Tag Archives: Fighting on the Home Front

Elsie and Mairi Go to War by Diane Atkinson

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Elsie and Mairi Go to War by Diane Atkinson was first published in 2009. It’s an account of what life was like for Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm when they decided to set up their own first aid post at the Western Front, just one month after the outbreak of World War 1.

The author has used their diaries and letters to write the book, I think it would have been better if we had just been allowed to read the diaries and letters ourselves as I don’t see any point in there being a middle person, the reader doesn’t have to be told what to think.

The whole idea of them setting up a first aid post on their own was obviously so that Elsie who was a trained nurse apparently could be top dog and wouldn’t be under orders to the Red Cross. She had to be boss. Mairi who was a lot younger than Elsie seems to have idolised her since they met at a motorcycle club in Bournemouth. Mairi’s parents were not happy about the influence which Elsie seemed to have over their daughter and they were right to be concerned because Elsie turned out to be anything but a good friend and it seems to me that she was mainly interested in Mairi for the money which she could help raise back in Scotland. She came from a well-heeled family and had lots of wealthy contacts.

Little Grey Partridge cover

Reading this book you could be forgiven for thinking that Elsie and Mairi were out there more or less on their own but there were women all over the various battle fronts. Years ago I read a small book called Little Grey Partridge which is the First World War Diary of Ishobel Ross who served with the Scottish Women’s Hospitals unit in Serbia. It has lots of photos but was published in 1988 so might be difficult to get a hold of now.

I have another book which is very good but it must be in the garage, still unpacked since our house move last April. But if you’re interested it’s called – Forgotten Scottish Voices from the Great War by Derek Young. I haven’t read it yet but my brother enjoyed it. The blurb on the back says. Using letters, diaries and first hand accounts together with original photographs, here is the real story of Scotland’s soldiers in the First World War.

I also have unread as yet – Forgotten Voices of the Great War which is a new history of WW1 in the words of the men and women who were there.

The best book which I’ve read recently about the war is Kate Adie’s book – Fighting on the Home Front.

Fighting on the Home Front by Kate Adie

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Fighting on the Home Front by Kate Adie is subtitled The Legacy of Women in World War One. I found it to be a really interesting read and although I’ve read numerous books about the war I learned a lot from this one. For instance, I had no idea that towards the end of the war there were thousands of women more or less right on the front lines. They had been recruited to free men up for fighting and they were doing all the cooking, cleaning, driving tasks and such – which men had been doing until then.

Did you know that there was an English woman in the Serbian Army? Her name was Flora Sandes and she was a sergeant major, she had started off as a St John Ambulance volunteer but begged to be allowed to fight when she saw that she was needed.

Women’s lives were changed radically but it was always known that the work they were doing was ‘only for the duration’ and they would have to go back to their domestic duties after the war. Although women got the vote due mainly to their war efforts, in some ways things went backwards so far that we still haven’t recovered the ground. It’s only now that women’s football is beginning to be taken seriously but during the war there were lots of female teams playing, due to the lack of men.

This book has interesting photos as well as lots of new (to me anyway) information. It’s a must read for anyone interested in the social history of the time. Kate Adie often adds in bits about what was happening within her own family in Sunderland at particular times during the war. Somehow those bits didn’t sit well within the book, especially as the Adie family was always described as her adoptive family, as if she was defending herself from any possible accusations of them not being her ‘real’ family. One mention of adoption would have been enough – not that I think it was necessary at all.

I believe that this book featured as a BBC Book at Bedtime.

You can find BBC podcasts about the role of women in World war 1 here.