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1918: Serving her country?
She is keen to serve herself first, her country second. The cartoonist isn’t praising her. On the wall is a notice which tells her where her patriotic duty lies.
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1918: Reassigned Academic
Here is another instance of agriculture as an alternative to active military service. This new ‘recruit’ can only talk in academic language. I am surprised to see that he is wearing a military uniform. That suggests that he is officially a soldier although he has been assigned to work on a farm. This would be the first time that I have come across this practice.
1918: The wrong uniform
Marjory is a member of Queen Mary’s Auxiliary Army Corps which existed to take up some of the duties of the regular army. This was a move to free serving soldiers from administrative duties so that they could take up a more active role in the war. The fact that these women also wore khaki uniforms gave cartoonists the opportunity to make jokes like this.
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1918: Modern Art and the War Effort
The readers of Punch would have been appalled by this kind of modern art. The cartoonist pretends that it would have the same effect on birds thus enabling the farmer to provide home grown food for the nation. I really doubt that the birds would have noticed.
This kind of art is usually associated with the 1920s and 30s. However there was a great deal of experimental art on show prior to the outbreak of war in 1914. A spectacular example was the visit of the Russian Ballet which took London by storm just before that war. This energised the whole arts scene. The promoter was Diaghilev, the principal composer was Stravinsky and the principal dancer was Nijinsky.
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1918: Diplomacy
No doubt there were many flag days. This man has found the perfect way to avoid the flag seller.
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1918: The Greater Burden?
This is an interesting, and no doubt authentic, comparison between the life of a conscientious citizen and a soldier who is unfit for service in the trenches.
In his civilian life he has three different roles to fulfil. The office is particularly fraught. The elderly and youthful workers are not capable of supporting the boss. The young woman is neither a child nor elderly. She has, however, other interests in mind.
The light duties for the middle aged soldier are clear enough. A German seaborne invasion was by 1918 highly unlikely. (After the Battle of Jutland in 1916 the German surface fleet remained in harbour for the duration of the war). The military authorities could not ignore even this remote possibility. Our hero could safely smoke his pipe and read his book until the war ended.
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1918: Ignorance!
The speaker in this cartoon is described as a patriot. From that we can assume that he is a volunteer on the land and not someone who is engaging in agriculture in order to avoid army service. Unfortunately for him he is only showing the extent of his ignorance.
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1918: New entry into popular culture
It was in 1904 that the Wright brothers first managed to produce a flying machine. This new technology developed very quickly. Indeed the impetus of World War One was a powerful catalyst in this advance. So much so that it had entered into popular culture by 1918.
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1918: Care for the wounded
Scenes near the front involving casualties are very are in the pages of Punch. This artist surely has been ‘out there.’ The officer and the horse seem well looked after in contrast to the ordinary soldiers.
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1918: Lukewarm attitude towards the military
I detect here a lack of total support for everything about the army. Of course there are shortages by this stage of the war. Has the colonel been cocooned from experiencing its effects? The mayor feels emboldened to comment on this visitor’s lack of an adequate vocabulary.
Wonderful drawings .
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1918: Beware! Woman behind the wheel!
I suppose this must be an early example of jokes about women drivers. Plenty more of them were to follow this one. Would anyone, male or female, really be unaware of the traffic duties of a police constable? Is she in uniform? I would guess that she is and is also replacing a male chauffeur.
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1918: German shortages worse than in Britain
This cannot be described as an anti-German cartoon. The two people are quite gently satirised. The real point of the joke is that however bad things a home they are much worse for the enemy.
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1918: Another way of interpreting the citation
This type of award is given when a soldier has acted bravely where the enemy is not immediately present. For instance it might involve a natural disaster such as an earthquake or a mudslide. The cartoonist has chosen to use the words literally and has exploited the alternate meaning of the word gallantry.
A major war throws many people into situations outside their usual circumstances. Beside the very real dangers this gives rise to many opportunities of more interesting, not say, exciting experiences. Both the persons portrayed here are experiencing this excitement. I am old enough to have witnessed some of this excitement during World War Two – although I was too young to participate myself.
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1918: The Padre’s Preference
Something tells me that ‘his reverence’ is Irish.
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1918: Paternal Precision
Why did Freddie need some money? Gambling debts, I wonder? Perhaps he was writing from Boulogne at the beginning of a period of leave and he was planning a riotous time in London? We shall never know, of course. What we do know is that the pater coughed up.
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1918: The Pound in Your Pocket (© Harold Wilson)
Mathematically he is probably right but that does not make her feel any better about her loss.
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1918: Army biscuits have entered popular culture
Future generations of children were expected to know about the hard army biscuits. I suppose their hardness was due to the expectation that they would last longer.
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1918: Those profiteers again
These profiteers are really annoying the upper middle class readers of Punch. Wessex was then considered to be a wholly fictitious title since Wessex had ceased to be an actual title in 1066. Not any longer.
There is a serious footnote to this cartoon. 1918 is not only famous for the end of World War One. It also witnessed the Spanish Flu epidemic which caused the death of millions of people worldwide. (Wikipedia records estimates between 50 and 100 million). I can’t help wondering if this cartoon relates to an early instance of it.
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1918: The Barbarians are at the Gates
Punch’s readers were never going to appreciate ‘modern art’. The son’s reply cannot possible be true. A bit over the top, one might say.
