Soldiers and home leave.

At the onset of The Great War, both sides expected to win a short war. On this basis, there were no thoughts or plans to provide "Tommy" with leave to return home. When it became clear that war would be protracted, short periods of leave were allowed within the locality. Later, home leave was granted as it was beneficial for soldiers' morale.

At first, periods of leave were uncommon and depended on the course of military operations. From July 1915, the French were granted leave periods lasting between three to ten days, two to three times a year although German soldiers were required to serve a year before a home leave entitlement of two weeks was granted.

Differences arose over leave entitlement between officers and other ranks. The British Army allowed other ranks to take leave every fifteen months whereas officers were granted leave every three months.

During the autumn of 1916, the French Press and Parliament lobbied for French soldiers to be allowed three periods of annual leave. In 1917/18, leave became longer to maintain French troop loyalty as leave had been a prominent issue raised by the 1917 mutineers.

Home leave allowed the Tommy to visit their family at home however, difficulties in obtaining pre-planned periods of leave were frequently mentioned in Bertie's letters. Military matters always took precedence over leave, often resulting in the last-minute cancellation of leave entitlement.

Back at home, many soldiers developed a mistrust of civilians, whom they considered trivial. Some even felt uncomfortable in civilian society resulting in frequent episodes of indiscipline, a common way for soldiers to deal with their uncomfortable emotions.

The picture above shows soldiers changing their money back into sterling on return home (courtesy of The Daily Mail WW1 photo archive). The photograph below shows a British "Tommy" returning home on leave (courtesy of The Imperial War Museum).