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HBC has developed a number of biographies of some of the important people involved in World War I. Our focus is of coure their childhood and clothing, but we also provide some basic information on their adult lives. In many cases, their childhood played an important role in the War.
Alec William Campbell was the son of a commercial traveller (salesman) and had a Scottish grandfather who had migrated to Australia. Alec was born in Launceston, Tasmania in 1899. He did his schooling at Scotch Oakburn College in Launceston from 1910-1915 where he was good at Aussie rules footy and cricket. He was
a boyish looking 16 year old child when he lied about his age to join the Australian Infantry in June 1915. His mother farewelled the boy soldier at the dock but his dad was too upset to go and see his soldier boy off to a probable early death. Mrs. Campbell had lost a nephew in the same war. Alec was trained up and left with the 15th Battalion for the dreaded Gallipoli campaign.
British statesman and author, considered by most historians to be the greatest of all primeministers for his role in warning about the dangers of Germany' military buildup in the 1930s, and after being ignored, leading the seemingly hopeless resistance to the NAZIs during the darkest days of World War II when Britain stood alone. While best known for his World War II role, he also played an important role in World War I as well, serving as First Lord of the Admiralty. He was born at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire and had a trurbulent childhood. He was born into one of the most illustrious families in England, a descendent of the Duke of Marlborough. His father was a brilliant parlimentarian who considered his son slow and a disappointment. His mother was the beautiful American hieris, loving but tied up in the social swirl of the time. He was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst, the Royal Military Academy.
Francis Joseph's nephew Francis Ferdinand was made heir to the
throne after the untimely death of Archduke Rudolf. I know little of
his childhood or how he was dressed as a boy. Historians have
written a great deal about Franz Ferdinand and very little of it has
been very positive. Franz Ferdinand has been referred to as a miser,
a bigot, and a spoiled child. He was shunned by the elite of Viennese
society. One observer called "the loneliest man in Vienna". Francis
Ferdinand appears to have lacked the two key elements for success
in political life--charm and elegance. His Family life, however,
appears to have been surprisingly better. His marriage to Countess
Sophia von Chotkowa und Wognin, Duchess of Hohenburg in 1900
was called one of the world's great love affairs. Unfortunately the Emperor considered the Duchess a commoner and tried to convince Franz Ferdinand he was marrying beneath his station. They went through with the marriage against the Emperor's wishes but had to renounce rights of rank and succession for their children. In the years to come, Sophie would not be allowed
to ride in the same car with her husband during affairs of state.
Of all the Hapsburgs, one of the longest ruling was Francis Joseph I (1830-1916). He also proved to be end of the reining monarchs. By uniting himself with the conservative absolutist foces, he preserved the monarchy for over a half century. In the end, however, his refusal to allow basic democratic reforms would eventually lead tonthe end of the monarchy a few years after his death in 1916. Francis Joseph may indeed be the most tragic figure in the twilight of European monarchies. While he reigned for 7 tumultuous decades, his life was filled with tragedy. His brother Maximilian was executed in Mexico. His son Rudolf, a man of liberal ideals who might have saved the monarchy, commited suiside in a torrid love affair. His beloved wife Sisi was stabbed by an anarchist. His heir Francis Ferdinand was assasinated. His Empire had alrady begun to crumble in World War I, even before his death. Francis Joseph's rule was both magnificent and at the same time pathetic. The Austrian monarchy was one of the most prestiogious in Europe. The Emperor himself was the most long-lived soverign. Yet he lived to see Austria reduced to a second rate power by Germany, his loved ones die in tragic circumstances, and his Empire begin to desintegrate.
George V was crowned only a couple years before the war began. He was a national symbol during the War, but had less to do with the conduct of the War than other European monarchs because of changes in the British political system during the 19th century. He was forced to change the family name from Saxe-Coburg to the less German-sounding Windor. Prince George wore sailor suits as a boy. His father helped establish the sailor suit as a boys' garment. His children pratically lived in sailor suits.
