British Women of the Eastern Front : War, Writing and Experience in Serbia and Russia, 1914–20

This book explores the experiences and contributions of British women performing various kinds of active service across the Eastern Front in Serbia, Russia and Romania during the First World War. The book is roughly chronological, but also examines related themes such as gender, nationality and legacy. Upon the outbreak of the War in 1914, rejected by the British military, surprising numbers of British women went to work for the allied armies in the East. The book considers their experiences before and after the fall of Serbia in 1915. Other women were caught in Russia and remained there to offer service. Later, women’s Units moved further East from Serbia to work on the Romanian and Russian Fronts, only to be caught up in revolution. This book explores their many experiences and achievements, within an appropriate historical and cultural context and interprets their own words by examining the many and varied written records they left behind. Women such as Dr Elsie Inglis, Mabel St Clair Stobart, Flora Sandes and Florence Farmborough are studied alongside many others whose diaries, letters, memoirs and journalism help to shape the extraordinary role played by British women in the East and their subsequent legacy. This book explores the experiences of a range of women from the early days of 1914, through the big events of the war on the Eastern Front. Their diaries, letters, memoirs and journalism are used to investigate the extraordinary role played by British women during the fall of Serbia, the Russian Revolution and the final push, and their role in reconstruction following the Armistice. These women, and their writings, are examined through the multiple lenses of gender, nationality, patriotism, imperialism and legacy, but the book also tells the stories of individuals, and will appeal across audiences to students, researchers and general readers. This is the first book to examine the war in the East through the eyes of British women and as such makes an important contribution to First World War Studies. Front Matter Dedication Contents Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Maps Introduction: the road east Travel writers and romantics? Early days: the typhus colony and other stories Role call? The female body and gender identity on the Eastern Front Waiting for the Allies: prisoners of war Domestic survival strategies: the Serbian retreat, 1915 The road to revolution: Russia, 1916–17 The aftermath and the legacy Select bibliography Index This book explores the experiences and contributions of British women performing active service across the Eastern Front in Serbia, Russia and Romania during the First World War, focusing on representation of that experience though a range of written records. -- .