# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
World War One At Home - Les Blanches Banques, Jersey: A Prisoner Of War Camp - BBC Sounds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.

# data[].attributes.body
Visit the Archive to see items and hear stories about WWI and how it impacted the people of Jersey. This visit is useful to KS2 and for the study of historical evidence during WW1 and will look at:

Letters sent from the Home Front

Roll of Honour

Official documents from WW1

Visit the archive strongroom

Please email education@jerseyheritage.org for booking and more information.

# data[].attributes.body
Examples of Channel Islands women who served in many different capacities in the islands, Britain and in or near various war zone

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Channel Islands Great War Study Group is researching all aspects of the war in relation to the Channel Islands and their people.

# data[].attributes.body
At the age of 98 Elise Mauger could still vividly recall the horror and suffering of the Great War when she nursed the wounded and dying in France. Interviewed in 1993 for Jersey Now magazine, she said that after the war broke out she travelled to London and was offered a nursing position in the Voluntary Aid Division.

Her father, a French-born grower from the Le Marquand family who lived in Jersey with his wife and Elise and her sisters, had been called up by France to serve in the war.

'My mother hadn't liked the idea of me going to England was relieved to know I was going to nearby France, where she naively thought my father would be able to keep an eye on me,' she said in her interview.

However, when in France:

'Depending on the wind, we could hear the fighting. There was great suffering. Men were carried in straight from the trenches covered in mud and lice,' she said.

On one occasion she was commended by the matron for carrying out the correct procedure when a man was haemorrhaging. 'You saved his life', the matron told her.

'It was frightening sometimes. Men were choking from the gas attacks. One day we buried eight soldiers and I cried all the way back from the cemetery until I fell asleep'.

After 3 years nursing, she became sick and had to go to England for treatment, and was not allowed to return to France due to the mines in the channel.
She spent the remaining two years of the war working at Leeds Hospital nursing wounded soldiers.

In 1919 Elise received a certificate of service and two medals for her nursing care of men on the battlefront. She died in May 1995 aged 100.

# data[].attributes.headline
Places in Jersey that tell a story of WWI 

# data[].attributes.subject
Places in Jersey that tell a story of WWI 

# data[].attributes.body
Radio programmes telling stories of WWI with Jersey links

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BBC - World War One At Home, BBC Radio Jersey

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Places in Jersey that tell a story of World War One

# data[].attributes.body
There were labour shortages during the war, which hit the agricultural sector hard, as they had increasing targets to supply food for Jersey and England.

The young men volunteering or being conscripted meant that women could be involved in the workplace to replace them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The "Jersey Lily" Potato Digger (no.2)

This potato digger was made by Bamfords and evolved as a result of labour shortages in the First World War. It was in widespread use at one time in Jersey.

This model was literally rescued from being dumped a skip and subsequently restored by Mr Francis Laurens who recognised its historical importance.

Mr & Mrs Francis Laurens generously donated it to the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society in 2005.

© Roger Frisby 2006
Contact Roger

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Channel Islands Great War Study Group is researching all aspects of the war in relation to the Channel Islands and their people.

# data[].attributes.body
Despite its relatively small size, the Jersey Contingent won great praise from the units with which it served, and was singled out for special praise by the Jersey government after the war.  The men’s bravery and commitment was demonstrated through the number of gallantry medals won, including two Military Crosses two Distinguished Conduct Medals, two French and one Belgian Croix de Guerre and no fewer than fifteen Military Medals. All those men of the Jersey Contingent who went to France received the 1914-15 Star, the British War medal and the Victory Medal.

Sadly the price paid was a high one.  Of the 326 men who joined the Jersey Contingent, 80, or one in four, died during the war or immediately afterwards.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
At the time of the First World War, most women were barred from voting or serving in military combat roles. Many saw the war as an opportunity to not only serve their countries but to gain more rights and independence. With millions of men away from home, women filled manufacturing and agricultural positions on the home front. Others provided support on the front lines as nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, translators and, in rare cases, on the battlefield.

One observer wrote that American women "do anything they were given to do; that their hours are long; that their task is hard; that for them there is small hope of medals and citations and glittering homecoming parades."

On The Homefront

The nations at war mobilized their entire populations. The side that could produce more weapons and supply more troops would prevail in the end. Women took on new roles in the work force, notably in war production and agriculture.

In 1914, the German armaments producer Krupp employed almost no women. By 1917, women made up nearly 30 percent of its 175,000 workers and a nationwide total of nearly 1.4 million German women were employed in the war labor force. Britain also stepped up its arms production by expanding the employment of women. In July 1914, 3.3 million women worked in paid employment in Britain. By July 1917, 4.7 million did. British women served in uniform as well in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. In fact, the last known surviving veteran of World War I was Florence Green of the RAF, who died in 2012.

