Scotland's response to the Great War has, up until now, largely been marginalized or ignored. With a proportionally higher number of volunteers than any other home nation, Scotland's youth played a significant part in Britain's war effort. Here is the first study of Scotland's response to the call to arms; the true story behind the raising, the training, life in the trenches and the sacrifices faced by those battalions raised in Scotland. This book focuses on the experiences of those who served in the Scottish divisions. Charting the course of emotions from initial enthusiasm in August 1914 through to outright disillusionment with the continuation of the war in 1917, the author clearly shows how life at the front line produced both physical and emotional changes in those caught up in the horrors of trench warfare.
Scotland's response to the Great War has, up until now, largely been marginalized or ignored. With a proportionally higher number of volunteers than any other home nation, Scotland's youth played a significant part in Britain's war effort. Here is the first study of Scotland's response to the call to arms; the true story behind the raising, the training, life in the trenches and the sacrifices faced by those battalions raised in Scotland. This book focuses on the experiences of those who served in the Scottish divisions. Charting the course of emotions from initial enthusiasm in August 1914 through to outright disillusionment with the continuation of the war in 1917, the author clearly shows how life at the front line produced both physical and emotional changes in those caught up in the horrors of trench warfare.
The author of Culloden details the effects of World War I on Scotland. On the brink of the First World War, Scotland was regarded throughout the British Isles as “the workshop of the Empire.” Not only were Clyde-built ships known the world over, Scotland produced half of Britain’s total production of railway equipment, and the cotton and jute industries flourished in Paisley and Dundee. In addition, Scots were a hugely important source of manpower for the colonies. Yet after the war, Scotland became an industrial and financial backwater. Emigration increased as morale slumped in the face of economic stagnation and decline. The country had paid a disproportionately high price in casualties, a result of huge numbers of volunteers and the use of Scottish battalions as shock troops in the fighting on the Western Front and Gallipoli—young men whom the novelist Ian Hay called “the vanished generation.” In this book, Trevor Royle provides the first full account of how the war changed Scotland irrevocably by exploring a wide range of themes: the overwhelming response to the call for volunteers; the performance of Scottish military formations in 1915 and 1916; the militarization of the Scottish homeland; the resistance to war in Glasgow and the west of Scotland; and the boom in the heavy industries and the strengthening of women’s role in society following on from wartime employment. “Royle has done First World War History a great service.” —Gary Sheffield, military historian “His exceptional talents at narration produce a work that is both through-provoking and engaging . . . A vivid, solidly-written book.” —International Review of Scottish Studies
The First World War produced a unique outpouring of prose and poetry depicting the stark realism of a brutal and futile war; no war before or since has been so extensively chronicled nor its misery so exposed. First-hand experiences in the trenches compelled poets such as Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen to write with a resolute honesty, describing events with more feeling and sincerity than the heavily censored letters that were sent home. Accounts of the Great War are typically written from an English perspective, but Ghosts of War encompasses a selection of contributions from across Europe and America, with an emphasis on the Scottish involvement. Using the words of over one hundred poets and writers, Andrew Ferguson recounts the war from its optimistic beginning to its sombre conclusion, bringing the conflict to life in a dramatic, emotive and, at times, humorous way.
The Black Watch was formed at Aberfeldy in Perthshire in the early eighteenth century as an independent security force, or 'watch', to guard the approaches to the lawless areas of the Scottish Highlands. Instantly recognisable due to the famous red hackle cap badge and the traditional dark blue and green government tartan kilt from which it got its name, The Black Watch was renowned as one of the great fighting regiments of the British Army and served with distinction in all major conflicts from the War of Austrian Succession onwards. In a highly controversial move, the regiment served under the operational control of the US Army during the counter-insurgency war in Iraq in December 2004. The Black Watch prided itself on being a 'family regiment', with sons following fathers into its ranks, and this new concise history reflects the strong sense of identity which was created over the centuries. In 2006, as part of a radical review of the country's defence policy, The Black Watch was amalgamated into the new Royal Regiment of Scotland. This new account of the famous regiment is therefore a timely memorial to its long and distinguished history.
