James McConnell Wins Bid to the AHRC-funded WWI Living Legacies Centre

Congratulations to James McConnell for his successful bid to the AHRC-funded WWI Living Legacies Centre. James describes the project below.

WWI poster, courtesy of the
Library of Congress. London:
Johnson, Riddle & Co., Ltd., 1915.

In mobilising ‘citizen historians’, this project will work with community partners such as the Northumbria First World War Commemoration project (NWW1), a path-breaking, multiple Heritage Lottery Fund-supported group, which has pioneered the use of grassroots-led research methods, combining these with cutting-edge IT, to produce community-led research on the men from the former borough of Tynemouth who fell during the conflict. ‘Citizen history’ is a relatively new concept in which professional historians work alongside volunteers from a range of backgrounds, often online, to collect and analyse data in relation to particular topics. For a well-known example of ‘citizen history’, click here.

In the case of this project, we’ll be looking to recruit volunteers to research the lives and wartime service of ‘Geordies’ in the armies of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada during World War One. By ‘crowdsourcing’ research in this collaborative way, the project will collect information that will help us to understand why ‘Geordies’ emigrated and how these journey relate to their wartime movements and even post-war locations of settlement.

The project will consider not only the complexities of individual ‘migration histories’ but also the way that individuals and communities saw their identities (as ‘Geordies’ and Britons, but also Australians, Canadians, or New Zealanders); how they understood ‘Geordie’ migration more generally, and how people came to see the empire in new ways through this migration. By using the term ‘Geordie’, we’re aware that the name is often used to describe the people of Newcastle, but it has been used by scholars to describe the people of the wider north east region  as well. In seeking to find volunteers across the world who will help the project research the lives of these soldiers, we’re using the term because it’s internationally recognisable.

John Hulme, Northumbria University MRes Student, and North East War Memorials

Tony Henderson, “Northumbria University Academic in Call for North War Memorial to Mark Women's Efforts,” The Chronicle, April 3, 2015.  (See also this post.)

Labourers at Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company.

A huge workforce of women produced millions of shells in North East factories during the First World War.

In addition to these munitionettes, thousands more women took over from men in a range of other industries and other jobs.

Now a research project at Northumbria University is launching a debate on whether women’s war efforts should be recognised by a regional or national memorial.

John Hulme, a Master of Research student in history at the university, is also questioning why so few women appear on North East war memorials.

He will present his case in a research paper, titled “Commemorating the Women of World War One, Never or Now?” at a Master of Research symposium at Northumbria University on April 27, which will be open to the public. read on>>>

Commemorating the Centenary of the Women's Peace Congress of 1915

The following is a cross-post from the Histories of Activism Group.

On Monday, 20 April, the Histories of Activism group is organising an event at the Newcastle Lit & Phil to commemorate the centenary of the Women's Peace Congress of 1915 - a major international meeting held at The Hague. Over 1,200 women came together to coordinate their efforts to bring an end to the Great War. Following on from their meeting in the Netherlands, participants travelled to European capitals to lobby the representatives of the warring nations.  The event also resulted in the creation of the International Committee of Women for a Permanent Peace, which was later transformed into the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) - a major pacifist organisation that still exists today.

A century on, our 'Women as Peacemakers' evening will allow us to reflect on the history, legacy and ongoing relevance of the women's peace movement. The event is open to the public and will start at 6:00 pm.

Delegates to the April 1915 conference.

• Daniel Laqua (Senior Lecturer in European History at Northumbria University) will introduce the event by commenting on the history of peace movement up to 1914 as well as outlining the main features of the congress at The Hague.
• Sarah Hellawell (PhD candidate in British History at Northumbria University) will present findings from her doctoral research. She will focus on the British women who attended the congress as well as the subsequent creation of a British WILPF section. She will show how the British women's movement emerged from a section of the pre-war suffrage movement, and will also consider the tension between national loyalty to the British war effort and women's transnational efforts for peace.
• Ingrid Sharp (Senior Lecturer in German at Leeds University) will discuss the aims and achievements of the women at The Hague, explaining why it is important to remember them. In doing so, she will draw attention to the legacy and significance of this year's centenary, shedding light on the relationship between peace, women's rights and human rights.
• Jon Coburn (PhD candidate in US History at Northumbria University) will draw on his doctoral research on women's activism for peace in 1960s/1970s America. He will point out that women's groups have had a long and positive role to play in the American peace movement. He will highlight the connections between different waves of activism and demonstrate the enduring relevance of women's peace history for contemporary peace groups.