Prince Henry and his older brother Wilhelm were very close as boys. Henry left the nursery 2 years after his brother to join him in the schoolroom iverseen by their titir Georg Hinzpeter. Their father taught them to swim and sail. The boys sailed a boat together with an American friend. It was said that this was the birth of the Kriegsmarina. This is more important than it may seem. Many in England had for several centuries viewed Prussia and the other German states as allies against England's mortal enemy--France. English kings since George I had been Germans. George I did not even speak English when he came to England. A variety of factors explain the gradual shift of British thinking to view Prussia and Germany as a foe rather than an ally. Perhaps no single factor was more important than Wilhelm's decission to build the Kriegsmarina into a force that threatened the Royal Navy. Henry was to become a Grand Admiral in the new Krirgsmarina. He mairred Irene of Hesse and the Rhine (1866-1953).
Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg was the most famous German commander to emerge from World War I. Along with Ludendorff, he oversaw the brilliant German successes on the Eastern Front in 1914. The Russian offensive forced the Germans to transfer forces from the attavk on France. This saved Paris, but the victories at Tannenberg and the Pripet Marshes shattered whole Russian armies. It was the beginning of the demise of Tsarist Russia, although the Russians fought on until 1917. Hindenburg and Ludendorf oversaw the final German offensive tht failed in Spring 1918. He defeated Hitler in the Presidential election of 1932, but turned the country over to the NAZIs when he appointed Hitler Chancellor (1933). Hindenburg actually disliked Hitler, but did like the NAZI-promoted myth that the German Army was not defeated in 1918, but betrayed by politicians.
It is said of Herbert Hoover that no one in history saved the lives of more European children. Some Americans might have added during the 1930s that few people did less to save the lives of American children during the Depression. One week before Hoover celebrated his 40th birthday in London, Germany declared war on France (1914). The American Consul General in London asked Hoover to help get stranded tourists home. Hoover's committee in 6 weeks helped 120,000 Americans return to the United States. Then Hoover turned to a far more daunting task, how to feed Belgium, which had attacked France through neutral Belgium and overrun most of the country. When the United States entered the war, President Wilson appointed Hoover head of the Food Administration (1917). Hoover succeeded in cutting consumption of foods needed overseas and avoided rationing at home, yet kept the Allies fed. Europe had been devestated by the War. The desestation and the battlefield losses significantly affected agricultural production. After the Armistice, Hoover, a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the American Relief Administration, organized shipments of food for starving millions in central Europe. He extended aid to famine-stricken Soviet Russia (1921). When a critic inquired if he was not thus helping Bolshevism, Hoover retorted, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!" This was the greatest exercise in international relief in world history. Had it not been for American food aid after the War, millions mostly children would have starved throughout Europe.
Charles Francis Joseph, Charles I or Karl I (Charles IV of Hungary) (1887-1922), was another of Francis Joseph's nephews. Karl replaced Francis Joseph when the Emperor died in 1916. Even before his death, Francis Joseph had planned to confer the rights of co-regent on Charles. Karl I was the last of the Hapsburg rulers. Although he was the eldest son of the Archduke Otto (and nephew of Francis Ferdinand), he was little known in Europe until he married Princess Zita of Parma. Durng the War he commanded an Austrian Army on the Transylvanian front (Romania), but returned to Vienna to rule after Francis Joseph's death. Both Otto and Zita favored a negotiated end to the War. He favored the French claim, for example to Alsace-Loraine. Their efforts at diplomacy to end the War, however, only allienated their German allies and bear no real fruits.
Prince Louis was actually a German who because there was no real German navy at the time came to England to persue a naval career. He rose to First Sea Lord when World War I began. He eventually had to resign because of his German origins. Like George V, he had to change his family name from Battenburg to Mountbatten. His son Louis wore sailor suits a boy and made a name for himself as Lord Louis Mounbatten of Burma in World War II.
Tsar Nicholas II had perhaps the most difficult jobs in the world, ruling Russia. He was an absolute soverign in a Europe where liberal reforms had increasingly limited the perogatives of monarchs. He did no want a war with Germany, but saw no way of preventing it. While the Germans struck at France first, dreadful reverses in 1914 and 15 caused the Tsar to take command of the army. It was a mistake as the reslt was that he was personally blamed for the continuing losses. Like many European royals, he lost his crown in 1917-18, only he and his families were executed by the Bolshevicks. Nicholas wore sailor suits as a boy and his son Alexi is perhaps the most famous boy who ever wore sailor suits.
