Modern-day Staffordshire residents tucking into festive feasts as 2017 draws to a close may feel a world away from those of 1917 who faced food shortages and rationing on the Home Front.
As soldiers put their lives on the line overseas fighting in the First World War the winter of 1917/18 proved hard for their families and friends too.
While the Government feared food shortages could spark riots, other folk faced jail for their beliefs, including conscientious objectors like Edwin Wheeldon in Burton.
This was the first time that civilians were a crucial part of a new kind of warfare. Even though men, women and children in Staffordshire were far from the guns, their success in forming a resilient home front could make the difference between winning and losing the war.
A century on, fascinating details of the day to day lives of Staffordshire residents on the Home Front have been collected together for a new book, Staffordshire’s War, which was launched last week.
A team of volunteers recruited by Staffordshire County Council’s Archives Service worked with Professor Karen Hunt to research and write the book, using eye witness accounts, diaries, letters and recently discovered official military tribunal papers.
The Mid-Staffordshire Military Appeals Tribunal documents should have been destroyed at the end of the war as they contain many personal details. But these papers provide a window onto everyday life as the people of Staffordshire invented a home front for the first time.
Professor Hunt said: “While Staffordshire’s War should interest those who want to know more about the past of the county they live in or where their family comes from, this story has a wider reach beyond Staffordshire. For the first time we have a local picture of what it was like to live through a war which in the end touched every home in the country and changed everyday life.
“Many of the features we have come to associate with a home front, such as food rationing, were invented in local communities during the Great War. In every neighbourhood, people demanded that scarce resources were shared out fairly.
“Exactly one hundred years ago, lengthy queues were to be found across Staffordshire. Women and children drawn by the rumour of supplies, gathered early in the morning to queue for scarce goods like sugar, margarine and tea.
“Local authorities saw that unless they took action desperate people might not just queue but, as they often left empty-handed hours later, they might riot.
“Government knew only too well that food riots had triggered the Russian Revolution earlier in 1917 and now Russia was coming out of the war. Neglecting food queues was dangerous. ”
Daily life became an increasing challenge for all. Families had to find a way to cope without their breadwinners. These included men in the army and navy but also interned “enemy aliens” such as Bert Kemper - one of a handful of Germans from Tamworth interned in 1915.
Others set aside their businesses for the duration of the war like Albert Blizzard, a brick and tile manufacturer, who became the principal recruiter for the North Staffordshire regiments.
Women found themselves at the fore on the Home Front too. Edith Birchall, a young teacher, wrote in her diary of the novel experience of a Zeppelin raid on Staffordshire while Ellen South energetically collected 39 tons of waste paper for war funds.
Ellen South became a Staffordshire councillor, representing Stafford, and two other women took on Lichfield and Longton wards.
Gill Heath, Cabinet Member for Communities at Staffordshire County Council who leads on the county’s Great War commemorations said: “This is a remarkable collection of personal accounts that gives us a really valuable insight about life on the home front in Staffordshire during the First World War.
“It shows us how ordinary people managed to survive in a new wartime economy which impinged on every aspect of their daily lives. How they coped to earn a living; how they shopped, cooked and shared food despite increasing food shortages and a rocketing cost of living.”
Staffordshire’s War is available from Amberley Press.