John Cawthorn: My Interest in The Great War
In the following post John Cawthorn talks about his interest in The Great War and why he chose to deposit his collection of WWI materials with the University of St Andrews Library
The genesis of The Russell Cawthorn Collection occurred many years ago when I was suffering from a bout of (real, not man!) influenza, and someone gave me a copy of Martin Middlebrook’s book on “The First Day on the Somme”, as I was known to be mildly interested in military matters.
I found the story of that horrifying day so compelling that I started buying other books on World War One. This developing interest was driven in part by the fact that I had two uncles who, I discovered, had both served in the War as stretcher bearers on the Western Front, and who, remarkably, had survived to tell the tale. Although like many of the survivors of the War, they were reticent in doing so.
I started off with a few books, but as I bought them, and read them, my interest started growing stronger, until I reached the point where the interest in the War was obviously a proper hobby. But matters didn’t stop there. I kept on buying books, and the pattern of buying gradually changed from pretty random to the following of a reasonably structured strategy. At some point the hobby morphed into something of an obsession, which has stayed with me for many years.
For as long as the number of books in the collection was no more than two or three hundred, I could persuade myself that this was a personal collection which could be kept at home. But as I progressed, it became clear that this was no longer a tenable prospect. A home had to be found for the books.
I have lived in England for many years, but I was born and educated in Scotland. Once the decision was made that I could not continue to house the collection at home, but that the book buying would be continuing, the search for a new home began. And the home had to be in Scotland. After some false starts, I decided that I would very much like to see if a Scottish University might be interested in housing the collection. One evening I brought up the St. Andrews University Library website on my screen. I had no connection at all with St. Andrews and knew very little about either the University or the town. But lo and behold, there facing me was an invitation for anyone with a collection of books who might wish to donate them to contact the Library. So I did. And within 48 hours, I had an email from the Head of the School of History expressing enthusiasm for the project.
A number of meetings were held with both academics and Library staff, and this all culminated in my setting up a charitable foundation which took possession of the existing, and also any future, books. That foundation deposited everything with the University on a permanent loan basis. By this time the collection had become The Russell Cawthorn Collection, the “Russell” part of the name being my personal homage to my Rector at Kelso High School who was the person who inculcated in me the love of books I retain to this day.
The collecting continues; it is one of my great joys in life. The thrill of the chase comes from finding a rare early book. I spend a lot of time in second hand bookshops. The number of volumes in the Collection is now somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000, but the collecting is very structured, and I benefit greatly from learned and enthusiastic input from interested academics. If you look at the library catalogue you will see the huge number of categories into which the Collection is divided. However, although selective purchasing goes on all the time, I do put in quite a lot of effort into covering two particular areas. First, the period of the war which I believe to be the most interesting is the German Spring Offensives starting with Operation Michael in March 1918, continuing but at ever decreasing intensity and effectiveness through the summer months until we come to 8th August “the black day of the German Army”, according to Ludendorff, when the B.E.F. broke the spirit of the Germans and started the Hundred Days which ended with the Armistice. My second area of particular interest is what happened in the period which immediately followed the end of the war. There was considerable turmoil, conflict and military and para-military activity in many parts of the world, all of them as a result of the war, and so many of them still echoing in the problems we have seen in our present world. Of all wars, the First World War appears to be unparalleled in the influences it left for the development of the wider world. That is where I aim to concentrate, without damaging the proper development of the Collection as a whole.
For as long as I have the support of the University, I shall invest both money and effort into creating a Collection which represents a valuable academic source, as well as being useful to lesser beings like me who have that special interest in World War One.
– John Cawthorn, donator of the Russell Cawthorn Collection