Mumsnet users share the things they’re grateful to the First World War generation for with The Royal British Legion

[JustineBMumsnet]

NOW CLOSED

In light of the 100 year anniversary of the end of WW1, The Royal British Legion would like to hear about the ways you’re grateful for those who served, sacrificed and changed our world.

Do you have an appreciation for the incredible women who helped change women’s role in society, leading many more women to work in jobs outside the home? Are you grateful for the medical advances that were made out of necessity that benefit so many today, like plastic surgery and blood banks? Or perhaps you’re grateful for product innovation like the wristwatch, teabags or sanitary towels? Maybe you’d like to thank the children who took on extra responsibilities like helping MI5, even though it meant they grew up too fast?

If you’d like to find out more about the contributions made 100 years ago, please click here.

See what Mumsnet Co-Founder Justine Roberts is thankful for below:

If you have any family stories or photos that make you feel grateful for your ancestors of 100 years ago, please feel free to share these below.

All who post below will be entered into a Mumsnet prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

[UnderHerEye]

“For those who have fought for it freedom has a taste the protected will never know”

Nobody understands the horrors of war as much as the people who fight them.

I am humbled by the sacrifices made by every single person who died, or came home changed during WW1.

[NotCitrus]

My grandmother's three older brothers died in WWI. Its important to remember the scale of horror, but grateful? That would imply their deaths achieved something other than making my gran a traumatised and bitter woman.

If I'm grateful to anyone, it would be to those who set up the League of Nations, United Nations, European Community and all the other efforts to create and maintain peace in Europe.

[Loopytiles]

They went through it because the governments of the day decided to go to war.

Platitudes are unhelpful when it comes to history.

[NeverTwerkNaked]

I agree with others, grateful isn’t quite the right word if we are talking about the First World War.
I feel huge sympathy for the soldiers (many of them only boys) and their families and friends.
I feel grateful to everyone who shines a light the needlessness of the First World War. And to anyone who remembers and reflects on that before sending soldiers into war.

I am not a total pacifist. I accept there are times we might need to fight to protect our freedoms. But WW1 was not about that. and that makes the huge loss of lives all the more awful. A generation broken, and for what?

I’ll be remembering my relative who lived her whole life alone after the loss of her fiancé in world war 1.

[NeverTwerkNaked]

Why are we talking about sacrifices “for our freedom”?
The freedom of British people was never at risk between 1914-1918. Not at all. That’s not to sympathise with the soldiers, but let’s have some intellectual honesty here about what they were actually fighting for.

[NeverTwerkNaked]

“I am so grateful to the survivors of both wars who built a system meant to eliminate war from Europe.
And I weep at how all of them are now being betrayed. “

Totally agree with this.

[Loopytiles]

Am not pro Brexit, but strongly disleaving the EU is a “betrayal” of past efforts to avoid conflict.

The economic, political and legal system of the EU, developed over decades, goes way, way beyond peacekeeping/defence/ security and post WW2 endeavours.

[PawneeParksDept]

My Great Grandfather died at Ypres. I am glad the world still remembers him, he was happily married with 3 children and could have avoided the draft as he had a protected occupation but didn't think it was right to watch other men fight for his family.

[Powerless]

Freedom! The ability to be free to speak English, to have (& be proud of) British History and the freedom to raise children in a free country with stories of heroism.

We shall remember them

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

I ignored all the diatribes that I think are horribly misplaced on the thread user but I'm not ignoring your comment. You obviously missed the 'hope' in my post because you can't/won't read.

I'm really not interested in your 'thoughts'.

[cookiemonster66]

I am grateful that we now have the freedom to live our lives how we want when in many other countries today, people live in fear

[FaFoutis]

I admire the courage of that generation but there is a misuse of history in that OP. That their sacrifice changed our world for the better is a dangerous myth.
My great grandfather was gassed in the trenches and suffered all of his life, he often said that all we got out of WW1 was WW2.

