Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: Mules inferior to horses

Mrs Green is talking to the lady from the ‘big house’ and her young daughter. She doesn’t know the right words to describe how her son is employed in the Army. She understands that he isn’t doing anything ‘posh’ and uses this fact to try and answer the lady’s question.

The readers of Punch would have realised all this. They would not have laughed at the rustic simplicity of Mrs Green since the efforts of all combatants were appreciated. With minor exceptions they really were all in it together. That is a feeling that I can remember from World War Two. The bombs didn’t distinguish between rich and poor.

Mules were more useful than motor vehicles in the often muddy conditions of the Western Front. They did a lot of the heavy carrying behind the front line. Mrs Green’s son would be loading the mules, leading them on their journey and unloading them when they had reached their destination.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: An important innovation

The tank was first developed during World War One in order to make a breakthrough from the stalemate of trench warfare. Given enough armour this ship on the land was intended to withstand the bullets fired by the enemy. It was also intended to drive over obstacles. It failed to be the single weapon which won the war but it certainly helped. The Germans soon copied the idea and called their tanks ‘panzer’. During World War Two tanks were extensively used by all combatant nations.

The tank commander’s grubby uniform is due to the fact that these contraptions required frequent adjustments to the moving parts. Getting dirty was part of the job.

During the development stage back in Britain the word tank itself was used in order to keep its true purpose secret and the name has stuck.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: An idyllic scene at the allotments

This cartoon emphasises that all sorts of conditions were engaged in the act of growing their own vegetables. They have all been successful and are all equally delighted with their crops. I do wonder why they have all been growing the same crop – that of onions. Surely onions aren’t that significant when growing your own food. Might it be because they are the easiest to grow? I wouldn’t know.

Re: The Pages of Punch

Hi Mr M
Nice to bump into you after all this time. I hope you are keeping well.

Arena

Re: The Pages of Punch

Nice to hear from you. Welcome aboard.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: Facing the tribunal

The military presence in this scene alerts us to what is happening here. This typically academic man is seeking to avoid military service by volunteering to work on the land. The need to grow food is righty seen as extremely important. He clearly wouldn’t be any use to the army. The chairman is probably sympathetic and is trying to find a good reason for granting this request. This has not been forthcoming.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: Not what the General expected

The proud farm labourer doesn’t see why only military decoration may be worn on his uniform. The General would hardly be likely to agree.

I am somewhat puzzled by the title ‘GS Man’. I know what is meant by a General Service Officer. We had one of those as the Adjutant in the unit in which I served. I could easily see why no regiment or corps would want him! All the men being inspected are GS men and I wonder what makes them so special. This is one minor mystery that is not going to be solved.

Re: The Pages of Punch

Perhaps 'GS men' were soldiers who had not yet been assigned to a specific regiment or corps.

Re: The Pages of Punch

Hello JBR! You could be right. It doesn’t tie in with my experience of National Service. My corps affiliation was already decided before I reported to at my Basic Training depot. However I can’t be certain that this applied to everyone – particularly a generation earlier.

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1918: Repetitive Strain Injury

There was an urgent need for ever more munitions to feed the war machine. Factory owners became rich and were labelled war profiteers by the upper middle classes who read Punch. Their wealth had not increased at all. Factory workers who were prepared to work a lot of overtime also became richer than ever before. This also dismayed the readers of Punch who now saw a threat their ‘superior’ status.

The cartoon shows that a recent piano owner really thought that you played the instrument with just one finger! How ignorant was that. The world had gone topsy-turvy.

After the war things soon got back to ’normal’ for the workers but profiteers continued to be satirised in Punch during the 1920s and 30s.

Re: The Pages of Punch

1918: ‘War Work’ for the super wealthy

This super rich lady does not look like the stereotype of a profiteer’s consort. So it appears that this type of joke is aimed at a wider population.