Where would you look for news, reflections, debate or comment on World War I events as they unfolded? Contemporary magazines, newsletters and reports are a fruitful resource for researchers studying Quaker thought and activity during the war and its aftermath. This blog post aims to give an overview of periodicals held here relating to relief work of organisations like Friends Ambulance Unit or Friends Emergency & War Victims Relief Committee, as well as those from the peace and anti-conscription movement. We touch on general Quaker magazines of the period too: inevitably, wartime issues are a recurring theme.

Relief work periodicals

Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) produced four annual reports from 1914 to 1917 (Library reference:  Pers U/F7/AMB/1). In 1916 a monthly (later irregular) FAU magazine started up, featuring poetry and creative writing by members of the FAU. The Library has two incomplete sets, between them including the total 6 issues published until 1921 (Library reference: Pers/F7/AMB). After the end of the war, the Friends Ambulance Unit Association magazine ran for six issues between December 1919 and September 1921, aimed at keeping former members of the FAU in contact with one another (Library reference: Pers/F7/AMB).

Friends Ambulance Unit Association Magazine
(Library reference: Pers/F7/AMB)

Various FAU Sections Sanitaires Anglaises printed souvenir magazines, including artwork, verse and short stories, as well as some accounts of work in the field.

• The little grey book (for SSA 13) (Library reference: 066.44 LIT)
• A train errant (for SSA 16) (Library reference: 066.44 TRA)
• Lines of communication (for SSA 17) (Library reference: 066.44 LIN)
• Two years with the French Army…SSA 19 (for SSA 19) (Library reference: 066.44 FRI)

The Swallow: a monthly journal issued by members of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit, Uffculme Hospital, Birmingham (Library reference: Pers/F7/AMB) is unique as the only periodical specifically connected to a project in England. Uffculme Hospital helped fit replacement limbs for those injured in military action.

The Swallow: a monthly journal issued by members of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit, Uffculme Hospital, Birmingham, vol. 1, no. 3 (May 1917)
(Library reference: Pers/F7/AMB)

We hold the printed reports of the Friends Emergency Committee for the Assistance of Germans, Austrians & Hungarians in Distress for 1914-1919 (Library reference: Pers/EMER). In 1919 it merged with the Friends War Victims Relief Committee (FWVRC) to form the new Friends Emergency & War Victims Relief Committee (FEWVRC): the reports for these two committees cover the years 1914 to 1923 (Library reference Pers/F7/WAR).

Friends War Victims Relief Committee Report, no. 2 (February – October 1915)
(Library reference Pers/F7/WAR)

A number of short-lived newsletters and journals emanated from Quaker relief work in Europe, as follows (our copies are bound together; Library reference: Pers/B/AMI) –

• L’Ami, published by FWVRC Vol. 1, no. 1 (10^th month, 1915)
• L’Éclaireur de la mission, published by FWVRC at Châlons sur Marne, Vol. 1, nos. 1 and 2 (1917)
• L’Équipe, published by the American Friends Reconstruction Unit, nos. 1-4 (14 August – 4 September 1917)

These were succeeded by a new monthly journal, Reconstruction: journal of the Friends’ relief missions in Europe (April 1918 – May 1920) (Library reference: Pers/B/REC). This in turn was replaced by International service: bulletin of the Society of Friends’ relief missions in Europe, which ran for 35 issues between 1920 and 1923 (Library reference Pers/INT). Reconstruction and International service include field reports and photographs, reports from the London office, personnel movements, occasional obituaries of relief workers, such as Violet Tillard (International service, no. 18, March 1920), as well as art and poetry features. There are articles by prominent Friends such as Anna Ruth Fry, Edith Pye, Corder Catchpool, Carl Heath, Elizabeth Fox Howard and T. Edmund Harvey (the editor of Reconstruction).

Report on relief work in revolutionary Russia, in Reconstruction, vol. 1 no. 9 (December 1918)
(Library reference: Pers/B/REC)

Peace and conscientious objection periodicals

The No-Conscription Fellowship came into existence in the early months of the war, bringing together opponents of military conscription of all stripes. The Tribunal, its newspaper, was published in 182 issues from March 1916 to January 1920 (Library reference for facsimile reprint: Pers/TRIB; Library reference for original edition: SR 051.57. To help preserve the original, readers are expected to use the facsimile reprint whenever possible). We also hold The C.O.’s Hansard: a weekly reprint from the official parliamentary reports (Library reference: Pers/CENT). This too was published by the No-Conscription Fellowship, 1916-1919. As the title suggests, it covers parliamentary debates on issues relating to C.O.s, often focusing on particular cases of interest raised by sympathetic MPs. Other peace periodicals include reports and newsletters from newly formed pacifist organisations such as the Northern Friends Peace Board and the Fellowship of Reconciliation, as well as the National Peace Council (formed 1908). Details can be found on our online catalogue.

Other Quaker periodicals

The Ploughshare, published by the Socialist Quaker Society between 1912 and 1920, ran articles on militarism and conscientious objection during the period (Library reference: Pers/PLOUGH). It was co-edited by Hubert Peet (1886-1951), himself imprisoned as a conscientious objector: The Ploughshare includes coverage of his case. You can read more about The Ploughshare in an earlier blogpost.

Reports on censorship, imprisonment and debates on alternative service, in The Ploughshare (1916) p.226-227
(Library reference: Pers/PLOUGH)

War and the Social Order Committee Circular letter and news sheet, published 1917-1919, reflects Friends’ growing interest in social and political causes of conflict (Library reference: Pers L/WAR). At a local level, The Doncaster link, newsletter of Doncaster Quaker Meeting, includes accounts of relief work Yorkshire Friends were involved in, such as a hostel for German children, along with the work of FAU and FEWVRC (Library reference Pers L/LINK). General Quaker periodicals also carried occasional articles relevant to the war, including Friends quarterly examiner (shelved in the Library reading room) and Workers at home and abroad, the monthly magazine of the Friends Foreign Mission Association and the Home Mission & Extension Committee (Library reference: B/Q5/MON). The Friend, the weekly Quaker magazine (also shelved in the reading room), contains invaluable material for researchers, such as reports of Quaker relief work, regular reports and statistics on conscientious objectors, and correspondence on the war. Most of this material has been catalogued to article level, and can be searched on our growing online catalogue. You can also access The Friend 1914-18 Digital Archive online, as part of an annual or monthly subscription.