“Why Cant 2 Brothers”? World War I and Britain’s Deceased Brother’s Widow Act of 1921

2021 ◽  
pp. 036319902098832
Author(s):  
Nadja Durbach
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Sex Discrimination ◽  
Sexual Morality ◽  
British Government ◽  
World War ◽  
Family Model ◽  
Male Breadwinner ◽  
The Family ◽  
State Welfare

In 1921, Britain legalized marriage between a widow and her deceased husband’s brother. The Deceased Brother’s Widow Act was not, however, an addendum to the 1907 Deceased Wife’s Sister Act. It was passed in the aftermath of World War I to address administrative problems regarding war widows’ pensions. Its significance lies in its role as a microcosm of a range of postwar debates around sex discrimination, women’s access to state welfare, sexual morality, the family, and the declining birthrate, which provoked the British government to reinforce a family model predicated on a male breadwinner and his dependent wife and children.

Robert Allan Smith, 14 May 1909 - 16 May 1980

1982 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 479-504
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
High School ◽  
Public School ◽  
World War I ◽  
World War ◽  
Secondary Schooling ◽  
Strong Bond ◽  
Village School ◽  
Infant School ◽  
The Family

Robert Allan Smith, always known as Robin to his close associates, was born on 14 May 1909 in Kelso, Roxburghshire. Professionally, during Robin’s time first names were rarely used except between close friends. Surnames were in common usage except for Smiths, Joneses, etc., who had to be distinguished. Hence, he was often called ‘R.A.’. The combination of charm and determination, characteristic of a Borderer, was always present with Robin. He was the elder brother to (William) Allan, in the family of two, born to George J. T. Smith, tailor, a native of Kelso, and his wife, Elisabeth( née Allan), a ladies’ dressmaker and native of Eccles village, Kelso. The family ancestry was mainly in farming and business. His childhood was spent in the country in and around Kelso together with his primary and secondary schooling. On the outbreak of World War I, his father, who was a member of the Territorial Army, was called up, and his mother, Robin and Allan moved to Heeton Village near Kelso to stay with relations. A strong bond was formed between Robin and his uncle and aunts which endured throughout their life. Robin’s first school was therefore Heeton Village School where he spent a year before the family returned to Kelso. There after schooling continued at Kelso Infant School, Kelso Public School, and a Bursary to Kelso High School gave him the opportunity to go forward to higher education.

scholarly journals Sir John McMichael, 25 July 1904 - 3 March 1993

1995 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 282-296
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Medical Service ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
World War ◽  
Interest In Science ◽  
Indian Medical ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Village ◽  
Broad Interest ◽  
Good Manager

A quote that says much about John McMichael comes from his own autobiographical notes: ‘I come from a materially poor branch of a Galloway family’. He was born on 25 July 1904 in Gatehouse of Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, son of James and Margaret McMichael. There were two older sisters and two elder brothers, and he was something of an afterthought. His father ran a farm on the edge of the village and was also the local butcher. A ‘God-fearing, generous man’, he was not a good manager of his limited resources. Until he was ten years old John McMichael went to a school run under the patronage of the Lady of the Manor; but in 1914 this school was closed and he transferred to Girthon public school under its headmaster, William Learmonth, who was to have a major influence on the young McMichael. Learmonth’s son, eight years McMichael’s senior, became Sir James Learmonth, the well-known surgeon. Learmonth was an exceedingly capable teacher to find in a small village school and his pupils clearly felt the benefit. At the age of 14 there was a debate in the McMichael household about the next stage in John’s education. His mother, supported by Learmonth, decided he must continue and he moved to Kirkcudbright Academy, eight miles away, a hard and hilly bicycle ride. Here he blossomed, taking first place in most subjects, and ending up as Dux of the school. His decision to read medicine was influenced by two chance factors. He often spent his holidays with a fisherman on an island in the Fleet Bay where the solitary house was occupied by a doctor from the Indian Medical Service during his leaves. On wet days his medical books opened up exciting prospects in the schoolboy’s enquiring mind. During World War I a maternal cousin, Col. George Home, C.B.E., M.D., of the New Zealand Army Medical Corps, spent his leaves with the family and kindled a broad interest in science and medicine.

