Commemorative Spaces of the First World War: Historical Geographies at the Centenary

265 Pages·2018·2.62 MB·English

by  James Wallis, David C. Harvey (eds.)

Commemorative Spaces of
the First World War
T his is the fi rst book to bring together an interdisciplinary, theoretically engaged
and global perspective on the First World War through the lens of historical and
cultural geography. Refl ecting the centennial interest in the confl ict, the collection
explores the relationships between warfare and space, and pays particular atten-
tion to how commemoration is connected to spatial elements of national identity
and processes of heritage and belonging. Venturing beyond military history and
memory studies, contributors explore conceptual contributions of geography to
analyse the First World War, as well as refl ecting upon the imperative for an aca-
demic discussion on the war’s centenary.
T his book explores the war’s impact in more unexpected theatres, blurring the
boundary between home and fi ghting fronts, investigating the experiences of the war
amongst civilians and often overlooked combatants. It also critically examines the pol-
itics of hindsight in the post-w ar period and offers a historical-g eographical account
of how the First World War has been memorialised within ‘offi cial’ spaces, in addition
to those overlooked and often undervalued ‘alternative spaces’ of commemoration.
This innovative and timely text will be key reading for students and scholars of the
First World War and more broadly in historical and cultural geography, social and cul-
tural history, European history, Heritage Studies, military history and memory studies.
James Wallis is a research fellow at Exeter University, and the University of
Brighton. Currently employed on ‘Refl ections on the Centenary of the First
World War: Learning and Legacies for the Future’, he has worked on several
post- doctoral First World War- related projects – including affi liations with the
‘Everyday Lives in War’ Public Engagement Centre (University of Hertfordshire)
and ‘Living Legacies 1914–18’ (Queens University Belfast). Formerly an Arts and
Humanities Research Council- funded Collaborative Doctoral Award student at
Exeter and Imperial War Museums, his research explores the critical geographies
of confl ict heritage in a variety of contexts. Recent and ongoing projects examine
the relationship between photography and confl ict commemoration, and museo-
logical interpretations of the First World War.
David C. Harvey is an associate professor in critical heritage studies at Aarhus Uni-
versitiet, Denmark, and an honorary professor of historical and cultural geography at
the University of Exeter (United Kingdom). His work has focussed on the geographies
of heritage, and he has contributed to some key heritage debates, including p rocessual
understandings of heritage, extending the temporal depth of heritage, the outlining of
heritage-l andscape and heritage-c limate change relations and the opening up of hidden
memories through oral history. Along with Jim Perry, he recently edited T he Future of
Heritage as Climates Change: Loss, Adaptation and Creativity (2015).
Routledge Research in Historical Geography
Series Edited by Simon Naylor (School of Geographical and
Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK) and Laura Cameron
(Department of Geography, Queen’s University, Canada)
T his series offers a forum for original and innovative research, exploring a wide
range of topics encompassed by the sub-d iscipline of historical geography and
cognate fi elds in the humanities and social sciences. Titles within the series adopt
a global geographical scope and historical studies of geographical issues that are
grounded in detailed inquiries of primary source materials. The series also sup-
ports historiographical and theoretical overviews, and edited collections of essays
on historical- geographical themes. This series is aimed at upper- level undergradu-
ates, research students and academics.
www.routledge.com/Routledge- Research- in- Historical- Geography/book- series/
RRHGS
Published
Historical Geographies of Prisons
Unlocking the Usable Carceral Past
Edited by Karen Morin and Dominique Moran
Historical Geographies of Anarchism
Early Critical Geographers and Present- Day Scientifi c Challenges
Edited by Federico Ferretti, Gerónimo Barrera de la Torre, Anthony Ince and
Francisco Toro
Cultural Histories, Memories and Extreme Weather
A Historical Geography Perspective
Edited by Georgina H. Endfi eld and Lucy Veale
Commemorative Spaces of the First World War
Historical Geographies at the Centenary
Edited by James Wallis and David C. Harvey
Commemorative Spaces of
the First World War
Historical Geographies at the Centenary
Edited by James Wallis and
David C. Harvey
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, James Wallis and David C.
