Remembering World War One's Army of Bengali Workers

2018

The First World War seems to be part of a distant past for most Bengalis, with the new generation of UK's Bengali diaspora being left out of the nation's collective memorialisation. A more inclusive remembrance of the First World War is required to address this, writes Ansar Ahmed Ullah, who recalls Bengal's contribution during World War One.

2021

Project Report from 'Reflections on the Centenary of the First World War: Learning and Legacies for the Future'. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

The analysis, opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Joint Services Command and Staff College, the Ministry of Defence or any other government agency. Today, the First World War has become a byword for futility in Britain. The words themselves conjure images of a pointless industrial war, directed by incompetent generals. It has come to be seen as a war that caused the senseless slaughter of millions of young men who fought in an alien landscape of muddy trenches and gaping shell holes for an unappreciative and uncomprehending public at home. 1 The image of the First World War soldier as a victim is a logical consequence of these popular narratives. Troops are often portrayed as the victims of the flawed purpose, mechanistic nature and suspect methods of the war and of civilian callousness and indifference. These negative perceptions of the War in general, and the soldier in particular, have developed over the last century and have, for the past three decades, become indelibly etched on the British popular imagination as a set of strikingly stable beliefs. 2 By contrast, the last three decades have seen the diversification of the academic historiography of the First World War. 3 Historians from a range of traditions have worked, collectively and individually, to ask novel questions that have 1

The current centenary of the First World War provides an unrivalled opportunity to uncover some of the social legacies of the war. The four articles which make up this special issue each examine a different facet of the war’s impact on British society to explore an as yet untold story. The subjects investigated include logistics, the history of science, the social history of medicine and resistance to war. This article introduces the four which follow, locating them in the wider historiographic debates around the interface between warfare and societies engaged in war.

G. Clarke (ed.) From Fields to Factories: Women’s Work on the Home Front in the First World War. Chichester: University of Chichester, pp.7-18.

British Journal For Military History, 2014

In this article Gary Sheffield sets out his opinions on the current commemoration plans and media responses to the centenary of the First World War. He argues that the British government and media are letting slip a golden opportunity to challenge popular perceptions of the conflict.

British Journal for Military History, 2022

This is the text of a keynote presentation to the Second World War Research Group's Annual Conference in 2019. It reflects on the centenary commemorations for 1914-1918 from the perspective of a First World War historian to suggest some lessons for the forthcoming centenary of the Second World War. As such it discusses the relationship between history, memory and national identity, the role of historians in shaping that relationship, and the actions that need to be taken in anticipation of the centenary. Taking inspiration from Ireland's Decade of Centenaries 1912-1923 it explores the potential of a similar approach for Britain's commemoration of the Second World War.

This chapter examines the way in which the memory of the First World War in Britain has altered with the creation of new sites of remembrance to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the conflict from 2014.