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Friends of Horsham Museum
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WWI Horsham(1914-1918)
Friends of Horsham Museum
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World War One (1914-1918)
Today we will look at how World War One began then how the war effected people at home
A few Key Facts:
- It is also known as the Great War and the First World War.
- The fighting started in 1914 and ended in 1918.
The war didn’t really end until 1919. This was when all the countries who fought agreed not to fight again.
- It was a terrible war. More people were killed than in any war fought before.
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There were lots of little arguments. All it needed was one bad event to start them fighting.
The road to WarBefore the war some countries in theworld were very powerful like Britainand France. Other countries were notas powerful but wanted to be likeGermany. These countries beganmaking ‘alliances’. These wereagreements to protect each other andnot fight.
The Triple Alliance (Red)The Triple Entente (Yellow)
But this created two big gangs ofcountries. The Triple Alliance(Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy)and the Triple Entente (Russia, Franceand Britain). They did not like eachother very much.
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That bad event happened on 28th June1914. The Archduke Franz Ferdinandwas shot dead in Sarajevo in Bosnia.
One bad day
He was the Prince of Austria-Hungary.Austria-Hungary ruled lots of othercountries like Bosnia.
Some of the nearby countries like Serbiadid not like this. A member of one ofthese groups killed the Archduke. Thissparked the First World War.
Photographed by Carl Pietzner, picture in Public Domain. Accessed via Wikimedia commons
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A WORLD war - How everyone gets involved
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Over the next four years more and more countries joined in from all over Europe, Asia and America.
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The fighting took place in twomain places. In the West itfocussed on NortheastFrance. This was called the‘Western Front’. In the East itstretched all across EasternEurope. This was called the‘Eastern Front’. British soldiersmainly went to fight in theWestern Front. Because thetroops moved about the Frontline did too.
But the war affected everybody at home in Britain as well. In places like Horsham many families were split up as men were ‘recruited’ to fight.
MAP
The fighting
The Western
Front
The Eastern Front
Map showing the Front lines in the West and East. The lines in the East show how far the Front line moved about.
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RecruitmentWhen Britain went to war they needed men fortheir army which was small. An importantBritish man Lord Kitchener called for 100,000men to join the army. This is called‘recruitment’. Soon soldiers from all overBritain and the British Empire joined up. By theend of the war over 2000 men from Horshamhad joined up.
There was no radio, TV or internet back then.The government had to use other ways topersuade men to join up. One way was throughposters. We have some of the posters that wereput up in Horsham on our website:www.horshamposters.com
Poster No.: 1999.529 and 1998.1074 © Horsham District Council’s Horsham Museum and Art Gallery
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Conscription
In 1916 the government still neededmore men to fight. But the war had goneon a long time. Many men had died.Those who made it home were oftenbadly injured. It was harder to getpeople to join up.
So they made it a rule that all men aged18-41 had to join the army. Some menwere still left out because the work theydid at home was very important. Noteveryone was happy and some peoplerefused to join up.
Poster against conscription
Poster No.: 1999.653 © Horsham District Council’s Horsham Museum and Art Gallery
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It wasn’t just the loss of family members that affected people at home. Everyone in Horsham was expected to ‘do their bit’. Here are some examples.
War Work
Some men who couldn’t be soldiers joined their local Civil
Guard. They helped the police and guarded important
places like railway stations. Others stayed to do
important jobs like farm or make weapons.
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War Work
Women took on new jobs.Some worked in the fieldsin the Women’s Land Army.Others became postmenand railway guards. Somemade shells and bombs infactories. Others becamenurses or volunteered tohelp nurses at the WarHospital Supply Depot.
© Horsham District Council’s Horsham Museum and Art Gallery
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War Work
Children helped out too.They sold flags on ‘flag days’to raise money for wartimeprojects. Boy Scouts and GirlGuides delivered messagesfor the War Office. Boys andgirls also worked in thefields and collected berries.
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Even animals got involved. Horses were taken from fields and sent to battle. They
carried soldiers or pulled heavy guns.
War Work
© Horsham District Council’s Horsham Museum and Art Gallery
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New technology
But from the start of the war newtechnology changed the lives of those athome too. For example Zepplins. Zepplinswere air-ships filled with hydrogen. TheGermans decided in 1915 to use airships tobomb towns and cities in Britain.
People in Horsham would often see theZepplins pass over head.In 1916 new weapons were made thatcould shoot down the ariships. By 1917 theZepplin raids had stopped. But raids by newaeroplanes carried on.
The war forced armies to change the way they fought. By 1916 soldiers had tanksto stop machine gun fire, gas masks and radios and telephones to communicate.
A Zepplin over Horsham Railway station
© Horsham District Council’s Horsham Museum and Art Gallery
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Rationing
In the War lots of food was sent to the armyto feed the soldiers. Then food that we gotfrom other countries started to get less. Thiswas because the Germans attacked supplyships with their U-boats (submarines). Peoplestarted to worry about getting enough foodand some food became very expensive.
Poster about the new ration books
The Government encouraged people to savefood. By 1918 the Government decided tomake rules about how much families couldeat of certain foods. This was called rationingand meant everyone should get a fair share.The foods rationed included sugar, butter,meat and jam. Poster No.: 1998.1058 © Horsham District Council’s
Horsham Museum and Art Gallery
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On November the 11th 1918 therewas a general ‘armistice’. Thismeant everyone stopped fighting.Today we know it was the end ofthe war.
Peace
In Horsham they celebrated thearmistice by church services, flags,music and a torchlight procession.
But they still had to decide on a‘treaty’. This was an agreement thatwould keep the peace. The treatywas finally agreed in June 1919. A year later they held
their first Armistice Day Anniversary. They held church services and lit up the Carfaxbandstand.
© Horsham District Council’s Horsham Museum and Art Gallery
Poster No.: 1999.636 © Horsham District Council’s Horsham Museum and Art Gallery
Friends of Horsham Museum
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Remembering what happened is stillimportant today. Every year on Novemberthe 11th we have remembrance events.August 4th 2014 marks 100 years since thewar began. Many people across the countrywill also mark this date. Over the next fiveyears people will look back at what happenedand hold other remembrance events.
The war had been terrible. Over 800000 military men from Britain died and many more were injured. Over 300 of those men were from Horsham.
Remembrance
The Horsham War Memorial was built in 1921. This photo shows the monument
today. It lists the names of all the Horsham men who died in WWI and WWII
These help us to remember those who diedin the war, those who were wounded and thefamilies left behind in all countries involved inthe war.
© Gail Mackintosh