The heroic and inspiring story of the fortunes of the Black Watch, whose soldiers have distinguished themselves in theatres of war across the world. Formed into a regiment in 1739 and named for the dark tartan of its soldiers' kilts, The Black Watch has fought in almost every major conflict of nation and empire between 1745 and the present, and has a reputation second to none. Following on from The Highland Furies, in which she traced the regiment's history to 1899, Victoria Schofield tells the story of The Black Watch in the 20th and 21st centuries. She tracks its fortunes through the 2nd South African War, two World Wars, the 'troubles' in N Ireland and the war in Iraq – up to The Black Watch's merger with five other regiments to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland in 2006. Drawing on diaries, letters and interviews, Victoria Schofield weaves the many strands of the story into an epic narrative of a heroic body of officers and men. In her sure hands, the story of The Black Watch is no arid recitation of campaigns and battle honours, but a rewarding account of the fortunes of war of a regiment that has played a distinguished role in British, and world, history.
*** PROSE Award Winner (2018) in the Textbook/Humanities Category *** A Practical Guide to Studying History is the perfect guide for students embarking on degree-level study. The book: - introduces students to the concepts of historical objectivity, frameworks and debate - explains the differences in aims, methods and audiences for different types of history - explores the relationship between the skills developed during a history undergraduate degree and the practice of professional history - helps students develop the practical skills required to read historical writing critically, write good essays, and participate in historical debates - includes study questions, further reading lists, text boxes, maps and illustrations The book incorporates case studies taken from a range of regions and periods, reflecting the varied nature of historical study at university, and helps students to understand history, and to practice it successfully: it is an indispensable guide to studying history.
A brilliant and poignant history of the friendship between two great war poets, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, alongside a narrative investigation of the origins of PTSD and the literary response to World War I From the moment war broke out across Europe in 1914, the world entered a new, unparalleled era of modern warfare. Soldiers faced relentless machine gun shelling, incredible artillery power, flame throwers, and gas attacks. Within the first four months of the war, the British Army recorded the nervous collapse of ten percent of its officers; the loss of such manpower to mental illness – not to mention death and physical wounds – left the army unable to fill its ranks. Second Lieutenant Wilfred Owen was twenty-four years old when he was admitted to the newly established Craiglockhart War Hospital for treatment of shell shock. A bourgeoning poet, trying to make sense of the terror he had witnessed, he read a collection of poems from a fellow officer, Siegfried Sassoon, and was impressed by his portrayal of the soldier’s plight. One month later, Sassoon himself arrived at Craiglockhart, having refused to return to the front after being wounded during battle. Though Owen and Sassoon differed in age, class, education, and interests, both were outsiders – as soldiers unfit to fight, as gay men in a homophobic country, and as Britons unwilling to support a war likely to wipe out an entire generation of young men. But more than anything else, they shared a love of the English language, and its highest expression of poetry. As their friendship evolved over their months as patients at Craiglockhart, each encouraged the other in their work, in their personal reckonings with the morality of war, as well as in their treatment. Therapy provided Owen, Sassoon, and fellow patients with insights that allowed them express themselves better, and for the 28 months that Craiglockhart was in operation, it notably incubated the era’s most significant developments in both psychiatry and poetry. Drawing on rich source materials, as well as Glass’s own deep understanding of trauma and war, Soldiers Don't Go Mad tells for the first time the story of the soldiers and doctors who struggled with the effects of industrial warfare on the human psyche. Writing beyond the battlefields, to the psychiatric couch of Craiglockhart but also the literary salons, halls of power, and country houses, Glass charts the experiences of Owen and Sassoon, and of their fellow soldier-poets, alongside the greater literary response to modern warfare. As he investigates the roots of what we now know as post-traumatic stress disorder, Glass brings historical bearing to how we must consider war’s ravaging effects on mental health, and the ways in which creative work helps us come to terms with even the darkest of times.
The Great War haunted the British Empire. Shell shocked soldiers relived the war’s trauma through waking nightmares consisting of mutilated and grotesque figures. Modernist writers released memoirs condemning the war as a profane and disenchanting experience. Yet British and Dominion soldiers and their families also read prophecies about the coming new millennium, experimented with séances, and claimed to see the ghosts of their loved ones in dreams and in photographs. On the battlefields, they had premonitions and attributed their survival to angelic, psychic, or spiritual forces. For many, the war was an enchanting experience that offered proof of another world and the transcendental properties of the mind. Between 1914 and 1939, an array of ghosts lived in the minds of British subjects as they navigated the shocking toll that death in modern war exerted in their communities.
