Introduction and Acknowledgements

The First World War was the bloodiest war ever fought by the United Kingdom, costing the lives of around 723,000 men, and from mid-1917 onwards represented the only modern occasion when the British Army has taken the lead in a major land-based war. Since the advent of internet based family history, interest in the war has been steadily growing as online records have given people a tantalising glimpse into their ancestors’ experiences of the war. As the historian Adrian Gregory reflected:

‘The British seem to take the First World War personally. It would be difficult to imagine a contemporary British historian of the Napoleonic Wars writing a preface about how their great-great-great-grandfather died of typhoid at Walcheren or lost an arm at Badajoz, but it seems almost instinctive to evoke a grandfather at Loos or a great-uncle on the Somme.’

The author of this book is not immune. My great-great grandfather fought at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. My great-uncle served in the American Expeditionary Force and my great-grandfather enlisted at 15 and was discharged when his age was revealed. Every family has similar stories to tell but despite the growing public interest the war remains poorly understood. A war fought in appalling trench warfare conditions with huge casualty figures is hard to remember with anything but horror and what remains is a feeling of waste and blunder. However, this was not the unanimous view of those who fought; as many soldiers defended the war and their generals as lamented it as a great waste, and they fought it for a cause that many believed in.

The aim of this book is to tell the story of one small English town; to analyse its contribution to the war and its experience of the home front; to follow the social changes unleashed and to see how Torquay remembered the war. By doing so it hopes to present a more nuanced view than the mud and blood of popular imagination, while still acknowledging the horror and respecting the great suffering endured by the generation of 1914.

By featuring letters from serving Torquinians and following the career of Sir Herbert Plumer, commander of Second Army, who spent a substantial amount of his pre-military life growing up in Torquay, it aims to show that the BritishArmy slowly forged the most effective fighting force of its era and ended the threat of Kaiserism to Western Europe.

Taking a cue from the style of Peter Hart et al., extensive first-hand accounts have been used with the vast majority being letters from Torquinians unpublished since their appearance in local newspapers a century ago. Never has there been a better time to tell the story of Torquay’s experience of the war than in the centenary year of its outbreak and I hope this book is up to even half the standards of those that gave their lives from 1914-1918.

A project of this size is never undertaken without the help of many others. My thanks go to the staff of Queen Mary University Library, the British Library, Torquay Library and Torquay Museum. Special thanks go to both Torquay institutions for their permission to reproduce the photographs within this book. Thanks go to Professor Dan Todman who, despite giving me my lowest mark in three years of university (!), fundamentally changed my view of the war, directly leading to this book; to Roni Wilkinson for commissioning this work and being an invaluable source of advice; to Tom Bradshaw, Rob Olford, Cody Strong, Blake Roberts and Ron Espino, without whom I would never have developed the historical ability to write this book; to Paul and Julie Fogarty for all their support; to Ashley Stalzer for offering assistance with data mapping and finally to Sabrina Link, without whom this book wouldn’t exist. Two years ago I told her about my idea to write it and it was her support in the early days that has resulted in this book. She had the confidence in me and likewise I have the confidence that whatever she decides to do in life and wherever she goes she will succeed. Sabrina, consider this your dedication we talked about all those months ago. Not bad for a girl that can’t pronounce Holborn and thinks the Wu Tang Clang terrorised the American South during the nineteenth century… If I have missed anyone my apologies, I’m sure I’ll soon hear about it.