100 Years Ago
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/first-world-war/article4636772.ece
Air raids as seen by children
On this day: Dec 10, 1915
Glimpses of Zeppelins through childish eyes were given by Dr C W Kimmins, Chief Inspector of Schools for the London County Council, in a lecture to the Child Study Society at the Royal Sanitary Institute last night. Dr Kimmins’s subject was “The Interest of London Children at Different Ages in Air Raids,” and the lecture was based on 945 essays written by boys and girls, from eight to 13 years of age, attending five schools in the neighbourhood of places in London where bombs were dropped during the Zeppelin raids of September 8 and October 13. At least 96 per cent of the children had actual experience of one or both of the raids. The essays were written from 10 to 14 days after the raids.
At eight years of age, Dr Kimmins said, the noise of the firing bulked very largely in the essays. No personal feelings were expressed and there was no evidence of fear. Even at that age the girls looked after the younger children. At nine the boys thoroughly enjoyed the raid, spending as much time as possible in the streets; occasionally among the girls great fear was expressed. At 10 the boy took his part in looking after the younger children. One wrote: A picture over mother’s bed fell on her head and on the baby. The baby went unconscious, and my mother shook her, and then she was alright.
At 11 the boys showed no fear. The following was an extract: My cousin pointed to a star and said she thought it was a Zeppelin. “Fathead,” said I, politely. “It cannot be a Zeppelin. It does not move.” At 12, the boys began to hunt for souvenirs. The bomb did not go off (wrote one boy), so I went to get it, but burned my fingers. A copper came running round the corner and he took it.
In 95 per cent of the essays no reference was made to the father of the family, and even in the other cases the references were not flattering. For example: My father was frightened during the raid and he ran into a beer shop and got under the counter and stayed there until it was all over. Men generally, apart from policemen, soldiers, and firemen, were often the subject of uncomplimentary remarks. A man came into the public house and said, “Give me half a pint. If I am going to die I will die drunk.” The children who suffered most were girls of about 12, who were really frightened but would not show it.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/first-world-war/article4635831.ece
Women on the land
On this day: Dec 9 1915
To the Editor of The Times Sir, Your correspondent who writes on work for women today asks whether I think that town girls are more likely to respond to the demand for agricultural female labour than their country sisters. Personally I confess I do not. What I have tried to point out is that in the main country women will not work upon the land in England. But great authorities, such as Lord Lansdowne and Lord Selborne, appear to surmise that sufficient female labour is available if the prejudices of farmers can be overcome. Thus the representative from the Board of Agriculture, amongst other examples to Norfolk agriculturists, told us recently of a farmer who “put his cook, housekeeper, and housemaid on to pull mangolds”, intimating that we might do likewise. Well, most of us do not keep a housekeeper, but if we tried the experiment with the cook and the housemaid I am convinced that the day’s mangold pulling would end for them at the nearest railway station.
Seriously, I can but suppose that the President of the Board of Agriculture, with all the resources of a great office at his command, knows much more of these questions than any individual observer. He tells us to replace men who must be taken for military service with women. Therefore he must have satisfied himself that women are available. But they do not seem to be available in the English villages.
There seems to be some idea that farmers are captious and self-seeking about this matter. I am sure it is not so. I am sure that the vast majority of those connected with the land would be prepared, if necessary to the country’s welfare, even to see it go out of cultivation, if thereby they could help to stave off the greatest of national disasters. But they cannot do the impossible. They cannot both give up their essential labour and produce more food. Nor, if women refuse to work, can they make them do so. It is useless to instance France. The spirit that animates the women of France has not yet permeated the rural districts of England; perhaps the absence of peasant proprietorship here partly accounts for this difference.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, H RIDER HAGGARD, Ditchingham, Dec 7.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/courtsocial/article4633783.ece
Posts for educated women
On this day: December 7, 1915
During the last few weeks hundreds of girls of every class of society have been flocking into factories, workshops, offices, banks, and Government clerkships to replace the men who have enlisted. On all sides people are saying that at last women have come into their own and that there are any number of careers open to them. It is very generally believed that any girl of average intelligence can at once obtain a lucrative post, which is usually described by her admiring friends as a “splendid opening”.
An “opening,” it may be assumed, must lead somewhere, and it is difficult to see where most of the posts which are today being so eagerly filled by girls fresh from school or college will lead. As a rule the employer definitely states that the position is a temporary one and that there is little prospect of a “rise”, while the salary offered is seldom sufficient to live on. While believing that as a general principle men and women should be paid alike for the same work, we do not think that a woman who is replacing a man, and is quite new to the work, should necessarily be paid the same salary as her predecessor. It would be unreasonable to suppose that she can be worth it for some time to come. The most unsatisfactory point about the employment of women under the present conditions is that there seems to be no discrimination shown as to the type or class of girl employed, nor any attempt made to select specially suitable women for any particular work, or to throw open really good posts to efficient women. Girls from high schools, county secondary schools, commercial and secretarial training colleges, polytechnics, and the universities are all taken together and given the same kind of work at the same salary. If this work can be sufficiently well done by a secondary schoolgirl of 17, it is obviously not worthwhile for a university woman of 22 to take it.
University women are often singularly unbusinesslike and ignorant of everyday matters. Those well-to-do young women who are finding a guinea a week a pleasant addition to their comfortable dress allowance, and at the same time feel a glow of virtue in working for their country from 9 till 5, do not realize how much harm they are doing their poorer sisters.
