The Flowers of the Forest

Scotland and the First World War

Trevor Royle

• Publisher: Birlinn
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9780857901255
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Scottish History
• Index: History

The author of Culloden details the effects of World War I on Scotland. On the brink of the First World War, Scotland was regarded throughout the British Isles as "the workshop of the Empire." Not only were Clyde-built ships known the world over, Scotland produced half of Britain's total production of railway equipment, and the cotton and jute industries flourished in Paisley and Dundee. In addition, Scots were a hugely important source of manpower for the colonies. Yet after the war, Scotland became an industrial and financial backwater. Emigration increased as morale slumped in the face of economic stagnation and decline. The country had paid a disproportionately high price in casualties, a result of huge numbers of volunteers and the use of Scottish battalions as shock troops in the fighting on the Western Front and Gallipoli—young men whom the novelist Ian Hay called "the vanished generation." In this book, Trevor Royle provides the first full account of how the war changed Scotland irrevocably by exploring a wide range of themes: the overwhelming response to the call for volunteers; the performance of Scottish military formations in 1915 and 1916; the militarization of the Scottish homeland; the resistance to war in Glasgow and the west of Scotland; and the boom in the heavy industries and the strengthening of women's role in society following on from wartime employment. "Royle has done First World War History a great service." —Gary Sheffield, military historian "His exceptional talents at narration produce a work that is both through-provoking and engaging... A vivid, solidly-written book." — International Review of Scottish Studies

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Prologue: The Braes of Angus 1914
• 1. Your King and Country Need You: August 1914
• 2. The Flower of Scotland
• 3. First Blood: Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Loos 1915
• 4. End of Innocence: The Somme 1916, Arras 1917
• 5. Battles Far Away: Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, Salonika and Palestine
• 6. The Land, the Sea and the Clash of the Battle Fleets
• 7. The Workshop of War
• 8. Women’s Work
• 9. Red Clydeside and Opposing Armageddon
• 10. Haig: Architect of Victory 1918
• 11. A Bitter Hairst: The Reckoning
• 12. Aftermath
• Epilogue: The Last of the Old Scots Folk
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index