Civic veterans: the public culture of military associations in inter-war Glasgow

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines the public culture of military associations, and their veteran membership, in inter-war Glasgow. It follows their parades and beery reunions to consider the public meanings of such acts. That these claims to civic recognition were met by a congregation of civic elements allows us to view the inter-war creation of civic identity from a new and enlightening vantage point. But this culture also allows us to encompass the vitality, and distinctly urban character, of the memory of the Great War within inter-war society. Cities provided alternative channels for the veteran associational impulse to the British Legion, which has generally been seen as synonymous with the veterans’ movement in Britain. War memory, too, had a distinct urban form and character that needs to be acknowledged within wider literature. This is the story of the ‘civic veteran’ and the social and cultural contexts that made him.