Casualty upon Casualty
At the start of WW1 there were some 53,000 German nationals resident in the UK. For over a year attitudes appeared surprisingly relaxed. Many being helped to repatriate via neutral Holland. However, that mood hardened in early 1915 culminating in serious anti German (and Jewish) riots in Liverpool, Manchester and London. On May 7th the RMS Lusitania was sunk of the coast of Ireland with a loss of nearly 1,200 lives. The public horror at this event was whipped up in the press. Perhaps the most vicious comment coming from Horatio Bottomley writing in the magazine John Bull. “You cannot naturalise an unnatural beast, a human abortion, a hellish freak. But you can exterminate it and now the time is come”. Horatio was a disgraced former MP and was later convicted for fraud.
On 31st May Zeppelins raided London for the first time cementing in the public mind an unbending hostility to all things German, Even those who were naturalised British and had changed their names were hounded by the press and the mob. There were notable increases in those volunteering for the army, particularly from Lancashire where there was a sizeable German national presence. It is probably fair to note that the Lusitania and the Zeppelins events so outraged the population that any possibility of rapprochement was lost.
May was also significant on the political front. On May 17th Herbert Asquith ended the last purely Liberal government by forming a national coalition. (Interesting coincidence that exactly 100 years later we are contemplating the pros and cons of coalition again). This move was prompted by a campaign in Northcliffe Newspapers (Daily Mail, News Chronicle) claiming that the war effort was being impeded by a shortage of shells and munitions. The Coalition was announced on 25th May with 12 Liberals, 8 Unionists and one Labour member (Arthur Henderson) Lloyd George became Minister for Munitions.
What is the still the worst rail accident in the UK happened at Quintishill (near Gretna on 27 May). There were 227 casualties, mainly service personnel.
And for those of you who still hanker after the glory days of Yorkshire football Sheffield United beat Chelsea 3 nil in the FA cup final on 24th April. In May it was announced the competition would be suspended for the duration of hostilities.
Sorry that this is such a dark diary page but it was already clear that the Gallipoli Campaign, the first landings were made on 25 April, was not going to achieve the breakthrough predicated Winston Churchill. Eventually the joint casualties would rise to 147,000, do we ever learn?
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