Evie writes from Richmond in London. Richmond is an affluent residential district bordering the River Thames.
In 1914 Tom and Will volunteered to fight the war, and they were sent to Mytchett for their training. Mytchett is a village in the south-west corner of the borough of Surrey Hea
The characters mention that Princess Mary sent a present to the soldiers, which was a tin with a sachet of tobacco and letter-writing tools. During WWI, Princess Mary, daughter of King George V, launched the Princess Mary's Christmas Gift Fund in 1914 to send gifts to all British troops, resulting in over 2.5 million embossed brass boxes filled with items like cigarettes, tobacco, sweets, writing kits, and a Christmas card/photo from the Princess and King & Queen. These tins, paid for by public donations, became cherished keepsakes, with contents varying for smokers, non-smokers, nurses, and Indian troops, symbolizing care from home.
Tom writes to Evie about the truce between the British and German armies on Christmas Day. The Christmas Truce of 1914 was a series of unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of World War I around Christmas Day, where British and German soldiers met in "no man's land" to exchange greetings, gifts, and even play football. The truce was not universal and ended shortly after, with commanders issuing orders to prevent future fraternization, though there were no official punishments for the soldiers who participated.
In 1914 Scarborough was bombed. The Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914 was an attack by the Imperial German Navy on the British ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool, West Hartlepool and Whitby. The bombardments caused hundreds of civilian casualties and resulted in public outrage in Britain against the German Navy for the raid and the Royal Navy for failing to prevent it.
The characters mention the Zeppelins bombing London. During WWI, Germany used Zeppelins for the first strategic bombing campaigns, primarily targeting Britain at night, causing civilian casualties (around 557 deaths) and property damage, but failing to break morale, ultimately shifting focus to faster aircraft as defenses improved. These early raids, beginning in 1915, introduced the concept of bombing the "home front," using large, hydrogen-filled airships to bypass defenses, though they were slow and vulnerable to newly developed anti-aircraft defenses and fighter planes.
Evie mentions the language of stamps in her letters. During WWI, the "language of stamps," a Victorian-era secret code using stamp placement for romantic messages (like "I love you" upside down), largely ended as the overwhelmed postal system stopped sorting incorrectly placed mail; however, soldiers used specific colored stamps on army/navy postcards to convey coded status updates, like "safe" or "wounded," but the traditional romantic stamp language was generally discontinued for practical reasons.
Evie mentions Emmeline Pankhurst encouraging women to help in the war effort. During World War I, Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the militant suffragette Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), suspended suffrage activities to fully support Britain's war effort, urging women into munitions factories and war work, a move that saw her and her followers hand out "white feathers" to shirkers.
The Germans sank the Lusitania, which cause outrage in the British. It was torpedoed by an Imperial German Navy U-boat during the First World War on 7 May 1915.
Evie refers to Nellie Bly as her idol as a woman journalist. Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922), better known by her pen name Nellie Bly, was an American journalist who was widely known for her record-breaking trip around the world in 72 days in emulation of Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg, and for an exposé in which she worked undercover to report on a mental institution from within. She ushered in the era of stunt girl reporting and helped advance a new kind of immersion journalism.
Alice volunteered and became a VAD nurse. The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units were during World War I and World War II.
The characters mention the Committee on Alleged German Outrages. The Committee on Alleged German Outrages, often called the Bryce Report after its chair, Viscount James Bryce (1838–1922), is best known for producing the "Report of the Committee on Alleged German Outrages," published on 12 May 1915.The report is seen as a major propaganda form that Britain used in order to influence international public opinion regarding the behaviour of Germany, which had invaded Belgium the year before. It was the first significant publication from the War Propaganda Bureau at Wellington House.
Evie writes about Edith Cavell being executed. Edith Louisa Cavell (4 December 1865 – 12 October 1915) was a British nurse. She is celebrated for treating wounded soldiers from both sides without discrimination during the First World War and for helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium. Cavell was arrested, court-martialled under German military law and sentenced to death by firing squad. Despite international pressure for mercy, the German government refused to commute her sentence, and she was shot. The execution received worldwide condemnation and extensive press coverage.