[LanaorAna2]

I am grateful for the men who gave their lives so I can walk out of my front door into the park, alone, calm and free - and into a democracy.

I am grateful to men who died so England stayed the tolerant, gentle, lion-hearted place it is.

And their example tells us to fight to keep the world kind and peaceful, generations on.

[libra101]

We have so much to be grateful to both men and women during World War 1. Men valiantly fought the enemy, far too many losing their life, and women took over jobs which had previously been considered men's jobs.

Weapons were in short supply, and women began working in munitions factories. This led on to women being employed on the railways, as guards and ticket collectors, police and fire-fighters, also on the land. Women began to be taken more seriously, as it began to be realised that women's skills could be equal to men.

However, women's equality didn't reach as far as salary. They were being paid considerably less than men, and some of the earliest demands for equal pay for women began during WW1. At the end of this war, as men were returning from the war, female bus workers went on strike demanding similar wages to what the men were getting. The strike spread nationwide.

Although it took many years for women to gain recognition for their skills, the work they did during the war proved invaluable, and in turn led to today's legislation.

We have much to be thankful for.

[grannybiker]

We're grateful that the country rallied together to protect our society.
The men who made the ultimate sacrifice, the women who "Kept the home fires burning," by working in traditionally male roles and raising families in very difficult times. The children who grew up far too quickly.

[shiningstar2]

I am grateful to my grandad who went off to WW1 a simple working class young man who volunteered believing he was fighting for king and country. He came back a shell of the man who left for war, invalided out after being gassed. He was never the same again but married and had 4 children. My dad was the youngest, born in 1930. His father died when he was 3 so he never knew him. I have a photo of him in uniform obviously fit enough to be conscripted. He died as a result of gassing in 1934 having suffered terribly before his death His death certificate clearly states ww1 gassing as the cause of his death but because he wasn't actually killed in the war his widow, my grandma, wasn't entitled to a war widows pension. She was left to bring up all 4 of her children without help of any kind. A proud gentle lady who managed because she feared the kind of 'charity' available at that time.

Not having a father had a massive impact on my dad. He was a great provider for his own 3 children but had no idea of how to interact with us. He was a strict disciplinarian and we feared rather than loved him when he was alive. He did his best but not knowing a father of his own had no real idea of how to father us. God rest his soul. WW1 has cast a long shadow in our family.

[shiningstar2]

I haven't been clear. My grandad was gassed in 1916 and died in 1934 as a result of this.

[Didiusfalco]

My grandma was born in WWI. She’s still alive and over 100 years old. I’m grateful to all those who kept the home fires burning and allowed a little baby like my Gran to live the long life she has. She was an adult in WWII and the ground work had been laid for her to work in the Fire Service, rather than watch from the sidelines. I’m amazed when I think about what she has lived through.

[woman11017]

What was the point on this war?

[woman11017]

Wars are made by men for men, utterly irrelevant and destructive to our work as women.

[jasjas1973]

I remember the living, the dead don't care and the way we treat those returning from war is a national disgrace which we are all a part of.

The Politicians will lay their flowers in sombre remembrance and then do nothing for the PTSD suffers and the ex servicemen/women who are homeless, many of whom will commit suicide, so save your grateful hypocrisy.

[ShatnersBassoon]

I agree that gratitude doesn't sum up the feeling. Sadness, pity, distress for those who acted so selflessly on command.

[JC4PMPLZ]

Sometimes I think people think WW1 is WW2. Otherwise some of these comments make no sense at all.

[NeverTwerkNaked]

@JC4PMPLZ exactly.
“Gratitude” / “saving our society” /“fighting for our freedoms” would all make sense if talking about WW2 but not WW1. I thought schools taught this in history?

[woman11017]

Not one person is descended from anyone who hasn't had to be involved in some crumby war or another, anywhere in the world.

What is unusual is to have lived for 7 decades in a previously war torn area, in relative peace thanks in large part to those who have sought peace through the EU.

Until now.