Sheffield in the Great War and Beyond

This book is out of the ordinary. As well as describing the many changes in Sheffield between 1914 and 1918, it tells about the troubling events in following years as poverty and riots took hold.

It is also special in identifying hundreds of small as well as large Sheffield companies that worked to provide the necessities of war. With many previously hidden facts, the book describes the city’s ‘national factories’, the new Ministry of Munitions, the government’s control of companies, arguments about the employment of women, an increased emphasis on workers’ welfare, the impact of the Sheffield Committee on Munitions of War, and the special contributions of the Cutlers’ Company.

Compulsory call-up, conscientious objectors and the work of the Sheffield Military Tribunal are also brought to life, as are problems caused by a shortage of food and the eventual imposition of rationing. The city’s German prisoners of war are introduced, as are the ravages of influenza and the terrible poverty and conflict that soon afflicted the city. These local changes are presented against a background of important national events and with more than 100 original photographs.

Upwards of 50,000 men went from Sheffield to the various ‘Fronts’ during the Great War. There were 8 local regiments including the Sheffield Pals who fought at Serre on the Somme. Sheffield was also an important producer of arms for the war effort. Sheffield in the Great War looks at how the experience of war impacted on the City, from the initial enthusiasm for sorting out the German Kaiser in time for Christmas 1914, to the gradual realization of the enormity of human sacrifice the families of Sheffield were committed to as the war stretched out over the next four years.

The Great War affected everyone. At home there were wounded soldiers in military hospitals, refugees from Belgium and later on German prisoners of war. There were food and fuel shortages and disruption to schooling. The role of women changed dramatically and they undertook a variety of work undreamed of in peacetime. Extracts from contemporary letters reveal their heroism and give insights into what it was like under battle conditions.