‘Are we downhearted? NO!’: representing war damage and destruction following bombardment on the First World War ‘home front’

ABSTRACT

Using four bombarded coastal locations in north-east England as case studies, this article explores the phenomenon of bomb damage imagery and its use in propaganda and commemorative processes during the First World War. Through an analysis of postcards, souvenirs and other aspects of wartime material culture, this article posits that depictions of bomb-damaged and destroyed buildings – both monumental and vernacular – were central to local and national efforts to memorialise and make sense of the passing of enemy actions on the home front, during a period when civilians were increasingly seen as legitimate targets.

KEYWORDS:

• WWI
• home front
• bombardment
• civilians
• postcards

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Ann-Marie Foster for reading through drafts of this article, as well as my anonymous readers. Many thanks are also owed to Hartlepool Museums & Galleries, who kindly granted permission to reproduce images free of charge. Of course, I am also grateful to the War Through Other Stuff team for putting this special issue together, and for providing such a vibrant network for fruitful interdisciplinary discussions and moral support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Hartlepool and West Hartlepool, taken together, were known as ‘the Hartlepools’ in the period. The original borough of Hartlepool was merged with the county borough of West Hartlepool in 1967. See Hansard, Hartlepool Order (1966), HL Deb 8 February 1967 vol 279 cc1468-70. Accessed 23 November 2017. http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1967/feb/08/hartlepool-order-1966.

2. One advertisement from December 1914 quotes a price of one penny for single bombardment postcards. See Scarborough Mercury, 24 December 1914.

3. The series referred to Saul Stonefield, a naturalised German shopkeeper, who maintained premises in West Hartlepool (Ancestry.com, 1914 Kelly’s Directory of Durham, Census Returns of England and Wales, 1911).

4. Cædmon, who resided at Whitby Abbey, is the earliest known vernacular English poet. See E.G. Stanley, ‘Cædmon (fl. c.670)’. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2004. Accessed 22 November 2017. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4321.

5. In this example, Maud Earl’s painting depicts the Allied nations as dogs: ‘The Japanese Spaniel; The Belgian Griffon; The Russian Borzoi; The French Bulldog; and The British Bulldog’.