A MOTHER’S ANSWER TO “A COMMON SOLDIER”
To the Editor of The Morning Post
Sir_ As a mother of an only child – a son now in training and waiting for the
age limit to do his bit – may I be permitted to reply to Tommy Atkins, whose
letter appeared in your issue of the 9th inst.? Perhaps he will kindly convey to
his friends in the trenches, not what the Government thinks, not what the
Pacifists think, but what the mothers of the British race think of our fighting
men. It is a voice which demands to be heard, seeing that we play the most
important part in the history of the world, for it is we who “mother the men”
who have to uphold the honour and traditions not only of our Empire, but of the
whole civilised world.
To the man who pathetically calls himself a “common soldier”, may I say that
we women, who demand to be heard, will tolerate no such cry as “Peace! Peace!”
where there is no peace. The corn that will wave over land watered by the blood
of our brave lads shall testify to the future that their blood was not spilt in
vain. We need no marble monuments to remind us. We only need that force of
character behind all motives to see this monstrous world tragedy brought to a
victorious ending. The blood of the dead and the dying, the blood of the “common
soldier” from his “slight wounds” will not cry out to us in vain. They
have all done their share, and we, as women, will do ours without murmuring and
without complaint. Send the Pacifists to us and we shall very soon show them,
and show the world, that in our homes at least there shall be no “sitting at
home warm and cosy in the winter, cool and ‘comfy’ in the summer.” There
is only one temperature for the women of the British race, and that is white
heat. With those who disgrace their sacred trust of motherhood we have nothing
in common. Our ears are not deaf to the cry that is ever ascending from the
battlefield from men of flesh and blood whose indomitable courage is borne to
us, so to speak, on every blast of the wind. We women pass on the human
ammunition of ”only sons” to fill up the gaps, so that when the “common
soldier” looks back before going “over the top” he may see women of the
British race on his heels, reliable, dependent, uncomplaining.
The reinforcements of women are, therefore, behind the “common soldier.” We
gentle-nurtured, timid sex did not want the war. It is no pleasure to us to have
our homes made desolate and the apple of our eye taken away. We would sooner our
lovable, promising, rollicking boy stayed at school. We would have much
preferred to have gone on in a light-hearted way with our amusements and our
hobbies. But the bugle call came, and we have hung up the tennis racquet, we’ve
put his cap away, and we have glanced lovingly over his last report, which said
“Excellent” – we’ve wrapped them all in a Union Jack and locked them up,
to be taken out only after the war to be looked at. A “common soldier”,
perhaps, did not count on the women, but they have their part to play, and we
have risen to our responsibility. We are proud of our men, and they in turn have
to be proud of us. If the men fall, Tommy Atkins, the women won’t.
Tommy Atkins to the front
He has gone to bear the brunt.
Shall “stay-at-homes” do naught but snivel and but sigh?
No, While your eyes are filling
We are up, and doing, willing
To face the music with you – or to die!
Women are created for the purpose of giving life, and men to take it. Now we are
giving it in a double sense. It’s not likely we are going to fail Tommy. We
shall not flinch one iota, but when the war is over he must not grudge us, when
we hear the bugle call of “lights out”, a brief, very brief, space of time
to withdraw into our own secret chambers and share with Rachel the Silent the
lonely anguish of a bereft heart, and to look once more on the college cap,
before we emerge stronger women to carry on the glorious work our men’s
memories have handed down to us for now and all eternity, - Yours &c.,
A LITTLE MOTHER
August 14[1916]
Source: The Morning Post, August 14, 1916