 Participation in the event is free. There is no need to pre-register, but if you would like to let us know that you are coming, you can do so via our Facebook page.

Research Highlights Silent Warriors of First World War

1917 poster. Courtesy of the LOC.

From the News and Features section of the Northumbria University website.

A Northumbria University, Newcastle research student is calling for the women of World War One to be recognised.

John Hulme, a Master of Research student in History, asks why women rarely feature on war memorials despite the significance of their contributions during the war period. Using memorials, archives, databases and the works of several historians, John’s research considers the status of women in Edwardian England, contemporary views of the war and the role of women in it, and memory and memorialisation.

His research paper, entitled ‘Commemorating the Women of World War One, Never or Now?’ concludes that the time is right for a discussion of a new memorial: one that fully recognises the contribution women made to the British victory in the First World War.

John said: “First World War memorials are a ubiquitous feature of our built environment, present in every city, town and village. Writers of the time acknowledged the presence of women in many wartime occupations from 1914 onwards. Women replaced men in factories and offices as well as filling jobs created to meet the demands of the war, including producing munitions, manufacturing aircraft and nursing the wounded.

“My paper seeks to address why, given this contribution, women feature so rarely on war memorials.”

The topic is particularly timely as it takes place during the nation’s four-year commemoration of the Great War of 1914-18. With 2014 marking 100 years since the start of the war, the Government is leading on a series of remembrance activities taking place across the country. Coordinated by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the events will culminate in the building of a permanent commemoration that will memorialise this significant milestone in world history. >>> read on

Public Lecture by Richard Van Emden

“Meeting the Enemy: The Human Face of the Great War,” 28 April @ 6.15, CCE 1, Northumbria University

A British soldier walked over to the German front line to deliver newspapers; British women married to Germans became 'enemy aliens' in their own country; a high-ranking British POW discussed his own troops’ heroism with the Kaiser on the battlefield. Just three amazing stories of contact between the opposing sides in the Great War that eminent historian Richard van Emden has unearthed – incidents that show brutality, great humanity, and above all the bizarre nature of a conflict between two nations with long-standing ties of kinship and friendship. In his lecture, Richard Van Emden reveals how contact was maintained on many levels throughout the War, and its stories, sometimes funny, often moving, give us a new perspective on the lives of ordinary men and women caught up in extraordinary events.

From Richard Van Emden’s website:

Richard van Emden has been interested in the Great War since his teens. He interviewed 270 veterans of the conflict and has so far written twelve books on the subject. His latest, The Quick and the Dead: Fallen Soldiers and Their Families, is due out now. His previous books include Britain's Last Tommies, Boy Soldiers of the Great War, All Quiet on the Home Front, Prisoners of the Kaiser and the top five best-selling The Trench. He has visited the Somme and Ypres every year since 1985 and has an expert knowledge of the First World War battlefields. Richard also researches, produces and directs television programmes about both World Wars, including the award-winning Roses of No Man’s Land and Veterans. His most recent television programme Shooting the War, was broadcast on BBC4 (2010), and he has also appeared as an expert on programmes such as The Boy Soldiers of the Great War (Channel 4), and most recently The Real War Horse on the History Channel.

The Newcastle YMCA First World War Memorial at Northumbria University

James McConnel

The Newcastle YMCA war memorial.

In late 2014, the Estates Office at Northumbria University contacted me about an interesting discovery they had made in a storage area in the University’s Wynne Jones building. Following my research into the war-related features of Trinity Building (formerly Trinity Presbyterian church), they knew I was interested in information about any war memorials on campus. It turned out that staff from Estates had discovered in Wynne Jones a hitherto unknown First World War memorial. The memorial was accompanied by a brass plaque commemorating the opening of the Newcastle YMCA building on Blackett Street in 1900. This building was knocked down in the 1970s to make way for the Eldon Square shopping centre. Various architectural features of the Victorian building were salvaged when it was demolished. These included stone carvings and door surrounds, which were mounted onto one of the exterior walls on Prudhoe Chare in 1976 (the alley by the side of Marks and Spenercs). But it appears that the YMCA’s war memorial was also rescued from the old building, which was then transferred to the Association’s new premises on Ellison Place. The University acquired this building twenty years later in the 1990s and – seemingly without realising it – also inherited the YMCA’s war memorial.

