Fighting a war is not a simple thing. Several things are
required to prosecute it effectively, and in a conflict such as the first world
war, these factors became even more important. Generally, to fight a modern
war, a nation needs popular support for such an action, especially in the case
of a democracy; it needs a robust industry, to supply its troops with a regular
number of weapons and other war materials; and it needs a food supply that can
remain uninterrupted throughout the course of the war. However perhaps the most
important resource a nation requires is manpower; a nation can have all the
guns and food in the world, but if there are no soldiers to use them, they are
as good as useless.
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Lord Kitchener's 'Your Country Needs You Poster'. It is one of the enduring WW1 images |
Therefore, recruitment was such a huge part of the war. Britain’s
active troop numbers stood at roughly a quarter of a million troops on the eve
of war, with a further half a million territorial and reserve forces available
for service[1].
By comparison, the other major powers of the world, Austria-Hungary, France,
Germany and Russia all had more than 3 million troops each, the latter three by
a significant amount [2].
This disparity led to intense propaganda efforts to coax citizens into joining,
including Lord Kitchener’s ‘Your Country Needs You’ poster, which is one of the
most iconic images of the first world war, and arguably of all time. Though
initial recruitment drives were promising, drawing in over 350,000 volunteers
in the first month, reports of the brutality of the conflict soon saw
recruitment figures begin to drop significantly, leading to the introduction of
conscription in early 1916. [3][4]
 |
This graph shows recruitment numbers per month for the British Armed Forces during the first world war. Note the significant dip in late 1915 and early 1916, which made conscription necessary.
In many ways, the challenge of raising enough recruits that
was faced nationally was also a problem within Aberystwyth. The Cambrian News
felt the need to encourage local lads to enlist by writing a brief piece
describing the action of one young Aberystwyth man, Hugh Lloyd, who travelled
all the way to South Africa to enlist in the army, exclaiming that ‘His keenness
and patriotism are splendid examples to home slackers’[5].
This article was written in August 1915, which as the above graph shows, was a
significant trough in recruitment numbers nationally. Little stories such as
this were commonplace in the paper, with a snippet from earlier in the year
reading ‘R. W. Jenkins, the chauffeur of Dr. James, Lodge Park, has joined the
mechanical transport and is now in France. He has written to say that he is
enjoying himself, his only regret being that he did not enlist months ago’[6].
However, the paper was not the only source of recruiting
propaganda that prevailed in Aberystwyth during the war. Mr W. Fuller, the
first Welshman of world war one to receive the Victoria Cross, gave a speech
whilst visiting family from Aberystwyth, attempting to drum up support for
enlistment. His speech was focused heavily on single men, often trying to guilt
them into joining. Sadly, this was very standard for the period (December 1914) [7].
 |
| A Victoria Cross, similar to the one Mr. Fuller would have received. Recipients of such honours were often very instrumental in increasing recruitment numbers |
Nevertheless, pro war and pro recruitment voices were not
the only ones heard. The main student paper at the university, The Dragon, had some very measured
comments to make on the subject, which read as such: ‘These pages are the last
place to look for recruiting advertisements, and any attempt on our part to
influence anyone's decision would be an impertinence. But what we must
emphasise is the necessity, at a time of crisis like the present, for everyone,
having first decided what his duty is, to do it and do it with his might. Those
who go forth may be trusted to do their part; from those who perforce remain
behind, College expects their very best’[8].
Given the levels of jingoistic outpouring in Aberystwyth at this time (Dr.
Hermann Ethe had been infamously expelled from the town by angry citizens just
the month before, to many student’s chagrin[9]),
such a stance was a courageous one; even though they tend to imply a pro-war
stance, their insistence that each man should do what they felt to be
right, not what they were compelled to do, may not have gone down well in the
far more jingoistic town.[10]
| The front cover of the dragon magazine. It was the most important student publication in Aberystwyth University at the time and published a variety of materials. |
Despite an almost one-sided narrative, it seems recruitment
drives didn’t have the desired effect. One soldier billeted locally complained
in the Cambrian News, writing ‘I am much disappointed to find barely thirty
Aber men all told in the University Company….I feel that there ought to be many
more representatives of Aber, both past and present’[11].
Equally over 500 postal appeals to young men in the Aberystwyth area went sent
in June 1915, with only 24 saying they intended to sign up; of these we don’t
know how many eventually did before they had to be compelled [12].
This is reflected in the number of Aberystwyth soldiers who
went to war. The town sent roughly 800 men out of a 1911 population of 8794,
about 9% of the population, whereas throughout the UK around 13% of people
served in one capacity or another. In terms of welsh figures, closer to 11% of
people served, still above the number for Aberystwyth. (conscription took
mostly uniform numbers across the country, so this overall number reflects a
lack of volunteers).
This shows clearly that enlisting the people of Aberystwyth
was an uphill struggle. This may have been due to an almost complete lack of
recruitment infrastructure outside of the newspapers in the most fruitful
opening months of the war throughout Cardiganshire; an article in the Cambrian
News reads ‘Mr. Vaughan Davies, M.P., said that when he came home from London
he found that practically nothing, was done to obtain recruits for Kitchener's
Army…... he did not wish Cardiganshire to be described as the only county in
Wales that had not tried to do something to maintain the honour of the country’[13].
The article goes on to explain that ‘Men had actually had to go to Brecon and
other places to join, because there was nobody to attend to them in their own
county’[14].
This suggests that official recruitment figures for Aberystwyth are perhaps underestimated
due to enlistment in other regions.
However, they did support the war effort in other ways;
Aberystwyth’s fundraising per head for the war effort was second only to
Singapore within the entire British Empire. While manpower was crucial,
economics was also; the impact of such as small area as Aberystwyth through its
financial contributions to the war cannot be underestimated, even if their
manpower recruited to the armed forces was below average.
Blog by Nathan Davies, AberForward Project Assistant
[1]
‘Recruitment to the British Armed Forces in World War One’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recruitment_to_the_British_Army_during_the_First_World_War,
(November 13 2018), accessed January 24 2019
[2]
‘Forces and resources of the combatant nations’, https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/Forces-and-resources-of-the-combatant-nations-in-1914,
(July 13 2018), accessed 24 January 2019
[3]
‘Recruitment to the British Armed Forces in World War One’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recruitment_to_the_British_Army_during_the_First_World_War,
(November 13 2018), fig.1, accessed January 24 2019
[4]
‘Recruitment to the British Armed Forces in World War One’, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recruitment_to_the_British_Army_during_the_First_World_War,
(November 13 2018), fig.4, accessed January 24 2019
[5] The Cambrian News, 20 August 1915
[6] The Cambrian News, 28 May 1915
[7] The Cambrian News, 18 December 1914
[8] The Dragon, Vol.37, November 1914
[9]
Troughton, Will. Aberystwyth and the
Great War, (Stroud, 2015), ch.2
[10] The Dragon, June 1917
[11] The Cambrian News, 6 November 1914
[12]
Troughton, Will. Aberystwyth and the
Great War, (Stroud, 2015), ch.10
[13] The Cambrian News, 11 September 1914
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