Evie got worried when Tom stopped writing, fearing that he got caught in Verdun, where things had been terrible. The Battle of Verdun was a long and bloody engagement in World War I, lasting from February to December 1916, where the French repulsed a major German offensive. It was one of the most costly and longest battles of the war, fought for control of the fortress city of Verdun, a symbolically important location for France. The outcome was a French victory, though both sides suffered immense casualties of around 700,000 to 750,000 combined.
The characters also mention Kitchener's death. Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, died on June 5, 1916, during World War I. He was killed when the armoured cruiser HMS Hampshire struck a German mine off the Orkney Islands in Scotland and sank in a fierce gale.
Evie went to see the film "The Battle of the Somme". The Battle of the Somme (US title, Kitchener's Great Army in the Battle of the Somme), is a 1916 British documentary and propaganda war film, shot by two official cinematographers, Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell. The film depicts the British Expeditionary Force during the preliminaries and early days of the Battle of the Somme (1 July – 18 November 1916). The film premièred in London on 10 August 1916 and was released generally on 21 August.
Tom suffered from war neuroses. War neuroses, also known as combat fatigue or battle neurosis, are psychological conditions that develop in soldiers due to the intense stress, trauma, and terror of warfare, manifesting as functional nervous disorders like hysteria, neurasthenia, anxiety, and sleep problems.
Tom is sent to Graiglockart War Hospital in Edinburgh to recover. Craiglockhart War Hospital, located in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a historically significant site, primarily known for its role during World War I as a psychiatric hospital for shell-shocked officers.
Tom mentions that there is a magazine written by soldiers called The Wipers Times. The Wipers Times was a trench magazine that was published by British soldiers fighting in the Ypres Salient during the First World War. In early 1916, the 12th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters stationed in the front line at Ypres, Belgium, came across an abandoned printing press. A sergeant who had been a printer in peacetime salvaged it and printed a sample page. The paper itself was named after Tommy slang pronunciation of Ypres.
In 1917 Evie joins the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). The WAAC (Women's Army Auxiliary Corps) was formed in 1917 for the British Army, recruiting women into non-combat roles like cooks, clerks, and drivers to free up men for frontline fighting during World War I, later renamed Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC) in 1918, and disbanded in 1921, paving the way for future women's military service.
Evie's supervisor was Helen Gwynne-Vaughan. Dame Helen Charlotte Isabella Gwynne-Vaughan, GBE (née Fraser; 21 January 1879 – 26 August 1967) was a prominent English botanist and mycologist. During the First World War, she served in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and then as Commandant of the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) from 1918 to 1919.
Evie was sent to Rouen. During World War I, Rouen served as a crucial British Expeditionary Force (BEF) base, functioning as a major hub for hospitals, supply depots (like motor transport depots), and casualty clearing stations, housing numerous General Hospitals and Convalescent Depots on its outskirts, especially around the St. Sever area, which now hosts large Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries. The city processed vast numbers of wounded and sick soldiers, becoming a vital logistical and medical centre for the Western Front, with significant British, Canadian, and Australian involvement.
In 1917 America declares war on Germany. The United States declares war on April 6, 1917, after President Woodrow Wilson requested it, citing Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare as the main reason, following events like the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 and the Zimmermann Telegram.
The book mentions the protests of Violet Tillard. Violet Ellen Anstey Tillard (29 December 1874 – 19 February 1922) was a British suffragette, nurse, pacifist, supporter of conscientious objectors, international famine relief worker and devout Quaker. During the First World War Tillard was energised into helping conscientious objectors. on 23 May 1918 Tillard found herself once again in court for her agitations. She was on trial for refusing to disclose to police the name of the person who printed the March edition of the No-Conscription Fellowship News. Tillard was found guilty under the Defence of the Realm Act and was sentenced to 61 days imprisonment to be served once again at Holloway.
Evie contracted the Spanish flu at the end of the war. The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic. The earliest documented case was March 1918 in Haskell County, Kansas, United States, with further cases recorded in France, Germany and the United Kingdom in April. Two years later, nearly a third of the global population, or an estimated 500 million people, had been infected.
No comments:
Post a Comment