Racist Hysteria to Pragmatic Rapprochement? The German Debate about Rhenish ‘Occupation Children’, 1920–30

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
JULIA ROOS
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War I ◽  
Mixed Race ◽  
World War ◽  
Weimar Germany ◽  
The Family ◽  
Illegitimate Children ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Policy Discourses

AbstractThis essay revisits 1920s German debates over the illegitimate children of the Rhineland occupation to examine hitherto neglected fluctuations in the relationship between nationalism and racism in Weimar Germany. During the early 1920s, nationalist anxieties focused on the alleged racial ‘threats’ emanating from the mixed-race children of colonial French soldiers. After 1927, plans for the forced sterilisation and deportation of the mixed-race children were dropped; simultaneously, officials began to support German mothers’ paternity suits against French soldiers. This hitherto neglected shift in German attitudes towards the ‘Rhineland bastards’ sheds new light on the role of debates over gender and the family in the process of Franco–German rapprochement. It also enhances our understanding of the contradictory political potentials of popularised foreign policy discourses about women's and children's victimisation emerging from World War I.

Governments and Authorities in Exile

1942 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 568-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. E. Oppenheimer
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
British Government ◽  
World War ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Legal Problems ◽  
The Face ◽  
Foreign Governments ◽  
Special Circumstances

The governments-in-exile present new problems created by the special circumstances of this war. During World War I, belligerent occupation played an important rôle. Disregarding smaller incidents, the following occupations may be mentioned: that of Belgium and parts of France by German troops; parts of White Russia by Austro-Hungarian troops; of Serbia and Macedonia by German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian troops; of Rumania by German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian troops; of parts of Italy by Austro-Hungarian and German troops; of parts of Austria by Russian troops; of parts of Alsace-Lorraine by French troops; and of Palestine by British troops. As a result of the invasion of its territories the Belgian Government exercised its functions in Sainte-Adresse, France, and the Serbian Government in Corfu, Greece, but it is not known that the activity of these sovereignties-in-exile has raised any significant legal problems. Since 1940 an increasing number of governments have been forced to flee their homelands in the face of hostile armed forces and have been invited by the British Government to establish themselves in the United Kingdom. We have now a “Miniature Europe” in London. There are at present eight foreign governments in England: Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Yugoslavia.

scholarly journals William Valentine Mayneord, 14 February 1902 - 10 August 1988

1991 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 341-364 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Brain Tumour ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
The Other ◽  
Chess Player ◽  
Older Children ◽  
World War ◽  
Western Front ◽  
The Family ◽  
Foreign Correspondent

William Valentine Mayneord was born 14 February 1902, the last child of Walter and Elizabeth Mayneord, in Redditch, Worcestershire. Walter Mayneord, who worked first in a fishing-tackle factory in Redditch and later as agent for the Pearl Assurance Company, was clearly a man of many parts. As a youth he was an enthusiastic amateur runner, a very able chess player, playing for Worcestershire, and a well-known figure riding his bicycle aged over 80 and singing in the choir at 90, the year of his death. He was a devoted Gladstonian Liberal and a founder of the Liberal Club in Redditch. Walter and Elizabeth had two older children, Ewart and Gilbert. Ewart the eldest, though largely self-educated, had a great facility for languages and served as an interpreter on the Western Front in World War I. After the war he taught himself Russian and became foreign correspondent for a firm trading with Russia, which he visited on business. Unfortunately Ewart died from a brain tumour at about the age of 34. The other brother, Gilbert, was to some degree mentally deficient and worked as a labourer. But clearly, despite the meagre educational opportunities of the time, the Mayneord family had talent and ability: still earlier, grandfather William Mayneord had been a well-known local preacher. The family books also showed that they were surprisingly well read.

The Homosexual Scare and the Masculinization of German Politics before World War I

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 737-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Domeier
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sexual Morality ◽  
World War ◽  
German Politics ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Dreyfus Affair ◽  
Domestic Affairs ◽  
The Military

It may seem strange today to study aspects of the political sphere—from foreign policy to diplomacy and the military—in the context of sexuality. But the Belle Epoque (1871–1914) was an era of prestige politics, also with respect to the politics of sexuality. This article reveals how the Eulenburg Scandal of 1906 to 1909 used sexual morality as a way to explain and interpret the tensions that pervaded Germany's domestic affairs and international relations. The reliance on sexual mores as an explanation for large-scale political events was the result of an ever-intensifying chain of national and international complications—complications that later undermined Germany's sense of national honor. The Eulenburg Scandal is remembered today mainly as the first major homosexual scandal of the twentieth century, but contemporaries experienced it in a wider sense: it became Germany's counterpart to the Dreyfus Affair in France—two examples of political, social, and cultural conflict that threatened the foundations of their respective countries.

