In May 1916, a second Military Service Act extended conscription to married men. Inspired by this, on 31st May 1916, Somerville’s Parliament considered a bill to conscript women, so that more men could be released to the armed forces and women more efficiently organised to replace them. It was proposed that women between the ages of 18 and 38 should be… Read More »May 1916: Somerville’s Parliament Debates Conscription for Women
By June 1916, almost two years of wartime had altered the relationship between the women’s colleges and the University more profoundly than the years of pre-war lobbying and gentle persuasion. ‘A Mess of Pottage’, the Going Down Play performed that June in the quad at St Mary Hall, was based upon the university’s war-time poverty and the consequent advantages of giving… Read More »June 1916: Fees and degrees; advances for women at Oxford
In July 1916, Helen Waters, a former English student at Somerville, joined the Almeric Paget Massage Corps (APMC), having undergone training in ‘Massage and Medical Electricity’. The APMC was one of the many voluntary schemes, established at the outbreak of hostilities, which went on to be recognised officially and eventually incorporated into the country’s response to the national emergency. 1916… Read More »July 1916: Emerging Medical Therapies: the Almeric Paget Massage Corps
“At the beginning of August 1916 I found myself deposited at No. 3 General Service Hospital, which was in Somerville College, Oxford. To be lying in a little white-walled room, looking through the open window on to a College lawn, was for the first few days very much like Paradise.” Siegfried Sassoon, Siegfried’s Journey (1945). In August 1916 Siegfried Sassoon… Read More »August 1916: Siegfried Sassoon at the 3rd Southern General
Unique among Somervillians who volunteered to help the war effort was Muriel Reynolds, who had come up to read modern languages in 1901. She spent the early part of the war in Bristol, teaching Belgian refugees and working for the Red Cross but she also lived in Okehampton and is the only Somervillian on record as having been a herb… Read More »September 1916: Medical Advances and Traditional Remedies
“Another year finds us still scattered, and Somerville’s hospital work still as urgently needed. We at present occupy Micklem Hall, Sheldonian House, three houses in King Edward Street, and one in Oriel Street, besides St Mary Hall. Our numbers, however, have not diminished at all: this Term there are 107 students in residence.” The Fritillary, December 1916 October 1916 saw the… Read More »October 1916: Settling in for the Duration
Somerville’s Parliament, in its debates, endeavoured to examine the issues under consideration by the national Parliament, although limited to just two meetings per term and with far fewer members in attendance. The meeting held in November 1916 produced a fierce debate on ‘a measure for the introduction of Universal Suffrage in Great Britain’. The choice of subject was no doubt inspired by the… Read More »November 1916: Somerville’s Parliament debates Universal Suffrage
By December 1916, the war had been underway for almost two and a half years. The cost to the countries involved was unprecedented, both in terms of the casualties and losses sustained and in terms of the money needed to finance the participants’ military machines. Despite its huge wealth, with gold reserves and the resources of the Empire to call… Read More »December 1916: Saving for the Nation
By January 1917, the war was taking its toll on the home front. Shortages of food, fuel and staff were resulting in higher costs, at a time when money was also in short supply. Morale was low and for Vera Brittain, stationed at this time in Malta, letters received from home depicted a country struggling but determined to carry on.… Read More »January 1917: Bed-making and Tea Parties; the students economise
Throughout the Great War, the number of Somerville students officially pursuing war work remained comparatively small. However, these were students, such as Vera Brittain, who had taken a leave of absence, most intending to return after a term, a year or at the end of hostilities. Still more students chose to leave college entirely, unable to continue their studies when… Read More »February 1917: Conflict and Continuity: war work for University women