Wooden truncheons and white feathers

Published: Fri, 08/07/20

I own a plain wooden truncheon which is over 100 years old. The weapon was issued to my maternal grandfather in 1915 when he was sworn in as a special constable. In 1915 my grandfather was in his early 20s and many of his friends joined up to fight in the great war. By 1917 conscription had been introduced and many of those who had not volunteered already were called up anyway. My grandfather had a rare medical condition which was not visible while he was wearing normal clothing, but made it impossible for him to serve in uniform. However, he still wanted to do his bit for King and county and so he volunteered to serve in his spare time as a ‘special’. I don’t think he had a uniform but he was issued with a warrant card and the aforementioned truncheon. I have no idea what my grandfather actually did during his time as a constable I never heard that he ever arrested anyone, but I expect he had some sense that he had made his
contribution to the war effort.

In 1915 a danger for a man of military age, but not in uniform, was of being harassed as an unpatriotic coward. There was even a formal way of shaming a man who was suspected of avoiding military service. At the start of the war in 1914 an Admiral Charles Fitzgerald, supported by an author by the name of Mrs Humphry Ward, founded the ‘Order of the White Feather’. The idea was that women would approach men who were not in uniform and present them with a white feather as a symbol of cowardice in the the hope of shaming the man into enlisting. A great many women took up the idea with enthusiasm and it became difficult for any man under fifty to be out in public without being accused of being a coward and having the accompanying symbol forced onto his person. There were many cases of men who had served with courage and distinction having feathers forced on them when they were home on leave or recovering from wounds received in
combat. One of the most absurd examples was when a certain Seaman George Sampson received a white feather while on his way to be the guest of honor at a reception. The occasion was to celebrate Sampson’s decoration with the Victoria Cross (the highest military award for gallantry) during his service at Gallipoli.

I don’t know if my grandfather ever had a white feather pushed on him. If it did happen, I know that he would not have discussed such a matter with his young grandson and he died when I was 16. Either way, the whole idea of using the white feather to brand a man a coward, when there is no knowledge of the actual circumstances, is pretty despicable. I would like to think that during WW1 most women did not take part in such an unpleasant and self-righteous activity. However, enough certainly did to cause a good deal of irritation and even distress. I am glad to say that I am not aware of any comparable activity during the WW2. On the other hand men between 18 and 41 were all subject to conscription from 1939 onwards so, perhaps it could be assumed that no one was voluntarily avoiding combat anyway.

It is easy to look back a hundred years and tut tut about how people behaved then. Sadly, nothing much changes where human nature is concerned. The great grand daughters of the girls who handed out white feathers in 1914 may well be the ones who were calling the police to report their neighbors for entertaining some friends in the garden. In the USA mask shaming is a big thing and a woman who makes the fuss may now be referred to as ‘Karen’.

My point? Even at a time when things seem to be strange and far from ‘normal’ the fundamentals of life are very consistent. Self righteous bullying by the bigoted and ignorant is nothing new. Kindness and good sense is fortunately a constant too. I can’t see clearly where our world is going now, just as those who were alive in 1914 could not be certain how the war would turn out. All we can know is that although challenging situations bring out the worst in some people, the same circumstances may bring out the best in others. Maybe it brings out a bit of both is most of us.

regards

Graham

PS The Order of the White Feather was a blatant exercise in mind manipulation which seemed to confer the right to self-righteously judge others on those who bought into the idea. If we are to become genuinely free and responsible human beings we must learn how to recognise such manipulation and still follow our own path or Orlog in life. Understanding how to take responsibility for our own minds is the theme of the Rune Retreat this year. Details at http://rr.stavcamp.org/