The Order of the White Feather was founded at the outbreak of war in August 1914 by Admiral Charles Penrose Fitzgerald. The campaign encouraged women to present white feathers, a potent symbol of cowardice, to men not wearing uniform. The campaign was incredibly successful, even as the details of the death toll and casualties became widely known.

The practice seems to have carried on for the greater part of the war and in September 1916 the Silver War Badge was issued for men to wear who had been honourably discharged due to wounds or sickness.

Why did women subscribe to this propaganda?  The writer Compton Mackenzie, who served with British Intelligence in the Eastern Mediterranean, said ‘idiotic young women were using white feathers to get rid of boyfriends of whom they were tired.’

For some it was no doubt misplaced patriotism.  For those who had lost husbands and loved ones it might have been a reaction to their grief.

One such young woman who handed out white feathers on the streets of Swindon did so because her four brothers were all serving soldiers.

Alice Elizabeth Godwin grew up at 21 Redcliffe Street, the daughter of Charles Thomas Godwin, a furnaceman in the Works, and his wife Clara Annie.  You can imagine the daily dread the family experienced with four sons in service and how a young, impressionable girl might have been coerced into joining the white feather campaign.

But it would be the experiences of one of her brothers which ultimately changed her mind.

She was at the station in Swindon seeing him off back to the front at the end of his leave, when he broke down, weeping and shaking uncontrollably.  It was seeing him so terrified that made her cease her practise of handing out white feathers. Thankfully, all four brothers returned home.

Propaganda poster

Charles Thomas Godwin died on November 8, 1914 and was buried in grave plot B3265. His wife Clara Annie died in 1939 and was buried with him. Their son Albert Howell, who had served in WWI, died in 1940 and joined his parents. In 1985 Albert’s wife Clara Agnes was buried with her husband and his parents. In 1993 the ashes of their son Arnold William Godwin were interred in the family grave.