The maisons tolérées weren’t only a temptation for young unmarried men. A contemporary observer noted that one particular queue outside the Red Lamp was formed not of young lads, but of older married men who were “missing their wives.” It might seem shocking, but as an institution the British Army was all too willing to forgive such transgressions. There were even chaplains on-hand, ready to cleanse the consciences of those who strayed from their marriage bed provided they stuck to licensed brothels and bring back their sweetheart in Old Blighty a cocktail of venereal diseases.
It was for good reason the chaplains inveighed against venereal disease. In fact, the threat of contracting a venereal disease such as syphilis or gonorrhea was serious enough that it warranted the attention of the British High Command. Lord Kitchener—that quintessential moustached military man of the Victorian era—issued an educational leaflet in the soldiers’ first pay-packet warning against the horrors of contracting something exotic. “In this new experience you may find temptations in both wine and women,” it sermonised. “You must entirely resist both”.
Of course, there was a vast gap between what was practised and what was preached. As one recruit, Private Richards, pointed out: “it may as well not been issued for all the notice we took.” Yet there was sound reasoning behind Kitchener’s propaganda that went beyond adhering to the traditional morals of the Victorian Age. As the war progressed and the horror became too much to handle, more and more men were being withdrawn from active duty because some venereal disease had rendered them unfit for service.
Most of the time, this was accidental, but not always. In their desperation for some respite from the rat-filled trenches, some men would actively seek out the brothel’s disease-riddled prostitutes in the hope of catching something. It really is testament to how bad conditions in the trenches must have been if syphilis was preferable, especially given how rudimentary the treatment was at the time and how it only brought you a month in hospital. Still, who knows how many times the call might have been given to go “over the top” that month…
The frequency with which British Tommies visited French brothels (or maisons tolérées) during the First World War is easily explicable give the situation they found themselves in. Staring death in the face on a daily basis was a good enough incentive to embrace a carpe diem mentality and not invest too much in the future. But there’s also a cultural context: all but the youngest combatants of the First World War had received a strict Victorian upbringing that shunned indulgent sexuality.
Many of the younger rank and file would have probably arrived in France as virgins, and even married men of the British Army the low hanging fruits combined with the apparent certainty of their imminent death offered tempting pickings. This is not to judge the actions of these men; the exceptional nature of their circumstances makes it both impossible and inappropriate for us to do so. But it does give all new meaning to the old cliché: all is fair in love and war.