As women took traditional male jobs in the United States, African American women were able to make their first major shift from domestic employment to work in offices and factories. Recent research also shows that a limited number of African American women served overseas as volunteers with the YMCA.

"The women worked as ammunition testers, switchboard operators, stock takers. They went into every kind of factory devoted to the production of war materials, from the most dangerous posts in munition plants to the delicate sewing in aeroplane factories."

- Alice Dunbar Nelson, American Poet and Civil Rights Activist, on African American women's efforts during the war, 1918

But even women in more traditional roles contributed to the war effort. Every housewife in the U.S. was asked to sign a pledge card stating that she would "carry out the directions and advice of the Food Administrator in the conduct of my household, in so far as my circumstances permit." This meant canning food for future use, growing vegetables in the backyard and limiting consumption of meat, wheat and fats. Most of all, women were expected to bolster the morale of their families at home and loved ones overseas.

Doctors, Nurses and Ambulance Drivers

The Salvation Army, the Red Cross and many other organizations depended on thousands of female volunteers. The American Red Cross operated hospitals to care for war casualties, staffed by nurses, hundreds of whom died in service during the war. Thousands of women also served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps and the Navy Nurse Corps. While the American Expeditionary Forces were still preparing to go overseas, U.S. Army nurses were sent ahead and assigned to the British Expeditionary Force. By June 1918, there were more than 3,000 American nurses in over 750 in British-run hospitals in France.

While nurses were accepted at the Front, women physicians faced obstacles putting their hard-earned skills to work. When these women were rejected from service in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, many sought other opportunities to serve the war effort: as civilian contract surgeons, with the Red Cross or other humanitarian relief organizations and even in the French Army.

The Medical Women's National Association, for example, raised money to send their own doctors overseas to work in hospitals run by the American Red Cross. By the end of the war, nearly 80 women doctors from this organization were at work in the devastated regions of Europe, caring for civilians and soldiers and treating diseases such as influenza and typhoid.

During the last Allied offensive in the summer and fall of 1918, many woman doctors, nurses and aides operated near the front lines, providing medical care for soldiers wounded in combat.

"I had just given this poor boy anesthesia when a bomb hit. We were supposed to hit the floor, but he was out and didn't know what was going on. I took a tray and put it over our heads. It wasn't because I was brave. I was just scared."

- Medical Corps anesthetist Sophie Gran. Gran was one of the first woman anesthetists with the A.E.F. in France and the only woman anesthetist with Mobile Hospital Unit #1. She went on to become the first president of California Association of Nurse Anesthetists in 1931.

The automobile age was just getting underway in WWI, and motorized ambulances became key to medical treatment on the battlefield. Many women who knew how to drive volunteered to go overseas to serve as ambulance and truck drivers or mechanics. They delivered medical supplies, transported patients to hospitals and drove through artillery fire to retrieve the wounded.

Many of the women drivers of the Red Cross Motor Service and other ambulance groups used their own cars, including Marie Curie. Curie invented a mobile X-ray unit, radiological cars nicknamed "little Curies," and ultimately trained 150 women to be X-ray operators on the battlefront, of which Curie herself was one - an act that she believed contributed to her later death from radiation exposure.

Edith Cavell

Learn about the life and death of the British nurse who helped soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium.

Female Yeoman

Despite thousands of new recruits, the U.S. Navy was short-handed at the beginning of World War I. Vague wording in a section of the Naval Act of 1916 outlining who could serve created a loophole: women were able to join the ranks as Yeomen, non-commissioned officers. Around 12,000 women enlisted in the Navy under the title, "Yeoman (F)."

Most women Yeomen served stateside on naval bases, replacing men who had deployed to Europe. While many female recruits performed clerical duties, some worked as truck drivers, mechanics, radio operators, telephone operators, translators, camouflage artists and munition workers. They had the same responsibilities as their male counterparts and received the same pay of $28.75 per month.

The "Hello Girls"

Aiming to improve communications on the Western front between the Allied Forces, General John J. Pershing called for the creation of the Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit. The unit recruited women who were bilingual in French and English to serve as telephone switchboard operators on the Western front. The women received physical training, observed strict military protocol, wore identity discs and worked very close to the front lines. These female recruits were nicknamed the "Hello Girls" (a term which some of them felt disparaged their efforts) and became known for their bravery and focus under pressure. However, upon their return to the United States after the end of the war, the "Hello Girls" did not receive veteran status or benefits. It wasn't until 1977, when President Jimmy Carter signed legislation, that the few surviving women telephone operators received recognition of their veteran status.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
With millions of men away from home, women filled manufacturing and agricultural positions on the home front.