Francisque Poulbot is one of the most famous French illustrators, especially illustrators of children. Poulbot is particularly known for his drawings of Paris street urchins. Poulbot loved to draw these children as shameless, and often malicious jokesters. Most of Poulbot's work was published in the 1900s-30 s. He died in 1946. Given his many anti-German drawings, I'm unsure what happened to him during the German occupation. Many of Poulbot's drawings were sharply aimed at the Germans (le bosch) during World War I (1914-18). Poulbot's drawings illustrate well and highlight the clothes worn by children in the early 20th century. A French reader mentioned that he like Pierre Jobert uses humor in his drawings.
he Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia on June 28, 1914, their 14th wedding anniversary, by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. Gavrilo was a 19-year old teeager committed to the Young Bosnia Movement. As he was considered the least reliable, he was given a pistol rather than a bomb. The assasintion was to launch World War I. As Princip was a minor, he could not be executed under Austrian law and was instead sentenced to prison. He died a terrible death in prison, but the war he had helped launch though an act of terrorism had the desired effect. The great multi-ethnic empire empires were dismantled. Most were broken up into small states based on specific nationalities. As Pricipio had wanted, Serbia was expanded to include many Slavic populated areas of the Astro-Hungarian Empire and called Yugoslavia.
Many American presidents have served in the military or as president overseen wars. Most except for Polk have taken the country to war reluctantly. Few had any romantic notions about war. Theodore Rosevelt did have such notions and he wrote glowingly of war. After World War I broke out in Europe, Roosevelt became pasionate advovate for America entering the War on the Allied side. He called President Wilson a "coward" for keeping America neutral. When America finally entered the War, Roosevelt tried to enlist, but Wilson refused to let him participate in any official capacity. All his sons enlisted and served with destinction. Teddy Jr, Archibald, and Kermit were all wounded. Teddy Jr joined up again in World War II and died after leading the Utah Beach operation at Normandy. Quentin was a fighter pilot. Tragedy struck the Roosevelts as so many families, however, when Theodore and Ethel learned that Quentin,their youngest who the president called "dear little Quiliacans", had been shot down in France.
Wilhelm II is perhaps the best known of the German Kaisers and Kings of Prussia--and the greatest failure. This was not preordained. He was a handicapped child that through strength of character became a capable horesman and marksman. Kaiser Wilhelm's upbrining and family background equiped him ideally to play the kind of peace keeping role
played by his uncle Edward VII. However this role was not to his liking. He rejected the liberal leanings of his parents and instead the belicose leanings of the Prussian Junkers appealed to him. The result was to be disastorous for Germany, Europe and the Hohenzollern dynasty. While not the monster portrayed in British war-time propaganda, the bombastic, unstable Kaisser proved until Hitler to be one of the most disatrous rulers in German history. It was said ofWilhelm that he was a man who wanted to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral. Many historians trace his narcisistic personality to his hanndicap and childhood. It is not because of his parents, more than his predecessors, Wilhelm grew up in a loving family. Edward VII, a perceptive judge of character, said of his nephew, "the most brilliant failure in Europe". Certainly he became the most hated man in Europe, although today's historical judgement after Hitler and the Holacaust now sees Wilhelm as less sinister than he was viewed after World War I. In many ways, however, it was Wilhelm who made Hitler possible.
Like Theodore Roosevelt before him, Woodrow Wilson regarded
himself as the personal representative of the people. "No one but the
President," he said, "seems to be expected ... to look out for the general
interests of the country." He developed a program of progressive reform and
asserted international leadership in building a new world order. Wilson had seen the frightfulness of war as a young boy in the South during the Civil War and tried to keep America out of the War. Herman provocations, especially the reintroduction of "unrestricted submarine warfare" finally brought America into the War. Wilson in 1917 proclaimed American entrance into World War I a crusade to make the world "safe for democracy." Wilson was perceived in Europe as a savior, much to the distain of Allied leaders. Woodrow Wilson tried in vain to bring the United States into the League of Nations after the War.
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