Poor Families Of The First World War

In part two I'm going to explore the effects of the First World War on the poorer families of Britain and see what their lives were like. 

Pre-war life was hard for the working class and many families across Britain were living in slums that were dirty, overcrowded and would be deemed not fit to live in by today's standard. Whole families could be found to be renting one or two rooms instead of a hold house and were expected to share the outside toilet with a dozen other large families. 

When war broke out, most of the men from the poorer areas went straight to the recruiting office to volunteer. many of these me were unemployed or were casual labour so the thought of having a job to do whilst seeing some of the war seemed like a big adventure to them. With the main breadwinner's away, the responsibility of surviving was left on the women's shoulders solely. Due to this we saw an increase in the amount of homes containing more than two generations as grandparents moved in with their families both to save money and to help out with running the home so that the mother could go to work. They would carry out the housework as well as looking after the children.

With more and more factories turning over to war work, jobs were easier to come by and came with relatively good wages, although they would still get less than a man for doing the same job. These new opportunities caused a lot of mothers to go out to work so that they could support their families. With many families having six or more children money would still be tight but they could at least afford to keep a roof over their head. 

With the war dragging on, food was becoming harder to come by and thus was becoming more and more expensive. Unlike the wealthy who had no limit to the cost of the food they ate, poorer families just couldn't afford much and so many were living on potatoes or bread and dripping to get them through each day.  

By the end of the war, the role of the individual family members had changed with many families getting used to coping with their menfolk being away, so much so that when the soldiers returned from war they often found it difficult to fit in and cope with how much had changed whilst they were away. For all their bravery and help fighting to win the war, they were often left unemployed and with little or no money. 

Unlike the rich, who as a consequence of the war had more wealth, the poor were left with nothing and would face a bitter struggle to survive each day. The workhouse would see more people arriving on its doorstep and the suicide rate increased. The war had changed everyone's lives and began to shape the life we know today.