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Whether about missing a loved one back home or finding a new love overseas, there were plenty of songs written about love and romance during the First World War.
Sentimental or love songs helped to comfort people and gave them hope. Others helped to wound a broken heart after a breakup.
Some love songs might have been a soldier’s delight and welcome distraction but are misogynistic by today’s standards.
Image: Corporal Harry Ross Conlin and Jessie May McQuarrie married in April of 1916 before he departed for overseas service. This is believed to be their wedding photo. Harry survived the war but died from Spanish Influenza in 1918. MoD Collection, P-2614.
THINK ABOUT IT...
How did families and individuals stay in touch with loved ones serving overseas?
What gender roles or stereotypes are common in WWI-era love songs? How are women often portrayed?
Choose a song to explore...
Oh! Frenchy
(1918)
MoD Collection, MUS-1982
When We Wind Up The Watch on the Rhine
(1917)
MoD Collection, MUS-0425
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