World War I Trivia Quiz

Answer: Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The Archduke was born third in the line of succession to the throne of the Austro Hungarian Empire. However, the Emperor's son Prince Rudolph took his own life in a suicide pact with his mistress, and soon afterwards Franz Ferdinand's own father died and this left him as the heir to the throne.

However, it was not to be because Bosnian Serb Nationalists set up a plan to assassinate him. On the morning of June 28th 1914 he and his wife Sophie were on a visit to Sarajevo. A grenade was thrown into the car but it just rolled off, the couple continued and had a meal, but on the way back 18 year old Gavrilo Princip who had been with the Nationalist who threw the grenade shot them both point blank from a 1.5m distance.

Answer: No, they were not

At first journalists were allowed to report on the war but quite soon it was forbidden. The governments did not want their troops' loved ones to know how bad the conditions, were especially on the Western Front, and also it was considered things might be printed in the newspapers that could give the enemy useful information. If journalists were caught in the vicinity of the battle-fields they could be shot.

However, near to the end of the war the policy was reversed and they were permitted again.

Answer: A white feather

The White Feather Brigade was a British society started by Admiral Charles Fitzgerald. There were not enough recruits for the war and Admiral Fitzgerald decided that the best way to encourage men to enlist was to shame them into it. Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel (the leaders of the suffragette movement) suspended their efforts in order to win the vote for women, and used their influence to help to recruit women to the White Feather Brigade whose job it was to hand out white feathers to men who were not in military uniform.

The white feather had long been a symbol of cowardice. Unfortunately the feathers were given to many men who were in reserved occupations, home recovery from wounds or had other good reasons that prevented them being in the army.

Answer: John Singer Seargant

John Singer Sargent was sent late to the war by the British War Memorial Committee. Augustus John, John Nash, Henry Tonks, Eric Kennington, William Orpen, Paul Nash, and C. R. W. Nevinson, were already there and Sargent felt out of place amongst these younger men.

He found that painting a stirring war picture there was very difficult because of the nature of the fighting which kept the soldiers out of sight. Nevertheless he painted 'Gassed' which was one of the most iconic pictures of the period.

It depicted men who were blinded by gas hanging on to one another for guidance, and a tangle of dead bodies in the foreground. It hangs in the Imperial War Museum in London.

Answer: Harold Gillies

Harold Gillies was appalled at the injuries he saw. The wounds were ragged, unlike the straight cuts caused by more conventional weapons, and could sometimes tear a person's face right off. Doctor Gillies set up a centre at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup, Kent, England where he treated them as best as he could.

The atmosphere in his wards was very easy going. The men had a barrel of beer from which they could help themselves whenever they wished, and they were allowed to play cards and other games.

He believed that it was important to help the men with their state of mind as well as their appearance.

Answer: Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen was born in Oswestry in Shropshire in March 1893. At the outbreak of the war he was in France working as a teacher. He thought of joining the French army but did in fact join the British army. He was posted to a field hospital where he cared for badly wounded officers, often without any anaesthetic.

In 1916 he was invalided out due to shell shock, and whilst recovering in hospital he met the poet Siegfried Sassoon who became a close friend. In 1918 he returned to the front and was killed in the last week of the war. Wilfred Owen wrote some of the most powerful poems to come out of the war.

He did not hide the horror of it. Two of his best remembered poems are 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and 'Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria More'.

Answer: The White Cliffs of Dover

At the time of the war music was very popular. Music halls were cheap and the performers often used to invite the audiences to join in, so people were very used to singing together, and the troops would sing to keep their spirits up. At the beginning of the war there were a lot of songs encouraging young men to join up e.g. 'We Don't Want to Lose You But We Think You Ought to Go', but as time went on with no progress at all there was a movement towards songs about returning home, e.g. 'Keep the Home Fires Burning' and 'Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty'. 'The White Cliffs of Dover' was a hit for Vera Lynn during the Second World War.

Answer: Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

It was thought that whilst Britain was at war with Germany it was unsuitable for the royal family to have a German name. The name Saxe-Coburg and Gotha came from Prince Albert, who was Queen Victoria's beloved husband. King George V changed the name on 17th July 1917 to Windsor which had no German connotations.

The King sent a Christmas card to every serviceman, and his seventeen year old daughter placed an advertisement in the national press asking for donations towards providing a Christmas gift for everyone serving overseas.

The gift was a small brass box with the Princess's image on the lid. The box contained a combination of pipe tobacco, cigarettes, pencils and sweets. Each box also contained a picture of Princess Mary.

Answer: Little Willy

Tanks first appeared at the Battle of the Somme and they were British. They were specially adapted to cope with the local conditions. They travelled at a maximum speed of 3 m.p.h. and could accommodate three people. One grave disadvantage of the earliest tanks was that they were unable to cross trenches, and it was not until the war was nearly over that a tank was developed that could cross trenches.

Answer: The Treaty of Versailles

The Germans were not allowed to negotiate the terms of the peace treaty and were forced to take full responsibility for starting the war and pay for the damage which was calculated to be 6.6 billion pounds sterling in 1921. Their army was limited to 100,000 men and the navy had to be handed over to the allies, and they lost some of their lands to France and Belgium.

It has been suggested by many that the harshness of these terms, and the humiliation heaped upon the German people contributed to the rise of the Nazi regime and the Second World War.