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“A Man's Lot”: Marriage, Military Service, and the First World War
Author(s) -
Davis Cody
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
australian journal of politics and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-8497
pISSN - 0004-9522
DOI - 10.1111/ajph.12862
Subject(s) - military service , front (military) , military personnel , gender studies , identity (music) , service (business) , home front , service personnel , first world war , service member , military sociology , world war ii , political science , sociology , law , history , spanish civil war , military operations other than war , engineering , ancient history , economy , art , mechanical engineering , economics , aesthetics
The study of personal experiences of British and Australian soldiers during the First World War can be further developed through a discrete analysis of married men's interactions with wartime masculine ideals. This article seeks to provide a preliminary insight into such interactions through the case‐study of two officers serving on the Western Front in 1916 and the correspondence they wrote to their wives throughout their military service. British Lieutenant Max Shaw and Australian Lieutenant Cecil Mills both voluntarily enlisted and served in France in 1916. Once they departed their homes to commence training, they immediately began corresponding with their wives, which can be seen as attempts to mediate a clashing sense of domestic and military loyalties. As these men transitioned from a civilian to a military lifestyle, their lingering domestic identities and the importance of their marriage within their sense of manhood continued to influence their adoption of a military identity.