The memorial is made of wood and includes the names of about 100 men who ‘Gave Their All’ in the First World War. Three Northumbria history students are now researching the names of the men as part of a work placement module all students undertake in their second year. With the help of a
Masters student who is undertaking a project on war memorials in Newcastle schools, they have been introduced to the use of digitised local newspapers, the 1911 census, CWGC records, and military archives, in order to research the lives of those named on the memorial. We have also made contact with the modern-day YMCA in Newcastle and it is interested in collaborating with Northumbria on this project, with some of the young people from the Association helping with elements of the research . Ultimately, the hope is that the biographical information collected will contribute to a permanent online resource about Newcastle YMCA’s role in the First World War.

A Great War Memorial at Northumbria University

James McConnel

Although Northumbria did not exist as an institution during the Great War, the University has a number of interesting connections with the period 1914–1918. The official history of Northumbria (by Joan Allen) records that one of the University’s predecessor institutions, Rutherford Technical College (established in 1880), was indirectly affected by the conflict: the College’s enrolments fell away in 1914, while the institution’s curriculum suffered as a result of various staff members joining (or in some cases re-joining) the colours. New students, however, subsequently enrolled at the college for the purposes of training in Newcastle’s munitions’ factories, while another aspect of the College’s curriculum which underwent change due to wartime circumstances was the training of women to replace the depleted male workforce. Towards the end of the war Rutherford College was also involved in the training of disabled soldiers in preparation for peacetime.

Northumbria University's Trinity Building on the left

But perhaps one of the most tangible links which Northumbria has to the Great War is the stained glass window dedicated to a soldier of the Great War housed in the Trinity Building on Northumberland Road. Formerly part of Trinity Presbyterian Church, the surviving stained glass windows include one, situated on the north aisle of what was the nave, which features the dedication: ‘In loving memory of Liet. J.A.G. Brewis, 4th D[urham] L[ight] I[nfantry], attached RFC, killed whilst flying, April 29 1917. Age 22 years.’

John Arthur Gardner Brewis was born in Sheffield in 1896. His father was, according to the 1901 census, a ‘Foreign Produce Importer’, and the family had moved to Gosforth in Newcastle by 1901. The only son of five children, at the time of the war’s outbreak Brewis had just completed his first year as a medical student at Newcastle Medical College (then part of the University of Durham). Having previously served as a cadet in the Officers’ Training Corps, he ‘was given a commission in the DLI immediately on the outbreak of war’. Following nine months of training, he was sent to Flanders in May 1915 as a second lieutenant with the 2nd Battalion DLI. After sixteen months at the front (during which time he was promoted to lieutenant), he joined the Royal Flying Corps, and acted as an observing officer for six months with 40 Squadron. Wounded twice, on returning from his second period of convalescence he qualified as a flying officer in February 1917.

John Arthur Gardner Brewis memorial
Trinity Building, Northumbria University

His career as a pilot was, however, to be short-lived (lasting just two weeks). His short flying career included being one of several British pilots who, on 24 April 1917, attacked an enemy aircraft, forcing it to land, with the resulting capture of two prisoners. Five days later Brewis was shot down by enemy ground fire while flying a morning patrol. RFC headquarters initially believed that he was unhurt and had probably been taken prisoner, but five months later in September 1917 he was reported as having been killed in action.

In the immediate aftermath of the news, Brewis’ parents received many expressions of sympathy, which later found tangible form in a number of memorials. In addition to the stained glass window in Trinity building on Northumbria’s campus, his name features on the Flying Service Memorial at Arras, on a plaque in Newcastle’s medical school, on a memorial in St Nicholas’ Church, Gosforth, on a plaque in Gosforth Memorial Welfare Centre, and on a plaque in Alnmouth golf club to its members who fell in the conflict.

James McConnel is a Reader in History at Northumbria University.  He studied at the universities of Sheffield and Durham. He joined Northumbria University in November 2008. He specialises in Irish and British History.  He is the author of The Irish Parliamentary Party and the Third Home Rule Crisis (Four Courts Press: Dublin, 2013).