Arthur Michell Ransome CBE (1884 – 1967) – British author and a foreign correspondent coveromg WW1 on the Eastern Front for “The Daily News”.

Arthur Ransome wearing his
Press Corps Uniform in WW1 

Arthur was born on 18th January 1884 in Leeds, UK.  He was the son of Cyril Ransome (1851–1897) who was a Professor of History at Yorkshire College (now the University of Leeds). and his wife Edith Ransome (née Baker Boulton) (1862–1944).   

Arthur was the eldest of four children - he had two sisters, Cecily and Joyce, and a brother Geoffrey who was killed in the First World War in 1918.   Joyce married into the Lupton family, well-connected industrialists and politicians; she named one of her sons Arthur Ralph Ransome Lupton (1924–2009), Her grandson is storyteller Hugh Lupton.

The Ransome family regularly holidayed at Nibthwaite in the Lake District, and Arthur was carried up to the top of Coniston Old Man as an infant. 

Educated first in Windermere and then at Rugby School (where he lived in the same study room that had been used by Lewis Carroll) where he did not entirely enjoy the experience, because of his poor eyesight, lack of athletic skill, and limited academic achievement, Arthur went on to study chemistry at Yorkshire College, where his late father had worked. His father's premature death in 1897 had a lasting effect on him. 

After a year at Yorkshire College, Arthur abandoned his studies and went to London to become a writer. He took low-paying jobs as an office assistant in a publishing company and as editor of a failing magazine – “Temple Bar Magazine”, while establishing himself as a member of the literary scene.

His mother did not want him to abandon his studies for writing, but was later supportive of his books. She urged him to publish “The Picts and the Martyrs” in 1943, although his second wife Evgenia hated it and was often discouraging about his books while he was writing them.

Arthur married Ivy Constance Walker in 1909 and they had one daughter  - Tabitha. It was not a happy marriage as Arthur found his wife's demands to spend less time on writing and more with her and their daughter a great strain; his biographer Hugh Brogan writes that "it was impossible to be a good husband to Ivy". The couple weredivorced in 1924.

In 1913 Ransome left his first wife and daughter and went to Russia to study its folklore..

After the start of the First World War in 1914, Arthur became a foreign correspondent and covered the war on the Eastern Front for “The Daily News”. He also covered the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and came to sympathise with the Bolshevik cause, becoming personally close to a number of its leaders, including Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Karl Radek. He met the woman who would later become his second wife - Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina - who worked as Trotsky's personal secretary.

He also wrote about the literary life of London and about Russia before, during and after the Revolutions of 1917. His connection with the leaders of the Revolution led to him providing information to the Secret Intelligence Service, while he was also suspected by MI5 of being a Soviet spy.

In 1915, Arthur published “The Elixir of Life” (published by Methuen, London), which was to be his only full-length novel apart from the “Swallows and Amazons” series. He published “Old Peter's Russian Tales” - a collection of 21 folktales from Russia - the following year

After a long and successful life, Arthur died on 3rd  June 1967.

Margaret Agnes Rope (1882 – 1953) – British stained glass artist

 

I discovered Margaret Rope while watching an episode of Michael Portillo’s documentary “Great British Railway Journeys” when he visited Shrewsbury.

Margaret was born on 20th June 1882 the second child of Henry John Rope, M.D (1847-1899) and Agnes Maud (née Burd: 1857- 1948). She was christened Margaret Agnes at St Mary's Church, Shrewsbury on 7th July. Margaret’s elder brother was Henry Edward George Rope who became a Roman Catholic Priest, writer, poet and editor. 

The Rope family were Anglican but, soon after her husband's early death in 1899, their mother converted to Roman Catholicism (along with 5 of her 6 children).  She brought her children up in some degree of poverty, exacerbated by her father's will, which denied money to any descendant "in religion".   Of the children, two became nuns (Margaret and Monica) and one a priest (Fr. Harry Rope). Two other siblings were Irene Vaughan, a botanist, and Squadron Leader Michael Rope, an aeronautical engineer, who died in the R101 airship disaster on 5th October 193. Only one, Denys, a doctor of medicine, continued as an Anglican, following his father.