Harvey; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of James Wallis and David C. Harvey to be identifi ed as the
authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual
chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
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Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978- 1- 138- 12118- 8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 315- 65117- 0 (ebk)
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Contents
List of fi gures vii
List of tables ix
List of contributors x
Foreword by the series editors xv
Preface xvi
1 Introduction: confl icting spaces – geographies of
the First World War 1
JAMES WALLIS AND DAVID C. HARVEY
PART 1
Rethinking, and looking beyond the front line 15
2 Congested terrain: contested memories. Visualising
the multiple spaces of war and remembrance 17
PAUL GOUGH
3 Remembering the anti- war movement: contesting the war and
fi ghting the class struggle on Clydeside 31
PAUL GRIFFIN
4 The First World War in Palestine: biographies and memoirs of
Muslims, Jews, and Christians 47
EYAL BERELOVICH AND RUTH KARK
5 Malta in the First World War: an appraisal through
cartography and local newspapers 68
JOHN A. SCHEMBRI, RITIENNE GAUCI, STEFANO FURLANI AND
RAPHAEL MIZZI
6 Asia’s Great War: a shared experience 83
XU GUOQI
vi Contents
PART 2
Commemorative spaces 99
7 The art of war display: the Imperial War Museum’s
First World War galleries, 2014 101
JAMES WALLIS AND JAMES TAYLOR
8 Commemorative cartographies, citizen cartographers and
WW1 community engagement 115
KEITH D. LILLEY
9 Affective ecologies of the post- historical present in
the western front Dominion war memorials 135
JEREMY FOSTER
10 Local complications: anzac commemoration, education
and tourism at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance 156
SHANTI SUMARTOJO
11 ‘To leave a wooden poppy cross of our own’: fi rst World War
battlefi eld spaces in the era of post- living memory 173
CATRIONA PENNELL
12 Witnessing the First World War in Britain: new spaces of
remembrance 190
ROSS WILSON
13 Refl ecting on the Great War 1914–2019: how has it been
defi ned, how has it been commemorated, how should
it be remembered? 209
BRIAN S. OSBORNE
14 Afterword: the mobilization of memory 1917–2014 225
PAUL CORNISH
Index 237
Figures
4.1 Sheriff of Medina Preaching ‘The Holy War’ (Jihad) in Medina.
Before starting for Jerusalem (18 November 1914) 51
4.2 1916 map of Palestine 55
4.3 The terrible plague of locusts in Palestine, March- June 1915.
Trapping locusts 57
4.4 Kress von Kressenstein and Col. Gott at Huj, 1916 59
4.5 Bazaar held at Notre Dame de France in aid of the
Red Crescent Society, Jerusalem, 1917 60
4.6 Jerusalem Captured from the Turks (9 December 1917) with
insert of General Edmund Allenby 64
5.1 A zone in Marsaxlokk Bay with the changes made to the
littoral areas of Kalafrana and its seaplane base and the
construction of a fuel storage terminal with associated jetty.
The base was completely buried in the early 1980s with
the construction of a container terminal at the site 78
5.2 Sites of Grand Harbour works late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries 78
5.3 Maps of Rabat, Notabile (Mdina) and Mtarfa as at 1910 and 1923 79
8.1 ‘Casualty Map’ of Tynemouth Borough 125
8.2 ‘66 Men of Grandpont’ project, map of servicemen who fought
from locality 127
8.3 Extract from Lancaster ‘Streets of Mourning’ project 129
9.1 ‘Learning about who we are’; Vimy Ridge, 2014 139
9.2 Team building and catharsis; a group of Canadians cycles past
Vimy Ridge memorial 140
9.3 ‘Movement not for its own sake, but to draw visitors from afar’;
Villers- Brettoneux, 2014 144
9.4 Collective quasi- reverential enactment of the memorial;
Vimy Ridge, 2014 146
9.5 Disrupting relationships that occur according to linear temporality;
Delville Wood, 2014 147
viii Figures
9.6 The facts of history haunted by non- purposeful effects of
natural time; Thiepval, 2014 149
10.1 The view from the Shrine looking north to the centre of
Melbourne along the main city axis of Swanston Street 158
10.2 The front of the Shrine of Remembrance 159
10.3 The visitors’ entrance with its umbrella- like poppy sculpture 160
10.4 Rows of students in school uniforms look up at the Shrine on
Remembrance Day 2015 164
11.1 Members of the Royal British Legion pilgrimage to the
battlefi elds, attending the service at the Menin Gate, August 1928 177
11.2 Participating FWWCBTP student places a wooden cross at a
panel on the Menin Gate, March 2015 182
12.1 Cambridge War Memorial 196
12.2 ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’, Tower of London,
November 2014 203
Tables
5.1 The number of Maltese engaged directly in the war effort. 71
5.2 Selected details of overseas deployment. 72
5.3 List of hospitals and convalescent centres in Malta and Gozo with
selected histories and data. 75
5.4 Number of patients transferred to Malta from Mediterranean
theatres of war. 76