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Oxford at war By aoiFe o’Gorman (2012) As this year’s Balliol-Bodley Scholar, I was lucky enough to be sent off to the Bodleian Library Special Manuscripts Room, where I was instructed to make myself useful by helping to curate the library’s exhibition commemorating the centenary of the First World War: The Great War: Personal Stories From Downing Street to the Trenches (12 June to 2 November 2014). Ian Taylor
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this was a wonderful opportunity number of lectures (including a series for a historian of the first world at rugby school) on the causes of the war, both in terms of my thesis and war, the duties of the citizen, and the in the general giddy (nerdy) joy of dangers of german militarism. getting to work on something which equally fascinating are the wouldn’t necessarily come up in balliol scrapbooks, compiled by the course of my research. though Hilda Pickard-cambridge, the wife a historian is used to working with of a balliol fellow. Here we find old documents, i for one still find christmas cards from the trenches, the mere fact of holding a christmas pamphlets from the front and, card from the trenches terribly equally interesting, newspaper exciting and cannot help feeling awe cuttings, photos and letters which at the thought that a scrap of paper – describe an oxford that had given a relic of one of the most devastating itself over to the war effort. all the conflicts of the last century – has colleges remained open (even those not only survived but is sitting in my with fewer than six undergraduates), hands (or rather on a special stand, some gave buildings to refugees, having been placed there some converted space for incredibly gingerly). hospital use, and a number Heartbreaking a paper detailing of departments devoted my findings will be a their efforts to furthering in their too-brief component of the website the british war machine. descriptions accompanying the air raid warnings appear of the careers exhibition. as ever with alongside reports on the research, the end result visit of italian professors of those who deviated a good deal to the university, ration died, the letters from the original plan, books with concerns and so the paper will that the opening of the unfailingly focus not on oxonians in university golf club to mention the the war but on oxford’s officers on sundays will set Balliol spirit. war. i began with the a dangerous precedent for papers of lord bryce, peace-time play. balliol housed ‘a’ company of Head of the committee investigating the 6th officer cadet battalion, and reports of german atrocities during their troop magazine conjures up a the invasion of belgium, and college still echoing to the laughter subsequently examined records of young men stealing mulberries from the oxford belgian refugee from the garden Quad and teasing committee. both sets of documents their tutors, although now they are highlight just how involved oxford clad in khaki instead of gowns, and was in the war effort, be it in the the tutors are teaching the correct prominent positions of her graduates, way to dig a trench, not how to or in the efforts of the town to take decipher the intricacies of Homeric in those directly affected by the greek. sports results show that the devastations of the war. cadets enthusiastically embraced the of greater interest for those with collegiate lifestyle, fielding teams for a balliol connection, however, are rowing, cricket and tennis; and photos the records of balliol’s master from of and articles about them with the 1916 to 1924, a l smith, who was an undergraduates and academics of historian with a strong connection balliol highlight the degree to which to the workers’ educational they succeeded in integrating. association. His notes reveal his on a more sombre note, the initial concern that the general public scrapbooks also contain letters from should be roused to support the war the relatives of balliol men who effort. in the early days of the war, died – who were to be included in he saw the conflict as ‘a magnificent the war memorial now on balliol’s educational opportunity’, shocking chapel door (left: first panel). even the most uninterested observer Heartbreaking in their too-brief of political life into contemplation descriptions of the careers of those of the issues involved. as the who died, the letters unfailingly war continued, he monitored the mention the balliol spirit and the changing sentiments of the working balliol tradition to which their classes, and of the groups which had sons were proud to belong. on the previously been outspoken in their centenary of the war, we can say that opposition to the war. He himself was balliol is proud to call them her own. determined to ‘do his bit’, and gave a
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