Henry Edward George Rope (Father Harry Rope) (23 October 1880 – 1 March 1978) was a writer, poet, editor and priest widely known in the Roman Catholic Church in his long lifetime. He was the eldest brother of Margaret Agnes Rope, stained-glass artist, nephew of Ellen Mary Rope, sculptor, and George Thomas Rope, painter and naturalist as well as cousin of M. E. Aldrich Rope, another stained-glass artist. Due to his writings and his work as archivist at the Venerable English College, Rome, he was well known in his lifetime, particularly within Church circles but as a radical traditionalist he has been forgotten in modern times

Margaret was educated at home until in 1900 she went to the Birmingham Municipal School of Art.  Her studies included enamelling and lettering. From 1901, she studied stained glass under Henry Payne.  Margaret had an illustrious career at the school including a number of scholarships and won many awards in the National Competition for Schools of Art. In 1909, she left the school and worked from home (The Priory, Shrewsbury) especially on the large west window of Shrewsbury Cathedral, the first of seven she did there

Although there is no indication that Margaret served in any capacity during the First World War, several of her siblings were directly involved in the war effort - as an ambulance driver, a naval air service member and a nurse ministering to wounded soldiers.  Margaret was running a successful stained-glass studio in London at the time. 

Margaret and her sister were apparently arrested in Suffolk on suspicion of being German spies during the war, because they were riding motorbikes, which was unusual for women at the time. 

(Two women who also rode motor cycles were Elsie Knocker and Mairi Chisholm – there are two excellent books about them - 

https://inspirationalwomenofww1.blogspot.com/2013/07/elsie-and-mairi-go-to-war.html

https://inspirationalwomenofww1.blogspot.com/search?q=Mairi+Chisholm

However, Margaret Rope did create a significant amount of war memorial work after the conflict, suggesting she felt deeply the loss of the young men who died.

Margaret died on 6th December 1953.

Edward Frederic Benson OBE (1867 – 1940) - British writer, poet, novelist, biographer, memoirist, historian and short story writer, best known for his novels about Mapp and Lucia

 

Edward Frederic Benson was born at Wellington College in Berkshire on 24th July 1867, the fifth child of the headmaster, Edward White Benson (later chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, Bishop of Truro and Archbishop of Canterbury), and his wife born Mary Sidgwick ("Minnie").

E. F. Benson was the younger brother of Arthur Christopher Benson, who wrote the words to "Land of Hope and Glory", Robert Hugh Benson, author of several novels and Roman Catholic apologetic works, and Margaret Benson (Maggie), an author, artist and amateur Egyptologist. Two other siblings died young. 

Edward was educated at Temple Grove School, then at Marlborough College, where he wrote some of his earliest. He continued his education at King's College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the Pitt Club and later in life he became an honorary fellow of Magdalene College.

He enlisted as a Private with the British Army in the Army Service Corps, with the service number M/317967. The Imperial War Museums' "Lives of the First World War" project confirms his military service record.

Edward F. Benson died on 29th February 1940 of throat cancer at University College Hospital, London. He was buried in the cemetery at Rye, East Sussex.

Arthur Christopher Benson, FRSL (1862 - 1925) – British writer, poet and academic

 

Arthur was born on 24th April 1862 at Wellington College, Berkshire, one of six children born to Edward White Benson, the first headmaster of the College, who went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury from 1883 to 1896, and his wife, Mary (née Sidgwick and known as"Minnie"), who was a sister of the philosopher Henry Sidgwick.  Arthur’s younger brother Edward Frederick Benson (1867 – 1940) also became a writer - E.F. Benson was best remembered for his Mapp and Lucia novels. Their sister Margaret Benson (1865 - 1936) became an artist, author and amateur Egyptologist.

In 1874, Arthur won a scholarship to Eton School from Temple Grove School, a preparatory school in East Sheen. In 1881, he went up to King's College, Cambridge, where he was a scholar (King's College had closed scholarships for which only Etonians were eligible) and achieved first-class honours in the Classical tripos in 1884.

Arthur became an essayist, poet and academic and served as the 28th Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. He wrote the lyrics of Edward Elgar's Coronation Ode, including the words of the patriotic song "Land of Hope and Glory" (1902). His literary criticism, poems, and volumes of essays were highly regarded.

