Rich and powerful Devonians attempted to "police" patriotism during World War One because they were dismayed by an indifferent response to the European crisis by some in the county, research shows.
These 'provincial patriots' were alarmed by objections from some eligible Devonian men reluctant to serve in the Army and the low recruitment rates in the area.
But their efforts to restore the county's patriotic reputation and convince Devon's reluctant men to enlist achieved mixed success. This was partly due to the area's rural nature.
For King and Country: The Role of Patriotism in Mobilisation in the First World War, by Dr Richard Batten, describes the actions of these members of Devon's land-owning, political, social and economic elite, who also sought to regulate the wartime behaviour of the county's population.
Throughout the war years, the county's population criticised the efforts of Devon's local elite to mobilise them for war.
Individual priorities remained more powerful impulses than national priorities. Some in Devon were oblivious to the war and its importance. Many Devonians regarded the conflict as a distant phenomenon since they were further away from the war's proximity due to Devon's peripheral location within Britain.
Involvement in wartime organisations allowed Devon's notable figures to exert their influence on the Home Front in the county and reinforce their authority as the 'superintendents of patriotism'.
Dr Batten, an honorary research fellow at the University of Exeter, said: "The evidence from Devon reveals that the attempts of the county's local elite to superintend the nature of patriotism across the county achieved varying degrees of success.
"Many of the county's agriculturalists believed it was their patriotic duty to stay at home to produce food for the nation. Some people in Devon disagreed with the argument that 'patriotism was confined to the khaki suit.
"The evidence from the county during the war years questions the effectiveness of some languages used to encourage national mobilisation.
"When faced with prescriptions and interrogations from Devon's local elite and army recruiters, some Devonians vocalised their objection to what they regarded as the war's 'meddling' interference with their affairs. Many Devonians did not necessarily accept and adopt measures deemed necessary for the war effort since they opposed being ordered or 'dictated to' by local wartime committees."
Encouraging a volunteering ethos in Devon did not inspire some men in Devon to join the Army but did motivate many of the county's residents to support charities related to the war effort and present their patriotism through philanthropic endeavours.
Dr Batten used a wide variety of sources from Devon's archives, including the Devon Heritage Centre and Plymouth Archives, Plymouth Archives and The Box, alongside material from other archive repositories in the United Kingdom and local newspapers. He also analysed the private papers of the fourth Earl Fortescue, Devon's Lord Lieutenant during the Great War, and the letters of Stephen Reynolds, posthumously published in 1923, which contain remarkable and thought- provoking observations about the war years in Devon and chronicle his involvement with fisheries in the South West during the conflict.
