Introduction

Summary

Charles Cyril Ammons was eighteen years old when the First World War broke out in July 1914. A self-proclaimed intellectual with socialist and pacifist political leanings, he was, at first, unsure what to make of the war. On the one hand, Ammons had read Bernard Shaw’s sensational pamphlet, Common Sense About the War. Shaw’s pamphlet managed to convince him that the conflict was a struggle between capitalist and imperialist empires over market control. Germany, Ammons reasoned, had acted like other ‘Western Imperialists’ in the nineteenth century by forcing its way into the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The only difference in 1914 was that the Kaiser had arrived late to the party. For Britain to punish Germany was ‘hypocritical’, he thought. On the other hand, Ammons couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something different, something more mendacious and troublesome, about Germany’s behaviour on the world’s stage. As much as he wanted to believe that Shaw was right, that the working classes of Britain and its empire would only be serving the interests of industrial tycoons and high society if they enlisted, his position on the war slowly changed. After months of gloomy winter weather, continuing news stories about atrocities in Belgium, and a number of close friends joining the colours, Ammons decided to enlist in May 1915. After failed attempts to enlist in the Royal Naval Air Service, a field company in the 47th (2nd London) Division, and the Royal Engineers, he was finally accepted into the London Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance.