The British Police and Home Food Production in the Great War: Police as Ploughmen, 1917-1918

My latest book The British Police and Home Food Production in the Great War: Police as Ploughmen, 1917-1918 is published by Palgrave Macmillan at https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-58743-6.

It contains chapters on:

The developing food crisis in the First World War. Why Britain experienced a food crisis and how it compared with other combatant nations.
Help for farmers; no stone left unturned to help them. How the British government nationalised farming and provided large amounts of help from a wide variety of groups, some of which were inexperienced in farming and of little help initially.
Horse and mechanical help for farmers. How manual ploughing with horses was the most widely used method, although steam ploughing was the most efficient. The introduction of petrol-driven tractors and the problems of the many types with their untested nature on different types of soil resulted in frequent breakdowns.
The importance of increased crop production to feed the nation. The diets of the majority of the population and why an increase in crop production was more important than rearing cattle on pastureland.
Policemen in England helped farmers from March 1917 to the end of the war. Giving the locations and numbers of policemen released.
Policemen in Scotland helped farmers from March 1917 to the end of the war. Giving the locations and numbers of policemen released.
Release of policemen in Birmingham and Glasgow: 2 case studies. These examples show the tensions surrounding the release of policemen into agriculture to feed the nation; and
The outcomes for Britain of the food shortages of 1917. Why it helped the police to release their men into a protected industry and the results of the food production campaign.

Locations where policemen were released into agriculture in 1917

The locations where policemen (and they were only men) were released into agriculture in March/April 1917 are shown in the Table below, along with their approximate numbers. Most were released from their police duties full-time for around 6 weeks, but some were allowed to help farmers part-time in the threatened disaster of food shortages in Spring 1917. Food shortages lasted until the end of the war, although rationing in early 1918 helped to equalize the supply of different types of food across the nation.

These locations and numbers can be checked out in copies of The Police Review and Parade Gossip or in local newspapers in the British Newspaper Archive for the period March to April 1917.

Police as Ploughmen in 1917-18, seminar 31st May 2023

I'm delighted to let you know that I've been invited to give a seminar at the Institute for Historical Research on Police as Ploughmen, a subject I've been studying for the last 3 years.

The seminar is on 31st May this year and you can find the link here https://www.history.ac.uk/events/police-ploughmen-191718-how-britains-policemen-helped-local-populations-temporary-release

Attendance is either in person or online and is free. Those wishing to attend will need to register on this IHR webpage.

You can see the seminar presentation here: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/Mgw3jIJvGgQ8B3_dlqzuiH_sN3V0u-8aqt5emM7zUGH1TSHYddR3emtevbwdPH6A.pn7UcGgz5k_lSOCq Passcode: +x%kw2aU

Police as Ploughmen in 1917/18: How Britain’s Policemen Helped Local Populations by Temporary Release into Agriculture

Event type: Seminar
Series: War, Society and Culture
Address: Hybrid | Online-via Zoom & IHR Pollard Seminar Room, N301, Third Floor, IHR, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Speakers: Mary Fraser (University of Glasgow)
Event dates: 31 May 2023, 5:30PM - 7:00PM
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Contact: ihr.events@sas.ac.uk
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Police History

It was a real pleasure to talk with the 50+ participants on the College of Policing, Strategic Demand Course at the Police College last Wednesday. It was the first time a section on police history had been included in this course. The course is for those working in the police service who have been identified as potential for promotion to senior roles, so a challenging group.

The picture shows (from left to right) Ruth Halkon from the Police Foundation, who Chaired our session; Paul Lawrence from the Open University; David Churchill from the University of Leeds; and me.

Writing police history: Replacement of British agricultural workers 1917-1918

Twitter: @drmaryfraser

Despite massive loss of manpower from agriculture in Britain from around 1850 with mass migration into the towns and cities during the industrial revolution, by 1914 agriculture was still the largest single employer. During the last 2 years of the First World War (1917-1918) this made farm workers a prime target to conscript into the army under the first Military Service Act, 1916 [5 & 6 GEO. 5. CH. 104] and subsequent Military Service Acts.

Agriculture became nationalised from the beginning of the Lloyd George Premiership (December 1916) and developed policies to replace fit men of military age (18-41 years of age until mid-1918) by men outside these ages and less physically fit, and women. But in industries with strong trade unions such as engineering and munitions which feared industrial conscription and strike breaking, they fiercely contested replacement, setting up barriers to the deployment of workers from outside the industry.

However, agriculture was largely non-unionized, so fell mainly outside these hostilities allowing government to impose massive supplies of manpower into agriculture, first from the Home Army, to increase home food production, seen by agricultural workers as government-assisted blacklegs. The lack of unionisation in agriculture weakened farm workers’ ability to bargain for wage rises in this traditionally low wage industry, until the establishment of the Agricultural Wages Board in 1918. Until after March 1918 unskilled farm workers mainly received lower wages than substitute soldiers, who had their rates of pay determined by the War Office. Additionally, at a time when very few men wanted to go to war, many replacements on farms were exempted from army service at the front, while agricultural workers were still being combed out into the army.

But farmers, who employed agricultural workers, received government-guaranteed prices for their produce to encourage increased production, so were the main financial beneficiaries of government controlled agriculture.

However, no reports of strike action by farm workers was found, so that government had little opposition to deploying replacements, many of whom provided an inferior service to farmers compared with their experienced workers.

But policemen, also released into agriculture from March 1917 were welcomed by farmers due to their dormant agricultural skills from previous employment and their knowledge of the local area. Their role as first responders in a national emergency continues today.

“Police as Ploughmen”: temporary release to help farmers in the food crisis of First World War Britain

My article

“Police as Ploughmen”: temporary release to help farmers in the food crisis of First World War Britain

has been accepted for publication in the journal Cultural and Social History published by Taylor and Francis.

As it's in open access format, you can read it at https://doi.org/10.1080/14780038.2021.1958443

Enjoy!