Old Comrades:
A study of the formation of ex-military communities in Tyne and Wear since the Great War

Abstract

Although veterans are a permanent feature of British society, how ex-service men and women have come to understand their identities as individuals has not received the attention from historians this subject deserves and requires. Tyne and Wear, traditionally said to be a productive recruiting ground for the Armed Forces, is no exception to this lack of research. The examination of oral memory in this thesis demonstrates an approach to understanding veterans’ identities in Tyne and Wear since 1914, analysing individuals’ interpretations of their experiences, their identity, and their perceptions of participation in communities and wider society. Using a collection of newly created and re-evaluated oral histories, this thesis challenges established notions of a single ‘veteran identity’. It argues that the relationship between the communities and identities formed by ex-service personnel since 1914 have been directly linked to the influence of military service in a more complex and heterogeneous manner than has been previously recognised by scholars.