The interview was conducted by Age Exchange in partnership with The University of Essex and The First World War Centre –University of Hertfordshire –as part of the Children of The Great War project. Dora’s father was Alfred Edward Uttins, born on the 18th July 1875, to an family of agricultural labourers in Norfolk. The family name was Uttins – probably derived from ‘Uttings’, but evolved to be spelled phonetically. He was 50 when Dora was born, in her later life she would discuss the mannerisms he picked up from the army with her half-sister who was 18 years her senior – like how he always had a military bearing and would consistently reprimand them for not walking upright, a mimetic thing he’d passed on to both siblings that they shared, despite not having grown up together. The War period was the only time in his life he’d been involved with the military, and later than many. To his considerable credit, before conscription was brought in for younger men, he volunteered to join the army aged 39; leaving his respected position at a printer’s company. Dora attributes this decision to ‘kudos’ for doing what would be recognised as virtuous, but considers that also the company may not have been able to sustain his position at that point. He joined the army’s Pay Corps, and sustained an injury to his wrist which he did not strictly recover from, however he still ‘wrote beautifully’; he kept a diary, though it only really contained names of places and things. He never disclosed to his daughters how he was injured, though his discharge certificate references wounds in the shoulder and leg, where thrombosis set in, the basis on which he received his war pension; every year since obtaining it he would be checked by the local doctor to clarify there was no change in the situation, and could therefore continue receiving the pension. He survived the War throughout almost its entirety and returned to the printing business; his boss apparently broke down in tears upon his return due to the shock at seeing him so gaunt. Dora’s mother was 15 when the war broke out, a twin, with three brothers. The eldest brother was in the Medical Corps as far as she knows. The 2nd eldest went into the ‘Shiny 7th’, a London regiment. He was taken prisoner fighting in France aged around 19 or 20, hit with shrapnel that damaged his eye, and sent to a prison hospital. Dehydrated one day, he asked the nurse for water, or “wasser” – she said ‘yes’, then grabbed the large pitcher from in front of him, and emphatically poured it on the floor, a cruel detail which still angered Dora. Her mother was also encouraged to write to a young man by her brother during the War (presumably a friend and comrade) as he didn’t have any family to speak, and received no letters, so her brother thought it would be a nice gesture. That young man was unfortunately killed, and she later married Dora’s father, an older man who was by that time a widower and moved to Wembley, in a part of London that was just being developed circa 1923. He then worked in the Royal Exchange. A joint project between Age Exchange, the University of Essex and the Everyday Lives in War FWW Engagement Centre, University of Herts. For further information, please contact Everyday Lives in War, https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/

Dora Kneebone
The interview was conducted by Age Exchange in partnership with The University of Essex and The First World War Centre –University of Hertfordshire –as part of the Children of The Great War project.