White Feather

n August 1914, a few months after the start of the First World War, Admiral Charles Fitzgerald founded the Order of the White Feather with support from the prominent author Mary Ward. The organisation aimed to coerce men to enlist in the British Army by persuading women to present them with a white feather if they were not wearing a uniform. Many however see this act as hypocritical as women had no idea what life was like on the battlefields and were never asked to go and give up their lives for their country.

The campaign was very effective, and spread throughout several other nations in the British Commonwealth. So much so that it started to cause problems for the government when public servants came under pressure to enlist. This prompted the Home Secretary, Reginald McKenna, to issue employees in state industries with lapel badges reading 'King and Country' to indicate that they too were serving the war effort.

The white feather movement was the inspiration for the Weddings Parties Anything song Scorn of the Women, which concerns a man who is deemed medically unfit for service when he attempts to enlist, and is unjustly accused of cowardice.