Air raids as seen by children
On this day: Dec 10, 1915
Glimpses of Zeppelins through childish eyes were given by Dr C W Kimmins, Chief Inspector of Schools for the London County Council, in a lecture to the Child Study Society at the Royal Sanitary Institute last night. Dr Kimmins’s subject was “The Interest of London Children at Different Ages in Air Raids,” and the lecture was based on 945 essays written by boys and girls, from eight to 13 years of age, attending five schools in the neighbourhood of places in London where bombs were dropped during the Zeppelin raids of September 8 and October 13. At least 96 per cent of the children had actual experience of one or both of the raids. The essays were written from 10 to 14 days after the raids.
At eight years of age, Dr Kimmins said, the noise of the firing bulked very largely in the essays. No personal feelings were expressed and there was no evidence of fear. Even at that age the girls looked after the younger children. At nine the boys thoroughly enjoyed the raid, spending as much time as possible in the streets; occasionally among the girls great fear was expressed. At 10 the boy took his part in looking after the younger children. One wrote: A picture over mother’s bed fell on her head and on the baby. The baby went unconscious, and my mother shook her, and then she was alright.
At 11 the boys showed no fear. The following was an extract: My cousin pointed to a star and said she thought it was a Zeppelin. “Fathead,” said I, politely. “It cannot be a Zeppelin. It does not move.” At 12, the boys began to hunt for souvenirs. The bomb did not go off (wrote one boy), so I went to get it, but burned my fingers. A copper came running round the corner and he took it.
In 95 per cent of the essays no reference was made to the father of the family, and even in the other cases the references were not flattering. For example: My father was frightened during the raid and he ran into a beer shop and got under the counter and stayed there until it was all over. Men generally, apart from policemen, soldiers, and firemen, were often the subject of uncomplimentary remarks. A man came into the public house and said, “Give me half a pint. If I am going to die I will die drunk.” The children who suffered most were girls of about 12, who were really frightened but would not show it.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/first-world-war/article4635831.ece
Women on the land
On this day: Dec 9 1915
To the Editor of The Times Sir, Your correspondent who writes on work for women today asks whether I think that town girls are more likely to respond to the demand for agricultural female labour than their country sisters. Personally I confess I do not. What I have tried to point out is that in the main country women will not work upon the land in England. But great authorities, such as Lord Lansdowne and Lord Selborne, appear to surmise that sufficient female labour is available if the prejudices of farmers can be overcome. Thus the representative from the Board of Agriculture, amongst other examples to Norfolk agriculturists, told us recently of a farmer who “put his cook, housekeeper, and housemaid on to pull mangolds”, intimating that we might do likewise. Well, most of us do not keep a housekeeper, but if we tried the experiment with the cook and the housemaid I am convinced that the day’s mangold pulling would end for them at the nearest railway station.
Seriously, I can but suppose that the President of the Board of Agriculture, with all the resources of a great office at his command, knows much more of these questions than any individual observer. He tells us to replace men who must be taken for military service with women. Therefore he must have satisfied himself that women are available. But they do not seem to be available in the English villages.
There seems to be some idea that farmers are captious and self-seeking about this matter. I am sure it is not so. I am sure that the vast majority of those connected with the land would be prepared, if necessary to the country’s welfare, even to see it go out of cultivation, if thereby they could help to stave off the greatest of national disasters. But they cannot do the impossible. They cannot both give up their essential labour and produce more food. Nor, if women refuse to work, can they make them do so. It is useless to instance France. The spirit that animates the women of France has not yet permeated the rural districts of England; perhaps the absence of peasant proprietorship here partly accounts for this difference.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, H RIDER HAGGARD, Ditchingham, Dec 7.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/courtsocial/article4633783.ece
Posts for educated women
On this day: December 7, 1915
During the last few weeks hundreds of girls of every class of society have been flocking into factories, workshops, offices, banks, and Government clerkships to replace the men who have enlisted. On all sides people are saying that at last women have come into their own and that there are any number of careers open to them. It is very generally believed that any girl of average intelligence can at once obtain a lucrative post, which is usually described by her admiring friends as a “splendid opening”.
An “opening,” it may be assumed, must lead somewhere, and it is difficult to see where most of the posts which are today being so eagerly filled by girls fresh from school or college will lead. As a rule the employer definitely states that the position is a temporary one and that there is little prospect of a “rise”, while the salary offered is seldom sufficient to live on. While believing that as a general principle men and women should be paid alike for the same work, we do not think that a woman who is replacing a man, and is quite new to the work, should necessarily be paid the same salary as her predecessor. It would be unreasonable to suppose that she can be worth it for some time to come. The most unsatisfactory point about the employment of women under the present conditions is that there seems to be no discrimination shown as to the type or class of girl employed, nor any attempt made to select specially suitable women for any particular work, or to throw open really good posts to efficient women. Girls from high schools, county secondary schools, commercial and secretarial training colleges, polytechnics, and the universities are all taken together and given the same kind of work at the same salary. If this work can be sufficiently well done by a secondary schoolgirl of 17, it is obviously not worthwhile for a university woman of 22 to take it.
University women are often singularly unbusinesslike and ignorant of everyday matters. Those well-to-do young women who are finding a guinea a week a pleasant addition to their comfortable dress allowance, and at the same time feel a glow of virtue in working for their country from 9 till 5, do not realize how much harm they are doing their poorer sisters.