Perception and reception: The status of British and French non-combatant men during the First World War

At the end of the centenary of the First World War, the invisibility of non-combatant, enlisted men continues to permeate popular understandings of the conflict. Though the academe has moved towards a greater understanding of the importance of non-combatant, militarised roles, only recently has the issue of non-combatant masculinity come to the fore. Were unarmed soldiers considered to be true soldiers? How did they fit into the ideal of martial masculinity that was, and continues to be, heavily based bearing arms?
The first part of this thesis examines popular understandings of martial masculinity during this period, using newspapers and fictional writings to unpack the cultural importance associated with bearing arms in the conflict. The second half turns to the writings of non-combatants themselves, analysing their own perceptions of their role in wartime, and how that did or did not mesh with their understandings of what a soldier should be.
Ultimately, this thesis argues that while perceptions of non-combatants were mixed in both France and Britain, in both armies the non-combatant, enlisted caregivers constructed a martial masculinity specific to themselves. They did so by emulating elements of both pre-war and wartime masculinity and by distancing themselves from qualities associated with those who were considered to have ‘shirked’ their wartime duties. In this way, this thesis offers a comparative study of wartime non-combatant masculinity.