AS the 100th anniversary of the end of the Battle of the Somme was commemorated on Friday, it’s worth remembering that without the sacrifices of those in the UK, on what is referred to as the Home Front, then the First World War wouldn’t have been brought to an end with Britain on the winning side.

At the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock, increasing amounts of memorabilia relating to the war on the Home Front in the county are being analysed by staff and volunteers.

Much of that material will feature in an exhibition at the museum, Oxfordshire Remembers 1914-18, which will opens in November 2017 and will run for a year.

As many people know, the First World War was one of attrition – of wearing down and weakening the opposition – outproducing, outfighting and outlasting the enemy and in that context, the war would be won on the Home Front.

Oxfordshire society underwent many changes in response to the demands of the war.

At the declaration of war in 1914 there was an immediate call for volunteers. By mid-September that year, over 1500 Oxfordshire men had volunteered.

By August 1915, Oxford’s Cowley Barracks sent over 10,500 men to the ranks of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

Zealous and patriotic recruitment drives took place across the county.

Mr R Bruce of Summertown recalled his experience of one event in Woodstock.

He said: "I was watching a recruiting sergeant dressed up in his coloured uniform with ribbons, addressing a crowd in the square, shouting an appeal for recruits.

"I remember when he called for volunteers the hands shot up and the young men climbed into the wagenettes that were waiting for them, and away they went to county barracks to enlist… the mothers and sweethearts crying and weeping in the square. How happy all these young men seemed."

Roughly a quarter of the population of Oxfordshire worked in agriculture before the war.

The growth of munitions increased employment in Oxford and other towns.

Wages often doubled those which could be earned in the countryside.

Many labourers left the land joining those soldiers who had enlisted, resulting in shortages of labour on the land. Women filled some of the gaps – by January 1916, 1600 of them had been enrolled for agricultural work.

The war provided unprecedented opportunities for women in terms of increased pay, improved working conditions and relatively greater independence, albeit on the basis that jobs returned to men at war’s end.

The Government viewed women as a powerful recruitment tool.

Women’s war effort groups and committees encouraged volunteering in all sorts of military and social work, while drivers, munitionettes, nurses, telephonists, motor cyclists were deployed in support of those on the front line.

Oxford itself found many of its buildings converted to the 3rd Southern General Hospital.

The Examination Schools was converted to house wounded soldiers, while Somerville College was converted in 1916 to house convalescent officers including Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon.

In the archives of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum there is testimony of the conditions in Oxford created by the hospitals.

In a letter to her brother Fred with the Oxfordshire Yeomanry in France, Hilda Wastie gives such an impression of the city on 22 November 1915: "Oxford is three parts soldiers now. There are the recruits for Kitchener’s Army and other lots besides the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars.

"The wounded soldiers go round the town in batches of 12-30 when they are getting better. There are heaps of Red Cross motors about."

Those soldiers who succumbed to their wounds in Oxford were frequently buried at Oxford (Botley) Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery, which contains 156 burials from the First World War. Readers will find a visit to the Cemetery very worthwhile.

By February 1915, 460 Belgian refugees had been found accommodation in the city of Oxford and many more in the towns around the county.

Beyond the warmth of the welcome that they received, the refugees were seen as a solution to empty university lodgings and colleges vacated by the students.

The cost of supporting refugees was immense and order to meet the expense, the first Belgian Day was held in Oxford on November 7, 1914 raising significant amounts of money for the cause.

For those who would like to find out more Jane Cotter’s Great War Britain Oxfordshire: Remembering 1914-18 and Malcolm Graham’s Oxford in the Great War are recommended reading.

For further information visit sofo.org.uk