Archives » the Great War

Life Class by Pat Barker 

Hamish Hamilton, 2007, 253 p

This is the first book of Barker’s trilogy about alumni of the Slade Art School in the run-up to the Great War. I read the second one, Toby’s Room, before I realised it had this predecessor.

This book is more concerned with Paul Tarrant than Barker’s other two main protagonists, Elinor Brooke and Kit Neville. Paul used a small inheritance form his aunt to enrol at the Slade but the tutor, Henry Tonks, finds his work insipid and Paul begins to doubt his own talent. The slightly older Kit Neville has already had some success as an artist though. Elinor meanwhile has enough trouble dealing with being a woman in a traditionally male enterprise without both the men being attracted to her. She is initially not interested and Paul temporarily takes up with Teresa Halliday, one of the life models, who is escaping from a violent husband.

It is not until the Great War breaks out though, and its scope widens, that the book gets fully into its stride. Barker is clearly comfortable with that war as her subject (as witness her Regeneration trilogy.) Kit and Paul, turned down for war service, sign up to be ambulance drivers with the Belgian Army but are initially used as medical orderlies in field hospitals. Barker’s immersion in the minutiae of the war stands her in good stead here.

In this latter part of the novel a lot of the communication between Paul and Elinor consists of reproductions of their letters to each other. In one of these Elinor notes that the women in her circle keep quiet when men talk about the war (although they’ve not been in it) and compares that to the Iliad, where the girls whom Agamemnon and Achilles quarrel over “say nothing, not a word,” adding, “I don’t suppose men ever hear that silence.” This is a thought Barker would develop in her later Women of Troy books.

Barker’s writing is smooth, almost imperceptible. Accomplished as always.

Pedant’s corner:- Elinor’s hair style is inconsistently described as cropped, bell shaped, or tied back with a ribbon. The knee wound Paul sustains in a bombardment is also seemingly forgotten at times in later passages.

Stirling War Memorial

Stirling‘s War Memorial is a stone obelisk on a hexagonal base located in a triangle at the junction of Albert Place and Corn Exchange Road.

From Corn Exchange Road:-

War Memorial, Stirling

War Memorial, Stirling

Close up:-

War Memorial, Stirling, Dedications

Dedications:-

War Memorial, Stirling, Dedications

Name plaques:-

Stirling War Memorial Name Plaques

Name Plaques, Stirling War Memorial 6

Unveiling infoprmation:-

Stirling War Memorial, Unveiled by Earl Haig

Stirling War Memorial Name Plaques

Plaque at 252 Memorial Hall, Markinch

The hall was built as a memorial to the employees of Tullis Russell & Company who died in the Great War.

An external plaque was unveiled there in November 2023 recording that fact:-

Memorial Plaque, 252 Hall, Markinch 1

I posted about the 252 Hall before, here.

 

Cowdenbeath Great War Memorial

The memorial, an obelisk embossed with a sword above a square plinth, was originally dedicated for the Great War, the dead of which it commemorated, and stands on a hill with a view down Cowdenbeath’s High Street. There is also a dedication to those who fell in the Second Word War but their names are on a separate memorial in the town.

Cowdenbeath Great War Memorial South Aspect. Names: Adams – Davidson:-

Cowdenbeath Great War Memorial South Aspect

East Aspect. Names: Ferguson – Lister:-

Cowdenbeath Great War Memorial East Aspect

North Aspect. Names: Lockhart – Scott. Cowdenbeath High Street behind:-

Cowdenbeath Great War Memorial North Aspect

West aspect. Names: Scott – Young:-

Cowdenbeath Great War Memorial West Aspect

A Great War 100th Anniversary Bench and Soldier lies at the end of Cowdenbeath High Street below the hill where the War memorial stands:-

Cowdenbeath Great War Anniversary Bench and Soldier

I featured Cowdenbeath’s Second World War memorial here but took this photo of it with added Great War soldier outline and Great War anniversary bench just after I photographed the above:-

