Description:Poster depicting the destruction wrought by the German naval bombardment of Scarborough on December 16, 1914.
Home held a powerful symbolism during World War 1. Men went to the Front to fight in defence of hearth, home and family and this was the message carried by many recruitment posters. On the home front German zeppelin raids over British cities were seen as a war against women and children. Taking a family photograph with father in uniform before he departed for the front became a ritual of memory. Post cards were popular as a quick and easy means of communication. Very young children might have only the vaguest recollection of a father who would not return for years, if at all. The scale of the casualties left around 350,000 children across the UK without a father. Other fathers returned, but were wounded or scarred by psychological conditions such as shell shock. Across Europe parents grieved for sons they had lost.