Lesson 3:
Lizzie the Elephant
As the First World War brings about great changes on the home
front, a young girl named Flo recounts how an elephant named
Lizzie was sold by her circus to replace the working horses sent to
the Western Front.
Background Context
India and the First World War
In 1914, the British Empire occupied
a quarter of the surface of the globe,
including India.1 India’s contribution to
the war effort was significant. By the time
the war ended in November 1918, over
1 million Indian personnel had been sent
overseas to help fight. They served in
places as diverse as France, Belgium,
Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), Egypt,
Gallipoli, Palestine, Sinai and Africa. This
reflects the global nature of the First
World War.2
In Europe, Indian soldiers were among
the first to suffer the horrors of the
trenches. Just four days after the British
Government declared war on Germany on
4th August 1914, Indian troops prepared
to travel to France and Belgium. By
the autumn of that year, Indian jawans
(junior soldiers) helped stop the German
advance at Ypres. In Mesopotamia, nearly
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700,000 sepoys (infantry privates) fought
against the Ottoman Empire, Germany’s
ally, many of them Muslims taking up arms
against Ottoman Muslims in defence of
the British Empire.3
Letters held at the British Library reveal
some of the painful experiences of Indian
soldiers fighting in the trenches of France
and Belgium. Writing to their families
in villages
back home,
soldiers
conjured
up powerful
images
of their
experience:
“The shells
are pouring
like rain
in the
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monsoon,” declared one; “the corpses
cover the country, like sheaves of
harvested corn,” wrote another.4
Faced with an unfamiliar harsh climate
and an enemy they knew nothing about,
these heroic men risked their lives for
the British Empire. Yet once the war was
over they were destined to remain largely
unknown, neglected by the British for
whom they had fought, and ignored by
their own country.5
The Circus Animals that
helped the First World
War
The British Army purchased over 1 million
horses to help fight the war. This meant
farmers and traders at home had to find
alternative animals to help with the work
of heavy lifting. The circus was one of the
few places left in England where large,
strong animals could still be found.
Lizzie the Elephant was one of the many
circus animals conscripted to help. She
worked for scrap merchant Thomas Ward
based at Albion Works. This company
supplied thousands of tons of recycled
metal to help the war effort.6 Lizzie helped
haul heavy loads of steel around Sheffield.
She was given a special pair of leather
boots to protect her feet from the sharp
scraps of metal that littered the ground of
the works yard.7
Lizzie working for T.W. Ward, Albion Works
© Sheffield Archives and Local Studies Library
2
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Lizzie became a well-known character
on the streets of the industrial city. Local
records are full of stories about her, such
as eating a schoolboy’s cap, putting
her trunk through a kitchen window to
help herself to food and pushing over a
traction engine.8
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Story Frame:
This story is told using third person
narrative, and it is the only story in the
collection in which the narrator follows
the actions and emotions not of an
animal, but of Flo, a little girl. This story,
unlike all other stories in the collection,
does not use anthropomorphism;
although there are times when Lizzie
seems to understand Flo uncannily well
(for example, when Lizzie reaches her
trunk into Flo’s pocket to take out Flo’s
letter from her father).
The story of Lizzie the Elephant is a
frame narrative for another story told
through a letter Flo receives from her
father. In the letter, she learns about the
Hindu story of Ganesh.
The children’s writer Jamila Gavin
describes how artistic and religious
traditions in India are interconnected:
“I think one of the wonderful things
about India and Hinduism is the fun
you get with the festivals and gods and
stories. Religion really permeates every
form of expression, whether it’s dance,
theatre, music…There would have
been storytellers coming through the
villages.”9
Flo finds out how the Hindu god Ganesh
came to have the head of an elephant.
Ganesh is one of the most popular Hindu
gods in India, even among followers of
other religions. He is known as the god
of overcoming difficulties and also as
the patron god of travelling. His best
friend is a little mouse and they travel
everywhere together. Ganesh is the deity
whom worshippers first acknowledge
when they enter a temple. His image is
placed where new houses are to be built,
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such as for a newly-wedded couple, and
he is often honoured at the start of a
journey, or the beginning of a book.
There are temples dedicated to Ganesh
throughout South Asia and Indian artists
have depicted images of him for over
a thousand years in different forms.
Statues of Ganesh can be found in most
Indian towns.10
Key Questions:
• What is friendship?
• What role did elephants play during
the war?
• What was life like for the families who
stayed at home during the war?
• How did the war change people’s
lives and attitudes?
• What is the significance of the story
of Ganesh to the story of Lizzie the
Elephant?
Key Words:
Story Words
• Courage
• Friendship
• Home
• Overcome
Storytelling Words
• Empathy
• Simile
• Motivation
• Third person narrative
• Frame narrative, story within a story
• Emotive language
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Attention
Map It!
• Locate India on a map, and trace the journeys that Lizzie the Elephant and Flo’s father
would have taken.
Discuss It!
• What is friendship? What makes a good friend?
• Find 3 words to describe Lizzie’s character.
• Flo is described using a simile: “like a little mouse.” Why is she described like this?
Prepare to Advance
Draw It!
