New perspectives on war memorialisation: North-East England, 1854-1910

Abstract

This study focuses on three clusters of conflicts — the Crimean War and Indian Rebellion in the 1850s, the ‘small wars’ of the 1880s, and the Boer War (1899-1902) — to determine how far reactions to different conflicts shaped their memorialisation. The research utilises the methodology of the historiographical debate on war memorialisation, concerned primarily with the First World War, and extends it to the relatively-neglected arena of nineteenth-century conflicts. Examining aspects of the memorialisation process such as organisation, form, function and narrative, it questions the motivations that underpinned these communal endeavours. By considering wars over a protracted timeframe, it can identify threads of continuity in the memorialisation process but also reveal a transformation in intent and purpose: from ill-defined, triumphal trophies of the Crimean War to apparently sombre monuments to ordinary soldiers after the Boer War, transmitting didactic narratives of the virtues of good citizenship in a more democratic society; including, if necessary, the ultimate sacrifice. The memorialisation process is placed within the historiographical framework of municipal political culture, assessing the influence of local socio-political tensions and the correlation between patriotism and civic pride. The thesis investigates the relations of power that determined how wars were represented and asks how far memorials can be considered a hegemonic device that transmitted the civic elite’s values and beliefs to an acquiescent community. This thesis makes important contributions to the historiographical debate on the memorialisation of war, gauging why civic war memorials were produced and what they reveal about changes in contemporaneous society.