Publications
"Lowther's Lambs": Rural Paternalism and Voluntary Recruitment in the First World War, by Keith Grieves, published April 1993 in Rural History (vol. 4, issue 1, article, pp.55-75, ISSN: 0956-7933) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 11924] View Online
Abstract:On the outbreak of war in August 1914 landowners in Sussex immediately started to employ their local leadership roles in the cause of voluntary recruiting and in doing so demonstrated the continuing utility of paternalistic social relations and the traditional rural structure to a nation preparing for war. The slow decline in social prestige provided by landownership was far from visible in the military sphere. As members of the military establishment - regular and territorial, past and present - landowners with clearly identifiable local economic, political and leisure interests attended to the search for recruits with the age old expectation that the deferential labourers would follow their 'betters' to war. As Alun Howkins has written,'men were urged to go as much as part of their duty to the social structure of rural areas as to King and Country'.
Neville Lytton, the Balcombe Frescoes and the experience of war, 1908-1923, by Keith Grieves, published 1996 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 134, article, pp.197-212) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 13390] & The Keep [LIB/500296] & S.A.S. library
Sussex in the First World War, by Keith Grieves, published 1 January 1999 in An Historical Atlas of Sussex (pp.116-117, Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd, ISBN-10: 1860771122 & ISBN-13: 9781860771125) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14026][Lib 18777] & The Keep [LIB/501686][LIB/508903] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries
Common Meeting Places and the Brightening of Rural Life: Local Debates on Village Halls in Sussex after the First World War, by Keith Grieves, published October 1999 in Rural History (vol. 10, issue 2, article, pp.171-192, ISSN: 0956-7933) View Online
Abstract:In the burgeoning literature on war memorials and the commemoration of the war dead in Britain after 1918, the growth of village halls in rural areas has not been extensively analysed. K.S. Inglis has alerted us to the dichotomy of monuments to mourn the dead and amenities to serve the living. He noted that where a preference was made for utility over monumentality, local war memorial committees did not confine their attention to commemorating those who died on active service and made the Great Sacrifice, but also had in mind those who served and returned. The complex locally-determined processes of negotiating ways which would bring solace or comfort to the bereaved, through the creation of an object of mourning, has been examined with great care and detail, but analysis of urban-centred initiatives predominates.
Consequently, the linkage which might be made between the experience of war and the participation of ex-servicemen in village war memorial debates, the demise of old elites and the quest for improved social and material conditions in rural areas, the diminishing support for parish churches as the focal point of community life and the emergence of undenominational social centres, all point towards the need for further examination of the proceedings of local committees, where parish records allow. As British participation in the Great War contained the powerful rhetoric of a religious crusade and was not connected to the improvement of social conditions until the publication of war aims in January 1918, many committees gave priority to the creation of sacred objects of mourning, with much use of exhortatory moral language and Christian iconography.
Consequently, the linkage which might be made between the experience of war and the participation of ex-servicemen in village war memorial debates, the demise of old elites and the quest for improved social and material conditions in rural areas, the diminishing support for parish churches as the focal point of community life and the emergence of undenominational social centres, all point towards the need for further examination of the proceedings of local committees, where parish records allow. As British participation in the Great War contained the powerful rhetoric of a religious crusade and was not connected to the improvement of social conditions until the publication of war aims in January 1918, many committees gave priority to the creation of sacred objects of mourning, with much use of exhortatory moral language and Christian iconography.
Investigating Local War Memorial Committees: Demobilised Soldiers, The Bereaved And Expressions Of Local Pride In Sussex Villages, 1918 - 1921, by Keith Grieves, published February 2000 in The Local Historian (vol. 30, no. 1, article, pp.39-58) View Online
Abstract:In the last ten years the commemoration of the Great War through memorials and acts of remembrance has been the subject of writings at the intersection of cultural and military studies and local historians have been heavily involved in generating entries for the National Inventory of War Memorials. Much attention has naturally focused on the physical appearance of war memorials as objects for mourning, whether they be monumental or social amenity structures. Further investigation remains to be undertaken on local processes of commemorating the fallen in rural communities, especially in relation to the interplay of traditional social elites, ex-servicemen's organisations and the relatives of the Absent Dead.
The survival of proceedings of some war memorial committees in parochial records provide remarkable and diverse 'snapshots' of consensus and disunity in six Sussex villages after the First World War, particularly on the question of whether parish churches remained the physical focus and historic embodiment of village life. Evidence of the disruption of hierarchical social relations by the experience of mass soldiering emerges through the study of committees which organised the design, finance, site, inscription and unveiling of war memorials, but this was not always the case. In Slinfold, Warnham, Ashurst, East Chiltington and Angmering highly localised decision-making processes took varied form in relation to the matrices of continuity and change, coercion and consent, and privilege and obligation. These case studies highlight the value of studying commemorative processes for the local historian who wishes to reconstruct the impact of total war on rural communities in the early twentieth century.
The survival of proceedings of some war memorial committees in parochial records provide remarkable and diverse 'snapshots' of consensus and disunity in six Sussex villages after the First World War, particularly on the question of whether parish churches remained the physical focus and historic embodiment of village life. Evidence of the disruption of hierarchical social relations by the experience of mass soldiering emerges through the study of committees which organised the design, finance, site, inscription and unveiling of war memorials, but this was not always the case. In Slinfold, Warnham, Ashurst, East Chiltington and Angmering highly localised decision-making processes took varied form in relation to the matrices of continuity and change, coercion and consent, and privilege and obligation. These case studies highlight the value of studying commemorative processes for the local historian who wishes to reconstruct the impact of total war on rural communities in the early twentieth century.
