The Royal Magazine 1914-16

[yperman]

I picked up two bound volumes of the Royal Magazine ( November 1914 to April 1915 and May to October 1916) at a car boot sale.

They are fascinating - not only in what they report - for example on such key questions as 'should British girls enthused with Patriotic Gratitude kiss British soldiers and should they do so often?' (the answer - after much consideration- is yes to both) to what is not e.g. the Somme. Though to be fair there is a wonderful old Colonel who in attempting to explain Entente strategy in 1916 likens the German defences on the Western Front to a rubber band which is being nibbled away by rubber eating insects " if such creatures exist" . There is also a story about Neuve Chapelle but the battle is dominated by a German spy dressed as a Highlander who is killed in a duel with a British Officer in a Fair Fight. ( The spy by the way dies nobly largely because he has an English Wife).Drawings of spies, flappers, Tommies and stereotypical British Officers abound.

For me it is fascinating to compare some subtle social shifts - in the 1916 volume there is a (very) lengthy article about "Is Christianity Dead?", Horatio Bottomley on "Why not women priests?" to "We must Rule the Air". There is also an intriguing article on 'Why London should be built underground" - no not air attack but the need to conserve wild life.

The bottom line is this Magazine provides a really interesting insight to a part of the Home Front. I would dearly like to get hold of the volume for autumn 1918. Now I must get back to 'The letters of a Flapper' - it seems mother has accused her of scandalous behaviour at a dance'.

Yperman