17. We Also Served

We Also Served: The Forgotten Women of the First World War. Vivien Newman. 2014/2021. 224 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: I have always known about my grandfathers’ First World War service. Her father’s photograph was on my mother's bedside table, his eyes, haunted by all he had seen, staring into the middle distance. He was a Royal Army Medical Corps surgeon, specialising in abdominal wounds, and he served in France from November 1914. Like so many who returned, he spoke little about his war service, although post-war he worked with those still suffering from shell shock–teaching my mother to drive in the grounds of one of the ‘lunatic asylums’ he visited weekly. 

Premise/plot: We Also Served is a nonfiction book about the many women--who served in many different ways--their countries during the First World War. (The book mainly--though not exclusively--focuses on the British Empire, so women from Great Britain, Canada, Australia. I believe a handful of Americans are mentioned but in very small numbers proportionally speaking.) The book is arranged/organized by the ways women served. 

For example, the first chapter is about the women being brave enough to send their boys/men off to war; the campaigning that went on to make sure mothers and wives WOULD strongly encourage/support their men to go. But that isn't all it's about. It has a lot of KNITTING as well. In addition to knitting, women could WRITE LETTERS to boost morale and be supportive during the war.

But the book goes on in its chapters to focus on nurses, ambulance drivers, and the occasional doctor or surgeon. Not to mention the factory workers--especially in munitions but not only in munitions. Then, of course, there were the land girls--women involved in farming/harvesting. And then there was the occasional spy behind the enemy lines...

Some who served were involved in private enterprises--not forbidden by the government but not necessarily supported by the government and run by the government. There were private nursing units and more official government-sponsored nursing units for example. 

The last two chapters focuses on women who died serving their country AND the women who mourned losses from the war. There were memorials and monuments to men who served and died--less honor was given to the women who died. They weren't exactly forgotten and dismissed altogether. But less was done to commemorate, recognize, and pay tribute to their service. Perhaps the least recognized of all were the women who died working in munitions. These deaths were purposefully not recorded or published. 

ALL OF THE CHAPTERS were wonderful in that all are drawn from primary sources. Diaries. Letters. Journals. Memoirs. Oral Histories. Each chapter has at least one--if not dozens--of personal stories giving readers a behind the scenes glimpse of what it was like--their actual experiences. 

My thoughts: I really found this one fascinating and well-researched. I read one chapter a day and enjoyed (if enjoyed is the right word???) each day's reading. I love it when nonfiction relies primarily on primary sources. I love hearing these stories, these experiences from firsthand sources--the women who were actually there. I would definitely recommend this one. 

© 2021 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews