Thunder Bay Public Library is a partner in the World War
One Thunder Bay Centennial Project which brings together a number of
organisations in the city to remember the Great War and also to create a
lasting legacy. Did you know, for example, that Thunder Bay is the City of the
Poppy – so named because it was here, at the Prince Arthur Hotel, that the Canadian
Poppy Campaign was launched in 1921. This makes our city unique at a time when
the whole world is recalling the tragic events of 1914-18.
So what was
happening 100 years ago? The early events of the war were captured in the book 1914 by Lyn MacDonald
in her vivid, unforgettable portrait of the first months of fighting. 1914 was
a year that saw warfare enter the modern age; war became depersonalised, as
heroic notions of glory and sacrifice vanished in a smoky haze of death. In
this book Lyn Macdonald lets the British soldiers of 1914 tell their own
moving, and often tragic, stories. They were professionals, disciplined by hard
training, bronzed by long marches under tropic skies, toughened by fighting and
manoeuvring on the frontiers of an Empire that stretched halfway around the
globe.
Unlike the volunteers who rushed enthusiastically to the colours when
war broke out, they did not go to war with heroic notions of glory and
sacrifice, but because it was their job. Their only weapons were rifles, which
they handled so skillfully that the Germans meeting their rapid fire believed they
were being mowed down by machine guns. But the ‘Old Contemptibles’ (from the
Kaiser’s description of the British forces as ‘a contemptible little army’)
were standing in the path of the main German advance, and they were
outnumbered, often ten to one. By the end of the year they had sustained 90%
casualties, and it was the end of the Old Army.
Lyn Macdonald’s research has
uncovered a wealth of eyewitness accounts and new or little-known material –
letters, diaries, official papers and reports – which she has woven together
into an engrossing and moving picture of what it was like to be a soldier in
the British Army in 1914. The relentless marches, the punishing shellfire, the
hardships and deprivations – as well as the unexpected moments of light relief
that made life bearable – all are graphically described and set within their
military framework in 1914, a book which made a major contribution to the
history of World War One.
I particularly liked the perspectives of civilian
observers such as Madame Deron who recorded events in her diary. Gaston
Degardin and Andre Betrancourt (both aged 12) who give a child’s-eye view of
the conflict. Father Camille Delaere
describes the destruction of Ypres and its many fine buildings, including the
beautiful Cloth Hall. Lyn Macdonald has written a number of other books about
the Great War which are well worth reading, including Somme (a history of that legendary and horrifying
campaign of 1916), The Roses of No Man’s Land (the story of the medical teams
who nursed battlefield victims), and They Called it Passchedaele (an account of
the notorious Third Battle of Ypres in which so many Canadians lost
their lives).
Check out the World War One Thunder Bay Centennial Project site
and keep an eye out for regular updates. If you have any materials which you
would like to share – letters, diaries, newspaper cuttings, ephemera – please
let us know at ww1project@tbpl.ca
John Pateman
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