ABSTRACT

This volume synthesises the latest scholarship on First World War veterans in post-war Britain and Ireland, investigating the topic through its political, social and cultural dynamics. It examines the post-war experiences of those men and women who served and illuminates the nature of the post-war society for which service had been given. Complicating the homogenising tendency in existing scholarship it offers comparison of the experiences of veterans in different regions of Britain, including perspectives drawn from Ireland. Further nuance is offered by the assessment of the experiences of ex-servicewomen alongside those of ex-servicemen, such focus deeping understanding into the gendered specificities of post-war veteran activities and experiences. Moreover, case studies of specific cohorts of veterans are offered, including focus on disabled veterans and ex-prisoners of war.

In these regards the collection offers vital updates to existing scholarship while bringing important new departures and challenges to the current interpretive frameworks of veteran experiences in post-war Britain and Ireland.

chapter |16 pages

Introduction

British veterans after the First World War

chapter 1|17 pages

The deep roots of the British Legion

The emergence of First World War British veterans’ organisations

chapter 3|17 pages

Between workers and soldiers

The relationship between the Labour Party and ex-servicemen after the First World War

chapter 4|17 pages

‘A fighting man and a thinking man’

The British Left, ex-servicemen and working-class culture, 1914–24

chapter 6|18 pages

‘It’s up to you now to fight for your own country’

Ireland’s Great War veterans in the War of Independence, 1919–21

chapter 7|20 pages

‘Still in the ranks of the old Corps, though not on active service’

Women’s veteran organisations in interwar Britain

chapter 8|16 pages

Paternalism and prosthetics

Life for disabled veterans and their families on a post-war settlement

chapter 9|14 pages

Wounded in a mentionable place

The (in)visibility of the disabled ex-serviceman in interwar Britain

chapter 10|19 pages

Ex-Prisoners of War, 1914–18

Veteran association, assimilation and disassociation after the First World War