How Scotland, Ireland, and Wales Supported the British War Effort

Early Volunteers for Kitchener's Army

Scotland—There are many examples of Scottish patriotism during the war, including the hugely successful "tank campaign" of 1917/18 in which battle-scarred tanks toured towns and cities to drum up sales of War Bonds and Savings Certificates. Several Scottish cities vied to outdo each other, and Dundee raised £4.5 million in one week. Yet a number of Scottish cities were also leading centers of the anti-war movement, and saw significant industrial and civil unrest, during and immediately after the war.

Pilots at Scotland's Montrose Air Station

A Scottish location famously associated with the First World War is the Craiglockhart Military Hospital in Edinburgh, where officers suffering from shell shock were treated with "talking cures" and other newly developed therapies. It is also where the poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon first met, inspiring each other to write some of the poetry that continues to shape the view of the war that so many of us have.

Ireland—Unlike the rest of Britain, there was no conscription in Ireland, yet around 140,000 Irishmen joined during the war as volunteers. Some joined up for the perceived justice of the cause, but Ireland in 1914 was deeply divided between nationalist and unionist political groups, and these more local considerations also played their part. Recruitment posters were crucial, and special effort was made by poster companies such as Hely’s in Dublin to appeal to Irish sensibilities. An estimated two million posters were displayed around Ireland, in railway stations, offices and on hoardings, and many featured Irish symbols such as the shamrock and the wolfhound, as well as messages targeted at Irish Catholics. 

Despite the complexity of Irish politics and individual responses to the war there were a number of significant and fascinating places that reveal other aspects of WWI. The airship mooring station in Whitehead for example, played a key role in the protection of shipping from German submarines or U-boats in the North Channel.

Wales—There has been a perception that the Welsh were less keen to go to war than people elsewhere in Britain. Recruitment figures for Wales, however, are on a par with those for England and Scotland, although there is some anecdotal evidence of farming communities being reluctant to give up their labor. In many parts of Wales the fear of "khaki fever" (the supposedly overwhelming attraction felt by young women to men in uniform) led to some unsettling treatment of young women by the authorities. 

Welsh Munitionettes Mourning Fellow Workers

Women in Wales were policed under the Defence of the Realm Act, with arrests being made among those who were caught committing "indecent acts." Women in Cardiff faced a curfew, and concerned citizens in Swansea took things into their own hands when the Swansea Women’s Citizens Union launched a "Purity Crusade" to "stem the tide of immorality sweeping over the town."

Source:  BBC "World at Home" Series