{"id":13000,"date":"2022-04-06T14:01:25","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T12:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=205749"},"modified":"2022-04-06T14:21:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T12:21:13","slug":"how-ww1-soldiers-found-hope-in-nature","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/how-ww1-soldiers-found-hope-in-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"How WW1 soldiers found hope in nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Elinor Evans\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 06 April 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The remnants of a French orchard, devastated by war, are the focus of a poignant scene in the 2019 Hollywood film 1917<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0Its protagonists Tom Blake and Will Schofield pass through rows of cherry blossom trees, once vibrant with colour but now a marker of modern conflict. The setting embodies the film\u2019s narrative that the First World War was a futile event, a tragedy.<\/p>\n

Gazing at the trees, Schofield quietly observes, \u201cThey\u2019ve cut them all down,\u201d a metaphor for the soldiers slain during the conflict. But this scene also speaks to servicemen\u2019s emotional connections to war landscapes beyond the subject of death. The orchard prompts Blake to recall civilian memories, as he is reminded of the cherry blossoms in his mother\u2019s garden.<\/p>\n

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Some men tended to their own gardens despite the fact these could only ever be temporary endeavours. Pictured, a Highlander waters some flowers which he has planted outside his dug-out. (Image by Alamy)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

This moment reflects the real-life significance of the conflict\u2019s landscapes in shaping British soldiers\u2019 emotional experiences. Servicemen produced art and poetry inspired by nature on the war fronts, spent time collecting flowers and bird-watching, and compared home and conflict environments in their diary entries. Whether a distraction from military life or a source of comfort, the landscapes of the western front and beyond had a marked impact on the men who encountered them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lover of nature on active service has many opportunities of making acquaintance with the natural history of his surroundings during his sojourn abroad.\u201d This romantic sentiment may seem far from the popular imagery of the First World War, but its author, Private Jack Gunn, writing in his posthumously-published pamphlet A Bivouac Botanist<\/em>, was not alone in his thoughts. Other men who recorded their experiences \u2013 in documents now held by the Imperial War Museum<\/a> \u2013 discovered a similar satisfaction in observing war flora and fauna.<\/p>\n

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Memories of home<\/h3>\n

Second Lieutenant Denis Buxton wrote this sensory description of Gallipoli in 1915: \u201cThe scrub was deep and sweet scented, and the birds and flowers grand.\u201d Soucy, a French village in the Aisne, inspired Laurence Symington in September 1914: \u201cI am writing this on a little bridge across a little stream and the whole scene is peacefulness itself. Can\u2019t seem to realise it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just like Blake in 1917<\/em>, British soldiers found themselves linking military environments to domestic landscapes. One manifestation was the naming of western front sectors after recognisable landmarks. Reginald Bryan referenced a place called \u2018Hyde Park Corner\u2019, while JA Johnston\u2019s diary describes a large open space north-east of Albert on the western front, that was \u00a0christened \u2018Hampstead Heath\u2019, \u201cno doubt by some homesick Cockney\u201d. Bryan, a lance-corporal from Kingston, also compared a section of trenches in the Somme<\/a> to the Hampton Court Palace maze.<\/p>\n

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A French infantry soldier holds an eagle owl in the trenches on the western front, c1916. (Photo by adoc-photos\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Men also pondered the similarities between war and domestic landscapes. Gunn wrote that the Somme valley of summer 1915 bore \u201ca striking resemblance to the chalk Downs of Kent\u201d, with white roads \u201cwinding over undulating country, woods and cornfields, farmhouses and orchards\u201d, although he noted the setting diverged from England with its sun-soaked fig trees and walnut trees lining country roads.<\/p>\n

Private TS Williams, of a Liverpudlian Pals Battalion, also commented on the Somme landscape of 1915. Of his impressions of Buigny l\u2019Abb\u00e9 that November, he recalled: \u201cThe surrounding countryside might well be taken for a typical English scene. It is a rather flat, undulating landscape covered with a patch-work pattern of fields.\u201d<\/p>\n