Raids, Rations and Rifles: new exhibition explores Islington during the First World War
Islington Museum is launching an exhibition to commemorate the centenary of the First World War, with a focus on Islington’s local experience.
From 1914 until 1918, many families in the Metropolitan Boroughs of Islington and Finsbury (now a part of Islington) lost loved ones on the battlefield. Almost one million people lost their lives from Britain and its allied territories and nearly 10,000 of these were linked in some way to Islington. Life on the home front was also a challenging and sometimes frightening experience.
Raids, Rations and Rifles focuses on Islington during and after the conflict. It remembers those who served on the front line and explores everyday life in the borough, as the First World War was brought unavoidably to people’s homes and lives.
The exhibition will feature unique WWI artefacts and never before seen objects contributed by local residents as well as talks, walks and events.
The centenary of the First World War is being commemorated nationally from 2014 to 2018.
Cllr Asima Shaikh, Executive Member for Economic Development and the council’s leader on history and heritage, said:
“It has been one hundred years since the end of the First World War but it is as important as ever to remember the struggle, and those that we lost.
“War is a scourge that consumes societies and inflicts harm on everyone it touches. From soldiers to civilians, people endured extraordinary hardships during WW1 and no one who lived through those dark times came through unscathed.
“Raids, Rations and Rifles is a brilliant exhibition from Islington Museum taking a localised, grassroots approach to history exploring the impacts of this massive conflict on local people – telling their stories, in their words and experiences. This is an inclusive telling of history that champions the incredible effort of those on the home front as well as the brave men and women who fought and died for their country.”
Cllr Gary Poole, Islington Council’s Armed Forces Champion, said:
“This poignant and moving exhibition is a tangible reminder of the impact of WWI on local people. In its own way it is a powerful memorial to the thousands of Islingtonians who were involved in the Great War. I commend the Islington Museums Team for yet another superb event in the programme to commemorate the 1914-1918 War and encourage local people to visit the exhibition as we begin this important period of Renembrance leading up to 11th November.”
Notes to editors
Exhibition details:
19 October 2018 – 15 January 2019
Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri and Sat: 10am - 5pm
Wed and Sun (and public holidays): closed
Admission: Free
Islington Museum 245 St John Street London EC1V 4NB
T: 020 7527 2837
E: islington.museum@islington.gov.uk
W: www.islington.gov.uk/heritage
@IslingtonMuseum @IslingtonLHC
Events
All events are free. Booking required at www.eventbrite.co.uk
Talk: 30 October (Tuesday). 6pm. Finsbury Library. Raids, Rations and Rifles: Islington during the First World War. Mark Aston.
Walk: 3 November (Saturday). 11am. Meet at Farringdon Station. Raids, Rations and Rifles: Finsbury during the First World War. Islington Guided Walks.
Talk: 15 November (Thursday). 6pm. Talk. Germany’s First World War air raids on London - Islington and Finsbury. Ian Castle. Islington Museum. Free
Walk: 17 November (Saturday). 11am. Meet at Farringdon Station. Raids, Rations and Rifles: Finsbury during the First World War. Islington Guided Walks.
Performance: 26 November (Monday). 6pm. Islington Museum. ‘Bravo! Islington: readings and songs from the First World War. Chris Millington and Company and Patricia Hammond and Matt Redman.
Some Islington related-First World War facts
- An enemy internment camp was established in Archway, Islington from 1915 until 1919. The camp at St John’s Road (now Way) was part of the former Islington Workhouse and housed up to 750 German and Austro-Hungarian nationals at any one time.
- Islington was attacked in the very first German air raid on London in the First World War. On the night of 31 May 1915, a lone Zeppelin dropped bombs on the Newington Green area of Islington, including Ball’s Pond Road, Mildmay Road and Southgate Road.
- Islington also suffered in The ‘Whitsun’ raid, which was the final attack on the capital, taking place on the night of 19/20 October 1918. It was the fifteenth night raid on London and the largest of the war. A total of 41 German aircraft took part in the attack, one of which flew over Islington dropping two bombs that caused seven deaths around the Essex Road area of the borough.
- Five Victoria Cross recipients born in Islington were awarded the medal ‘For Valour’ during the First World War, including Lieutenant RNR Frederick Parslow (1856 - 1915) who, at 59 years, was the oldest person to be awarded the VC during the conflict.
- A number of women from Islington died while on active service during the First World War, including Clara Shead and Ethel Parker. Clara lost her life at sea when her hospital ship was illegally torpedoed by a German U-boat and Ethel died during an air raid in northern France. Both were killed in 1918.
- Twelve men from Islington and Finsbury who lost their lives at the Battle of Jutland in 1915. The encounter was the largest naval battle of the First World War, involving 250 ships and around 100,000 men.
- A number of Arsenal’s players ‘joined-up’ to fight, including the club’s captain Percy Sands and reserve-team player John ‘Jack’ Butler. Sands joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving as a sergeant at the Western Front, while Butler served in France with the Royal Artillery. When the Football League resumed in 1919, Percy Sands left Arsenal and joined Southern League side Southend. Jack Butler made his first-team debut for Arsenal in November 1919, going on to play 267 games for ‘the Gunners’ until 1930. Some of their team-mates did not return home. John ‘Pat’ Flanagan played more than 100 games for Arsenal before the First World War. He served in the British Army but died on active service in East Africa in August 1917 aged 28 years.
- In 1914 an innocent-looking hairdresser’s shop at 402 Caledonian Road, near Pentonville Prison, was revealed as the improbable cover for a German spy network. Karl Gustav Ernest, a 42-year-old Hoxton-born hairdresser of German descent, acted covertly as unofficial postmaster for receiving and sending mail to and from Germany. Correspondence involved details of British naval movements in the North Atlantic and beyond. The operation was uncovered by British intelligence officers and discovery of Ernest’s activity in Caledonian Road helped uncover an entire German spy network. He was arrested, along with three others and charged with espionage under the Official Secrets Act (1911). Ernest was later sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment.
- Islington libraries played their part on the home front during the First World War, including North Library in Manor Gardens, Holloway. In April 1916, the War Office requisitioned the library to act as an annexe to the adjacent Great (later Royal) Northern Hospital, which was dealing with the mounting casualties from France and Belgium. The library was estimated to have the capacity for 80 hospital beds, with space in its rear garden for huts to house hospital orderlies. North Library stayed in military hands until November 1919, by which time 2045 men had received medical and surgical treatment within its walls. The building reopened for library use in 1921, having been paid compensation of £260 (approximately £30,000 in 2018) by the War Office as an ‘Act of Grace’.
Images
Islington-born Evelyn Hilda Hutchings, aged five years, dressed as ‘Victory’, 1918/19
Great Northern Hospital annexe at North Library, Manor Gardens. Last troops leaving the library in March1919
Private Percy O’Connor, member of the 21st (Service) Battalion (Islington) The Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment) or, unofficially ‘Islington’s Own’, c.1915. Percy survived the war and emigrated to Canada
Contact information
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