Meeting an Urgent Need – The Deceased Brother’s Widow’s Marriage Act 1921

Our monthly history talk this month welcomes Dr Linda Maynard who has explored and published a fascinating exploration of “Brothers in the Great War - Siblings, masculinity and emotions”.

Linda focuses on this unique aspect of the Great War.

During the First World War, the British government persistently rejected calls to legalise marriages between a man and the widow of his deceased brother. This talk reviews the debates surrounding calls to change the law which eventually came into force in 1921, laying to rest a curious anomaly that gained emotional and economic importance as a result of the seismic casualties of the war.