• Make a diagram: write the name of each character in your book, including the
characters from the Ganesh story. Draw arrows to demonstrate who helps whom,
and who is helped by whom. Annotate the diagram to explain what happens, for
example: How does Ganesh help the mouse? How does Flo help Lizzie? How does
Old Jim help Lizzie? (He does, at the end!)
Act It!
• In groups, choose a point in the story, and make a freeze frame of the scene. Then
have each character speak his/her thoughts aloud (including Lizzie).
• List the different emotions Flo experiences throughout the story. Then try to do the
same for Lizzie, Old Jim, Arjuna, and Flo’s mother and father. Is this easier or harder
than listing Flo’s emotions?
• Hot seat each of the characters: Flo, Lizzie, Old Jim, Flo’s father and mother, and
Arjuna. The rest of the class ask questions, for example:
- what was life like for you before the war?
- how has life changed since the war broke out?
- what do you most wish for in life?
• Reflect on the hotseating activity and discuss:
- Which character do you empathise with the most?
- What motivates the character to behave the way s/he does?
- Do you understand the character more now?
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Discuss It!
• Does the story have a moral?
• What makes a good friend? How do the Flo and Lizzie have a good friendship?
• In pairs, look at images of Ganesh and make a word wall of responses. How would
you describe the pictures? How do the images make you feel? How can you describe
Ganesh? What does he symbolise? How does the story of Ganesh link to the story of
Lizzie the Elephant?
• Florence’s father writes a letter to Florence to tell her about his experiences in the war. This
was the only way families could communicate with their relatives at the Front. Discuss:
- What would be the advantages and disadvantages of writing letters during the
war time (as opposed to email, Facebook, Skype and all the other options we
have now)?
- If you were fighting in the war and writing a letter home, would you tell the truth
about your life at war? Why or why not?
- Why do you think Florence’s father chose to write to Flo about a fellow soldier
he met?
Forward March
Act It!
• Divide the class into groups. Each group can take one scene from the story to role
play. For example:
- 1st group: Flo visiting Lizzie at the circus and then backstage behind bars;
- 2nd group: Flo seeing Lizzie in the scrap yard; Old Jim catching her.
- 3rd group: Flo returning to the scrap yard months later, and seeing Lizzie ill;
- 4th group: Flo reading the letter; Flo’s father and Arjuna meeting;
- 5th group: The story of Ganesh;
- 6th group: Flo sewing up leather for Lizzie while Old Jim sleeps;
- 7th group: Lizzie standing up before Old Jim can shoot her.
• Perform the scenes above chronologically. It may be easier to give each character a basic
prop so as to clearly indicate who is who when the different groups perform (e.g. a hairband
for Florence, a mask for Lizzie, an apron for Florence’s mother, a helmet for Arjuna).
• In groups, imagine and improvise an unseen scene in the story. This could show
Lizzie’s life in India before the war; a horse’s journey from England to the battlefield;
the story of how Flo’s father lost an arm, and so on.
• Write and perform monologue from the point of view of one of the characters to
perform to the class.
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Make It!
• Consider this quote from the story: ‘She cried for her Dad, for his friend Arjuna, for
Lizzie the Elephant, all so far from their homes.’
• Make a collage of images showing what “home” means to one of the characters, or
to you yourself.
Write It!
• Florence’s father says that ‘difficulties can be overcome’ and ‘good things can
sometimes come from bad things.’ In groups, discuss if this is this true in your life,
in the life of your school and of society. Make a list of examples and feedback to the
rest of the class.
• Using this discussion as inspiration, write a story or letter to a friend about how
‘good things can sometimes come from bad things.’ This may be fictional or
autobiographical.
The Empire Called to Arms, Charlie Keitch, Imperial War Museum www.iwm.org.uk/learning/resources/the-empirecalled-to-arms
1
India’s Contribution to the First World War, First World War Contexts, Commonwealth War Graves Commission,
http://195.99.1.128/foreverindia/context/indias-contribution.php
2
Why the Indian Soldiers of WW1 were forgotten, Shashi Tharoor, BBC News Magazine 2.7.2015, www.bbc.co.uk/
news/magazine-33317368
3
The Indian Memorial Neuve-Chappell Memorial Page, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, www.cwgc.org/
find-a-cemetery/cemetery/144000/NEUVE-CHAPELLE%20MEMORIAL
4
Why the Indian Soldiers of WW1 were forgotten, Shashi Tharoor, BBC News Magazine 2.7.2015, www.bbc.co.uk/
news/magazine-33317368
5
Albion Works, Sheffield: Lizzie the Elephant, World War One at Home, BBC Programmes, www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01s4mw4
6
World War One: The circus animals that helped Britain, Nick Tarver, BBC News 11.11.2014, www.bbc.co.uk/news/
uk-england-24745705
8
Tommy Ward’s Elephant, BBC Making History, Radio 4, www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/making-history/makhist10_
prog13d.shtml
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26 Characters: Celebrating Childhood Story Heroes, The Story Museum 2014
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www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/news_and_press/press_releases/2014/celebrating_ganesha.aspx
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Illustrations by Sheena Dempsey
Text © The Story Museum
42 Pembroke Street, Oxford OX1 1BP
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