Year 9 History

Outbreak of War
1. What were the long-term causes of WWI?
2. How did the assassination of an Archduke lead to WWI?
3. Why did Britain declare war on Germany in 1914?
Assessment: Causal explanation
4. Why did men volunteer for the army?
Trench Warfare
1. What were the major battles of WWI?
2. What were the key features of a WWI trench?
3. What weapons were used during WWI?
4. What illnesses and injuries did soldiers suffer from during WWI?
5. Was the Battle of the Somme a success or a failure?
Assessment: Source utility
Women and the War
1. How did women contribute to the war effort?
2. How did the war help women achieve the right to vote?
End of the War
1. What was the impact of WWI on medicine and technology?
2. What was the Treaty of Versailles?
1. Unscramble the sentences.
A. twenty of on day died first the soldiers
the thousand Somme
B. trench spread was by fever lice
C. helmets injuries reduce introduced to
1915 were in head
D. gas burns mustard chemical caused
E. their alongside battalions soldiers ‘Pals’
fought in friends
2. What can we learn from Mrs Hartley’s
account about the contribution women
made to the war effort?
Mrs Hartley’s account
‘I was working as a nurse in a hospital in
London. All the patients were suffering
from shell-shock, which meant they
couldn’t keep their hands or their
heads still. I had to hold them gently
behind their heads and feed them, and
I also used to write their love letters.’
Mrs Hartley’s account tells us that...
because she says...
It also tells us... because she says...
3. Read historian Penny Starns’ article
(opposite) to find out more about a typical
day in the life of a field nurse.
Glossary
Poultice: a paste made from herbs
which is spread on cloth and applied a
wound to help with soreness and
swelling.
Sluice room: a room within a hospital
where human waste is disposed of
safely to stop the spread of disease.
Field nurse (WWI): a nurse who cared
for soldiers on the Western Front, close
to the battlefields.
The nursing of sick and wounded soldiers
during the war was carried out by trained
and voluntary nurses – known as Voluntary
Aid Detachments (VADs). Trained nurses
had spent years training in a hospital, VADs
had received limited training.
What was a typical day
like for First World War
field nurses?
By historian Penny Starns
At St John’s hospital in Etaples, near the
frontline of the battle of the Somme, nurses
worked very long hours. Day duty began at
8am and finished at 8pm. When possible,
nurses were given three hours off, usually
between 2pm and 5pm. They were also
given one half day off per week. Night
nurses began their duty at 8pm and finished
at 8am. All shifts began and ended with
prayers.
Trained nurses administered prescribed
medicines, dressed wounds and recorded
patient observations. They supervised
patients’ meals, baths and prepared
treatments such as poultices.
VADs were expected to perform unskilled
tasks such as mopping and dusting, helping
to give out drinks and meals, making beds,
rolling bandages, sterilising equipment and
cleaning sluice rooms.
In the afternoon, patients who did not have
visitors often asked VADs to help them write
letters to their loved ones back home.
During their off duty periods, nurses would
go for long walks or cycle rides. Sometimes
they would travel by bus into Boulogne to
drink tea in one the cafes. There was an
area in the hospital where they could read,
sketch or play board games such as chess.
Once the Somme began, there was no
time for chess. Between 1st and 5th July 1916
St John’s admitted 1,400 soldiers. Every
nurse worked until the point of collapse,
skipping meals and rest periods.
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4. Use the article on page 1 to create a Edith Cavell
daily planner page for either A. a trained By historian Paula Kitching
nurse or B. a VAD.
One of the best known nurses
Date: of WWI is Edith Cavell.

Schedule: To do tomorrow:
7am Wake up

8am Shift begins

9am

10am

11am

12pm REFLECT
1pm My mood:
Cavell trained as a nurse in London at the
2pm
age of 30. In 1907 she moved to Brussels,
3pm
the capital city of Belgium, to train new
Things I am grateful for:
nurses.
4pm

5pm
When Germany invaded Belgium in 1914,
6pm Things to look forward to:
her hospital was converted into a Red Cross
7pm
Hospital for Belgian and German soldiers.
8pm Shift ends However, when Brussels was captured by
9pm Motivational quote:
the Germans, the hospital became a
10pm German military hospital. 60 English nurses
were sent home, but Cavell stayed.

Challenge: include a motivational quote Some British soldiers found themselves

which reflects the importance of the work
that women were doing, e.g. ‘What you do
makes a difference’.
5. BECAUSE, BUT, SO...
Use the quote below and your own
knowledge to complete the sentence.
Paula Kitching, historian
“Article after article has been written on
battles, the men who fought, the men
who died, and the men that made the
decisions. However, WWI took more
British women to the front lines than any
war before it. It’s important to learn
about the experiences of those
women.”
It is important to remember the contribution
that women made to WWI because... but...
so...
behind enemy lines and made their way to
the hospital. When they realised that Cavell
was British, they asked for her help. Cavell
became part of an underground network,
helping to smuggle Allied soldiers out of
German occupied Belgium.
In August 1915, a Belgian collaborator gave
Cavell and the network away for the
Germans. Cavell was arrested and
interrogated for 10 weeks. Eventually, she
was tricked into admitting everything. She
was sentenced to death by firing squad on
11th October 1915. The sentence was
carried out the next day.
It is estimated that Cavell helped 200 Allied
soldiers to escape. She believed that her
actions were part of her responsibility as a
nurse, as their lives would have otherwise
been in danger.

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1. Answer the questions. You do not need to
write in full sentences.

A. How did the assassination of Archduke

Ferdinand lead to WWI?

B. List three features of a WWI trench.

C. Describe one illness or injury soldiers

suffered from during WWI.

