No jobs for heroes. [WWI]

>He [**George Coppard**] was demobilized just after his twenty-first birthday, with four and a half years’ service, picking up a £28 gratuity and handing in his greatcoat for £1. And then: >>I joined the queue for jobs as messengers, window cleaners and scullions. It was a complete let down for thousands of men like me, and for some young officers too. It was a common sight in London to see ex-officers with barrel organs, refusing to ear a living as beggars. Single men picked up twenty-one shillings a week unemployment pay as a special allowance, but there were no jobs for the ‘heroes’ who had won the war. ___________________________ **Source:** Holmes, Richard. "Envoi." *Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918*. London: HarperCollins, 2004. 620. Print. **Original Source Listed:** Coppard *With a Machine Gun* p. 135. _________________________ **Further Reading:** [Corporal George Alfred Coppard MM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Coppard)