Captain Peacock Lice Hunter

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How did science improve life for the troops in World War I?

Imagine an enemy attacking everywhere but hard to spot. Imagine an enemy that can't be shot, will not surrender and keeps coming back. Worse still, imagine an enemy that has six legs and lives on human blood...

We are talking lice.

Just half a centimetre long but one of the worst miseries of trench life for a soldier in the First World War.

April 1915. Time for the British Army to call in Captain Peacock!


	David Alexander Peacock		Chief of the Louse Patrol

Credits (TWAS DX250/24/1)

Teachers Notes

This unit focuses on the scientific investigations of Newcastle zoologist David Alexander Peacock into lice control during World War I. It is a small example of the contribution of science to the war effort and a celebration of scientific investigation in arduous conditions. To keep prime specimens alive for example, Peacock and his team incubated and fed the insects on their own bodies. At the same time this rare archive material brings to life one of the more miserable aspects of life in the trenches for ordinary soldiers. The unit meets many of the requirements in the KS3 Programme of Study including historical enquiry and organisation and communication. It can provide an amusing and pertinent episode for QCA Unit 18: Hot war, cold war - why did the major twentieth century conflicts affect somany people? It is equally relevant for Modern World GCSE groups investigating the First World War.

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