Ep.277 – The Friendly Invasion of Lewes in 1914

Jonathan Vernon, Digital Editor for The Western Front Association, talks about his research into Lewes during the opening months of the Great War.

Jonathan looks at how the town coped with the deployment of10,000 men of the 22nd Division to the area and how they were billeted in local homes, public buildings and farm buildings. The research for this podcast was part of Jonathan’s MA dissertation for his MA at the University of Wolverhampton (University of Birmingham - where he started his MA). The research focused on the men of the Cardiff Pals and the 9th East Lancs who enlisted in the first weeks of September 1914 and were identified for training at Seaford Camp on the Sussex Channel coast - the camp, initially of tents, not completed, the men found themselves billeted by the town and people of Lewes. In three parts, the dissertation considered the validity of 'enthusiasm' to describe how men enlisted, where the men came from (and who they were), and the experience they are the town had when 10,000 men were billeted for two weeks in a town with only a little over a population of 10,000 itself.

The dissertation is available in full : An Enthusiastic Response to War? British Social Responses to the outbreak of the First World War - The Friendly Invasion of Lewes, September 1914'