Book contents
- The British Home Front and the First World War
- The British Home Front and the First World War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables and Charts
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on the Illustrations
- Introduction
- 1 The United Kingdom in 1914
- Part I Government
- Part II Resources
- Part III People
- 13 Labour, the Labour Party and the Trade Unions
- 14 Nations in Arms Enlistment and Conscription
- 15 Charitable Work
- 16 Refugees
- 17 Prisoners of War and Internees
- Part IV Production
- Part V Social Impacts
- Conclusion
- Index
13 - Labour, the Labour Party and the Trade Unions
from Part III - People
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2023
- The British Home Front and the First World War
- The British Home Front and the First World War
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables and Charts
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- A Note on the Illustrations
- Introduction
- 1 The United Kingdom in 1914
- Part I Government
- Part II Resources
- Part III People
- 13 Labour, the Labour Party and the Trade Unions
- 14 Nations in Arms Enlistment and Conscription
- 15 Charitable Work
- 16 Refugees
- 17 Prisoners of War and Internees
- Part IV Production
- Part V Social Impacts
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
The great majority of English, Welsh and Scottish workers supported the war, as did a minority of Irish labour, not just in the Ulster counties. In a war of production, labour was in near unlimited demand both for the armed forces and for industrial and agricultural production. In Britain, perhaps a little under 40 per cent of the pre-war male workforce, 5,670,000 men, went into the Armed Forces in stages between 1914 and 1918.1 In Ireland some 210,000 men (just under 14 per cent) served in the British Army. The state soon had to determine priorities as to what could be imported and, to an increasing extent, where labour should be deployed.
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- The British Home Front and the First World War , pp. 261 - 279Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023