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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Public schools battalions


1st_east_yorks

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Hello all,

Can anybody recommend any books that specifically deal with the public school system and it's consequences during WW1?

The only book I have found is "The Old Lie: The Great War and the Public-school Ethos"

Does anyone know of any others relating to this topic?

Thanks for your help,

Sean.

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Sean,

Not quite sure what the 'consequences' were. Are you looking specifically at the Public Schools battalions or the influence of the public school on the British Army?

G.D. Sheffield, Leadership in the Trenches: Officer-Man Relations, Morale and Discipline in the British Army in the Era of the First World War (London: Macmillan, 2000) is not specifically about the influence of the public schools (but they appear as a constant thread looking at the index and from recollection) but would be essential reading to understand the dynamic of leadership and its effectiveness, or otherwise, over the course of the war. He will, I suspect, provide some contrary ideas to Parker's book. Expensive, go for a library loan! There are copies in Birmingham University library.

Martin Stephen, The Price of Pity: Poetry, History and Myth in the Great War (London: Leo Cooper, 1996) also has a section about the public schools (not surprisingly from an author who was then High Master of Manchester Grammar School and is now High Master of St Paul's in London)

The picture is certainly not all Newbolt's jammed Gatling, ribboned coat, blinding light and bumping pitch.

Ian

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Hi Ian,

Yes, specifically my interest is in the role the public schools played in "drumming up" support for the war, rather than the actual public school battallions themselves.

The G.D.Sheffield book that you have mentioned sounds like a super read on this topic (class structure, etc) and I will be going to the Birmingham central library to see if I can get a copy.

Thanks for your help,

Sean.

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