After the war

Night time view of floodlit war memorial. Designed by Sir John Simpson and opened in October 1922 by Earl Beatty. It records the 2,597 men and 3 women from Brighton who died in the First World War.

Brighton and Hove in Pictures

The experience of World War One changed Britain profoundly.  Many had seen a different reality from the class structured existence of 1914, and wanted change.  This included rights for women, jobs and decent housing.

On this page and in The Shoreham Mutiny and A Home for Heroes memories of the local response to the end of War is explored.

You can download After the War and its accompanying pages by clicking here (PDF format).

Mr. Lucas, seeing that the business was dropping, thought that he'd like to expand by opening a corner shop in Baker Street selling gramophone records, with me as his assistant. I had to refuse his offer because I had married my soldier boyfriend towards the end of the War, and had continued working whilst he was serving in the army. But when he was eventually demobbed I had to give up my job after working for 5 years in the pawnbrokers.

Like many women who had worked through the War, once the hostilities were over, we were expected to return to the home as it was not considered right for wives to go out to work if there was a man in the house capable of providing for them and the family.
Lillie Morgan - At the Pawnbrokers

The war ended in 1918 and by that time my father had been discharged from the army and given a full pension of ten shillings (50p) a week. The landlord of The Marquess of Exeter decided to leave and return to Scotland, so my father was offered the tenancy again. We moved back into the pub and soon got back into the old routine.

When the 'Great War of all Wars' was over, life was never the same. The emancipation of women had started and those who served with the forces came back with many new ideas. They would come into the pub and smoke quite openly and exchange experiences with other ex-service personnel.
Marjory Batchelor - A Life Behind Bars

The husbands, Edgar and William, arrived home for good in 1918. They were very proud of all of their medals, William especially so as he had earned the Mons Star, which was a much coveted medal, and which Winifred still has among her most precious possessions.

Although there was much jubilation with street parties, and of course the families which were now complete again were very thankful, they were also very sad when they thought of so many of their comrades who had not returned.

Thus when the Cenotaph was built in London, the men were only too pleased to show their respect to the fallen by marching along Whitehall to place poppy wreaths on the Cenotaph and to observe the two minutes silence each following year on November 11th.
Ethel Howel - Little Ethel Smith

Further up the village is the War Memorial which stands in front of the church. Every Armistice Day we used to stand there for the service with our mother and father, Edith and William Whale. We were always accompanied by Mrs Gaston and her two sons, Harry and Arthur, as father went to the First World War with Mr Gaston who was killed and we kept this custom up for many years.

I can see all the men standing there with heads bared whatever the weather and the St Aubyns boys playing the last post. Brownies, Guides and Scouts, in fact anyone in uniform was there and I wonder if it is the same now as I am unable to get there and have to watch television, but my thoughts are always there with those ex-service men who stood together in their grief.
Margaret Ward - Memories of Rottingdean

.....ordinary people had to pick up the pieces: war widows, war spinsters and blighted lives; single parent families created by war, with the mother struggling to bring up children on an inadequate war pension. Families having to support a father or son unable to work, because many men came back blinded, lacking limbs, disfigured or ruined psychologically for the rest of their lives. Even the lucky ones came back suffering from "nerves". The war did not only change the lives of individuals, it changed attitudes and behaviour.
Blighty Brighton