# data[].attributes.body
•A number of women from Jersey had left the island to work in Britain’s munitions industry or to serve as nurses for military or civilian patients

•Women became entitled to vote in 1919, and enter the States in 1924

# data[].attributes.body
The photograph shows four daughters of Mr J Coutu of 6, Allez Street all of whom are employed in various kinds of munitions work in England.

Seated in front is Miss Gladys Coutu, the others from left to right are Miss Edith Coutu, Mrs Gillingham (née Lilian Coutu) and Miss Aline Coutu

# data[].attributes.body
One of the houses of JCG is named after Edith Cavell, a british nurse who helped soldiers in Belgium, before being executed by the German army.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Edith Cavell was a British nurse who operated a medical clinic and nursing school in Brussels at the start of the war in August 1914. She chose to stay in her adopted homeland when the Germans invaded and provided medical treatment for injured soldiers, regardless of their nationality. She also helped smuggle injured soldiers and civilians out of Belgium to neutral Holland. Cavell was arrested by German occupation authorities in August 1915, charged under the German Military Code.

She admitted to having helped the servicemen escape and that some had even contacted her to say they had safely arrived in England. Cavell was sentenced to death not for aiding the escape of enemy servicemen, but because the men had been able to return to a country at war with Germany. She spent eight weeks in St. Gilles Prison, and despite protests from the United States and Spain, she was executed by a German firing squad at the Belgian National Shooting Range at dawn on Oct. 12, 1915.

Her execution was condemned by the international community, with rising anti-German sentiment in America and Great Britain in particular. Cavell was perceived in these countries as a courageous martyr, and was honored in 1920 with a memorial near Trafalgar Square in London.

"I have no fear nor shrinking. I have seen death so often that it is not strange or fearful to me ... I thank God for this ten weeks' quiet before the end. Life has always been hurried and full of difficulty. This time of rest has been a great mercy. They have all been very kind to me here. But this I would say, standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone."

- Edith Cavell, on the night before her execution, as recounted by Reverend Stirling Gahan, Oct. 11, 1915.

In the Collection

The Execution of Miss Cavell at Brussels is a British government publication in the Museum and Memorial's archival collection of correspondence between the U.S. ambassador in London, Walter Page, and the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, about the arrest, trial and execution of British nurse Edith Cavell. Within their correspondence are reports from the U.S. minister to Brussels, Brand Whitlock, and his correspondence with authorities from the German military government occupying Belgium.

Two political cartoons on Cavell by Louis Raemaekers were included the Museum and Memorial's Drawn to War exhibition which was on view from March 24 through Oct. 18, 2015.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Edith Cavell was a British nurse who operated a medical clinic and nursing school in Brussels at the start of the war in August 1914.

# data[].attributes.body
•Jersey sent more than 6,000 men to fight in the British Armed forces, and 2,000 more French residents – official figures state 862 died in the British & Dominion forces, 264 in the French. Recent research puts the figure of Jerseymen killed in excess of 1,200 – the number of men wounded would have been many more times than that figure
•25% of the 326 men of the Jersey Company died during or immediately after the war

•2 Military Crosses, 2 Distinguished Conduct Medals, 2 French Medaille Militaire, 1 Belgian Croix De Guerre, 15 Military Medals

•The Jersey Militia was reconstituted in 1921, as a single infantry battalion and later in 1929 the Jersey Militia changed to an all voluntary service company of only 260 men

# data[].attributes.body
This photograph dated 1894, is a family portrait, with Dr and Mrs Dunlop and their 10 children -  8 sons and 2 daughters. Dr Andrew Dunlop was a physician who worked in Jersey and was a founding member of La Société Jersiaise. This may have been the last photograph of the family together -  as war absolutely decimated this military family. Two of the sons, Charles and Valentine were killed in the Boer war in 1900, Robin died as a captain in the Indian Army in 1912, Julian and Frederick were killed in 1914 during the First World War and a year later Kenneth was also killed. In just 15 years six sons were killed in conflict.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Photos show life in Jersey World War One prison camp

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Snowball fights and escape tunnels are just some of the images released of the Jersey camp.

# data[].attributes.body
Using the Historic Environment record and LiDAR imaging, you can still see the outline of the prisoner of war camp for Germans sent to Jersey during WWI.

# data[].attributes.body
TB Davis gave the land to the public, as a memorial to his son who died in the Battle of the Somme.
Howard Leopold Davis, served with the Highland Light Infantry. Howard was wounded at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and died of his wounds on 12 August 1916. He is buried at Etaples Cemetery, France. Howard's death prompted Davis into philanthropy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
World War One At Home - Howard Davis Park, Jersey: Memorial to a Fallen Son - BBC Sounds

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Catch up on your favourite BBC radio show from your favourite DJ right here, whenever you like. Listen without limits with BBC Sounds.