For people in Britain during the First World War life was good How far do the sources in this paper support this statement

1
For people in Britain during the First World War
life was good How far do the sources in this
paper support this statement

• 12 mark question that needs supported evidence
  and a balanced answer with a conclusion

2
Life in Britain was good

• Source B shows the upper classes enjoying
  holidays amidst war. This was part of the
  governments carrying on with normal life
  philosophy that underpinned their message of
  boosting morale
• Source F shows an upper class ladys account of
  the work she undertook which was interesting and
  enjoyable
• Source G shows that people earnt more and ate
  much better as a result when you compare 1914
  with 1918

• SE Source B was in a upper class Gentlemans
  magazine and 10 was out of the pocket of most
  lower class workers so it was an advert for a
  minority
• Joan Williamss memoirs might increase her
  fondness of war as she is writing so far after
  the war and was not doing the same paid work as
  others like source E
• An official government report might highlight
  these improvements to boost morale but many
  people may not have felt their lives were
  improving in the war

3
Life was never that good in war

• Source A tries to belittle bombing raids which
  must have scared people due to the damage caused,
  the deaths in coastal towns and wave after wave
  kept on coming
• Source C backs this up with details about
  casualties and devastation caused along the coast
  and long lasting damage done
• Source D backs up the idea of rationing and
  deprivations caused by war time blockades
• Source E talks of the hard punishing work that
  many women faced in the armaments and aircraft
  factories with noxious fumes, long hours and low
  pay

• SE The cartoon has been published to down play
  the Zeppelin raids in response to public hysteria
  and panic over this new and deadly bombing
  missions. Life was not good on the coast
• Source C although written with inflammatory
  language has indisputable facts of who was
  injured and died along the coast
• Source D shows how resourceful people were forced
  to become in the kitchen
• Source E although written by a suffragette who
  was trying to raise concern over the plight of
  women and may have exaggerated her account does
  show a realistic example of what women faced as
  there were so few men working in these war time
  industries from 1915 onwards

4
Conclusion

• To say that life was good during the war for
  people on the home front tries to diminish the
  hardships people faced.
• Although some people carried on as if nothing
  happened and in hindsight food, diets and real
  wages increased a war can never be a good way to
  go about it.
• Similarly although the war helped in getting
  women the vote it was very difficult for them
  while the war went on to be credited for all they
  did.
• The Zeppelin bombing raids were scary and did
  cause unforseen damage to towns and killed
  innocents like never before. People did ration
  their food and some had worse diets and longer
  work hours and the undeniable fact is that war
  split families and killed many young men in their
  prime which can never have been good for those on
  the home front
• In conclusion although there was some good
  outcomes for most people the war was a hardship
  they never wanted to repeat