D. Was the Battle of the Somme a success SAFETY GOGGLES ON

or a failure? Explain why. Women were offered training in skilled tasks
like welding, draughtsmanship and aero-
E. Describe one way women contributed engine testing. During the war,
to the war effort on the Western Front. Loughborough Technical School trained
almost twice as many women as men.
IN PICTURES
WOMEN IN WORLD WAR ONE
While Britain’s male, fighting-age
population faced the enemy on the
Western Front, it was women who kept the
country’s wheels turning.

DISASTER STRIKES
Many factories did not implement the
correct health and safety measures,
leading to fatalities. The above explosion
took place at the National Shell Filling
Factory in Nottinghamshire, killing 139.

HARD AT WORK
Union flags fly over women busy making
bullets. Female munitions workers were
known as ‘munitionettes’, and they
produced most Britain’s weapons and
ammo. Munitions work was often better
paid than other types of employment, such
as domestic service. However, female
munition workers received less than half
their male counterparts’ wages.

‘I ALMOST DANCED DOWN QUEEN’S GET THE JOB DONE

ROAD AT THE PROSPECT OF THE DAY’S
WORK BEFORE ME’ – Joan Williams,
munitions worker
Women produce gas masks in the final
stages of the war, helping to protect
soldiers from deadly chemical weapons – a
shocking new tactic of World War One.

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LAND GIRLS
Workers of the Women’s Land Army work
the corn fields in Essex. The organisation was
created to replace the male agricultural
workers who had been called up to fight.
By the end of 1917, there were 250,000
British women working as farm labourers
helping to keep the nation fed.
‘WE WERE PARALYSED LIKE PEOPLE
GRIPPED BY DEATH, IN THE BEATING OF
THE FROZEN SLEET’ – Rose Macaulay,
‘spreading manure’, 1916
KEEPING AFLOAT
A female bus conductor (known during the
war as a ‘clippy’) is trained up for her new
role. Though 100,000 women joined the
transport industry, they were rarely allowed
to drive vehicles.
3. Write a five question quiz for your partner
about women’s roles during WWI. Try and
include either a multiple choice question or
a true or false question.
Example:
How many women worked on farms?
A. 500,000 B. 3,000 C. 250,000
LIGHTENING SPEED
Women postal workers in London sort the
mass of letters – up to 12 million per week –
going to the soldiers on the front lines.
2. To celebrate Women’s History Month, you
have been asked to write an article for
WILF’S WEEKLY about women’s roles in WWI.
You should include:
• The role of the munitionettes
• The role of the Women’s Land Army
• At least one example of other important
jobs that women did
• A quote
• Two pictures
• Challenge: An explanation of why the
work women did was so important.
Women’s History Month Special
THE WONDERFUL WOMEN OF WWI
To celebrate Women’s
History Month, I am going
to tell you about all of the
wonderful work women
did during WWI. Firstly,
they…
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1. Tell me something you learned in VICTORY AT LAST
history... By Diane Atkinson

A. Last lesson It was “the happiest day of my

B. Last month life,” remembers Evelyn Sharp, a
C. Last year leading suffragette and member of the
Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU).
2. Complete the sentences: “To live to see the triumph of a ‘lost’ cause
for which we have suffered so much and
I see... would have sacrificed everything.” Her joy
I think... came from the Representation of the
I wonder... People Act, which was passed in 1918,
giving all men over 21, and some women
over 30, the vote.

The act was the result of a long campaign

for women’s suffrage, but it was also a result
of the First World War. When war broke out,
suffrage campaigners, such as the WSPU
and the National Union of Women’s
Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), encouraged
women to support the war effort, pausing
their struggle for the vote.

As a result of the war, thousands of men lost

the right to vote, as the law said that any
man absent from his home was to be
disenfranchised. Plans were made to re-
enfranchise male voters and to extend the
vote to all men (40% of men did not have
the vote at this time). They government also
decided to reward women for their war
work by giving some of them the vote.

However, women could only vote if they

Glossary
Suffrage: the right to vote.
Suffragette: a woman who campaigned for
the right to vote.
Enfranchise: to give someone the right to
vote.
Representation of the People Act: a law
which gave all men over 21, and some
women over 30, the right to vote.
Parliament: a group of elected politicians
who make laws.
were homeowners, the wives of
homeowners, or university graduates.
Furthermore, they weren’t allowed to vote
until they were 30. The official reason for this
was that women were said to be immature.
The truth was that, if the vote was given to
women over 21, they would have
outnumbered male voters.
There were no public celebrations to mark
this historic moment, since Britain was still at
war. “When we got the vote it was sort of
an anti-climax,” said suffragette Mary
Phillips, who had served five months in
prison, during which she had been force-
fed. “It came in such a sneaky way. You
couldn’t celebrate.”

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On 14th December 1918, women went to
the polls for the first time in British history.
With so many soldiers still abroad, in many
parts of London female voters
outnumbered men 20 to 1.

BATHROOM OUTRAGE

Following the Representation of the People

Act, the NUWSS promised to campaign for
women to be able to vote at 21, so that
there would be real equality between men
and women. Their campaign led to the
passing of the Parliament Qualification of
Women Act, which allowed women to
become members of parliament.

In 1919, Nancy Astor became the first

female MP. The day after her victory, a
large crowd gathered at Paddington
station to catch sight of her as she got off
her train. One suffragette gave Astor a
badge which said: “It is the beginning of a
new era. I am glad I have suffered for this.”

However, not everyone approved of such

progress. Winston Churchill, an MP, was
appalled at Astor’s election: “I find a
woman in the House of Commons as
embarrassing as if she burst into my
bathroom” he declared.

DID YOU KNOW?

Women still account for fewer than one in
three MPs.