Cowdenbeath World War 2 Memorial

Second World War Memorials, St John’s Kirk, Perth

Plaque dedicated to the men of St John’s Kirk:-

St John's Kirk, Perth, Second World War Memorial

Burma Star Association flag and plaque. The plaque bears the Kohima Epitaph:-

Burma Star Association Flag, St John's Kirk, Perth

Upper memorial for the Scottish Area Women’s Royal Army Corps and lower one for the Royal Army Service Corps in both wars:-

War Memorial Plaques, St John's Kirk, Perth

Parachute Regiment and British Special Airborne Forces Memorial:-

Parachute Regiment and British Special Airborne Forces Memorial, St John's Kirk, Perth

Tapestry Memorial to 51st Highland Division:-

War Memorial Tapestry, St John's Kirk, Perth

War Memorial, St John’s Kirk, Perth

War Memorial alcove, St John’s Kirk, Perth:-

War Memorial Window, St John's Kirk, Perth

Great War Memorial (to left above):-

Great War Memorial, St John's Kirk, Perth

Below the memorial are two Rolls of Honour. The first below takes in Perthshire and also covers World War 2 as may the second:-

Perthshire Roll of Honour, St John's Kirk, Perth

 

St John's Kirk, Perth, Roll of Honour

Great War Memorial to men connected with St John’s East Parish Church:-

Congregation War Memorial, St John's Kirk, Perth

Masonic Great War Memorial:-

Masonic Great War Memorial, St John's Kirk,Perth

War Memorial, Dumbarton Castle

The entrance to Dumbarton Castle is up a flight of stairs which has a left turn on the way up. On the wall facing you as you turn is this War Memorial dedicated to the officers and men of the 9th Battalion (Dunbartonshire,) Princess Louise’s Argyll and Sutherland Higlanders:-

War Memorial at Dumbarton Castle

 

 

Ashby de la Zouch War Memorial

An arch with a cross in the gap, lanterns to either side.

I have featured this memorial before but it was partly obscured by a street fair then. In September 2023 it wasn’t.

Ashby de la Zouch War Memorial

Great War Dedication and names:-

Great War Dedication and Names, War  Memorial, Ashby de la Zouch

World War 2 Dedication and names. Also on  pavement below the inscription, “220 miles to Ypres”:-

World war 2 Dedication and Names, Ashby de la Zouch War  Memorial 2

This time were able to get into the street behind the memorial where there was an assortment of wreaths:-

Behind War Memorial, Ashby de la Zouch

The plaque to the right above is a Victoria Cross commemoration. Lt Colonel Philip Bent, Leicestershire Regiment, 1/10/1917:-

VC Commemoration Plaque by Ashby de la Zouch War Memorial

Close up on tributes to left above:-

Tributes at Ashby de la Zouch War  Memorial 5

War Memorial Hall, Alcester

The previous three times we visited Alcester I had noticed this hall sited beyond the church but hadn’t looked at the plaque on its wall.

Alcester War Memorial Hall

War Memorial Hall, Alcester

It was purchased from the owner and rededicated as a War Memorial in 1919:-

Dedication Plaque, War Memorial Hall, Alcester

 

 

St Nicholas Church, Alcester

The Church can be seen in this post on Alcester I made in 2012. We visited the town again on our way back up from Bath. This time we went inside the church.

Chancel and Altar:-

Chancel and Altar, Church of St Nicholas, Alcester

Emrys-Jones Memorial stained glass window:-

Stained Glass Window, St Nicholas Church, Alcester

Information about the window:-

Emrys-Jones Memorial Window, St Nicholas Church, Alcester

War Memorial plaque to the men of Alcester and Oversley, erected 1951:-

War Memorial Plaque, Church of St Nicholas, Alcester

Individual memorial to Arthur Boobbyer Jephcott who fell at Pozières, 4/8/1916, aged 20:-

aChurch War Memorial Plaque

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