INTRODUCTION

The commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of the Great War has concentrated on the military aspects of the conflict. Given that over 750,000 British soldiers died during the course of the war, including 35,000 Welshmen, it is inevitable that this terrible legacy has been uppermost in our minds. This war dominated British society for a generation, and its lasting effect was to mobilise civil society in support of the armed forces in ‘total war’. But attitudes towards the war were not uniform throughout the country, and those who doubted the wisdom of going to war, and dissented from the rush