Doyle, Peter. 2024. The Princess Mary's Christmas Gift, 1914: 110 years on. Exhibition Catalogue. [Exhibition Catalogue]

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Christmas 1914: The War at Sea and in the Trenches

Big gale blowing, with very large sea and squalls. I had a most pleasant middle (I don’t think!). Came down at 4 am to find my hammock sopping with water, a whole sea having come down the hatch.
Midshipman A. Scrimgeour, HMS Crescent, 10 November 1914

Front Line. It is thawing, with some rain; and the parapets are beginning to slide into the trench. Everything and everybody plastered with mud: mud on your hands and face, and down your neck and in your food, and bits of mud in your tea.
Pte D.H. Bell, London Rifle Brigade, 27 November 1914

The military backdrop to the development of Princess Mary’s Gift Fund was one of many challenges. As with all wars involving the British Empire, the Royal Navy, the ‘Senior Service’, was the ‘bulwark of the nation’ – protecting its island shores and those of the Imperial possessions overseas. The Royal Navy, the strongest in the world, was mobilised on 1 August 1914, and almost immediately it guaranteed the safety and security of the French coast facing the English Channel and North Sea. Under Admiral Sir john Jellicoe, the Grand Fleet was embodied, and was to carry out its duties from the high Seas to the inshore waters from almost the start; the first RN ship to founder was that of HMS Amphion, off Yarmouth, sunk by mines; the first German U-Boat to be sank by the British being U-15, which fell victim to HMS Birmingham on 9 August. What would follow were hard months at sea, and many challenges, not least the loss of HMS Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue in September, defeat at the Coronel in November, and the triumph of the destruction of Admiral von Spee’s squadron at the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914.

The Army under Sir John French had already endured the harsh retreat from Mons in August and had helped turn the tide that was flowing against the Allies, fighting alongside the French army at the Marne and on the Aisne. What followed was a desperate struggle to prevent the Germans from outflanking British Expeditionary Force in the ‘Race to the Sea’, and ultimately to the establishment of trench warfare that would hold almost to the end of the conflict. And one place in particular would become the epicentre of British endeavour: the Ypres Salient. Here, to the east of the city of Ypres, once a mediaeval jewel set in the clay plain of Flanders, the British and French fought the Germans over the possession of the low ridges that dominated that plain. To those who had helped defend it in that first great battle, Ypres itself was approaching a ruin:

As we drew near to the old walled and moated town we thought it had not been worth defending, for it was already in ruins, and it looked as if every house and building had been destroyed by shell or flame.

The war in 1914 was distinct from the other years that followed. Here was the death of open warfare, and the rise of the trench warfare during the grim winter that closed the year. On both sides the idea that this terrible war should interrupt the Christmas season was viewed with horror, and the idea that the war would, indeed, be over by then was touted. But it soon passed. Then there was the moment of hope that was the fabled ‘Christmas Truce’, a fleeting moment before the guns opened up once again. The naval campaign had been hard, with many losses; the cold dark waters of the North Sea and the North Atlantic were just as foreboding as the mud of Flanders for those men afloat in their steel-walled ships.

It is not hard to see, then why there was a general expression of love towards the men overseas in 1914, with the sharing of cheery greetings and gifts where they could. The Princess’s gift grew out of the same strength of feeling.

This Exhibition has been put together from private collections to remember both the 110th anniversary of Christmas in the trenches and on the high seas in 1914, and of the initiation and delivery of Princess Mary’s Christmas Gift for ‘every sailor afloat, every soldier at the Front’. The exhibition represents one of the most extensive ever mounted on the topic –including some rare survivors that have not been seen in public before. This catalogue serves as a unique record of this unique exhibition.

Item Type:	Exhibition Catalogue
Additional Information:	Held between 6–7 December 2024, at The Great War Huts in Hawsted, Suffolk to commemorate the 110th anniversary of Princess Mary’s Gift to ‘All Sailors afloat, all Soldiers at the Front’, and of Christmas 1914. This exhibition is a companion and extension to the book For Every Sailor Afloat, Every Soldier at the Front’ Princess Mary’s Christmas Gift, 1914 by Peter Doyle (Unicorn, London, 2021) available from www.unicornpublishing.org.
Related URLs:	https://www.greatwarhuts.org/event-detai...
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	History
Date:	November 2024
Event Location:	The Great War Huts, Hawstead, Bury St Edmunds, United Kingdom
Date range:	7-8 December 2024
Item ID:	37963
Date Deposited:	09 Dec 2024 13:26
Last Modified:	09 Dec 2024 14:54
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/37963

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