It’s a long way from Tipperary: Life in the trenches

A new course for November 2006, previewed by Arthur Chapman.

In November we launch a new course at the New Curiosity Shop looking at one aspect of the First World War. The 1st Word War song begins “It’s a long way to Tipperary, it’s a long way from home ...”, so the trenches are a long way from Tipperary – the conditions in Flanders, at Ypres, near the Somme, ... , are a world away from even the poverty that many of the recruits left back home. So in this course you will find answers to some of the questions about this devastating time at the beginning of the 20th century: How were the soldiers recruited? What did they wear? What were the trenches like? What conditions did they have to endure? What weapons were available? What happened to the injured and how were they treated? These and many more questions are answered in this fascinating and thought-provoking course.

Using photographs, recorded (audio) interviews and written accounts from eye-witnesses you are given a close-up of what life was like in the trenches 90 or more years ago. And you are asked, as far as is possible, to imagine what it was like being ‘called up’, being in the trenches day after day, night after night. What was it like being shelled? What might your thoughts be, how might you react? Can you empathise with those with shell shock? And what about the soldiers shot for ‘desertion’?

No previous knowledge is required to take this course and you have the full support of the course writer and tutor – David Borrill – to help you along and answer your questions. All you need is an interest in the First World War – no matter what you reason(s) are – and a desire to find out and understand more about what life was like for the British ‘Tommy’ in the trenches of Europe in the “war to end all wars”.

 

 

 

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