I want to make three points during this reflection on
World War One:
·
Firstly, that WW1 is not really history at
all, not quite yet. The personal impact of that war is still felt by living
people, some of whom are here today.
·
Secondly, the world we live in now was born out of WW1
and we still live under its shadow
·
And thirdly, that this commemoration is about
everyone who was affected by that war, men, women, children, those who went,
those who stayed home, the refugee who fled, those who believed in the war and
those who said they didn’t. We also mark the terrible losses suffered, amongst
others, by the French, German, Russian, Austrian and Turkish peoples. And the
contribution by soldiers from the British and French empires, from the west
Indies and Africa, from Algeria and India and Pakistan, remembering that the first
round fired by a soldier in British military service in WW1 took place in Togo,
Africa, the soldier’s name, Sergeant Major Alhaji Grunshi
To begin on a personal note, I consider myself to be one
of those personally affected by world war one. My half-German grandfather James
Timbers died just before I was born, partly from injuries he sustained fighting
for the British in the Battle of Mons. To paraphrase the words of the poet
Jenny Lewis, writing about her father who served in Mesopotamia, ‘I’ve spent the rest of my life looking for
him’.
I am not alone. Today, we are privileged to have Phylis
Walstow with us, who lost her father in 1915, as well as other children of WW1
veterens, including my mother, Roma. Many of them saw at first hand the
personal cost of that war and by that I mean damaged minds and damaged hearts,
and damaged communities…described by Ted Hughes in his poem ‘Dust as we are’,
about his father, a WW1 veteran, living with his post-war family in Mytholmroyd:
He
had been heavily killed. But we revived him.
Now
he taught us a silence like prayer.
There
he sat, killed but alive…
And
I filled
with
his knowledge
After
mother’s milk,
This
was the soul’s food.
And in a sense all of you here today - even my six year old daughter - live in the
shadow of that war.
In drafting this reflection, I’ve tried on several
occasions to explain why but found myself inadequate to the task. Luckily, on
Friday, the Institute for Public Policy research drew my attention to an essay by
the historian Heather Jones, which explains why the war is still relevant to us
far better than I ever can. In summary she argues that the Left Right debate
about whether WW1 was an imperialist or a patriotic war of defence is beside
the point – because of course historically speaking the war was both. It was not
primarily a war between Britain and Germany, let’s not forget it started in
Serbia and British troops including my granddad Timbers also fought in Italy
against Austrians and Hungarians, others
fought in Gallipoli. It began the ruthless occupation practices perfected by
the Nazis in the second world war. It lead to the breakdown of multi ethnic and
multi religious empires and the creation of ethnic nation states, the arbitrary
division of the Middle East and the foundation of the state of Israel . Looking
at Al Jazeeri and the Observer this morning, I wondered if WW1 was entirely
over yet.
The war also left us with three great positive ideas –
largely from those who opposed it – that now dominate politics and the economy
in the UK and the world. The creation of an international court of arbitration
to stop disputes from spiralling out of control – we call it the UN – and a
‘league of Europe’ or ‘united states of Europe’ – we call it the EU – and
finally, free trade, though how free it is actually in practice these days is
sometimes hotly debated.
To turn to my third and final point: today, we commemorate all those who lived
through world war one, and in particular the early stages of the war, as there
will be further commemorations in 2016 and 2018 to mark the later stages of the
conflict. So one of the things we should focus on today is the extraordinary
story of the mass mobilisation of volunteers in the United Kingdom in the early
stages of the war. Incredibly, the UK avoided conscription until 1916. So there
was no conscientious objection to the war until then, although there was certainly
opposition to it, locally as well as nationally. I have written a slim piece
about that, which you can pick up for free, if you want to, at the back.
Primarily though, people supported the war, largely, though not always, I
believe, for idealistic reasons, which go well beyond patriotism, or what the
Minister of Hope Baptist Church described in this place, in 1915 as ‘devilish
jingoism’. They believed that through self-sacrifice they could end all wars.
In the words of the Hebden Bridge Times from 6 August 1915, ‘we took up arms to
ensure that even the strongest power shall not be free to disregard
treaties…and that even the weakest power shall be at liberty to live its own
life’. In other words, they went to war to create a civilised international
order, where the strong protect the weak against aggressors, and the force of
international agreement would in future prevent all war. Their hopes were
betrayed, but that is another story
Let me begin to conclude with their words, which you can
read in Mike Crawford’s powerful account of the experiences of local soldiers
in the first few weeks of the war. They were written by Lieutenant Owen from
the second battalion the Duke of Wellington’s regiment at the end of September
1914:
“I have not met a single man (or horse) of the English,
French or German armies who is not dying for the war to finish!...if all goes
well, we ought to win the victory which swallows up all strife, like Waterloo;
and that ought to keep peace for say 50 years. By that time I think the really
universal feeling against war will make soldiers a thing of the past’.
You can buy Mike’s book at the back. I recommend it
highly.
Finally, let me draw your attention to my charities: chosen with WW1 in mind. The St Augustine
centre in Halifax which does many things but primarily helps asylum seekers and
refugees, is something I am passionate about, along with the Archbishop of
York, the Right Reverend John Sentanu, who said “If we could replicated this in every community, the
country would be a different nation.”. We had many refugees in
this valley in 1914 and 15, from Belgium, but then they were welcomed, and
employers who exploited them were criticised. The status of refugees has
worsened somewhat over the last century, even though there are considerably
fewer around today than in WW1. I am no preacher but I think the words of St
Matthew Chapter 25 verses 34 and 35 are apposite: ‘Come, you who are blessed
by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the
creation of the world. 35 For
I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in’.
My other charity is Combat Stress, that was set up after
WW1, to provide counselling for veterans with PTSD or ‘shell shock’, as it was
known then. Too many are still coming home with no help or support, some end up
out on the streets, all too frequently their families find them too difficult
to cope with and break up. You would have thought that abandoning our veterans
was a practice that would have ended soon after the eighteenth century, not
something that persists in the twenty-first. Sadly not.
I thank you for your generous donations, remembering the
number of refugees out there in a world that is still at war and the trauma that
many veterans are left with, confronted by so much senseless death and
suffering. These are amongst the long shadows that WW1 leaves us with.
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