Abstract
Much of the history of Wales during the First World War discusses the fighting Welsh soldiers endured during the war years. There is also some fairly sparse information that discusses events on the home front. Historiography of the United Kingdom and World War I is dominated by England and the English battle and home front experience, with some attention paid to Scotland and Ireland. Yet, Wales has received little academic attention despite the Welsh having fought and helped on the home front in relative equality with their English counterparts. In examining Welsh soldiers battle experience against the Central Powers forces and the way women and children kept Wales going during the war years, this thesis argues that not only did the Welsh serve comparably to their English counterparts, but that the reason their role in the war has been largely forgotten in the subsequent decades was due to the predominance of the English narrative that sought to overwrite the nuanced war experience of the UK with a singularly English characterization. The memory of the Welsh war experience was, until the twenty-first century, subsumed into the dominant English account of the war, something which reflects the myriad of ways English colonization of Wales continued to be reflected even in the twentieth century. This suggests that much of their history is not widely known to a portion of the world when compared to the English narrative that is shown in various research and documentaries. While there is some of the Welsh history that is written and researched, it is not commonly known or understood in academic or in popular history.
Date of publication
Fall 12-16-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Language
english
Persistent identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/4905
Committee members
Dr. Mandy Link, Dr. Matthew Stith, Dr. Colin Snider
Degree
Masters in History
Recommended Citation
Hill, Remington J., "Wales in WW1: Soldiers, Home, and Memory" (2025). History Theses. Paper 18.
http://hdl.handle.net/10950/4905