Rural parish churches and the bereaved in Sussex after the First World War, by Keith Grieves, published 2001 in Sussex Archæological Collections (vol. 139, article, pp.203-214) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 14916] & The Keep [LIB/500292] & S.A.S. library View Online
Abstract:In the past ten years much work has been undertaken on comparative approaches to the definition and study of communities of mourning in European states during and after the First World War. In the social organization of remembrance the roles of controlling institutions and self-elected secondary élites in generating a commemorative unity of purpose have been identified in regions and some localities. Micro studies need to be undertaken, however, especially in rural areas, to consider the utility of these concepts and processes in explaining the existence of consensus and conflict in war memorial debates in rural communities. In some parishes in Sussex the Anglican Church engendered social integration and moral order well into the 20th century and presumed that it would determine local responses to commemorating the fallen. In some villages without intimate relations of organized religion and social hierarchy, it encountered resistance. Expressions of division marked a dramatic moment of social dissonance in the long history of parochial governance. Some clergymen failed to acknowledge the growth of sectional interests, who sought social gains. Nonetheless, the heavenward path of the martyred soldier-saint was confirmed and wall tablets in parish churches became sites of mourning, where appropriately pre-modern symbolism conveyed a generalizing sense of the sacred. In many parishes in Sussex memorials, featuring inscribed names, spoke eloquently to the bereaved in the context of the Absent Dead. In conditions of total war local definitions of home mattered and rural parish churches brought a meaning which made bearable the enormity of loss in the immediate aftermath of war.
Sussex in the First World War, edited by Keith Grieves, published 2004 (vol. 84, lix + 394 pp., Sussex Record Society, ISBN-10: 0854450564 & ISBN-13: 9780854450565) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15171][Lib 15172] & The Keep [LIB/500461][Lib/507869] & West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries View Online
Abstract:This volume draws on a wide range of sources to paint a vivid and comprehensive picture of Sussex attitudes and experiences in the Great War for Civilisation.
The landed gentry's assumption of responsibility for local recruiting, and the willingness of most volunteers, make a contrast to the proceedings of a tribunal dealing with a conscientious objector. Men from farms and factories found themselves in situations far removed from their normal lives. This is reflected in their letters home, some of which were published in their parish magazines. Whilst such local publications were careful to encourage a 'business as usual' impression, the threat of invasion was surprisingly strong - provoking a radical range of precautions. The logistics of wartime supply, for the forces and for the civilian population, made a major impact on the county. They included the monopolising of ports for transportation of supplies to the front and, at a local level, the control of rabbits to protect food crops. Comforts for the troops ranged from the practical to the fantastic - such as Lord Brassey's luxury yacht 'Sunbeam' in which, with a crew of 24 and the Dean of Hereford, he took a group of six wounded officers on a cruise. For some of the injured and disabled there would be care and retraining - in country houses or among crippled children at Chailey.
Any record of the Great War would seem incomplete without some mention of its poetry. The selection here ranges from 'The County Enlisting Championship' which epitomises the patriotism at the outbreak of war to nostalgic front-line memories of home and the Downs, and Blunden's enduring recollections of his comrades.
Finally, when the war was over, there were peace celebrations for those returning, and the question of how best to commemorate the dead. Formal memorials and more practical ideas such as community halls each had their supporters. A decade later Sergeant Boutwood of the Royal Sussex Regiment was among the first to revisit some of the French battle sites in 1930 and wrote an account for the Regimental Journal. Appendices give information on military matters, including the movements of each Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment.
The landed gentry's assumption of responsibility for local recruiting, and the willingness of most volunteers, make a contrast to the proceedings of a tribunal dealing with a conscientious objector. Men from farms and factories found themselves in situations far removed from their normal lives. This is reflected in their letters home, some of which were published in their parish magazines. Whilst such local publications were careful to encourage a 'business as usual' impression, the threat of invasion was surprisingly strong - provoking a radical range of precautions. The logistics of wartime supply, for the forces and for the civilian population, made a major impact on the county. They included the monopolising of ports for transportation of supplies to the front and, at a local level, the control of rabbits to protect food crops. Comforts for the troops ranged from the practical to the fantastic - such as Lord Brassey's luxury yacht 'Sunbeam' in which, with a crew of 24 and the Dean of Hereford, he took a group of six wounded officers on a cruise. For some of the injured and disabled there would be care and retraining - in country houses or among crippled children at Chailey.
Any record of the Great War would seem incomplete without some mention of its poetry. The selection here ranges from 'The County Enlisting Championship' which epitomises the patriotism at the outbreak of war to nostalgic front-line memories of home and the Downs, and Blunden's enduring recollections of his comrades.
Finally, when the war was over, there were peace celebrations for those returning, and the question of how best to commemorate the dead. Formal memorials and more practical ideas such as community halls each had their supporters. A decade later Sergeant Boutwood of the Royal Sussex Regiment was among the first to revisit some of the French battle sites in 1930 and wrote an account for the Regimental Journal. Appendices give information on military matters, including the movements of each Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment.
Remembering an ill-fated venture: the Fourth Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment at Suvla Bay and its legacy, 1915-1939, by K. Grieves, published 2004 in Gallipoli: making history, 2003 (by Jenny Macleod, pp.110-124, Routledge, ISBN-10: 1135771561 & ISBN-13: 9781135771560) View Online