'Where "Daddy" and Danger Were': The Portrayal of Children in War Illustrated, 1914-1916

This paper examines the representation of children in the popular British World War I publication, War Illustrated. Images of children occur within several contexts, linked to dominant contemporary propaganda discourses. These include concepts of national mobilisation within total war, qualities of sacrifice, endurance and patriotism, and the demonization of German tactics of ‘frightfulness’ (i.e. atrocities inflicted upon civilians). The magazine’s visual representations of children, in photographs and illustrations by war artists, mobilise them as resources in propaganda, to support the prosecution of the war through the propagation of patriotic principles and the vilification of the enemy. Images of women and children in Europe in reinforcing contemporary propaganda discourses (such as the pervasive ‘rape of Belgium’ narrative), but children in Britain become symbols of the ideals of family and country which British soldiers must defend. However, beyond their representation as victims of the war, children are also represented as participants in the conflict, in some cases assuming the status of combatants comparable to that of adults. This adaptation of children’s roles is matched and eventually overtaken in the magazine’s images by the transformation of the status of women, and their burgeoning contribution to the war effort as the conflict continues.