1. A Wife In London
By Thomas Hardy

2. Who is Thomas Hardy -Victorian novelist and poet born
Wrote in a great variety of poetic forms including lyrics, ballads, satire, dramatic monologues, and dialogue.
Hardy wrote a number of significant war poems that relate to both the Boer Wars and World War I, including “Drummer Hodge”, “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations,” and "The Man He Killed"
His work had a profound influence on other war poets such as Rupert Brooke and Siegfried Sassoon".[27]
Hardy in these poems often used the viewpoint of ordinary soldiers and their colloquial speech

3. Context-The Weather Hardy discusses:
‘'the tawny vapour' 'webby fold on fold' 'the fog hangs thicker‘
Which helps create a sense of misery in the poem. It also describes London weather at the time, which was generally seen as damp, misty and foggy, partly due to ‘Pea Soup’ Fogs

4. What is a Pea Soup Fog?

6. Pea Soup Fog: the result of smoke and incoming sea-mists
Pea Soup Fog: the result of smoke and incoming sea-mists. This mixture of smoke and fog was named 'smog' ~ or a 'pea-souper'. Was yellow/green in colouring and was also known as ‘Killer Fog’
Could last for months and contributed to many deaths of people such as the elderly or the sick

7. The Boer War
The poem tells the story of a wife waiting to hear from her husband who is off fighting in the Boer War.
She receives news that he is dead, and the next day is shocked to receive a letter discussing his return.

8. The Boer War The name literally means the ‘Second Freedom War’
Was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the fought between the British and the descendants of the Dutch settlers called the Boers in South Africa
This was actually the second Boer War, as the Boers had been given self-governing privileges, and the British sought to end this

10. Outcome of Boer War
The last of the Boers surrendered in May 1902 and the war ended with the Treaty of Vereeniging signed on 31 May 1902
The treaty ended the existence of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State as independent Boer republics and placed them within the British Empire.
In all, the war had cost around 75,000 lives; 22,000 British and allied soldiers (7,792 killed in battle, the rest through disease), between 6,000 and 7,000 Boer fighters, and, mainly in the concentration camps, between 20,000 to 28,000 Boer civilians (mainly women and children) and perhaps 20,000 black

11. Why The Boer War Is Important
Considered to be one of the bloodiest wars
Some of the first uses of guerrilla warfare
Public outrage at the brutal and violent destruction of civilian farms and use of concentration camps
Eventually resulted in formation fo South African Republic in 1910, a catalyst for the start of WWI

12. British Opinion Of Boer War
The Boer War was welcomed by the British public at the start and was seen as a chance for the most powerful Empire the world had ever known to grow bigger in what was supposed to be an easy battle
By the time the war had entered its third year, the public were sick of the war and disapproved due to the methods of brutality such as mass murder and concentration camps. They felt it gave Britain as an Empire a horrible reputation

13. Furthermore, they were worried about their husbands and the conditions there. There were rumours that food was scarce and even soap and bathing were a luxury

14. How does this tie in with the poem?
"I take a keen pleasure in war strategy and tactics, following it as if it was a game of chess, but all the while I am obliged to blind myself to the human side of the matter: directly I think of that, the romance becomes somewhat tawdry, and worse."
- Thomas Hardy, 1899
-Thomas Hardy was accused of being a prop war supporter due to the content of his poetry. Many people felt that he wrote the poems as propaganda pieces, however he argued he focused less on the actual war and more on the impact of the men who fought and the families they left behind.