Feelings of the War
The fear of their love ones never returning...
The grief of watching their love ones leave for war...
The sorrow of losing their love ones due to war...
All of these are common feelings of those back at the home front. The war has affected them greatly, but many of those don't realize the effects of the war has on the home front. Men, women, and children were upset at losing their love ones. The exhilarting surges of patriotic acts and the decreased size of those who were against the war were fleeting thrills when set against the loss of love ones. Children often woke up in the morning to find that their father, or in some cases their older brother, had disappeared into the war and were only left with the hope that they will come back. 300,000 children never saw their fathers or brothers again. 160,000 wives recieved the dreaded notification of the loss of their husbands.
Once Phyllis Kelly first found out about somebody who she loved greatly, Eric Appleby, was seriously wounded, she began to write to him. "My own darling Englishman", she wrote from Dublin on October 28 1915, "I wonder why I'm writing this, which you may never see - oh God, perhaps even now you have gone far away from your Lady - I wonder when another telegram will come; this knowing nothing is terrible, I don't know what to do. I simply have sat and shivered with such an awful clutching fear at my heart ... Oh my love, my love, what shall I do - but I must be brave and believe all will be well - dear one, surely God won't take you from me now. It will be the end of everything that matters ... you are all the world and life to me." He never received the letter; he was already dead. The sorrow and grief of losing a love one quickly began to effect one and another at the home front.
The grief of watching their love ones leave for war...
The sorrow of losing their love ones due to war...
All of these are common feelings of those back at the home front. The war has affected them greatly, but many of those don't realize the effects of the war has on the home front. Men, women, and children were upset at losing their love ones. The exhilarting surges of patriotic acts and the decreased size of those who were against the war were fleeting thrills when set against the loss of love ones. Children often woke up in the morning to find that their father, or in some cases their older brother, had disappeared into the war and were only left with the hope that they will come back. 300,000 children never saw their fathers or brothers again. 160,000 wives recieved the dreaded notification of the loss of their husbands.
Once Phyllis Kelly first found out about somebody who she loved greatly, Eric Appleby, was seriously wounded, she began to write to him. "My own darling Englishman", she wrote from Dublin on October 28 1915, "I wonder why I'm writing this, which you may never see - oh God, perhaps even now you have gone far away from your Lady - I wonder when another telegram will come; this knowing nothing is terrible, I don't know what to do. I simply have sat and shivered with such an awful clutching fear at my heart ... Oh my love, my love, what shall I do - but I must be brave and believe all will be well - dear one, surely God won't take you from me now. It will be the end of everything that matters ... you are all the world and life to me." He never received the letter; he was already dead. The sorrow and grief of losing a love one quickly began to effect one and another at the home front.
The Defense of the Realm Act also affected the home front greatly, destroying hundreds of businesses. In Liverpool, 200 business were destroyed. In London, only 2 of 21 Metropolitan police districts were free from the riots. Many have commented that they would like to destroy the Germans. DH Lawrence admitted: "When I read of the Lusitania ... I am mad with rage myself. I would like to kill a million Germans - two million." Ironically, Lawrence's German-born wife and with him being against the war placed him on the bad side of this act. He was accused of spying and was forced out of his cottage in St Ives.
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As the war raged on, many of the people at the home front grew with grief of losing from their love ones. They all dread the message of their love one never returning.