The National Army Museum, the Western Front Association, and the British Commission for Military History invite you to the next instalment of their successful collaboration, a virtual conference, on the subject of the British Empire and Dominions at war, 1914-1919.
The popular memory of the First World War in Britain is dominated by imagery of the Western Front, of trenches, of mud, and of British men struggling to advance over small patches of ground. But the First World War saw the British Army engaged across the world. More than that, it saw millions of men from across the Empire and Dominions fighting in the colours of the British Army. For them, fighting for Britain was about more than just where somebody had been born.
The European conflict quickly spread to the colonies and dominions of the European empires. The ever-widening war meant there was a need for more men and resources to fight it. In 1914 Britain had a fully professional army of three quarters of a million men, small by European standards. It soon became clear after the early battles of the war and the large number of casualties that it needed more men to continue – and win – the fight. So it turned to its Empire. Over the next four years, 8 million people were conscripted or recruited into the British armed forces; almost half came from outside the UK, from the plains and the mountains, from tiny islands and huge countries that made up the British Empire. They crossed continents and oceans to fight for Britain. They served on every front from the Equator to the Arctic Circle. And one in ten of them never made it home.
This conference draws attention to the contributions of these men and women. Some of these stories are well known. Others, less so. Without their service and sacrifice, Britain would have lost the war. Join us and hear from international experts as we place this experience in the wider context of Imperial Britain’s First World War.
Registration for the Conference is free. There are four panels and a concluding discussion between Gary Sheffield and Catriona Pennell. You register for each Panel separately at the link below:
The British Empire and Dominions at War, 1914-19 | National Army Museum (nam.ac.uk)
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Africa in World War I (1914 – 1918) - Brighton & Hove Black History (black-history.org.uk)
