500/33-37. United Kingdom: Wirral Archives.

    Google Scholar 

  • Birkenhead and District Women’s Local Government Association Records YPX/98. United Kingdom: Wirral Archives.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Thomas, Cecil Tomlinson, William Tobey, and Johyn Mallalieu. Recordings of Interviews with Great War Soldiers: Thomas Brown, Cecil Tomlinson, William Tobey and John Mallalieu. United Kingdom: Imperial War Museum London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, G.J. “Bolton and the Outbreak of the First World War”. The Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 138 (1988): 181–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cammell Laird Board Meetings Minute Book 10, 179, Z/CL2. United Kingdom: Wirral Archives.

    Google Scholar 

  • Churchill, Randolph S. Lord Derby, King of Lancashire. London: Heinemann, 1959.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Groot, Gerard J. Back in Blighty: The British at Home in World War One. London: Vintage, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finn, Mike. “The Realities of War”. History Today, 52, no. 8 (2002): 26–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “Local Heroes: War News and the Construction of ‘Community’ in Britain, 1914–18”. Historical Research, 83 (2010): 520–538.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haig, Douglas. Douglas Haig’s Diaries and Letters. WO 256/10. London, United Kingdom: National Archives.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haire, Ernest. Transcription of Interview with Ernest Haire WW1/Gall/041. United Kingdom: Liddle Collection University of Leeds.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoover, Arlie J. God, Germany, and Britain in the Great War: A Study in Clerical Nationalism. New York: Praeger, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubbard, Edward, and Michael Shippobottom, A Guide to Port Sunlight Village Including Two Tours of the Village. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchings, Hazel. Carlett Park: A College With a History. Birkenhead: Countyvise, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, David R., ed. Remembrances of Hell: The Diary of Norman Ellison. Shrewsbury: Airlife, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacQueen, Adam. The King of Sunlight: How William Lever Cleaned Up The World. London: Corgi, 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCartney, Helen B. Citizen Soldiers: The Liverpool Territorials in the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “‘North-West Infantry Battalions and Local Patriotism in the First World War’. In N. Mansfield, ed., The Great War in the North West”. Manchester Region History Review 24 (2013): 1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maddocks, Graham. Liverpool Pals: The 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Battalions of The King’s Liverpool Regiment 1914–1919. Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pennell, Catriona. A Kingdom United: Popular Responses to the Outbreak of the First World War in Britain and Ireland. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, Anthony D.M., and Colin B. Phillips, eds., A New Historical Atlas of Cheshire. Chester: Cheshire County Council and Cheshire Community Council Publications Trust, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Place, Geoffrey. Neston 1840–1940. Burton: Burton and South Wirral Local History Society, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rideout, Eric H. The Growth of Wirral. Liverpool: E.A. Bryant, 1927.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, Stephen J. Hoylake and Meols Past. Chichester: Phillimore, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. A History of Wirral. Chichester: Phillimore, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “Did the People of Britain Welcome the Declaration of War in August 1914?” The History Review, 52 (December 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  • Simkins, Peter. Kitchener’s Army: The Raising of the New Armies 1914–16. Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soldiers’ Service Records, WO 363. United Kingdom: National Archives London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Springhall, J.O. “The Boy Scouts, Class and Militarism in Relation to British Youth Movements 1908–1930”. The International Review of Social History, 16 (1971): 125–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Summers, Anne. “Militarism in Britain Before the Great War”, History Workshop, 2 (Autumn, 1976): 104–123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thane, Pat. Foundations of the Welfare State. London: Longman, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Birkenhead News.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Birkenhead Advertiser.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Deeside Advertiser.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Ellesmere Port Advertiser.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Liverpool Echo.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Wallasey News.

    Google Scholar 

  • The West Kirby News.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren, Kenneth. Steel, Ships and Men: Cammell Laird and Company 1824–1993. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winter, Jay. The Great War and the British People. London: Macmillan, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Stephen Roberts

Authors
  1. Stephen Roberts
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia

    Martin Kerby , Margaret Baguley  & Janet McDonald ,  & 

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Roberts, S. (2019). Wirral and the Great War. In: Kerby, M., Baguley, M., McDonald, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Artistic and Cultural Responses to War since 1914. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96986-2_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96986-2_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96985-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96986-2

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation