Aspects of the Great War in Carmarthenshire

• Main Author: Barlow, Robin
• Published: University of Wales Trinity Saint David 2000
• Subjects: 942.9
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.525478

At the turn of the century, Carmarthenshire was a county which exhibited the social and economic pressures which were to transform Wales in the period 1870-1920: there was a shift of emphasis from traditional Welsh-speaking, rural areas to the urban, industrialised belts in the south and east of the county. This study examines how the people of Carmarthenshire responded to the Great War, and studies at a local level the national picture painted by J M Winter in The Great War and the British People. An examination of voluntary recruitment for the armed forces showed that the men of Carmarthenshire were proportionately less likely to enlist than those from many other parts of Britain. A similar reluctance to support the War was evident in studies of recruitment for the Welsh Army Corps, and the decisions of military tribunals. A database of the war dead of the county again showed a numerical under-representation compared to national statistics, and also that those who died (and those who enlisted) were not drawn equally from all social and economic backgrounds. Infant mortality fell sharply during the War, and Winter explains this by rising standards of living. In Carmarthenshire, it is argued, the fall was due to improved infant welfare services. Finally, patterns of remembrance were examined, which showed a continuity with pre-war rituals and practices. Most Welsh historians, and historians of Wales, maintain that the people of Wales wholeheartedly supported the War. This study challenges that view.