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:: History
What initially persuaded me to create a History section was the many people around who are unsure, and not just in this fandom, about the Conscription act in Britain during the First World War. So here's a little information ala www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk.
World War I :: 'the Great War'
When World War I began in 1914, Lord Derby instituated the 'Derby Scheme' - the British system of voluntary recruitment which ultimately glorified the war with propaganda. Although you could only enlist if you were over the age of 16 (I think it was 16 - either 16 or 18) boys as young as 15 secretly enrolled.
But eventually the true horrors of the War abroad returned home - some in the form of death tolls, others in the form of plays or poetry like the famous, and sardonically titled, poem by Wilfred Owen 'Dulce et Decorum Est' (pro patria mori) - which translates to "it is sweet and right to die for your country". Owen was himself a soldier in the war, and the poem was his bitter response to a woman who had printed an article in a British newspaper exclaiming how brave and glorious it is for a young man to join the army and fight honourably for his country. Wilfred Owen died five months after finishing the best known poem of the First World War.
"I can see no excuse for deceiving you about these last four days. I have suffered seventh hell." -- Wilfred Owen in a letter home to his mother
With the death toll rising, less and less men were willing to enlist in the British army. In January 1916, Parliament passed the first conscription laws (compulsory enrollment) ever passed in Britain. At first only single men and childless widowers aged 18 to 41 were called up. This of course caused an upsurge in marriages, for now young men were desperate to avoid the War in any way possible. Political protesters were taken to court to argue their case, but the majority of these cases were ignored and as punishment, the men were given suicidal jobs on the Front Line - some as med workers whose responsibility was to fetch any soldiers injured on the field or 'no man's land'.
By 1918 compulsory service had been extended to include all men aged 18 to 51. This act left many young widows. More than 2.3 million conscripts were enlisted before the end of the war in November, 1918.
Dulce et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! � An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Disclaimer: Nothing pertaining to the Secret Garden belongs to me. All rights, pictures, characters, names etc belong to Frances H. Burnett, Warner Bros. and BBC productions. No harm is meant by this site. This site was created by Starkiller.
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