Speaker: Julie Ann Godson:
Subject: Our Boys 1914 – 1918
Julie read history at the University of Oxford under Dr Rowena E Archer. She made so many good friends at Oxford that, after 25 years as a Kent girl, she moved in 2010 to rural West Oxfordshire and now lives in a converted piggery and loves it.
Julie is also a good friend to WLHS and has given us many talks over the years and it was a pleasure to welcome her here again.
Julie’s book “Our Boys 1914–1918: who were the fallen of one Oxfordshire valley? “ traces the often-surprising lives of 48 of the men and boys from Oxfordshire who fell in the First World War. From the workhouse boy who became an early submariner to the officer who proved to be not quite a gentleman, all of life is here.
A fine attendance of 50+ members and guests enjoyed Julie’s focus on the background of a few of these individuals, looking at their lives before the war rather than focussing on the business of battles and warfare.
We learned of individuals working with their families at various trades, practicing their crafts and toiling in fields and indeed signing up pre-war for army and navy adventures.
Remembrance of the First World War often brings to mind stone monuments, quiet churchyards, and endless rows of gravestones in distant fields.
Julie Ann’s talk told a different story of the lives of men in their familiar villages and farms, and encouraged a different way of remembering them. And she also showed reasons why names appeared on village monuments, of individuals not necessarily domiciled in that village. The reasons were intriguing.
Julie Ann’s book is available on Amazon here