During the First World War, Arthur was a fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was appointed Master of the college in December 1915 and served in that role until his death in 1925. He devoted his energies to academic and literary work, and was also a governor of Gresham's School.

Arthur C. Benson contributed to the war effort through his work as an educator and writer and he was involved in founding the Benson Medal in 1916 for meritorious works in literature. He edited the book “Cambridge Essays on Education”, which was published in 1919 towards the end of the war.

Arthur died of cardiac arrest at Magdalene on 17th June 1925 and was buried in St Giles's Cemetery, Cambridge.

"Land of Hope and Glory" was important during WW1, serving as a powerful symbol of British nationalism and the war effort, with lyrics that celebrated the nation's empire and encouraged its military might. Composed by Edward Elgar with lyrics by A.C. Benson, the song's patriotic themes were particularly resonant during the conflict and were frequently performed at events like the Proms, further solidifying its role in maintaining morale. 

Symbol of nationalism: The song's lyrics, which refer to Britain's "Empire" and a call to God to make the nation "mightier yet," directly fueled the nationalist sentiment that was a major cause of the war.

Wartime morale booster: Because of its patriotic themes, the song was popular during the war and helped maintain the fighting spirit on the home front. It was part of the official war effort, though some of Elgar's other wartime compositions were less successful.

Chorus to “Land of Hope and Glory” lyrics:

            Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,

            How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?

            Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;

            God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet,

            God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet!

Source: Wikipedia.   You can see one of A.C. Benson's books here

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.201545  “\Meanwhile a Packet of War Letters” by A.C. Benson, 1916

Alvin York (1887 – 1964) – American Hero of the First World War

 With thanks to John Daniel for finding this information for us

Alvin Cullum York was born on 13th December 1887 in Pall Mall, Tennessee, USA. (Pall Mall is a small community in the Wolf River valley of Fentress County, Tennessee, United States. It is named after Pall Mall, London, UK).

Before the First World War, Alvin worked as a blacksmith.  He was denied status as a conscientious objector and was drafted into the U.S. Army during The First World War. While serving in the 82nd Infantry Division during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive (October 1918), he was among a patrol of 17 men ordered to take out a German machine-gun emplacement that was checking his regiment’s advance. Behind enemy lines the patrol lost half its men but managed to take a handful of prisoners before being pinned down by extremely heavy rifle and machine-gun fire. Corporal York assumed command and, while the rest of the survivors took up defensive positions and stood guard over the prisoners, Corporal York attacked alone and, firing rapidly and with deadly accuracy at the enemy gunners, killed more than two dozen of them, which prompted the others to surrender. En route back to the American lines, he captured still more Germans, to a total of 132. 

Alvin York was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and later received the Congressional Medal of Honour and similar honours from France and other countries. After the war he returned to Tennessee, where he lived on a farm given to him by that State. He helped to establish an industrial institute and a Bible school for the education of rural youth. His autobiography, “Sergeant York, His Own Life Story and War Diary” (Edited by Tom Skeyhill*), was published in 1928.

Alvin York died on 2nd September 1964 in Nashville, Tennessee.

The photograph of Alvin York in uniform was taken in 1919. He is shown wearing the Medal of Honour and French Croix de Guerre with Palm medals he was awarded.

Sources: Wikipedia, information supplied by John Daniel and 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alvin-Cullum-York

* See the post about Tom Skeyhill here: 

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1469575372198324716/4500128455326203988

Leicester University, UK – a First World War memorial

It was first proposed to set up a University in Leiceter in1880. Dr Astley Clarke (1870-1945), who was born and educated in Leicester, the son of a prominent local surgeon, who became Honorary Consulting Physician and Consulting Radiologist at Leicester Royal Infirmary, became President of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society.that the idea came up again.  He worked hard throughout his year in office as President of the Soceity to generate interest and promises of support. Everything was looking very promising - until war broke out. 

As he had been a part-time soldier since 1910, Astley Clarke served in WW1 as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was swiftly appointed Administrator of the 5th Northern General Hospital, an RAMC unit which took up residence in the former Leicestershire and Rutland Lunatic Asylum next to Victoria Park. Members of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society dispersed to military, naval, governmental or medical duties, or devoted their fund-raising work to the war effort.