Dietrich Kücherman, 11 September 1911 - 23 February 1976

1980 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 304-326
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Maternal Lineage ◽  
World War ◽  
Western Front ◽  
German Army ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
The Family

Dietrich Küchemann was bom in Gottingen on 11 September 1911; he died, a naturalized British subject, on 23 February 1976. His family on his mother’s side had a history that could be traced back to the beginning of the 12th century, when the Archbishop of Bremen made over part of his estate, Stedingerland, giving rise to the family name of Steding, to those willing to drain and cultivate it, presenting him, in return, with one-tenth of their harvests. Later, many generations of Stedings became schoolteachers, or married schoolteachers, a tradition that was continued when Dietrich’s mother, Martha Egener, married Rudolf Küchemann in 1910. The maternal lineage also contained considerable musical talent and included accomplished organists and ’cellists. Indeed, from one of his ancestors, Johann Friedrich Steding, Dietrich inherited a clavichord built in 1791. As a schoolboy, he repaired the instrument, after having discovered that the strings had been removed by somebody who wished to make a zither with them. Proud of his success, he showed it many years later in England to a professional restorer, who declared the repairs to have been imperfect and undertook the work himself: only, in Dietrich’s words, ‘to make the instrument more difficult to play; His father, Rudolf, was a descendant of another line of schoolteachers. He was a forthright man, dedicated to teaching, outspoken in his radicalism: a characteristic that was to have a profound effect on Dietrich’s life. During World War I, Rudolf Kuchemann served as an infantry captain in the German army and took part in many engagements on the Western Front, including Verdun.

scholarly journals Derek Ainslie Jackson, 23 June 1906 - 20 February 1982

1983 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 268-296
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
National Museum ◽  
World War ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
Twin Brother ◽  
The Family ◽  
Family Finances ◽  
Parental Guidance ◽  
History Of

Derek Ainslie Jackson was born in Hampstead, London, on 23 June 1906. His father, Sir Charles James Jackson, F.S.A., was a barrister, also a landowner and art collector. He was well known as an authority on English silver and author of books on this subject: English goldsmiths and their marks (1905) and Illustrated history of the English plate (1911). His collection of silver is now at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. Derek and his twin brother Vivian greatly admired their father; although they were only 14 when he died, Derek’s life-long interest in art probably owed much to his father’s influence. The mother, Ada Elisabeth, daughter of Samuel Owen Williams, appears to have taken little part in the education of the twins; she died when they were only 18. The only other child was their sister Daphne who was 10 years older than the twins and had little contact with them; she died during World War I. The twins thus grew up almost like orphans, in conditions of material wealth and in surroundings of culture and select taste, but apparently with little parental guidance. After their father’s death a guardian was in charge of the family finances, and up to the age of 30 Derek and Vivian Jackson depended on him for the income from the trusts established by their father.

scholarly journals Percival Albert Sheppard, 12 May 1907 - 22 December 1977

1979 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 534-553 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
United Methodist ◽  
Sunday School ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Maternal Grandmother ◽  
World War ◽  
Home Life ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
The Family ◽  
Set Up

Percival Albert Sheppard, Peter to his family and all who knew him well, was a leading academic figure in world meteorology through the 1950s until his death. He was the only son of Albert Edward Sheppard of Box Hill, Wiltshire, who had left school at the age of 12, not of course being exceptional in that, and had become an ornamental and monumental mason. He was a sober-living and serious craftsman who in 1913 or thereabouts set up on his own account, although after initial successes was unable to overcome the difficulties arising in World War I. Accordingly in 1916 he took up munitions work and moved to Bath, seven miles away, so securing better housing and better educational opportunities for his children. Albert Edward had known unemployment and his material resources were limited but he and his wife found enrichment through their church. They were pillars of the United Methodist Chapel, he as superintendent of Sunday School, his wife as organist and choir master, and the family were aware of wider horizons. In Sheppard’s words: ‘Names like Ruskin, Carlyle, Emerson became familiar.’ Home life with two sisters seems to have been happy enough, and the family attachments endured through life, but up to the age of 10 Peter’s life at Box Hill had little excitement in modern terms: ‘An occasional visit to Bath (seven miles), perhaps including a Mary Pickford film, was a highlight.’ He remembered that once when about seven years old he had ‘been walked’ all the way to Bath and back by his maternal grandmother, ‘a great walker for her age’.

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