A great wave of fundraising ‘patriotic’ associations followed in the wake of Great Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 4 August 1914, at home but also right across the empire. The most successful public campaign of all was launched in London at the beginning of 1915. Known as the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla, the scheme aimed to attract contributions towards aircraft production costs from throughout the British Empire. Any country, locality, or community that provided sufficient funds for an entire ‘aeroplane’ could have it named after them. It was promised that when the machine crashed or was shot down, the name would be transferred to a new one of the same type. Margaret Hall examines the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla as a facet of imperial history. She analyzes the fundraising efforts in Canada and Newfoundland; the Zanzibar Protectorate; Fiji, Mauritius, and the Caribbean; Hong Kong; the Malay states and Straits Settlements; West Africa, especially Gold Coast; Southern Rhodesia; Basutoland; Swaziland and the Union of South Africa; the Indian empire and Burma; (British subjects in) independent Abyssinia and Siam; in the Shanghai International Settlement, and the British community of Argentina; Australia; and New Zealand. This remarkable and detailed book discusses the propaganda and counter-subversion usages of the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla—and what the support for the imperial war effort reveals about contemporary national and regional identities and aspirations.
| Delivery time | Delivery time 2-3 working days. |
| Number of Pages | 402 |
| Language | English |
| Type | Paperback |
| Publication date | 30.10.2017 |
| Format | 8,3 in x 5,8 in |
| ISBN | 978-3-8382-1021-6 |
| Weight | 542 g |
| Product safety information (EU GPSR) | read more |
The First World War produced social and cultural, diplomatic and financial repercussions far beyond the history of combat itself. Historians have become increasingly interested in these further dimensions of this Great War. Margaret Hall here reveals the remarkable story of the Imperial Aircraft Flotilla and the many other organisations, such as the League of Patriotic Britons Overseas, associated with it. Fundraising for the war effort and for the supply of the wholly new technology of fighting aircraft spanned almost the entire Anglophone globe, and beyond. Patriotic sentiments combined with the complex nature of the constituents of the British Empire ensured that money flowed in from the Dominions, Crown Colonies, Protectorates, and also those places where the British pulled the economic levers in territories of informal empire. The range of sources used by Hall is equally extensive and her capacity to understand an extraordinary range of imperial contexts, ethnicities and individuals is remarkable. The book adds a whole new facet to a full understanding of the British war effort. John M. MacKenzie, University of Lancaster.
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