Seminar outline

• How far was there an upsurge in charitable giving and volunteering on the ‘home front’ during the First World War?

• How did cases of fraud affect the public’s trust in charity?

• What was the impact of the war on government-charity relations?

• What were the legacies of the First World War for the voluntary movement in Britain?

This session will explore voluntary action during the First World War, examining the thesis that it was a crucial stage in the development of the British ‘voluntary sector’. Recent work suggests that the First World War saw an unprecedented upsurge in charitable activity and helped re-shape the relationship between voluntary and state effort. We examine how the British public responded to wartime charitable appeals, consider problems of fraud and overlapping and the demand for regulation.