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Of the estimated 6 million men who were mobilised, around 700,000 to 750,000 military personnel from United Kingdom and Ireland died during World War I, including my own family members.
On top of our working class stock suffering incredible hardships, the British middle-class served prominently as junior officers, leading infantry charges "over the top". While the aristocracy and upper-middle classes dominated early leadership.
Meaning that what would have been a considerable number of our real middle class, who were in a more likely position to have gone on to be artists, musicians, poets, architects, land owners, politicians, doctors, and a great many other things were wiped out.
World War I acted as a massive catalyst for economic and social upheaval, profoundly affecting the middle class, particularly in Britain and Central Europe. While the war brought relative economic gains to some working-class populations through higher wages and full employment, it severely eroded the savings, status, and stability of middle-class families.
As well as losing those who died, punishing inflation, rising taxes, wartime death duties (inheritance taxes) and much else squeezed the remaining middle classes who were already suffering from the war.
There was also a devastating, disproportionate impact on the upper-class families of Britain and Europe, accelerating the decline of the aristocracy through heavy battlefield casualties, severe financial strain, and massive social change. Whatever your opinion is on the upper classes today, the fact is that we do not know what they'd have been like had the one's who perished lived.
It also has to be noted that in Germany, the financial impact was even more catastrophic.
This then happened again in WW2, decreasing each class system and therefore, the Britain that would have been.
People often reflect on the major losses that both wars incurred, but I'm not so sure people stop to think about all of the things that never happened, and the people who were never born as a result of each war.
Of course, this also deeply effects many other nations, but I'm simply using Britain and Ireland as an example.
The vast majority of those to perish were our beloved working class who made up the bulk of Britain and Ireland's effort and bravery. Their reward, was to be thrown back into hell only a few years later during WW2.
It's bad enough that each of them did not get to live their lives, but it's also a harrowing thought to consider the many legacies that went with them. Their ancestors had survived until now, only for a meat grinder to thwart all of their efforts at once.
When you observe the Britain and Ireland of today, consider the fact that it would look, be, and feel very different if the world wars of the 20th century had not taken place.
What a waste.
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