Whenever you read about the beginning of the First World War, there are stories of young men from all backgrounds volunteering for the army as soon as war broke out. However, for some of those that could afford to, they paid somebody, who usually was poor and needed the money, to pose as them to carry out their medical tests for the army. The men that were chosen to do this had medical problems that would mean they would fail the test and be exempt from active duty on the front line. This could range from bad sight or hearing to being flat-footed or found to have heart or breathing problems. Once a wealthy man had his exemption certificate, he could relax and stay at home. He may still have been expected to carry out war work but it would be far less dangerous that fighting in the trenches.
For those that wanted to fight the war, having money or status meant that a lot of them went straight into the army with the rank of Officer with very little training. This caused unrest for the private ranks because they felt many of the officer's didn't have a clue what they were doing or would just treat the privates like slaves. However, having said this, looking back at the war, those wealthy officers did have just as difficult and dangerous a time as the privates. After all they were the ones who had to lead their men, being the first to go over the top and usually being the main target. After all, without an officer to lead them, the enemy knew chaos would ensue and thus allow them to gain more land. They also had the job of keeping their men in line in accordance with the army even if they themselves also didn't want to.
Pre-war, the wealthy were used to having vast houses with many boosting around twenty rooms and land as far as the eye could see. The families of houses like these could be found to have a large quantity of servants to carry out all manner of jobs from cook and gardener to lady's maid, footman and butler. However, at the outbreak of war this was to change and it would be change that would eventually see domestic service disappear almost entirely. With many of the servants being men, they ever volunteered or were later called up. This meant that the household was run by men that were either too young or too old or unfit to service the army and women. Yet with more and more factories springing up across Britain to turn out war goods, many women stood left the hard, long hours of working as a servant and instead chose to work in the dangerous conditions of munition factories which offered a much higher wage.
Houses which were deemed large enough were converted to be used as a hospital or convalescence house for those soldiers returning from the front. Houses would be used like this for the duration of the war and families would be expected to either help or find somewhere else to live until the war was over.
One thing that many families had in common rich and poor alike was the having to get used to their menfolk being away whilst fighting the war as well as the devastation of one of them being killed. Mother's, wives and children up and down the country were all waiting at home for news of their loved one whether rich or poor. One of the only thing that money couldn't buy was the knowledge of safety of a loved one, instead the people on the home front had to wait weeks, sometimes months for any news.
By the end of the war, the rich had seemed to get richer and the rich poor divide became greater. Factory owners had grown their wealth through contracted given by the government to product war goods. However, for all of their wealth, servants were harder to come by. Many of the men had either been killed or were injured and unable to work. For the women, they had been able to have a life that was without restriction and many had some money behind them now. They no longer wanted to work long, tiring hours for little money. This meant that the war had changed the lives of the rich forever.
Join me next time when I look at what life was like for the poor during the First World War.
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