Source: File: Still from film WWI, Prostitute Seduces Young Soldier. See original footage: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UbDLq3kxoU/> [Accessed 10 July 2016]
Source: File: WWI,
Prostitute Seduces Young Soldier, 1910s UK Archive Footage [online] : <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UbDLq3kxoU>
[Accessed: 10 July 2016]
Perhaps knowing how
a soldier might
Behave, having
been there himself,
Lord Kitchener
penned an order -
This was to be
put in every soldier's
Paybook,
regarding their new venture.
'In this new experience you may find
Temptations both in wine and women.
You must entirely resist both' -
Away from home in
another country,
Men faced pressures
and likely death.
Man's 'Duty cannot be done unless health
Is sound,' was the rule; 'treat
all women
In perfect courtesy avoiding intimacy' -
An account of one
Lieutenant R.Dixon
Stated, 'as
fighting soldiers we were fit.'
Men were, 'tough
with abundant energy' -
Dixon openly said
that purchased love
Was better than nothing
and it aptly
'Worked off
steam' - acting as a stress
Buster, sex helped
men to face dangers.
Warnings went unheeded
- younger men
Alongside
experienced men would likely
Be egged on - in
the midst of life, they
Wanted life - such
men were not monks;
To encounter
unrestrained French ways.
French brothels established
in the middle
Of a previous century
had been licensed -
In a twentieth
century war, the oldest
Of all trades
flourished; away from home
Men had excess
money for leisure pursuits.
With more than
the kings shilling rattling
In pockets, men
sought relief - knowing
What might come -
a bullet with their
Name on it, or
other cruel ending; young
Men’s principles
were not to die as virgins.
Though not
shouted about, this was a time
When sex
abstinence was 'unhealthy'
For a man - in
spite of army warnings,
Places existed
where all ranks could gain
Relief - but even
brothels had a class basis.
With messages
tucked in all pay books,
The officers and
other ranks quietly
Followed the
game's rules - a blue
Lamp in a window attracted
officers,
While red lights glowed
for other ranks.
Tommy's patiently waited
to polish their
Barrels - two
days prior battle of Loos
Saw formations of
a neat queue for
A brothel - young
corporal Chaney was
Told, as he looked
to file; 'its not for lads.'
These men’s
reasoning was how brothels
Were for those married
men who were
Missing their wives
- an unwritten law
Applied to married
soldiers, having all
Rights to visit prostitutes, over single men.
Yet such mass
surges before campaigns
Had consequences -
as brothel house
Visits spread venereal
disease - yet
Sent to a
hospital bed was away to avoid
Death; such treatments could last a month.
Any man who
concealed facts of the clap
Was by military
British law, a crime.
Though he could
not avoid some
Punishment with
costs of treatment
Subject to his
pay, by hospital stoppages.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. 1916. Venereal Diseases - Government Scheme. The Daily
Telegraph, [online] 10 July 1916.
P.10. Col.7. Available at:
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12211875/Daily-Telegraph-July-10-1916.html>[Accessed:
10 July 2016].
Source: File: WW1
brothels: Why troops ignored calls to resist 'temptation.' Available at: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-25762151>
[Accessed 10 July 2016]
Source: File: World
War I Centenary: The British Army’s fight against Venereal Disease in the ‘Heroic
Age of Prostitution.' Available at: <http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/body-and-mind/the-british-army’s-fight-against-venereal-disease-in-the-‘heroic-age-of-prostitution’/>
[Accessed 10 July 2016]
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 10 July 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1France
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