Three years later, despite there still being no end in sight to the 'war to end all wars', the idea of a Leicester University College was raised once again. On 14 November 1917 - a few days after the Battle of Passchendaele, a few days before the Battle of Cambrai - the “Leicester Daily Post” told its readers that the city should have “more than a mere artistic war memorial.” A better memorial to lives lost and ruined”, argued the paper, “would be the establishment of a University College so that the next generation might achieve better things than their forefathers.” Furthermore, a ready made site presented itself.

During the course of the war, the 5th Northern General expanded from this base hospital building to become a local network of more than 60 locations including North Evington War Hospital, Knighton House Hospital, Gilcross Hospital and the Leicester Royal Infirmary. Admiral Beatty, a naval hero for his role in the Battle of Jutland, donated his Leicestershire home Brooksby Hall as part of the 5th Northern General, staffed by nurses from the Voluntary Aid Detachment.

In total, there were beds in Leicestershire for 111 officers and 2,487 other ranks, through which passed more than 95,000 casualties. Of these men, 514 deaths were recorded, 286 of whom are buried across from the University in Welford Road Cemetery. The Commanding Officer of the hospital in 1917 was Lt. Col. Louis N Harrison.

After the Armistice, the fund-raising campaign took off in earnest, spurred on by a determination to create a 'living memorial' to those who had given their lives. 

Leicester was granted City status in 1919 by King George V, in recognition of its industries' contribution to the British war effort.

By January 1920, just 14 months after Astley Clarke's first bundle of five pound notes, the total stood at £100,000, including numerous donations by grieving parents and wives in memory of husbands and sons who would never return to Leicester. The 5th Northern General Hospital had finally vacated the old lunatic asylum buildings which were promptly bought by local businessman Thomas Fielding Johnson, and just as promptly donated to the council as a site for the University College.

The Arch of Remembrance is a First World War Grade-I listed Arch of Remembrance situated in Victoria Park, Leicester, It was nveiled in 1925 and is close to the University campus. The memorial was commissioned and designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. 

NOTES; Astley Vavasour Clarke (1870-1945) was born in Leicester and educated at Wyggeston School, Oakham School, in Heidelberg and Bonn.

Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens OM KCIE PRA FRIBA (1869 – 1944) was a British architect. Before the end of the First World War, he was appointed one of three principal architects for the Imperial War Graves Commission (now Commonwealth War Graves Commission) and was involved with the creation of many monuments to commemorate the dead.

Sources: University Challenge programme and 

https://le.ac.uk/about/history/campus-history/great-war

https://le.ac.uk/about/history/campus-history/military-hospital

https://le.ac.uk/news/2021/september/living-memorial

WW1 Propaganda Bureau

The British Government set up a War Propaganda Bureau in 1914.  David Lloyd George (1863-1945), the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was asked to set the Propaganda Bureau up. He appointed Charles Masterman (1873-1927) to head the organization. The Bureau’s offices were in Wellington House, the headquarters of the National Insurance Commission, over which Masterman presided. A major objective of his department was to encourage the United States to enter the war on the side of the Allies. It also supported and coordinated propaganda initiatives by private organizations and individuals.  Known as Wellington House after its location in Buckingham Gate, London, the organization was the centre of British propaganda abroad.

The Bureau began its propaganda campaign on 2nd September 1914 when Masterman invited 25 leading British authors to Wellington House to discuss ways of best promoting Britain's interests during the war. Those who attended included William Archer, Hall Caine, Arthur Conan Doyle, Arnold Bennett, John Masefield, G. K. Chesterton, Henry Newbolt, John Galsworthy, Thomas Hardy, Gilbert Parker, G. M. Trevelyan and H. G. Wells.  Rudyard Kipling had been invited to the meeting but was unable to attend.

The Bureau published over 1,160 pamphlets during the war.

Artworks

The first scheme involving art was initiated in July 1916. The intention was to provide eyewitness images to illustrate propaganda publications. In 1917 Wellington House merged with the newly-established Department of Information. Amongst the artists commissioned at that stage were William Orpen, Paul Nash and C R W Nevinson.

Source:

https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/war-propaganda-bureau/

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/how-the-british-government-sponsored-the-arts-in-the-first-world-war