Collecting Conkers: World War I


Figure 1.--Here a modern boy displays the conkers he has collected in preparation for the upcoming season of conker fights. these are the same conkers British boys collected during World war I. Image courtesy of the William Fergusson collection.

When the Home Guard began drilling to meet an expected German invasion in World War II, some wag commented, "They'll be using connkers next." Conkers were actually marginally involved in World War I. World War I broke out to the surprise of most world leaders (August 1914). Unlike World War II, no one expected it to happen. Most thought it would be quickly over. It prived to be a long, bruising conflict killing many and requiring vast quantities of arms and munitions. The proellent used in artillery shells was almost entirely cordite which had other military uses as well. Cordite was made from various forms of nitrocellulose. Britain with its enormous cotton textile industry mostly used cotton waste which was mixed with nitrated glycerine. The manufacture of cordite required solvents, acetone and ether-alcohol. Acetone was produced by distilling wood. This proposed a problem for Britain which no longer had large forested areas. Instead corn was imported from Canada and America. When the U-boat campaign began to restrict imports, British scientists developed a process for using that British schoolboy staplke--the conker (horse chessnuts).

World War I

World War I broke out to the surprise of most world leaders (August 1914). Unlike World War II, no one expected it to happen. Most thought it would be quickly over. It prived to be a long, bruising conflict killing many and requiring vast quantities of arms and munitions. The War was an enormous industrial undertaking. One estimate suggests that the British military (Army and Royal Navy) fired nearly 0.25 billion artillery shells.

Cordite and Acetone

The proellent used in artillery shells was almost entirely cordite which had other military uses as well. Cordite was made from various forms of nitrocellulose. Britain with its enormous cotton textile industry mostly used cotton waste which was mixed with nitrated glycerine. The manufacture of cordite required solvents, acetone and ether-alcohol. Acetone was produced by distilling wood. This proposed a problem for Britain which no longer had large forested areas. Thus acetone was produced in timber producung countries like the United States and Canada. Britain imported most of its acetone. One modern plant was built in the Forest of Dean (1913). For the most part, however, when the War began (1914), Britain had only a small number of small, largely outdated acetone plants. There was as a result of the enormous increase in demand for war production a critical shortage of acetone. Stocks declined to critical levels. British scientists quickly develooed new industrial processes using potatoes and corn (maize). New plants were built using these processes. [Anonamous]

German U-boats

The Royal Navy provided an enormous advantage to the Allies (Brotain and France). The Allies could import raw mmaterials while Germany and the other Central Powers were effectively blockaded. Arms, munitions, and a vast array of raw materials were imported by the Allies. The corn needed for acetone production was mostly imported, again largely from America and Canada. German planners were convinced that they were near victory on the battylefield and that the unrestricted use of U-boats would forced Britain out of the War. The German decession to reintroduce unrestricted submarine warfare succeeded for a time in sinking a substanbtial number of cargo vessels. It also brought America into the War (April 1917).

Conkers: An Alternative

British scientists were working on possible substitutes for maize that were available domestically. One alternative proved to be the conker (horse chestnut). The Ministry of Munitions decided to use the Synthetic Products Company's King's Lynn which at the time was using potatos to produce butyl-alcohol and acetone. The Ministry of Munitions set out to set up the collection and transport process for the Fall 1917 harvest. The Ministry placed an ad in The Times (July 26, 1917): "chestnut seeds, not the green husks, are required by the Government for the Ministry of Munitions. The nuts will replace cereals which have been necessary for the production of an article of great importance in the prosecution of the War". The Ministry was a bit ambiguous, because they did not want the Germans to know about the shortages or the potential importance of conkers. [Anonamous]

School Children Mobilized

The collection process was to use school children who for years in Britain had collected conkers for the annual conker fighting season. The school children were set to work. Children all over Britain scoured their communities for conkers. Some schools even called off classes for a day and set the children to work picking up conkers. Some also picked up acorns for local pig farmers. A reader tells us, "I recall my gran telling me about this episode during World War I. She recalls collecting the conkers on the ground. The boys apparently were fearless. She remembers that boys would often climb the trees to get at the conkers." [Fergusson] Apparently in the process, children fell out of the trees they were climbing and quite a number were hurt. Some were even killed. I don't know if anyone compiled statistics on this.

Transport and Production Problems

While large numbers of conkers were dutifully collected by the children, transport complications meant that only small quantities were ever actually delivered. The school kids, however, had done their bit and there were huge piles of conkers piled up at train stations all over Britain which began to rot. The King's Lynn factory did begin productionn (April 1918), but continued only a few months. While acetone could be produced from conkers, the yield was relatively low compared to what could be achieved from corn. The conker collection campaign was not repeated in the Fall 1918. The Allies had largely defeated the U-boats in the North Atlantic through the use of convoys and corn was flowuing into Britain in large quantities. In addition by the time that school started again and the conker season arrived, the tide of battle on the Western Front had changed and an end to the War was in sight. [Anonamous]

Sources

Anonamous, "How did horse chestnuts help the war effort during the First World War?" IWM Collections. Website accessed September 15, 2004.

Fergusson, William. E-mail, September 15, 2004.

The Times July 26, 1917.






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Created: 6:13 PM 9/15/2004
Last updated: 6:13 PM 9/15/2004