Some of the Great War’s deepest divides took place here in Nova Scotia, as mounting tensions fractured ties within communities.
Gerald Hallowell’s newest book, As British as the King: Lunenburg County During The First World War, explores life in Lunenburg County during the First World War. While the bloodiest battles were being fought overseas in the trenches of Europe, a cold war was also taking place in Lunenburg County.
Hallowell is a former member of the Canadian Historical Association and retired senior editor at the University of Toronto Press. His previous book, The August Gales: The Tragic Loss of Fishing Schooners in the North Atlantic, 1926 and 1927, won the Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing in 2014.
He says the Great War not only changed Europe, but it changed the fabric of society here in Nova Scotia. Nothing was ever the same after the war.
“I’ve always been interested in this time,” he said. “After I finished The August Gales, I decided to take the story back another 10 years. I didn’t realize how involved the people here were during the war.”
German community
Local tensions began to run high in August 1914, after Canada joined the war effort against Germany. Suddenly, the long-established German community in Lunenburg found itself caught in a war between a distant homeland and the country they now called home.
“There was a lot going on here,” he said. “Early in the war, people here thought they were safe, but then U-Boats started coming into our waters and sinking fishing boats. The German boats were not very developed, but they were good at submerging and then surfacing within firing distance. Eleven fishing schooners from Lunenburg and Mahone Bay were sank during the war.”
Hallowell added that an increasing fear of an attack from the sea caused many of Nova Scotia’s coastal communities to enforce nightly blackouts. Rumours of spies soon began to circulate and people began to question the loyalty of their German neighbours.
According to Hallowell, these accusations were countered with the claim that - like the British Royal family – these German roots were linked to the mid-18th century central Europe, and no longer closely tied to the people here. They were, then, as British as King George V.
Role of women
As more young men were being enlisted to fight overseas, the women increasingly stepped forward to take an active leadership role in society and the war effort. Women were mobilized in groups like the Red Cross, the Belgium Relief, the Women’s Christian Temperance, the I.O.D.E. and the W.C.T.U. Many went overseas to work as nurses.
Locally, Ada Powers, a teacher and social activist, along with Mary Chesley, an outspoken suffragist and peace advocate, rallied for the Lunenburg Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), proving that it wasn’t just urban women who joined the suffrage movement.
“People here were very active during the war,” he said. “There was a lot going on and women wanted to be part of the war effort.”
As the war dragged on, the list of casualties grew and more young men were facing increasing pressure to enlist. Conscription was introduced in Canada. Women were actively pressuring men to join the fight overseas, shaming the ones who couldn’t, or wouldn’t.
“There were food shortages. And a mounting pressure for men to enlist. A story in the Halifax Herald gave an account of a near riot in Lunenburg, as the fishermen argued their efforts here were needed as women couldn’t really replace them. Conscription was also hard on the farmers, as their sons were being sent overseas.”
As British as the King: Lunenburg County During the First World War is published through Nimbus Publishing. For more information visit Nimbus.ca