Crewe in the Great War

War across the Channel soon generated a rapid increase in the cost of living with its accusations of blatant profiteering; a situation only remedied by regular wage rises. This conflict between organized labor and capital was perhaps more marked in Crewe then elsewhere in south Cheshire, a consequence of the many trades unions that were present in the town.
Obviously, the sacrifice of young men on land and sea was the major effect of war so biographical details of many the lads of Crewe who fell or were wounded in the minor or major battles in the different theaters of war are included. This loss of life is a continual somber background to all of the other issues raised by the Great War in Crewe such as the anti-German riots in October 1914 or the surprising fact, to many, that a woman could do a man's job in the railway works.
So, conscription, Zeppelin scares, food shortages, rationing, allotment gardens, blackout, welfare schemes, the Christmas truce of 1914, influenza epidemic, séances and the dead, and the division of opinion over a war memorial are just some of the issues which came before the people of Crewe during the troubled years of the Great War and which feature in this book.
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